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Victor trailed his fingers on the inside of his left arm, right over the words. He’s done it so many times over the years, he subconsciously remembered the placement of every letter, every dot. He never expected to hear those words; after his Embrace he realized that soulmates are for mortals, not for kindred. Not that he paid much attention to it anyways; he mostly touches the sentence edged in his skin for comfort more than anything else.
Are you, seriously, wearing a sweater vest?
Once upon a time, it used to annoy him. Who was this person, he thought, that would greet him this way? But as he grew older, it started to amuse him. It was endearing, in a way. Sometimes he wondered if he started wearing sweater vests just because of the words. They might have influenced that decision, just a little bit. He knew people, in their previous life, that would go out of their way to meet their soulmate. They would approximate the place of their meeting, squeeze every last bit of information out of the single sentence written on their bodies and use it. He never liked that. There was more to happiness than just being soulmates, and he could prove that to anyone who disagreed.
Maybe his sons were proof enough.
“Mr. Temple?” The sudden noise made him return to reality in an instant. He looked at the girl in front of him, who looked quite worried. He could not remember her name. She glanced at her phone. “Uhm, miss Nelli G is here to see you?”
Nelli? He didn’t expect her so early; it was already the hour they set their meeting for, but he was prepared for her to be fashionably late. Nelli G, associated mostly with Chaz Price. He knew her only by reputation; tonight was supposed to be their first meeting, as he wanted to discuss possible business deals. Maybe show her around the place as well. He still didn’t have the name for the club, but he will come up with something eventually.
“I am going down right now,” he said, already standing up from his chair. He quickly made his way to the ground floor, already on his best “professional friendly” behaviour. He saw her from a far; he could recognize a Toreador from a mile away. They were undoubtedly the flashiest of their kind, and many other clans were not that fond of it. But if there was any clan that Toreador had similarities with, it was the Ventrue; both had the habit of hiding in plain sight.
(If what he had heard about her head for business was true, she could have easily been a Ventrue.)
She was wearing an extremely thought out outfit; though he could not tell if it was one of her own collection or not. He did make an effort to familiarize himself with her work before meeting her, but he did not have much interest in fashion himself.
She noticed him. He couldn’t see her eyes behind the sunglasses, and in consequence, her initial reaction. He opened his mouth to greet her, but before he could say a word, she beat him to it.
“Are you, seriously, wearing a sweater vest?”
He stopped dead in his tracks. If his heart was beating, its beat would most likely quicken. All of his wits left him for a second, as he stood there, looking at the woman who just said the words.
That was impossible. That was almost cruel, in a way. Why now? Now that he was in a net of Kindred politics and mere weeks before the grand opening of his club?
But he couldn’t just stand there and ponder about it, he had to say something. So without much thinking, he blurted out his defense.
„Yeah, why? What’s wrong with it? It’s nice!”
That got her attention. She took off her sunglasses; and he could finally see her eyes. The glance she gave him was… disbelieveing.
He could relate to that very much right now.
“Darling, if we are to work together, you will have to upgrade. Perhaps a nice suit?”
She was quicker at regaining composure than he was.
“Hey, I have a suit! But, having one from Nelli G herself, well, that’s a different story.”
She gave him his hand and he quickly brushed his lips against it. He looked back up at her, smiling widely.
“How rude of me to not introduce myself. Victor Temple, at your service.”
“Nelli G. It will be a pleasure to work with you, Mr. Temple.”
“Oh, please. Call me Victor.”
He used to disbelief the stories. He would hear all the time about soulmates feeling like they’ve known each other their whole lifes after mere seconds of meeting one another but it was ridiculous. It just had to be a lie.
But it wasn’t.
He showed her around the club, describing everything in vivid details. She was very attentive, sometimes giving him ideas for improvement; especially when it came to internal design.
(She might’ve laughed a bit at some of his ideas, but he couldn’t bring himself to be offended by that. After all, she did know better.)
They both tried to focus on business. Their soulwords were a talk they would have to have, one day, but they wouldn’t be kindred if they didn’t pretend like everythin’s normal. Especially when you don’t know who might be listening.
And, after all, Victor thought, they deserved to get to know each other without that that whole… mess. They both knew that themoment that information gets out, it will be used against them. Just as he buried all the information about having a family, he will have to bury this too.
But, for a moment, he allowed himself to feel happy.
After he finished showing hher around the place, they went to his office to discuss the details of the deal. A photo shoot here, a “product placement” there. Nothing too extravagant, but he caught himself eagerly agreeing to even the slightest possibility of them meeting again.
After they were done, which took a little longer then anticipated, he stood up to accompany her to her car. She stopped him, putting a hand on his chest.
“Show me.” Nelli whispered. Victor knew what she meant, so he rolled his sleeve high enough for the entire sentence to be visible.
“May I?” She asked, and he nodded, letting her touch his the words on his skin. He could not guess the emotions in her expression; he thought she was happy throughout their meeting, but now he could also see… fear? Worry? Anxiety? Whatever it was, it probably wasn’t good.
After she was finished, he rolled his sleeve back down, and before he could stop her, pulled her dress at the neckline, revealing the words across her collarbone. Suddenly, his body remembered reactions from a lifetime back, and he sighed.
He didn’t raise his hand to touch it. It would be rude.
Instead, he said “Thank you.”
She quickly hid the words again, making sure none of them are visible. “I look forward to working with you, Victor.”
“As am I, Nelli. As am I.”
They made their way to the parking lot, and said goodbye once again, this time professionaly. He looked after her, as she drove away.
Damn.
She was right. He really needed a nice suit.