Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 101168 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 506(@200wpm)___ 405(@250wpm)___ 337(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101168 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 506(@200wpm)___ 405(@250wpm)___ 337(@300wpm)
“Thanks. I would too.” Jamie’s voice was just breath. They stroked the back of his hand with their thumb, and Edgar’s pulse pounded. Jamie broke the charged silence. “Truth or dare?” They made an adorable face. “And you should really choose dare.”
“Okay, dare,” Edgar said, wanting to please Jamie even though it made him nervous.
“I dare you to order two desserts.” They winked at him, and relief flooded Edgar.
“That’s about the speed of dare I’m up for,” he said with a smile.
He ordered lime cheesecake and grapefruit sorbet. Jamie ordered gingerbread panna cotta and beignet bread pudding.
“Now we both get to try four,” Jamie said as the waiter left.
Edgar returned their smile. He would gladly have ordered ten desserts to make Jamie happy. In fact, seeing Jamie smile was quickly topping Edgar’s list of favorite things, displacing such old standbys as watching a cat’s paws twitch with dreams and not having to leave his apartment.
“What’s your favorite dessert?” Jamie asked.
But before Edgar could answer, cold trickled down the back of his neck, like someone had cracked an egg made of ice. Edgar froze, time slowing down as he became horribly aware of his own body and of the presence of another that shouldn’t be there.
As slowly as he could make himself move, Edgar turned to look behind him.
A torso and head were sticking halfway out of the wall. The face was an unseeing mask of terror. Once, it had been a man, but now it was a screaming echo—empty and desperate and terrified. Sweat soaked Edgar’s armpits and back, and the ringing in his ears drowned out the conversation around him. All of a sudden, he couldn’t breathe. He was alone in the world of this creature.
It reached out a rotting hand and grazed Edgar’s hair, the sensation like cobwebs and insects and the dark secret things that no one should know.
Edgar jumped out of his seat before he realized he was moving.
“Are you okay?” Jamie asked, expression concerned. They rose also, reaching a hand out to Edgar.
It was gone. The wall was just a wall. Edgar touched his hair, half convinced he’d come away with a handful of cobweb and dirt and writhing beetles, but of course there was nothing there.
“Can I help you, sir?” asked their waiter as he appeared with dessert.
“No. Thanks,” he choked. “I’m okay. Sorry.”
The waiter inclined his chin gravely, the picture of decorum, and placed the desserts on their table.
“What’s wrong?” Jamie asked, still clearly concerned.
Edgar pressed his hand to the empty wall. He managed to get a breath and cleared his throat. Fuck. What explanation could he possibly give Jamie that didn’t make him sound delusional?
“Um. Spider.”
He lowered himself back into his seat, wincing as sweat seeped into the back of his underwear.
“Oh, yikes,” Jamie said, apparently accepting this explanation. “Are you arachnophobic?”
Jamie, Edgar assumed, wasn’t afraid of spiders—or anything.
“I, um. It just startled me. Sorry to be a freak.”
“No problem. Wanna switch seats?”
Jamie seemed as sincere as they had when they’d swapped dinners, and it made Edgar’s throat tight.
“No, I’m fine. Sorry.” The last thing he wanted was to watch the ghost touch Jamie, even if Jamie never knew it was there. Edgar inched his chair around the table so it was closer to Jamie’s and farther from the wall. “We can share desserts easier this way,” he said.
Jamie accepted the excuse without comment, and relief washed over Edgar.
He sat on his shaking hands and surveyed the desserts, wishing more than anything to return to the camaraderie they’d been sharing before the undead interruption. “So what’ve we got here?”
Jamie took a bite of the gingerbread panna cotta and groaned.
“This is amazing. Really creamy but great ginger flavor.” They pushed it over to Edgar. “Do you like gingerbread?”
Edgar didn’t, but he said, “It’s okay.”
Jamie tried the next dessert, and their eyes went wide. “Oh, damn, this one’s even better. Do you like beignets?”
Edgar started to lie, then realized that Jamie’s preference for the truth probably transcended the game they’d been playing. Yeah, he couldn’t tell the truth about seeing ghosts, but at least he could be honest about his taste in food.
“I don’t have much of a sweet tooth.”
Jamie’s eyes went wide. “But you ordered… Oh, that was only because I dared you.”
“No.”
“It’s okay, I get it. Thanks for being honest.”
“No, it wasn’t. I promise.”
Jamie frowned. They didn’t look at all convinced. “Then why?”
“I figured you probably dared me because you thought it would be nice to taste four of the desserts. And I wanted you to be able to.”
“That’s sweet,” Jamie said. “But just so you know, you’re allowed to speak even during dares and say, like, Hey, Jamie, I don’t like dessert, so it’ll all be for you.”
“I just wanted you to have what you wanted,” Edgar explained. It came out sounding much more intimate than he’d intended.