Rejected, Then Reborn
Chapter 54

“You’re awfully quiet in person, Lacy,” Alrik Hunter noted with a teasing smile as he dug into his dinner of creamy herb grilled salmon.

Unable to come up with anything to say to that, Lacy only smiled nervously. The human girl desperately wanted nothing more than to just call it a night and go home, but honestly speaking, it had nothing to do with the man and everything to do with her.

She had one of her favorite meals in front of her, beef tenderloin in mushroom sauce, soft cheery music wafted in the background of the incredibly plush five-star hotel restaurant, and everything else was perfect, but all she could think about for some weird reason was the wonderful man sitting before her’s c**k and how she had caught a glimpse of it by accident!

The entire night, and she had barely been able to look him in the face. As a matter of fact, her cheeks had been a bright tomato red right from the moment he had appeared at her doorstep till now, which was surprising because he had really gone out of his way to make her feel comfortable.

She badly wanted to call it a night and reschedule so they could give their budding friendship a second chance, but there was something Lacy desperately wanted to know first. “So sorry, Alrik… my head isn’t really in the right space this evening, but I promise you, we’ll have a do over of this and then you’ll see how awesome I can be when I am totally feeling alright.”

He chuckled good naturedly, “I’d really like that.”

Lacy sat up straight in her seat, a determined look making its way into her light green eyes, “You know what? Why don’t I start making the effort now?” She raised her eyebrows and pursed her lips interestedly, “So, tell me all about a day in the life of Alrik Hunter.” She said dramatically, smiling when he only laughed and said, “Well a day in my life is pretty boring, but I’m pretty sure yours would surpass mine in leaps and bounds.”

“You honestly over estimate me, Alrik. But in any case, I asked you first. So how about I let you tell me yours first, and then I tell you all about mine after you’re done?” Lacy successfully deflected the line of questioning back to him.

“Alright fine.” He finally conceded. “Well, my weekdays are pretty routine, I usually just wake up early to work out and then get ready for work… you already know the work I do, and so I don’t really think there’s a need to talk about that but… I usually get off around 6 pm and then maybe hang out with a few friends….”

Yes, Lacy knew he was a real estate agent for one of those popular companies.

“And weekends?” The human girl really was trying so hard to be subtle, but she desperately wanted to know if what she had seen in her room was just a crazy fantasy or if it had actually been accurate.

“Oh, okay… uh, so for weekends, I like to sleep in till late, usually around noon… and then I take a bath, have brunch, get cozy with a good book, or just lounge. And then I mostly go out in the evenings.”

“You seem like the perfect social butterfly.” Lacy noted with a smile.

“Oh, I’d really not call myself that,” He refuted with an amused chuckle, “I’m much of a recluse trying to put himself out there, Lacy… the very fact that you found me on an online dating site should tell you this.”

Lacy gasped theatrically, “Are you calling me a recluse too?”

“That depends.” Alrik smirked.

“On what?”

“On what a typical day in your life’s like, you know? Among other things.”

“Alright fine, fine… I’m a total recluse then, perhaps even worse than you are. Happy now?” She smiled fake tightly, realizing with a pleasant surprise that she was actually having fun.

And to think that she had almost called to cancel their meeting.

It had actually taken their general stewardess, and her nanny, Ramona’s coddling insistence to get her to get ready, and now that Lacy was looking back on it, she realised that it was the best decision ever to have agreed to come.

But she still wasn’t getting the answers she so desperately sought!

“So,” She took a sip of her chardonnay and tried to take things up a notch, “Back to a day in your life, let’s take today for instance…” She tried to get him back on track again, “Did you go to church, go out with friends, or was it one of your lounging days?”

“Oh, it was one of those relaxation days. I’m not much of a religious person, I’m afraid,” He actually looked contrite about that.

“So, you were home?”

“Well, yeah.” He shrugged non committally, the first tell tale signs of a blush beginning to appear on his cheeks, even as he ruffled his blond spiky hair that somehow managed to work for him.

“What did you do? What did you wear? What did you have for breakfast?” She fired in rapid succession causing her newfound friend to let out a cry of amusement. “Woah, woah, Lacy… slow down,” He quipped, “What’s this? A military interrogation drill?”

Lacy laughed, a melodious tingle that had Alrik joining in. Okay, that was actually really hilarious, “I’m really sorry,” She apologized with a sheepish grin, “I guess many years spent as a girl guide’s captain can do that to you… you know, make one forget that they are not on duty anymore.”

Alrik nodded in understanding. To be honest, he had only come because he had had nothing better to do, but the girl was interesting. Just as interesting as she was beautiful, and he really was having a wonderful evening, even though that shouldn’t really have been surprising considering they had had a good time chatting on the phone all week. “Okay, so I had omelets and a protein shake for breakfast, I spent some time working on excel sheets, and for clothes, I think I wore jeans with a basketball jersey today.” He rattled by heart, just as she had asked, a smile on his face.

For a moment, Lacy had frozen in shock, taking it all in.

There was a high chance that—what could she even call it? — (Her vision?) had actually turned out to be completely accurate.

Rather than be alarmed or disgusted by her new found revelation, Lacy actually allowed herself to relax and have a good time, and then before she knew it, their dinner was over and her friend was dropping her home with a light hug and a promise to do this another time.

She had dashed into her room like her a*s was on fire and then she had quickly closed the door behind her and gotten right to thinking.

She could see visions now?

That—that was pretty cool, right?

But Lord, she had so many questions.

How?

When had it started?

For how long had she been able to do this?

To get some understanding into how it had all happened, she had tried to backtrack her day, and it had all come to her almost immediately.

She had been thinking of him right before she got the headache!

What if her thoughts on him had actually triggered the headache which had in turn caused the freaky hole to spring up?

Did it seem like a reasonable theory?

Well, a little bit.

Was it the complete truth?

Well, she wouldn’t know anything about that until she had tried it all out to see if she was right.

And so with that thought, the human girl closed her eyes and tried to think of something.

A thrill of surprise shot through her as a new image popped in her mind.

Ash’s elder brother, Rannulfus.

Why him of all people?

Lacy felt her heart rate pick up in some weird anticipation at the thought of seeing what he was up to, and she closed her light green eyes.

Just like she had done the first time, she thought about what he’d probably be doing.

Perhaps he was guarding that huge house he and his mother and brother lived in.

Or perhaps Ash was rather on duty and he was doing something else instead?

But what exactly?

Perhaps there was a special woman in his life and he was doing her?

Or a man?

Hey, nowadays one simply couldn’t tell.

Lacy felt the throbbing start in her head again, and she let out an excited gasp even as she clung to her head in pain.

IT WAS WORKING!

But this time something about it was different.

It didn’t hurt like before.

Granted it was still painful as f**k, but this time, she knew that she could get through it.

When the hole appeared in the wall once again, Lacy knew without a doubt that her analogy was true.

Her image stared back at her for some time and then it suddenly changed to the dark, scary forest that had completely freaked her out the last time, but just when she was going to shut the terrifying image out of her mind, it quickly cleared, Rannulfus’s handsome, God sketched face coming to view. He seemed to be dressed in a semi formal apparel… a white dress shirt open a few buttons, with the arms rolled to his elbows. God, wasn’t he a sight for sore eyes.

But it was where he was standing that caught her attention, for he seemed… he seemed to be standing right at her door!

Lacy chuckled even as she shut her eyes tight to clear the image. What sort of wishful thinking was this?

Did her mind realise that she liked him a little too much?

Had it decided that it would play a horrible trick on her like that as a result of it? Because why in God’s name would he be standing at her doorstep, taking a deep breath as if readying himself to let someone know he was here?

Perhaps she was going crazy.

Or perhaps she wasn’t.

For even from her room, Lacy Reynolds suddenly heard it loud and clear. The doorbell just rang.

THERE WAS SOMEONE IN FRONT OF HER HOUSE!