Em and I walked into the room and saw that Ria had already taken a seat next to Alessia at the big table. Servers were walking around the room with plates of food, handing them out to the people who’d already sat down.

“Come Rora! Emma!” Ria called us over.

Aileen was patiently waiting until we’d picked a spot, which didn’t take very long. I sat myself down in between my two girlfriends.

“Can I sit next to you, Emma?” Aileen asked.

“Definitely. Auro just didn’t want to have anyone sitting next to us who we hadn’t talked to yet.”

“Makes sense.” Aileen nodded. “Fits ‘er role of protector, doesn’t it?”

“It does. It’s really cute.” Em smiled, to which Aileen laughed.

“You know I’m sitting right here, right?” I pouted.

“Yeah, that’s why I said it.” Em stuck out her tongue.

It was Claudia who skilfully put down the plates in front of the five of us. “Quail with sauce chasseur and pommes duchesse.”

“Thank you very much!” Ria almost immediately started eating.

Em and I also thanked her for bringing the food.

“Would anyone want something to drink?” Claudia waited next to us with a friendly smile.

“Orange juice for me, please.” Em replied.

“Apple juice if you have it.” So did Ria.

Orange juice, apple juice.” Claudia replied and looked at Aileen.

“A Scotch please, the one I drank here last time, if you still have that.” She ordered.

Claudia nodded and then looked at me.

“Uh… I want… uh….” -Okay, this is really awkward to order.- “Uhm….”

“I think she wants a glass of blood, Claudia.” Alessia came to my aid.

“Y-yeah.”

“Which variety?”

“Uh… the lesbian kind?”

Aileen almost choked on her food.

Alessia couldn’t hold in her laughter, while Claudia and both of my girlfriends were getting beet red.

“N-noted.” Claudia tried to regain her composure and looked at Alessia.

“For me as well, but it can be any variety, surprise me.” Alessia replied while chuckling.

With that, Claudia nodded and quickly walked into the kitchen.

“Aurora, you almost killed me with that.” Aileen was tapping her chest with the knuckles of her fist, coughing lightly.

“T-there should be a way less awkward way to order this!”

“That’s true, but ordering ‘tomato juice’ or ‘red wine’ can get really confusing for the staff.” Alessia cut into her quail with her knife and fork.

“I-I guess…”

“I know it’s awkward, everyone had that happen to them at one point in time.” Alessia said after taking a bite.

“Alessia, you gotta admit ‘er reply was brilliant though.”

“Oh, that’s definitely going to make it into the year’s highlights, that’s for sure.” Alessia laughed again.

“It was pretty funny…” Em agreed.

Ria still didn’t say anything, she was probably a bit too distracted by the food until she finally did open her mouth. “Do you think I can get some mayonnaise to go with the pommes duchesse?”

We were all a bit surprised by her sudden carefree comment.

“Sure thing, I’ll ask Claudia when she gets back.” Alessia nodded.

“These girls are just great, love them already.” Aileen shook her head with a huge smile on her face and continued eating.

I started eating myself and was happily surprised by the taste of the food in front of me. Quail was something I’d never eaten before but, especially with this sauce, it was worth repeating in the future. After a while Claudia came back with our drinks and after that she quickly headed back to the kitchen for some mayo.

I took a couple of sips from my drink before Aileen pulled my attention.

“Hey, Aurora, how’s your lesbian juice tastin’?”

I almost spat out my drink, but managed to swallow it just in time. Alessia turned away, so she wasn’t laughing in my face. I could even hear Viktor and Alex laughing on the other side of the table.

“Really?” I said while putting down my glass. “Couldn’t you have waited until I wasn’t drinking?”

“Nay, it’s way funnier like this.” Aileen smirked.

“Why do vampires like teasing so much?”

“Because humour never gets old?” Ria proposed.

“And neither do vampires.” Emma dry panned.

“‘Ey, that’s a good one! I’m writin’ that down. Your girlfriends are quite the comedians, aren’t they?”

“They are pretty good.” I nodded.

“Only pretty good? Remember that one time you almost peed your pants at one of my jokes?”

“Oh Goddess, that joke… My cheeks hurt for an hour because I was laughing too hard.” I instinctively massaged my cheeks thinking about it. “Fine, you are a great comedian.”

“And what about me?” Ria asked, with her kitten eyes trained on me.

“Yeah, you are incredible too.”

Alessia and Aileen both looked at us three and then at each other with a smile on their face, but they didn’t say anything.

I somehow managed to clean my plate completely.

“See, ye’r getting better at it already.” Aileen got up from her seat and walked past me, patting me on the back while she did.

“Aren’t you staying for dessert, Aileen?” Alessia asked.

“Just gonna stretch me legs. Won’t take long.”

“Oh! Can I go with her, Rora?” Ria pulled my sleeve.

“Sure, you don’t need to ask me.” I smiled.

Aileen waited a bit for Ria to get off her seat and then looked at me. “I’ll keep her safe, don’t worry about anythin’.”

“Just don’t go seducing my girlfriend, and we’re all fine.”

“I only have eyes for you and Emma, Rora!”

My heart aww’ed so hard at her response that only a peep came out of my mouth. And when I looked back at Em, she looked completely flustered by that too.

Aileen laughed. “See ya in a bit.” and chaperoned my girlfriend through the door.

Alessia looked at us and smiled again. “You girls definitely fit very well together. I profoundly believe your love will stand the test of time.”

“Do you really think so?” I asked our hostess.

“Yeah, I’ve got somewhat of an eye for these things.” Alessia replied, looking at Emma who blushed a little.

“A-and what about you? Have you ever had a partner?” Em asked.

“I have dated in the past, but it never really felt right. I’m pretty sure I fall within the asexual and aromantic spectrum, as they call it nowadays.”

“Oh, that’s like pres, right?” I looked at Emma.

“She’s only aro, I think.” Em nodded.

“Pres?” Alessia asked.

“Yeah, she’s our class president. We call her pres or president Rosehip because she likes tea, a lot.” I explained.

“I see. So she’s aromantic as well?”

“She told us about it at the beginning of the school year, back when we were still in the closet.”

“Was I in the closet though?”

“Back when I was in the closet and Auro was being super dense.” Emma corrected herself.

Alessia chuckled. “Well, it’s good to know people nowadays are a lot more open about that than they used to be.”

“That’s true.” I nodded.

Alessia’s phone started ringing, which she immediately fished out of her jacket. “Ah, it’s the staff. Give me a second.” She stood up and walked towards the hallway.

“And we’re alone again.” I looked around the room. Apart from me and Emma only Marko, Mikael and Nils were still in the room, but they were sitting on the other side, so it was a bit awkward to start a conversation with them. Especially since Marko was still eating.

“I think that’s his fourth plate already.” Em whispered, she must’ve noticed I was looking at him.

“Really? Wow, he must really enjoy the dish then.”

“Apparently.” She softly giggled.

“Did you like the food?”

“Mhmm. It was really tasty. You?”

“Yeah, it was great.”

“Maybe we should ask for the recipe?” Em asked.

Before I could reply I saw Em shiver a little. “Are you cold, Em?”

“Just a little, but I’m fine, really.”

I quickly took off my jacket and hung it over her shoulders. “Is that better?”

She nodded. “But aren’t you going to get cold now?”

“Nah, I’m plenty hot myself.” I smirked.

“Tchh, dork.” She smiled and rested her head against my shoulder.

“Today was pretty interesting, wasn’t it?”

“Mhmm.” Em hummed.

“How are you feeling about the immortality thing?”

“A bit better… but it’s still hard to get my head around. But what Alessia did sure helped a lot.”

“What did she do?”

“Hmmm... She shared some of her happy memories with me and also showed me one of my possible futures…”

“Oh?”

“She said she doesn’t really know how it works, but she said she can sometimes give happy memories of what’s to come to people if they don’t stray too far away from the path they are on… Sounded really sci-fi to me, but it did calm me down...” Em looked up at me. “I saw us three sitting on a balcony overlooking the Mediterranean at sunset… It was really beautiful and calming.”

“That does sound nice.” I smiled at her and put my arm around her.

“You were wearing your softball jacket of the team that always loses.”

“Excuse me, the Tanukis have spirit, and that’s what matters most in sports! Oh! And their mascot is cute too!”

“That’s true, the raccoon is pretty cute.” Em giggled.

"It's a tanuki!!"

“I know, I know.” She stuck out her tongue.

After a moment of silence, I continued with the previous topic. “Em, but if you were so hesitant about immortality, why did you ask me to bite you when I could’ve turned you into a vampire.”

Emma replied almost instantly. “Because I sometimes say stupid shit, Auro. You should know that by now, especially since you do too."

“Yeah, that’s very fair.” I laughed.

That’s when Alessia came back from the hallway. “I see Emma is my apprentice now.”

“She was a bit cold.”

“I’ll let someone bring in a couple of cozy jackets.”

“I don’t think that’s necessary.” I shrugged.

The moment I said that, Aileen walked into the room followed by Ria who was borderline swimming in Aileen’s leather jacket.

“Okay, maybe it’s not that bad of an idea after all.”

Alessia laughed and called over Claudia. “Claudia, please bring these ladies a couple of cozy jackets, Rosemary knows their sizes. And maybe some hot chocolate as well?” She looked at my girlfriends.

Em smiled. “Yes please.”

“Hot choco! Yessss!” Ria almost fell over because of her enthusiasm.

Claudia nodded and headed off, while Aileen walked past us back to her seat. “Is she a sweet tooth?”

“That’s a bit of an understatement.” I replied.

“But she does make some good spicy salad as well.”

“...Spicy salad?”

Em and I looked at each other and laughed, confusing Aileen some more.