Are You Sure This Is My Life We Are Talking About?

"This is your car?" Sara asked incredulously. Her parents had said the two of them should go do something, just the two of them to get to know each other, seeing that they were to be married in a short few months.

Dante’s mouth quirked up in humor. "No, this is just a rental," he said in that do-me-now accent, "I hope you are ok with it."

"Dude," Sara said dully, "have you seen what I drive? It isn't bad, but it isn't a freaking BMW!"

He shrugged.

Sara shook her head and climbed in the car.

"I saw a Starbuck's not far from here, is that ok, or do you want to go somewhere else?"

"That sounds good." Sara said.

Dante` nodded and away they drove. Dante` was a good driver; driving with one hand on the steering wheel and the other resting on his window pane. He looked relaxed and comfortable. They made it to Starbucks in ten minutes, found a parking space in front and walked inside. The dimly lit interior wasn’t overly crowded, with a few people standing around waiting for their drinks. Sara and Dante` stepped up to get in line and looked at the menu hanging up on the wall. When Dante` asked her what she was going to get, she told him, and a minute later he ordered for both of them.

No one, except her mom when Sara was little, had ever ordered for her before, and it was… odd. Maybe, it just felt odd because she wasn’t use it to, but she had a feeling that wasn’t it. Sara was a very independent girl, and, it just felt weird having someone do something so small for her like she couldn’t handle it herself. Sara almost said something, but Dante` spoke first.

“Would you like to sit outside after we get our drinks, or we could go somewhere or drive around, it doesn’t matter.”

“Here is fine,” she said, while scouting out a place to wait for their drinks. She noticed a few people sitting on a small couch, getting up to leave, and walked over to claim the spot.

“So, what’s your last name again?” Of course Sara didn’t remember it, it was a weird Romanian name, and she was too busy listening to the ‘You are a vampire' part.

“Balitiu.”

Sara nodded, showing that she was listening. “So, tell me about yourself.”

“What do you want to know?”

She shrugged. “Your childhood, likes, dislikes, friends and family, things like that.”

“I grew up traveling around the world with my family. Because of that, I don’t have many friends, I never stayed in one place long enough to keep friends. I already told you I have brothers. I like art, I paint a lot and I dislike my younger brother.” He gave his little speech in a detached, off hand kind of way.

Sara blinked. Was he serious? Was that really all he was going to say? She sighed.

“You gotta give my more than that.” Sara told him.

He turned his head, looking strait at her. He looked uncomfortable, like he didn’t know what to do with himself, almost like a kid who was on their first date, awkward and unsure. “I don’t know what you want to hear, or what to tell you ok?”

“Alright, so let me tell you what I want then.”

He looked at Sara then with something burning in his eyes, something she had never seen before, and if Sara wasn’t mistaken, it was lust.

“Dante!” The barista called, announcing that their drink’s were ready.

Dante` looked at Sara for a few seconds before he turned away, pushing his body out of the chair he was sitting in and walking to the bar to grab the drinks. Sara got up to follow him, noticing he walked towards the door after seeing she was following him. He took up one of the empty tables sitting outside and Sara joined him. The night was cool and the sun was starting to set.

“Tell me about the blood thing,” Sara said, trying to make conversation. "Who do I feed from?"

He stared at his drink, then finally, in a small voice said ‘me’.

Sara just looked at him, wondering if he was joking or not. Apparently, not though, because he wasn’t laughing or smiling, or anything. In fact, he looked… embarrassed.

“What?” she asked, hesitant to know the answer.

“Non-mated vampires, they can either drink from a partner, which I’ve never done, or drink out of blood bags. Mated vampires drink from their mate, and I told you earlier about our teeth, how and when they lengthen…”

He was beating around the bush, and that just wouldn’t work for Sara. She was bluntly honest with just about everything. Sara knew what he was getting at, but she wanted to hear him say it anyways, why though, she wasn’t sure. “Uh huh, and…?” She prompted.

He sighed. “Remember when I told you that drinking is an intimate act?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s only true for live blood, blood from the source. Bagged blood doesn’t affect us the same. You have to feed a lot more frequently, however, if you drink out of the bag. Anyways, it’s an intimate thing because it revs up our sex drive, making it impossible not to give in.”

Sara nodded, “So what you’re saying is, is that every time one of us drinks, we end sleeping together.”

“Yes,” he said, looking away.

Sara looked him over again. Beautiful, perfect, day-dream-and-drool worthy. She shrugged, “Alright then.”

His head whipped around to look at Sara with confusion in his eyes. “What?”

“Well, I’m just saying, there really is no way around the sex part, now is there? I mean, think about it logically, we are getting married anyways, and we both have to drink to live, and is it that much of a pain in the ass where we will be like ‘oh no, we have to have sex again’? I’m ju-”

His mouth cut Sara off. At some point during her rambling he had gotten out of his seat and took the one step to get to her chair, bent down and then smothered off her talking with his lips. Sara kissed him back, one hand holding his shoulder and the other working it’s way through his shaggy hair.

“Excuse me? This is a public facility and some of the customers are getting a little wary, you guys need to either stop or take this else where.”

Sara looked up, seeing one of the Starbuck’s workers. Her comment rang through her ears again, and she wondered what the big deal was. Thenshe felt it, Dante's hand up her shirt. How had she not known that was there?!

Sara nodded ok to the worker, a tad embarrassed at their display. The worker walked back inside, relief on her face.