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After three weeks of radio silence between me, Melissa and Luke, Melissa sent me a text message:
How are you? Has anything extraordinary happened yet? We miss you. Xo, Melissa
I ignored it because life was wonderful. Alex and I went for walks or drove somewhere and took hikes to waterfalls or some other pretty places in the area. Nothing odd had happened. Consequently, the Orbiters must have realized that Alex and I wouldn’t be a threat.
During the night, however, it had soon become clear that living with people who also didn’t need sleep had been quite handy. Even if Alex was young and fit, he still needed his seven hours of sleep. Otherwise, he’d have to catch up on the lost sleep later. Which meant that I had about seven hours to myself every night. I asked for more shifts at the Irish pub, which had been the one thing during the past year that I chose to add to my life. Otherwise, Melissa, Luke, and Roisin had always decided how I should spend my days. Above all, they'd all agreed that I had to finish high school. Anyway, at The Wild Rover, they temporarily gave me two more late nights. I was happy to be able to spend more time with Paula, who'd kind of become my surrogate sister. Except that it was now an older sister.
“Throwing yourself into work is not a good sign,” Paula remarked as she was drying glasses next to me. “It either means you are broke or there’s something else in your life that you need to run away from.”
“Mhh, more money can never hurt, right? But I have to say that I am pretty happy these days.” I couldn’t suppress that my face broke out into a huge smile.
“I still can’t believe you took that asshole back.” She shook her head. “He cheated on you!”
She had witnessed Alex suddenly breaking off all contact with me. At that time, I didn’t know it was because he had found out I was a Siren. He had been unsure about what to do with that information and Paula and I both thought that he had cheated on me. Now I obviously couldn’t let her in on the truth. Paula had no idea about my supernatural identity.
“It was a mistake. But now our relationship is better than ever. I have a good feeling about this. Plus, it’s not like Max behaved like a saint.” In my opinion, her boyfriend, Max, only had a bad influence on Paula. But so far, she had seen him through rose-colored glasses.
She groaned. “Men. We should renounce them and lead our lives without them.” Then she pouted. “But it’s more fun with them.”
“I’m pretty sure there are much better guys than Max, though.” I smiled and nodded to a customer who was holding up an empty beer glass.
“Well, if you know somebody who is suitable for me, tell me. After seeing how you just took Alex back, I realized that I might have been a bit too generous with Max. We can’t let them get away with everything.”
I filled up another glass of Guinness and brought it to the customer. If it had taken this drama between Alex and me to make Paula see that Max was not good enough for her, the pain had at least been worth it.
Luke was next to text me.
Nathalie, even though you might not like us so much at the moment, that doesn’t mean you have to stay away from us completely. Whether you like it or not, you belong to the same family as us now.
I showed it to Alex, annoyed that they still wanted to control me. “Why can’t they let me go my own way for once?”
“They are probably worried about you because they feel responsible toward you. Maybe you are a little hard on them.”
“Ugh, really?” My shoulders sagged because he didn’t absorb my anger toward them at all. “I didn’t choose to belong to their family. I have a family in Switzerland.” I firmly closed my mouth and pouted.
Alex’s face turned serious. “Why don’t you go visit your family now? I know about your secret and I’m still fine, so why should anything happen to them?”
I hesitated. “I want to see them. I cyberstalk them every day.” I swallowed down a lump that was building in my throat. “But they seem fine.” Without me, I added in my thoughts. “Anyway, somehow my gut tells me that there is more to come. Before that has happened, I’ll continue being a part of my family’s life as a ghost on the Internet.”
“Okay.” Alex kissed my forehead. “I still think you should reconnect with Melissa and Luke, though. After all, if they hadn’t changed you, our paths would never have crossed.”
I grumbled something unintelligible, sighed, and picked up my phone again.
I am fine. No, nothing odd has happened.
Then I sighed again and added: How are you?
“Good girl.” Alex patted my knees.
“I’m already listening to you as if we were married.” I pressed my lips together.
“No, you simply realized that what I said was smart and that’s why you did it. But we have been through so many highs and lows in the six months we have been together, I think we’d survive marriage.” He took my hands and played with my ring finger.
My mouth dropped open and I widened my eyes. I hadn’t expected the word marriage to enter any of our conversations so soon. When I got over the first shock, I started enjoying his touch on my hands, but he must have noticed my irritation.
“Yeah, I know, it’s a bit early to talk about marriage,” he stammered. “It was just a phrase—never mind.”
“No, it’s nice that you said that,” I replied and smiled. “If I got married at such a young age, I wouldn’t want anybody else but you to be my husband.”
That also put a smile on his face. “But would that even be legal?” he asked. “In the Siren world, for a Siren to marry a human, I mean.”
“Since when do you care about what is legal and what not?” I grinned. “But Melissa and Luke were married when he was human, so that wouldn’t be an issue.”
“Good. However, despite what you said, I’m still slightly afraid that you’d say no in the future because I’m not a good enough match for you.”
“You are an idiot.” I rolled my eyes.
Perhaps we’d have treated that matter less jovially, had we known about the many trials our relationship would still have to overcome. A Siren was made to attract but not to love. What if our pot of luck would be empty before we reached our happily ever after?