Page 49 of Angels Don’t Date

I tried to buy this sword off her once. That’s almost the same thing. She’s actually engaged to another angel already. They’re the most boring couple you’ve ever seen in your life. They’d finish each other’s sentences, except that they don’t need to speak because they commune without words so perfectly. Also neither of them do much thinking. They’re spectacularly good at following orders, though. Like her assignment to start a social media account and push the angelic agenda.

Well that hadn’t worked. I searched for any other angels, but not a lot of romantic figures. It’s almost like they didn’t do social media unless they had a purpose in it. Angels and their purposes. It was impossible to escape. Sigh.

What do you want to do on our date? I sent the message before I could rethink it. I didn’t want to talk about dating him. I hurried to add, Unless you’re voted off the show, naturally.

If you don’t vote the werewolf off after that gross assault, then he’s going to have a series of unfortunate accidents.

I snorted. I’m contractually forbidden from discussing my voting intentions.

He responded immediately, Then I won’t mention it. For our date, I want to do the classic dinner and dancing. Then star gazing. Then dueling. Does that sound romantic enough? Of course not. We’ll end the evening in the kitchen, and I’ll make you something practically edible while you enchant the universe with your spellbinding charm.

I snickered. Only if you let me snuggle Stew while I wait. It’s boring to enchant the universe unless I have a fluffy friend with me.

Stew will be there. Whether I cook him or not will be left to fate.

Isn’t Fate the name of an angel?

Several. And they would all cook a cute bunny without a second thought. Speaking of second thoughts, let’s not leave it up to Fate after all. ;)

I smiled at his winky face and then forced myself to close the messages and go to bed. I had our duet tomorrow, and it had to be as good as I could make it. And hopefully it would also be a little bit of fun.

The next morning I dressed carefully in the prettiest pink dress with pale gold trim that shimmered beautifully and took my time with my makeup using a gold shimmer eye shadow I’d never used before. All morning we’d just be rehearsing the song, so I didn’t need to dress up, but I couldn’t help myself.

When I got into the library where we’d rehearse, Mirabel was yelling at Richard.

“Where’s the angsty romance? This sounds like a best friends song. Do you seriously want it to look like she has more chemistry with the werewolf than the angel? How is this you representing? Come on! Give me something raw and anguished! I know you can come up with a complex duet about eternal love because you did it when you were twelve between a spider and a fly. It was epic! Give me some of that! Or I will.” She glared at her brother who wrinkled his nose and then glanced at me.

“She wants us to play star-crossed lovers because it’ll be good for ratings. What do you think?”

Me? What was I supposed to say? I licked my lips. Mm. Strawberry gloss. “I mean, we’re best friends forever, but I don’t want the werewolf to become an audience favorite so I can’t vote him off. Not that I’m definitely voting him anywhere because fine print.”

He grinned. That dimple was so adorable. “So we’ll play the angel and the vampire who are agonized by the chasm between our natures filled with unmitigated yearning. You’ll have to wear something less adorable for the music video. And I’ll wear my armor!”

I beamed at him. He was so adorable. “Sounds perfect! Can you really come up with an angsty duet in five minutes?”

“No. Since my sister started talking I’ve composed three possibilities in my head.” He winked at me. “It drives her crazy, but she started out crazy, so no one notices.”

Mirabel punched his arm hard. “You are so annoying. The most annoying. You don’t do anything with that musical brain. Just hoard it selfishly.”

“I sing to Vesper and compose battle songs for the troops.”

She shuddered. “I’ve heard some of those songs. Mockeries of music.”

“Which is why it’s so good that you’re the musician and I’m the meat head warrior. Also convenient that I just polished my armor.”

She threw her hands in the air and stomped off. “Teach her what you need while I go hit my head against a wall.”

“Sure thing.” He turned to me, cocked his head and studied me while I tried not to shift or stare at him like a stalker. “Are you sure you’re okay feeding the romance angle? I don’t want you to be uncomfortable, and if we do it, we should do it well.”

I shrugged. “What about you? I mean, yearning for a vampire isn’t going to do your reputation much good.”

He grinned and wiggled his brows. “Happily for me, there is literally nothing that wouldn’t improve my reputation. Prepare to be adored and worshipped like the goddess you are.”

I gasped and covered his mouth, pulling back when I felt his lips. “That’s like heresy, right?”

“Idolatry. Happily, it’s only a matter of speech. Let me text some people.” He pulled out his phone, typed for five seconds then put it away and held out his arm. “Shall we?” I slowly slid my hand over his strong forearm, trying not to feel like a princess to his prince. I failed.

It was difficult to focus when Richard looked at me like I was his true love, but then he’d break out of it and explain how to use my breath and stance to really capture the emotion. Everything was so calculated. He really could manufacture the feel of romance without actually losing himself to it. Not like that was a risk. We were best friends forever. But I was supposed to pretend to be this yearning sun-born perfect vampire.