You're not so bad Who: Alejandro and Jovie Where: Dinner out, Alex's place When: An hour before sundown or so
Two doses left. Alejandro had been very good about not downing them just to experience them; it'd been tough to resist, but he had. He'd taken one as soon as he pulled up at Jovie's place-- the warmth that spread through him immediately was probably better than anything else he'd experience tonight-- but he had the last dose with him, just in case the first one started wearing off.
He honked from the street. She knew he'd be coming-- an hour before sunset, so as not to look all vampire-ish-- so hopefully she should be ready.
Jovie was ready. She had been ready for about twenty minutes, and was simply touching up her make up when she heard the car horn outside. Arching an eyebrow, she wondered if that car horn was for her. Snapping the lid back onto her lipstick, Jovie tossed it into her purse and left the downstairs bathroom to walk to the front door. She glanced out the sidelight and saw Alex's car waiting in front of her house.
Moments later she was locking up and walking down the brick path to his car. She opened the door and slipped in, shooting him a look. "Most gentleman actually come to the door and knock, rather than blaring their car horns for their date."
"When did I ever say I was a gentleman?" Alejandro countered, smiling some. "I think I might've said I was the opposite of a gentleman, at some point, actually. And you came out, didn't you? Looking as hot as ever, I gotta say." He pulled the car away from the curb. It was a beat up kind of thing, an old Honda Civic, but he was ignoring that in favor of driving and her. She knew he was dead broke, and now she had evidence.
Jovie rolled her eyes, but smirked. "Yeah, I suppose you did warn me." She already knew she looked hot, so she didn't bother commenting on his compliment. Jovie looked over at him, doing a quick assessment of his appearance. "You look pretty decent yourself. But I think you need a new car."
"Need to focus on paying the rent before I worry about new cars," Alejandro snorted lightly, a little embarrassed by his clunker when she brought the subject up. But at least it still drove, got him to and from work, since he couldn't exactly fly there.
"Oh, right... I forgot you were broke," Jovie said with a grin. She didn't mind needling him a bit, probably because she knew he could take it. "So you have no money, you drive a clunker, and you can't even be bothered to come up to my door when you pick me up." Jovie arched an eyebrow and reached over to slide her fingers through the hair just above his ear. "Why am I spending so much time with you again?"
Leaning into her hand just a little, resisting the disgusting urge to turn and snap his fangs at her fingers, Alejandro speculated, "Because I'm hot as hell, good in bed, and to use your own word, interesting?" He shot her a smirk as they turned a corner. "Modest, too," he added cheerfully.
She shook her head with a soft chuckle, and pulled her hand away from him. "Yes, I suppose your right. Not about the modest thing, but about everything else." That was okay, it wasn't like Jovie was overly modest either. She liked that about Alex. He wasn't afraid to speak the truth, regardless of how it made him sound. "So where are you taking me for dinner? A hole in the wall burger joint?"
"No," Alejandro answered, rolling his eyes. "I might not be able to take you someplace fancy, but I can do better than that. Besides, you said you were expecting this to make up for me having to work all the time, so... you're getting a sorta-nice dinner." He'd be ordering the cheapest thing off the menu, himself, and picking at it until he could escape to a bathroom to get rid of it. Yuck.
"Sorta-nice," Jovie repeated. "I suppose that's better than what I was expecting." She had every intention of ordering the most expensive thing, just because. Jovie smiled in his direction. "It's awfully nice of you to take time away from pouring alcohol to take me out."
"Seeing as pouring alcohol is what pays for me to take you out, better stop knocking it," Alejandro warned lightly. Of course, she would order the most expensive thing... just to be contrary.
"I'm not knocking anything," Jovie said innocently. "But you could probably make more money doing something else."
"I'm not really very good at anything else," Alejandro admitted, turning the car. "Except the good in bed thing," he added, snorting lightly, "but I refuse to use that to make money." And his ability at customer service was shit, too, so he tended to get fired from retail jobs within a week. Besides, the bar paid better than retail-- not much, but still. Better.
Jovie chuckled. "Alex the male gigolo. That's definitely a possibility. You could be a bartender with a little something on the side." She was teasing, of course, but it was still amusing to consider. "I'm sure you have more skills than just pouring alcohol."
Snorting again in distaste for the idea, Alejandro shrugged. "Not skills that would make me more money than bartending, really." He supposed he could kill things for pay, but that would be feeding his inner monster a little too much. Though the idea, right then, was tempting.
The ugly little Civic pulled into a parking spot at a halfway-decent Italian restaurant. "Hope this is nice enough for the lady," he added with a little smirk.
"You sell yourself short, I'm sure." Jovie leaned forward to look at the restaurant through his windshield. "Yes, this will do." She opened the door and got out, brushing her hair behind her shoulder."Luckily for you, I'm hungry, so I'm not in the position to be overly picky."
"Good, then, cuz I really didn't want to drive you someplace else," Alejandro said with a little grin, and climbed out, after her, locking up-- manually; god, the car was so damn old-- and leading the way to the restaurant door. He even tried the gentleman thing and held it for her.
"Maybe not, but I would have made you do it anyway," she shot back, smiling when he opened the door for her. "I suppose you're learning. That's something." It was nice and cool inside, and thankfully the place looked clean. "Have you been here before?"
"Nope," Alejandro said, quite honestly. "I don't go out much." Or, you know, ever. Even if he did still eat human food, going out to a decent restaurant cost more than fast food, or the grocery store for that matter. He followed her in and told the hostess, "Alejandro, reservation for two?"
"Right this way," she answered with a hostess kind of smile, and plucked up a couple menus before leading them to a small booth along one wall.
Jovie followed the hostess to their booth and she slid in one side, setting her purse down beside her. She knew Alex didn't get out much. He'd told her as much the last few times they'd spoken. She found that incredibly dull, but at the same time, she wondered why he didn't get out and do anything interesting. Taking her menu, she studied it, focused on the food instead of him for a moment.
He took the other menu and scanned the food items with very little interest. If he were still alive, he knew what sort of things he'd liked at an Italian restaurant-- usually after a big kill, his mother would splurge and they'd go out-- but looking at them now just made him feel slightly ill. Finding the cheapest thing on the menu that wasn't an appetizer or a salad wasn't hard. And at least he could... try and pretend... the red sauce was blood. Right?
Jovie loved Italian food, though she had to make sure she didn't get anything with too much garlic. Chicken Parmesan and a salad sounded pretty good to her at that moment. And wine. She eyed Alex over the top of her menu with a tiny smirk on her face. "You don't look like you're finding anything remotely interesting on your menu."
Glancing up again, Alejandro pulled a tight little grin and shrugged, "Just thinking. Deciding between a couple things." Only he knew what he was going to order, now, so he set the menu down. "You decided?"
"Yes." She set the menu down and smiled at him. "Let me ask you something, when's the last time you took a woman out for dinner?" She was guessing it had been awhile.
It had indeed been a long time, and Alejandro paused to think back. "At least a year," he decided. "A little longer. Why? Am I being really bad at it?" This time his half-grin was a bit more amused and a bit less forced. He wouldn't be surprised if he was being really bad at it. He certainly hadn't done so since being turned, which made things a little more awkward.
Jovie grinned. "No. I was just curious. I mean, sure, it's a bit obvious that you haven't done this in awhile, but it's not bad. But I'm curious as to why... and feel free to flatter me by saying you haven't met anyone interesting enough to take out and spend money on."
"Combination of being broke and being busy, mostly," Alejandro shrugged, glad he wasn't too shabby at this now. He used to be a real charmer, but now.... "I traveled a lot until recently, didn't spend a lot of time in one place, and had a-- uh-- pretty demanding boss." Yeah, his mother definitely counted as demanding.
"Oh, so it's not because you just haven't found an incredibly interesting woman yet," Jovie remarked with a small smirk. She knew she would come up completely empty if she tried to fish for compliments around Alex. "What do you mean by demanding boss? What exactly did you do?"
He eyed her smirk a little warily, unsure if he'd done something wrong. "I honestly wasn't doing a lot of looking at the time," he settled for. "Given the work-and-broke thing." He considered her actual question, then added, "My boss and I traveled together. And, uh, I think it'd make more sense if I said it was a family business." He grinned some.
"Ah." Jovie nodded and slipped her hair behind her ear. "Family as in your mother? Father?" For some strange reason it was hard to think of Alex having a family. Of course, everyone had family in a way, even she did. Though her definition of family differed from most peoples. "What kind of business?"
"Consulting," Alejandro answered succinctly and with a bit of distaste. It was the usual lie-- the one they both told. Most people didn't ask further, though Jovie wasn't most people. "And my mother. Hence," he added dryly, "not having much chance to take girls out, and all. Hard to do that when you share he hotel room with your mother."
"Consulting," she repeated, arching an eyebrow with a bit of skepticism. Some people might not be interested enough to inquire further, but knowing what she knew of Alex, which was very little, she had no idea what he could possibly be 'consulting'. "Yes, I suppose I can see how sleeping in the same room as your mother could cramp your style." She tapped a nail against her water glass. "What kind of consulting did you do?"
Yeah, as expected. She had to ask. He had a ready-made answer that he'd come up with since the Light of May, which actually explained why he knew some stuff about supernaturals, though beforehand the lie had been a lot more boring. "Supernatural shit, if you gotta know. Showing people what they could do when they found out by causing a scene, telling people who wound up with trouble how to get rid of it, explaining to businesses how to make use of it instead of work against it. That kind of stuff."
She didn't have to know, she wanted to know, which was completely different in her mind. Jovie studied him closely, wishing she could decipher whether or not he was lying. Not that she had any suspicions that he might be, but you never knew. Especially with a man. "And why did you decide to stop 'consulting' and start bartending? I imagine with how things have changed, you could probably be making a fortune now."
"She died," Alejandro said flatly. This time he was definitely lying, not even using the slightest bit of truth to shore up his untruth. His mother hadn't died... he had. "I didn't know enough or have enough contacts who trusted me to keep it up myself."
"I'm sorry," Jovie said, since it was expected of her. He had said it with a lack of emotion, so she wondered if he even cared. Or maybe he cared too much, and he was hiding that from her. "My aunt died awhile back. She raised me after my parents decided they couldn't anymore." She lifted her menu to glance over it one more time, wanting to make sure she hadn't changed her mind.
He shrugged off her apology, and didn't bother apologizing, back. Besides, he was more distracted by what she said after that: her parents decided she didn't want her? Brows up, he asked, "Your parents decided they couldn't raise you?" Like his father? And he expected his mother only wanted him for the help he provided. So, perhaps unexpectedly, he could almost sympathize.
She shrugged that off, her lips twitched to the side briefly before she smiled at Alex and set her menu down, pushing it away from her. "I was too much of a hassle. Or burden. I don't know. Maybe both. It made them uncomfortable, knowing I could somehow read their minds. They got tired of me, my parents and my brother. So I was sent here to live with my aunt." Her brother. Damn, she had nearly forgotten she even had one.
"Shit." Alejandro scowled. "That had to be awful." Now that, he could actually act sympathetic about. Abandonment just because of being difficult. It was cruel and not something anyone should do to a kid. "And your aunt didn't mind so much?"
"I didn't really care," Jovie told him flippantly. "They all had their issues, and I had my own. We didn't mesh well, like a family is supposed to, I guess. And no, my aunt didn't mind. She welcomed me with pretty big arms, actually. And we got along great. She taught me everything I know, and I inherited my store from her." Jovie smiled. "Family business. I guess that's something else we have in common."
At least it'd worked out for her in the end. Alejandro nodded. "Good to have something like that, yeah." He smirked a bit. "That we have in common, and all."
The waitress showed up then, smiling brightly, to take their orders and drink orders and all that. Alejandro ordered his spaghetti, marinara sauce only, and water. Cheapest option available, and the one he was most likely to pretend to eat some of.
Jovie didn't care about price. She noted everything he ordered and then ordered a salad, the chicken Parmesan and a glass of wine for herself. To be fair, she ordered the cheapest wine on the menu, but it certainly wasn't water or iced tea. "What about your dad?" Jovie asked, once they were alone again. "What happened to him?"
God, she had to order wine, didn't she.... Well, hopefully she wouldn't be doing this often. Shrugging, Alejandro said, "He left. When I was just a kid. I hardly remember him." The bastard.
"Hmm." Did he have daddy issues? Maybe. But Jovie probably did too. "Do you ever think about finding him?"
Maybe to kick his ass. Show him what happened to boys when you abandoned them. "No," Alejandro shrugged. "Used to, for a few years after he left, but not for a long time. Do you ever think about bothering your parents and brother?" Turn the question back on her. Only fair.
"Nope." She left it at that, not wanting to delve anymore into family matters. Jovie didn't really talk about her past to anyone, let alone someone she could get information from in return. Alex was just as stone walled about some things as she was.
Hey, he'd told her stuff. Kind of. They were mostly lies, but still. He'd talked. And he was going to continue engaging her, after a brief, only slightly awkward pause when she completely shut down the conversation like that. Was there still a confident, charming young man in there somewhere? Yes, dammit, yes there was.
When the food arrived, it was awkward again, though. And tense. Because Alejandro just about spat out the first bite he took-- and every tiny, sparing bite he forced himself to take after that. He did a lot more stirring around the food and pretending to eat while he chatted than actual making himself eat.
God, it was disgusting.
So was the check, at least to his wallet. It wasn't a lot of money, not really, but it sure felt like it was when he shelled out the cash.
Jovie ate enough, she supposed. Half her salad and most of her entree. Her wine was completely gone. She had tried not to drink it all, since she was contrary enough to make him pay for barely sipped wine, but it had been too good, and talking about her family had brought about a bundle of nerves she wasn't used to dealing with. Though she felt a lot better now.
"You barely ate," Jovie pointed out, as he paid the check. "Are you sure you don't want to pack that up and take it home?"
"Too distracted by the pretty woman and thoughts of last time I got together with the pretty woman," Alejandro said with half a grin. "And not really that hungry. But I'll be boxing it up, yeah," he added to the waitress who came to get the check. It'd be stupid of him not to, if he really was as broke as he said he was and, you know, ate and shit. So he'd pretend.
"Liar," Jovie said with a roll of her eyes. She doubted even she could distract Alex. Though maybe thoughts of sex could distract him. She folded her arms on the table top and studied him. "Are you taking me to your place tonight?" She was curious as to where he slept. What kind of place he lived in. He had been in her bed. Now she wanted to be in his.
"Uh." Alejandro looked a bit awkward. "Well, it's kind of a mess, but if you want to come over, anyway...." He had done the living room, sort of, yesterday... he just would need to do a quick run-through of the bedroom for laundry on the floor and keep her out of the kitchen as much as possible.
"I don't care about mess," Jovie said simply, refusing to let Alex get out of showing her his place because he thought it was messy. "I'm not looking to go to your place to judge your cleanliness. As long as there's not a lot of crap on your bed, I'll be fine."
"All right, suppose I warned you." The thought of her seeing his place was damn embarrassing, but seeing as he was dead, he couldn't exactly blush about it. Maybe he'd have to keep the place a little cleaner if Jovie was going to want to come over again in the future.
Though why he was concerned about a woman he probably wasn't going to be spending a ton of time with for very long, he couldn't imagine. Whatever. He got up and offered her a hand up, grinning a bit, sardonically. See, he could at least do a little thing here and there, usually with much drawing attention to the fact that he was doing a little thing. "Ready, then?"
"I consider myself warned," Jovie said with a nod. She liked that he seemed so reluctant. It meant that he obviously cared what she thought, even if it was about his sloppiness. She took his hand with a smile, grabbed her purse, and slid out of the booth. Rather than let go of his hand, she laced her fingers through his. "Shall we?"
How long had it been since he'd really held hands with a woman? For more than a minute or two? God, it felt like it'd been forever. It felt unnatural. What woman would want to do something that familiar with a monster, anyway? Ugh. The longer he could keep his secret, the better off he'd be-- and the safer he'd be.
He led her back out to his car, letting her get in and dropping himself in, too, and starting it up. "So does this mean dinner was satisfactory?" he asked, grinning a bit more-- mostly on his far side, where she couldn't see it, where he actually showed fang.
"Yes, I suppose that's what it means," Jovie said, once she was on his car and buckled up. She didn't mind holding his hand. For her, she just wanted to see how he would respond to it. "I'll take you out next time. Someplace nice." Alex didn't seem like the type who'd want a woman paying for his things or his meal, but you never knew.
"You really think someone like me belongs someplace nice?" Alejandro asked, tossing the box of spagetti into the back seat and backing out of the parking spot. He could just imagine how much of something fancy he'd wind up taking home. Already the three or so bites he'd had tonight felt like a heavy piece of lead in his stomach, undigested and undigestable.
"I bet you clean up real nice" Jovie countered simply. Throw on a nice shirt and tie and maybe brush his hair... and he would be fine. "Besides, you so graciously took me out to dinner, that I want to return the favor. I won't take no for an answer anyway." What Jovie want, she usually got. Alex would be no different.
A little glumly, Alejandro agreed, "Yeah, you're not so good with the 'no' thing." Hell, he didn't even mind her wanting to pay for him-- his morals about such things had pretty much vanished since he'd gotten here, since he first experienced being so broke he couldn't make rent-- it was just the whole... eating... thing. Ugh. "Small problem, though. I don't have anything nice to clean up into." As in, he had no nice clothes. The pair of jeans and button-up shirt he wore today were the nicest he had, and they were both a bit threadbare, since he'd bought them used.
"You like that I won't take no for an answer," Jovie countered, shooting him a bright, phony smile. "And you don't need to worry about having nice clothes. If I decide I want to go to a nice dinner, I'll make sure you look presentable." Even if that meant buying him clothes. Every man ought to own a tie anyway.
"Sugar mama," Alejandro muttered, half annoyed and half amused. Just like Vivienne had said he needed. The longer he kept his secret safe, maybe the longer she'd be willing to buy him shit he couldn't afford on his own... a few picked-at meals were worth that, right?
Jovie laughed and leaned back against her seat. "Maybe I am. So what? A man in your position can't afford to be prideful about it." She felt more in control of the situation. Sex, buying him things, making him go out with her. What was he going to do? Say no? Doubtful. Jovie liked having people in her life she could boss around. And sometimes you needed to give gifts and favors to be in that position.
At this point in his life, Alejandro doubted his could sink much lower, so there wasn't much he could say or do about it. He'd take what he could get. When you were broke and dead, you needed to be practical, not proud. "I'm surprised you didn't take offense," he snorted.
"Why would I take offense?" Jovie asked, arching an eyebrow in his direction. "Were you trying to offend me, honey?" She wouldn't have been surprised if he had been. It seemed like he liked to push her buttons as much as she liked pushing his.
"Maybe." Not really intentionally, it'd just kind of slipped out, but he had expected to be told off for it. Apparently that sort of thing didn't bother Jovie, though. Interesting. He turned onto his street. "Didn't work, if I was, did it?"
"No, it didn't." She shrugged, smiling as she looked out her window again. "You'll have to try harder than that to offend me, sweetheart." She knew his game. Probably because it was so similar to her own. "Besides, I don't hear you protesting the thought of having a... sugar mama? Is that what you called it?"
"Yeah. Actually, was just joking around with somebody the other day about how we both needed people like that, cuz we were so damn broke." Alejandro snorted a little laugh, and pulled up to the driveway of his house. It was kind of a dump, shabby and small, but it was as presentable as he could make it on his budget, at least from the outside. As in, the windows weren't broken-- though they were pretty heavily shaded, and some of them taped shut-- and the grass was mowed and there wasn't garbage in the yard, or anything.
"Huh. Well it's good to know you're not going to pull that 'I'm a man, I can take care of myself' bull." Jovie studied Alex's home with an arched eyebrow. He wasn't kidding about his lack of money. "Cozy place you've got here."
"If I were any less broke, I probably would be," he grumbled, pulling the parking break and killing the engine. At least with Jovie, he got sex out of the bargain. For a while. "Home sweet fucking home, yep." He got out of the car, locking the door behind him. "Lock your car door, would you?"
"Of course." She got out of the car and locked the door, shouldering her purse before following him up to the house. She was seeing the whole deal as she got sex out of, and a man to boss around. What more could a girl want? She got her grass mowed and her landscaping done from Niko in exchange for sex. And she got plenty of favors from her dealers worldwide in exchange for the occasional black magic spell. Jovie knew how to barter when she wanted something. And now she wanted Alex. He had no chance.
Alejandro unlocked the front door and paused with it half-open, verifying that the kitchen and living room, visible from just inside the door, weren't too bad. They weren't. He had gotten the living room into some semblance of order the day before, and he wasn't in the kitchen very often, really... there were a few glasses in the sink, but that was it. And blood in the very far back of the fridge, but Jovie would not be allowed anywhere near the fridge to find it. "C'mon in," he said, opening the door further and stepping in, himself.
Jovie stepped inside and immediately began to look around, not at all subtle about her nosiness. She walked over to set her purse down on the couch and then she folded her arms with a smile. "Lovely. All you need is some candles and picture frames and you've got yourself a cozy little abode. She quirked an eyebrow and smirked at him. "Where's the bedroom?"
"Somewhere you aren't going until I've given it a once-through for dirty clothes," Alejandro said firmly, and hurried there, himself, to start scooping up laundry and tossing it in the closet. It wasn't hard to find, though, since there was only one bedroom, and it was just around the corner from the entryway, through the living room.
She laughed and watched him move to his bedroom. While he was cleaning up, she wandered about, wanting to see everything she could. He didn't have much, and the things he did have weren't very nice. If she had decided to live up her 'sugar mama' image, she would get him a nicer place with nicer things. But that sort of thing you had to earn, and he hadn't earned it yet. She walked to the kitchen to glance inside, wanting to know every inch of this place.
It only took him a moment or two to clean up-- going a little faster than a mere mortal could have, and hoping to hell she wouldn't notice-- and then, tossing the covers back into place on his bed so it looked made, he wandered back out. And she was in the kitchen. Fuck. "Disaster area sorted," he said, trying to recapture her attention.
Jovie turned to see him and she stepped back out of the kitchen, smiling as she walked over to him. "Wonderful. I would ask you for the full tour, but I think I've seen everything." She headed toward his bedroom, snatching a fistful of his shirt to drag him along with her.
There was more to see, but she, thankfully, apparently hadn't seen it. She would've said something, if she had. Alejandro, grinning wryly, just a peeking hint of fang-- hey, she was dragging him behind her, she wouldn't notice, right?-- went along for the ride.
After Jovie had properly thanked Alex for dinner - twice - she laid on his bed, tangled up in his sheets and resting on her stomach as she waited for her blood to cool. She had done her best to leave him with as maybe marks as possible... not that he seemed to mind. "I'm assuming you're going to drive me home," she said, since she doubted she would be sleeping over. Unless he invited her to.
Alejandro had left a couple, himself. It'd been very, very hard not to bite her-- the very scent of his own blood when she clawed his back made him want to snarl and tear her throat out, not for anger but for pleasure-- and he was just lucky that he'd not been dead very long, because he still breathed without thinking about it. He wasn't as out of breath as she was, though, even so. "Yeah... yeah, probably oughta do that." The fire elemental blood wouldn't last more than an hour or two more, anyway. And falling asleep, he would stop breathing, and that'd be a dead giveaway. Not to mention he still needed to get rid of that spaghetti....
"You're not really the cuddle and snuggle type, are you?" Jovie asked with a smirk before she rolled over and untangled herself from the sheets to slip out of bed and find her discarded clothes. At least he was willing to drive her home. She would have made him call a cab. Parts of her were sore, where he'd left his own marks, but it felt wonderful, so she definitely wasn't going to complain.
"Are you?" Alejandro shot back, lying there a moment longer, himself. He hardly hurt at all; the wounds were already healing. "I can't see you liking the cuddle and snuggle type." Though, hell, on the very rare occasion he didn't mind it... just not now that he was dead and trying to hide it.
"No, I'm not," she said with a grin as she found her bra on the floor. She picked it up to slide on. "You know, it's kind of cute, Alex. When I make observations and you seem to get... defensive about them. Or you think I'm trying to rile you up."
"Well, when half the time you are trying to rile me up," Alejandro pointed out, sitting up and watching her get dressed with some appreciation. She was very pretty, after all. "Kind of leads to the suspicion the other half of the time." Of course, he was defensive... when you had shit to hide, you got that way, too.
"I never try to rile you up, sweetie." Her tone was completely innocent. But she was lying of course, and she was sure he knew that. Jovie slipped on her panties and grabbed her top and skirt. "I think you're just incredibly paranoid." Clutching her clothes, she walked over to him and grinned, leaning in to press a kiss to his forehead. "You need to unclench and relax for once."
Yeah, he didn't believe that for an instant. But he did smirk at her a bit at the kiss, catching her wrist and pulling her back for a real one, hard but brief. "Working on it." Not very well, of course... but it seemed the thing to say.
"Liar." Jovie grinned and pulled away to finish dressing. "You better get your ass moving... don't you know it's rude to keep a lady waiting?" She slid on her skirt and began to tug her shirt on over her head. "If you don't hurry, I'm going to start poking around this place and snooping." That usually got men moving.
Alejandro rolled his eyes, but he did get up, fumbling for his own clothing. "Nosy woman," he told her, finding his boxers and jeans in the same pile and pulling them on. "And I'm usually rude. You know that. Mama didn't raise me right, and all that."
"Well..." She shrugged and found her heels, sitting on the edge of the bed to slip them on. "I guess I'll have to just teach you what she didn't, then." Jovie pulled on her shoes and looked over at him with a small grin. "I had a lovely evening though, so I guess you're not so bad."
"Oh, I'm not so bad." He rolled his eyes again at her faint praise, snagging his shirt and shrugging it on, not bothering to button it. The fading marks were on his back, this time, not his chest, so he didn't need to hide that. "Well, thanks for that, anyway." Shoes. Where'd he leave his shoes? "You're not so bad, yourself." Really, she was pretty damn good, but he wasn't going to say that.
"I'm fucking fantastic," Jovie corrected, sliding her hair behind her shoulders as she stood from the bed and got up to leave his bedroom. She was going to wander again until he got his stuff together. There's wasn't much to see, but everyone had a secret or two they liked to hide at home.
Which, again, he wasn't going to say, not unless she gave him equal praise. Yes, maybe it was childish, but it was also him. At least with someone like Jovie. Thankfully for Alejandro, he didn't have much left to do. He found his shoes just inside the bedroom door and stepped into them, not bothering to lace them up, before following her out.
Jovie rarely gave equal praise, even if she felt it. It would put them on even ground, and she didn't want that happening at the moment. Grabbing her purse from his couch, Jovie smoothed her hair down before smiling at him. "This is where I say thank you for a lovely evening... and we'll have to do it again sometime. Right?"
"Oh, definitely," Alejandro agreed, thinking about his very last vial of fire elemental blood. "Just say the word." He smirked a bit at the implication, then came up to her and curled an arm around her waist. She did have a very huggable waist. And a very biteable neck.
Except not. Though he couldn't shake the mental image entirely, as he kissed her one more time, trying to keep his fangs to himself. "Ready to go?"
"Ready." She smiled and followed him to the door. She would have to make time to go to the bar again and bug him. Nag him until he got a decent day off... where he would actually have to spend the night with her. That was her next goal. And she was sure it would be a piece of cake.