Bella's Babe

49)Blind Date Part 2

This is Bella/Tanya Pairing

Between Piers 57 and 59 sets Waterfront Park. It's not so much an actual park as it is a very minor tourist attraction during the right season. The north side is taken up mostly by the Seattle Aquarium and the south side has restaurants and an arcade. In the middle is an artsy boardwalk with benches, picnic tables, artsy stuff, a few potted trees and that's about it. If I wanted to see actual grass then I was in the wrong part of town. This one was a few blocks from me in Belltown, where my condo was on the northwest side of downtown Seattle.

The place wasn't quiet, seeing as how the Alaskan Way Viaduct was only about fifty yards behind the park. There was plenty of traffic and more than enough exhaust filling the air to let me know I was in the middle of a major city. However, I felt comfortable being able to look out over the Sound watching the ferries go back and forth and the occasional tanker pass by. Also, nobody bothered me.

Usually I filled a Seahawks travel mug with blood and spent the morning with my laptop writing away. This particular morning I was fairly satiated from Katie exhausting herself with my favorite toy the night previous. It's really difficult for me to let myself go in situations like that for fear of hurting her, but I was able to achieve a measure of release. That was one of the downsides of dating a human.

I never understood Edward's reluctance with me, physically I mean. I've never so much as bruised a human lover. Granted, I've only had three over the last eight years, but still. Once I got over the initial nervousness and figured out sex was actually fun and not life defining, I enjoyed myself and things worked out fine. Perhaps guy vampires had it harder or something; I never asked and frankly I really don't care. Guys aren't part of my life anymore, definitely not of the vampire variety. It's kind of difficult to avoid them altogether, but that's one of the perks of being a vampire. One cold glare is enough to send most of them on their way.

That morning I measured the wind direction and set up on Pier 57, the south side. Dawn was barely breaking and Fisherman's had hours before they'd be opening for lunch. I would usually be long gone by then. The smell of fresh fried fish was seriously nauseating, so I made it a point to be out of the area when they turned the fryers on around ten-thirty.

Choosing to be downwind of Pier 59 was calculated. I'd smell Tanya long before I saw her. That would give me time to have a look, leave, and call Alice to tell her thanks but no thanks. My obligation would be taken care of and she couldn't say that I didn't at least give her blind date a try.

My editor was already making inquiries as to my progress with my third book. At least that's what I saw when I opened up my email that morning. Who would have thought that my life story would be so successful in the publishing world? The names and facts were changed so as not to implicate myself to the Volturi. I could be any number of supernatural romance authors out there. The only thing that stayed the same was the basic plot. Girl moves to new town, meets up with sexy vampire boy, romance ensues, danger happens, danger is resolved, and the story is left open ended for another sequel.

The first story originally sold fifty-thousand copies. The second sold a half million, and the first went into reprints. They're still waiting for a third, and I was only three-quarters of the way finished. I had the cliché love triangle working between my heroine, the sexy vampire boy, and a sexy French werepanther - obviously, I'm not a big fan of wolves - when I decided to scrap the whole thing and have her fall in love with the sexy vixen vampire girl that waltzed into town to stir up trouble. It would piss off the Team Edgar and Team Jacque fans, but what the hell? There was never a good enough ending to that relationship triangle that would satisfy the fans well enough.

It amused me to no end to see the legions of sex starved middle-aged women and preteen girls that sported all the Nightfall paraphernalia in Seattle. The message boards online were filled with speculation about where I lived in Washington. I made sure to have my bio picture half in and half out of the shadows, showing only the bottom half of my nose down to my waist. They'd wear their shirts and buttons in hopes that I'd stop one of them on the street to sign one. To this day I still haven't. I value my privacy.