Along Came a Spider Ch. 03

"What do you mean?"

"If I answer all of your questions now, we won't have anything to talk about while we eat," he said. "That would be awkward."

"Aren't dinner dates usually awkward?" she asked wryly.

"I suppose. But they don't have to be." When they reached the other side, his smile widened. "So this is a date?" Tabitha felt the color drain from her face.

"Wha---no, I didn't mean---"

He suddenly burst out laughing, and she looked up at him nervously. "I'm so sorry. I don't mean to tease," he chuckled once his mirth had subsided. "But it's just too much fun putting you on the spot. You get so flustered."

"That isn't nice," Tabitha muttered. She could feel her face radiating scarlet and quickly looked down at the ground as they passed a streetlight, praying that he didn't see. They had wandered into a shopping center parking lot, most of its buildings dim and lifeless. But a few windows were still glowing with fluorescent lights and flashing "OPEN" signs.

"I'm sorry," he repeated gently. "I'll try not to do it again."

Tabitha looked up at the building they were approaching: a smaller restaurant crowned with massive red neon letters declaring Pho 79. It was still bustling with activity, even this late at night. "What kind of restaurant is this?" she asked, endlessly thankful that they were about to enter a public establishment. The smell of spices wafted through the doorway as, yet again, James sidled in front of her to pull open the door.

"Haven't you had pho before?" he said incredulously. She shook her head, then scurried past him. "Never? Really?"

"Sorry. I don't go to restaurants very often," she mumbled. He shrugged and followed her inside, then gestured to an empty black booth at the far end of the restaurant. "So...do you come here a lot?" she asked as they walked, wriggling out of her coat.

"I've had pho before, but I've never been here. I thought we could try it together." He slipped off that leather jacket and draped it over his seat as they came to a stop, and then looked down at her hopefully. "You don't mind, do you?" he asked, and she shook her head.

"It's fine---really. I'm not picky," she assured him quickly, and he seemed to relax again.

"Good."

They both sank into their seats, and Tabitha's fingers twitched as she reached for the laminated menu. Something about sitting across from him, alone, was far more nerve-wracking than their walk outside. Then again, she had never particularly liked sitting across from people. It made her feel like she was under perpetual scrutiny.

"I don't know what any of this means," she admitted, scanning the typo-ridden descriptions next to each listing and feeling a little baffled. "It's like soup, right? And what's...'tendon'?"

"Yes, it's soup. And it's good. Chewy," James told her, and then he laughed as she made a face. "Really, though, I recommend it. But I like trying new things. Spice of life and what have you."

"I'll probably take the plainest one, whatever that is," Tabitha decided, setting down the menu and trying to ignore the irony of a potential member of the undead remarking upon the spice of life.

"You're no fun. But it's number eight: the rare steak."

"...Not too rare?"

"I don't think so." A waiter appeared at his elbow and asked for their orders in broken English, and Tabitha was spared from having to respond as James recited them both. "...and two honeydew boba smoothies, please," he finished, and the waiter scribbled something on his notepad before hurrying away.

"What's a boba?" Tabitha asked curiously. And then, with more than a little worry, "It isn't part of a cow, is it?"

"You've never had boba either? I have my work cut out for me."

"What's it like?"

He flashed her a wild grin. "Chewy."

Tabitha shuddered. "I'm starting to think that I don't like that word very much," she said, and as he laughed, she felt herself smile. The waiter arrived with two domed plastic cups that were filled with an odd, frothy-looking green liquid and topped off with a generous portion of whipped cream. He set one in front of each of them, along with a pair of very thick straws. Weird black clumps lurked in a thick layer at the bottom, and she promptly pointed to them. "And that is...?"

"Boba."

"Ah. And I...?"

"Drink it."

Tabitha looked suspiciously down at her smoothie. "Weird." She stabbed the straw into the solution and took a little sip, then reeled back as a thick, gooey black lump shot through her straw and into her mouth. She gnawed hesitantly on it. He waited expectantly, and after swallowing, she gave him an awestruck look. "Wow," she said brightly.

"There's a method to my madness," he told her, and she watched him in mild fascination as he dipped down to catch his straw in between his lips. Little dark shapes traveled sluggishly through the tube and made their way into his mouth, and he caught her stare as he chewed. "What?"

"I don't know. I just didn't peg you as a smoothie kind of guy," she said slowly. Did vampires even eat food? She racked her brain for an answer, some excerpt from some book or another that she had read about monsters, but came up short. He gave her another one of those easy smiles.

"I like sweets." He leaned forward, and she froze as his index finger came up to catch a dab of whipped cream from her lip. "All kinds," he added. Tabitha fought back the urge to slump down and cower in her seat and, instead, narrowed her eyes in an accusing look.

"You're doing it again," she said. The apologetic look he gave her was tainted with glee.

"I guess I can't help it."

"Does that work with all the ladies?" she muttered in the most indignant tone she could muster. He arched a dark eyebrow and absentmindedly popped that finger into his mouth. An unwanted pang stung her insides as he tasted her.

"You'll have to let me know." She frowned at his answer, and he shrugged. "I wasn't lying when I told you I don't get out much."

"You're just so...confident," Tabitha said hesitantly. When he tilted his head in inquiry, she looked down at the table. "You seem like you're used to talking to people."

"I like talking to people. It's not often that I get the chance to."

Tabitha wondered just how long they were supposed to keep up this charade. Then again, she didn't know how she was supposed to end it. Blurting out, "So, do you exsanguinate people or not?" would probably ruin their dinner conversation. Or get her killed. Or both. So, instead, she dipped down and took another long, long drink of her smoothie as she composed her thoughts.

"...Because you work late?" she asked softly. He rested his elbows on the table and leaned forward, regarding her evenly with those dark eyes.

"Exactly."

Thankfully, it was in that moment that their waiter reappeared with their food. He studiously ignored the intense stare the two of them were locked in and plunked a steaming bowl in front of each of them, followed by a plate piled high with greens and bean sprouts, and two sets of chopsticks wrapped tightly in paper napkins. Tabitha wrenched her eyes away from him to smile graciously at the waiter, then looked down at her soup. The bowl was massive, and it had been filled to the brim with broth, a gratuitous amount of noodles, green onions, and a pile of thinly-sliced meat that was still pink in the middle.

Looking up, she saw James patiently ripping a few leaves of cilantro that he had plucked from the plate of greenery. Beneath the remaining leaves was a pile of bean sprouts, and she hesitated before scooping up a handful and dropping into her soup. Then, following his lead, she shredded some cilantro leaves and sprinkled them on top, followed by a dab of sriracha and a glob of a mysterious brown sauce that wasn't labeled. James stirred his concoction with his chopsticks and fished out a generous portion of noodles.

"Bon appetit," he said, and then he slurped it up with gusto.

With a little difficulty, Tabitha ensnared a piece of meat between her chopsticks and tangled some noodles around it, then slipped it all into her mouth. When she caught him watching her chew, she offered him a hesitant smile and swallowed. "It's really good," she said. His face softened.

"I'm glad you like it," he said sincerely. "Anyway, enough about me. I think I'd like to learn more about the very mysterious Miss Tabitha."

Tabitha rolled her eyes playfully, relieved to see the seriousness vanish from his expression. "I'm hardly mysterious..."

"Sure you are." He wound another mass of noodles around his chopsticks. "Very quiet," he said, and then he lowered the bite into his waiting lips.

"There's not much to learn, really. I work at a bookstore further downtown---"

"Barnes and Noble?"

"Oh, no, it's independant. We have a cafe and a fireplace, so it's pretty popular in the winter."

"It sounds pleasant."

"It is. I really like it there," she said earnestly, thinking fondly of Luke and Ross and Jenny and the army of regular customers. She wondered what Luke would think of James. "I love books, and the people there are wonderful."

James nodded absentmindedly and took another sip of smoothie. "What do you do there?"

"A little bit of everything, but mostly bookkeeping. The owner's wife used to cover that end, but I guess they've been having...issues. She doesn't work there anymore. When he heard I had experience at my last job, he asked me to manage it."

"I should have known you were good with numbers, since you're so organized," he said, and she looked down shyly into her soup.

"So where do you work?" she asked. Then she cracked a nervous smile. "That is, if I'm allowed to ask that now."

He laughed. "I work night crew at a printing factory a few miles away, actually. The pay is pretty good, and they're useless without me." Tabitha blinked.

"A printing factory?" she repeated. It wasn't the last thing she had expected him to say, but it wasn't at all the response she had anticipated. Then again, she didn't really know what she had anticipated. "Like...what do you print?"

"Oh, all kinds of things. It's fascinating, actually. Lots of machines, old and new---vintage, even. It's very big, and very busy." He tongued another clump of noodles into his mouth. "It has its own little ecosystem, in a way. And everyone working there is completely insane."

"That sounds...interesting," Tabitha said, breaking off with a few breaths of laughter. "No---really interesting. I mean it," she promised as he gazed hopefully at her.

"Maybe I can show you around sometime." His smile was a little more eager than usual, and Tabitha hesitated before returning it.

"That could be fun," she said. He beamed at her.

"But you said you like books. What do you read?" he asked suddenly.

"Well...everything. Fantasy, mostly, but I like nonfiction, too. And, um..." She turned a little pink. "...I really like Harry Potter," she said. When she looked up at him, he was grinning down at her.

"Do you really?" he mused, and she scowled at him.

"If you don't like it, I don't know if I can ever see you again," she fired back.

"I've never read it," he admitted, and when he saw Tabitha's jaw drop, he held up his hands in a gesture of surrender. "Maybe you could lend me the books," he suggested.

She thought for a moment, then gave him a suspicious look. "You have to promise to bring them back," she told him sternly, pointing her chopsticks at him. "And to take care of them. They're hardcovers."

"You have my word," he said in a solemn voice. Satisfied, Tabitha scooped up another bite of soup and struggled to chew it quickly as he continued to speak. "If you like Harry Potter so much, I take it you've visited the theme park? The one in Orlando?"

"I haven't. But I really, really want to." A smug expression crept onto his face, and she squinted at him. "Have you?" she asked incredulously.

"I visited it once---I lived in Orlando for a while before I moved here. It was beautiful, especially the castle. I think you'll like it." He laughed when he saw her mournful expression. "I'm sure you'll be able to go someday," he told her kindly.

"I hope so," Tabitha sighed. "It must have been wonderful, living so close. Did you...did you go a lot?" He scooped up another bite, and Tabitha realized that she had hardly touched her enormous bowl of pho. Quickly, she stuffed a wad of noodles and steak into her mouth, wondering how on earth anyone could ever eat this much soup.

"Not really. I don't like amusement parks that much. I worked at one for a little while, and I'm afraid that I learned a number of things about them that I was much happier not knowing." He grimaced. "Don't ever eat the food there."

Tabitha made a face and took another sip of her smoothie. "Working at a park sounds fun, though. What did you do?"

"Security. Nothing exciting. It was just grunt work, patrolling with a flashlight to make sure the park stayed empty after hours. But it was beautiful at night; the old ferris wheel, the dead roller coasters..."

Make sure the park stayed empty after hours. An unwanted vision wormed its way into her skull: teenagers jumping a fence with backpacks full of beer and bottom-shelf vodka, wandering the half-lit cobblestone trails and marveling at the shadowy ghost town that had been so full of people just hours earlier. They wouldn't notice the tall, wiry silhouette following them through the dark. It would have been so easy.

Nobody would ever know.

"Why did you leave?" she asked softly, trying to hide the tremor from her voice.

"They found a private security company. They had fancier gadgets and a well-trained staff, and the park owners were probably tired of letting an army of weirdos wander around at night."

Weirdos like you? "So...how long did you live in Orlando?" she asked instead, desperate to change the subject, and then she hunched over and sucked up a larger mouthful of meat and noodles. Bean sprouts yielded to her teeth with a crunch.

"Two years, I think. I like to move around." He fished out a slice of meat from his broth.

"And Colorado was..."

"Spontaneous. But I did want to visit the mountains."

"It sounds terrifying, just up and moving like that all the time," Tabitha said, scrying deep into her bowl of soup. "I don't think I'd be able to do it." He chuckled and took another long pull of smoothie, then offered her a reassuring smile.

"It's not that bad. But I've been doing it for a while."

"...How long?"

He shrugged. "A while."

Tabitha decided to ignore the crypticness of that response. "My family used to move a lot, actually," she said suddenly. "Mom managed some of the financial departments in this big warehouse real-estate company, and they would move her whenever they set up an office somewhere new. We went all over the place; Austin, Seattle, San Francisco, Detroit. We even spent a year in Boston."

James nodded, keeping his gaze trained steadily on her. "Sounds like an adventure," he said. He looked faintly surprised, and she wondered for a second why she was telling him something so personal.

"It wasn't," Tabitha confessed. "I was really young and was constantly changing schools. I never got the chance to get to know anyone before we'd just pick up and leave again---not until we moved here. But by then I was already in high school." She stirred her soup with her chopsticks, not quite looking at him. "They moved back to Seattle when I was nineteen, when mom got a promotion and they wanted her working at headquarters. They offered to take me with them, but I wanted to stay."

"Why?"

Tabitha shrugged. "I liked it here. I had Lily and a couple of other friends, even though I don't really talk to them anymore. I just didn't want to leave everything behind again."

"I understand," James said. And, unlike every other person who had said that to her, he sounded like he actually meant it. When Tabitha looked back up at him, there was a gentle look on his face and his chopsticks were lying abandoned near his left wrist. "Do you have any other family out here?"

"Not really. All my grandparents and my uncle live in Texas." She set down her chopsticks too, then set to fidgeting with her napkin.

"I'm sorry."

"I really don't mind," Tabitha reassured him frantically, feeling mortified when she saw the sympathetic look on his face. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sound so...depressing."

"No, it's fine. I'm glad you wanted to tell me."

Tabitha bowed her head, and for a bit, the two of them succumbed to a vast silence. Then, James leaned forward.

"Are you finished, by the way? I think the restaurant is closing soon. The waiter keeps staring at us," he added in a conspiratorial tone, flicking his eyes towards the kitchen. He was right: the restaurant had become incredibly quiet. Other than a few employees and a pair of men seated near the front door, the place was empty.

"I don't think I could eat any more if I tried." She reached into her purse, but he had already stood and begun to make his way towards the front counter. "Where are you going?" she called, and he brandished a worn-looking leather wallet.

"I'm paying, of course," he replied from over his shoulder, and he stilled her with a fierce look when she rose to her feet. "Don't you dare," he warned her. "I told you---this is my treat."

"You really don't---" she began, but he dismissed her with a wave of his hand and strolled towards their waiter, who was waiting at the register. She hovered awkwardly at the table, then shrugged into her coat and slung the strap of her purse over her shoulder as he collected his change. His steps were so quiet on the red carpet as he walked back to her, nearly insubstantial. Sneaky.

She watched him uncertainly as he slipped the change back into his wallet. It wasn't crammed full of plastic cards like most wallets, (in fact, it looked mostly empty), and, after a moment's scrutiny, she realized that she couldn't even spot a driver's license. He tilted his head when he looked up and caught her staring, and for a second she thought that she had finally gone just a touch too far.

Then her stomach lurched as he moved to her side and offered her his arm. "Ready?" he asked, all grins and confidence again. Tabitha stared at his arm like it was a sleeping python; docile now, but capable of striking at any minute.

"...Really?" she murmured.

"Sure. I won't bite," he said, and she jerked back to regard him distrustfully. But he looked so bright and earnest standing in front of her with his arm extended that she felt a smile tugging rebelliously at her mouth.

"Do you promise?" she finally asked, and he inclined his head in a nod, looking thoroughly amused. "Fine," she said primly, and she looped her arm through his.

---

Sunday, 10:02 p.m

"Thank you for tonight," Tabitha said as they ascended the staircase. He gazed at her from the corner of his eye as she spoke and offered her a sidelong smile, and after a little hesitation, she returned it. Her stomach was doing complicated flip-flops as they walked, and her body was lit with sparks of giddiness and anticipation. She felt like a teenager coming back from prom, which, she decided, was a very odd way to feel around someone like James, no matter how charming he was.

"Thank you for joining me." They stopped at her door and Tabitha rooted through her purse for her keys. Her fingertips quivered as they moved through the dark space, and she struggled for an inordinate amount of time before they closed on the the familiar, thin rings of metal. "I hope you had fun," he said. She was suddenly very aware of how close he was. She could count the stray strands of black hair that hung loosely in his dark eyes, could spot the tiny stain of hoisin sauce on the neckline of his shirt.