Erasure and Affirmation (Hypernaturals 11)

Helps to be in Love

In a different part of the evening, I was cornered by Carol and DeWayne. Not really cornered. Brought into a conversation.

"I explained everything you all talked about in the kitchen to my human love. He is taken aback with your wedding planning, my lovely Vampire wedding planner. He has questions." Carol told me.

Their arms are looped together, and I read no stress from DeWayne as they brought all this up. "Sure. It's a night for answers. Is that really your wedding plan? I was slightly joking."

"We'll see." Carol said, in such a way as to make me think it absolutely is her plan. It remained to be seen if it is THE plan. Her reference to her intended being a human framing it.

"My question is this, Adrian" DeWayne said. "You know Morgan and I used to be together and all. I never really told Morgan this, but I told Carol a while back. I was far more serious about Morgan than she ever was about me. Unlike Ken, I understood Morgan's relationship limits. To be and have more with Morgan required walking a line and charting a path that I never managed. Our timing with each other always sucked. TO set the level of how I felt but hid? Part of our issue was that the Cabal was against us being together. They made it hard on me and her. I would have left the force to be with her if that is something she wanted. Her career was on the Rocketship upward: her work that more important. Morgan would NEVER have allowed me to do that though."

"I get that completely. Trust me. I love her so much I would do anything for her, including wait. I only love her more now." I replied. "She is a spectacular person."

"Well, same. I was not going to try and make it more serious when she only wanted a lover and a friend. You always knew where you stood with her. She had rules, and they were ironclad. I was not going to fuck up being with her by telling her I wanted more. Ken did that. They were never the same afterward. I am smart enough not to repeat other guys mistakes."

"You being in love with Morgan, back then or now, does not intersect with your feelings for Carol in the slightest, does it?" I asked to make a point.

A warm glance at each other. "No. Not at all. Of course not. If anything, it is the other way. I trust Carol enough to be able to tell her things like that. We are open and honest about everything with each other." DeWayne admitted.

"You already understand one important thing about love that I had to learn. You can love more than one person at a time. It does not detract from your feeling for one or the other. That was a hard lesson for me. Helen and I still bicker sometimes. Ok. Often. You are lucky you have learned this about love now. If you decide to become a Vampire, you will have a ton of years to have that reality of love re-learned."

"You are aware then that I would not be averse to the scenarios you discussed? The one where I end up with your wife? This really does not bother you?" DeWayne looked very concerned.

"It bothers me slightly more than the same scenario with Danny. I know you are important in Morgan's life and I could deal with it. She loved you more than she knew at the time too. Morgan is not good at decoding her own feelings." I know Morgan is listening to this, so I did not drop in a Wendell reference. DeWayne knows about Wendell. That is enough.

"I would prefer you and I were closer than we are. Not sexually with each other. That we were better friends. That when that time came, and I saw you making love with her, I saw a good friend and man I love and who I completely trust, rather than a guy I know pretty well, worked on some cases with, etc. I think you are a decent guy. If you were not, Carol would not be so into you. To land Carol means you have something going on. To have been Morgan's lover on and off for years means that same thing. I would like to get to know the guy that is one of the few men I know who could achieve that."