Erasure and Affirmation (Hypernaturals 11)

Arrivals

People are starting to arrive for the wedding. This includes Euro Council and Crew. Friends of Carol's. DeWayne is entering a brave new world. Ancient relationships that span continents. I can relate. I ended up married to a woman that gave me an entire winery as a gift of love.

For fun, I race from the Library to the front door to answer it to see if I can beat Fiona there. I win the race when she is showing a new guest their room, or talking to the kitchen, or doing some other hostess thing and so she is too far away.

Already here are Jacqueline, Sophie, Liann, and Renee, from Euro Council and Crew, in addition to our US, Casa de Gato planeload.

Once again, we are filling up this massive house/castle. Not nearly like we did for the anti-HPA operation here, but more people than normal. More like the old

Between races to the door, I am sitting at my desk, looking at reports. It is amazing how many damn reports there are. I read these from Austin too, because otherwise, I would never catch up. What is obvious over and over from these things is Fiona has it covered, and all I do is introduce change. Mess with her life in a different way.

Fiona is on board with all my screwing around even if it makes her life more difficult and she encourages the entire staff to think about things as new and differently as possible. Continuous improvement the goal, and no idea too dumb. I want Claremont to be two things at the same time. The tried and true ancient brand you can rely on to be the best there is. To have Claremont be on the leading edge of change and innovation. Supposedly you cannot do go both directions inside one institution. I will admit: it is not easy.

All day long people have come and sat opposite me for chats about their day. The latest is Denise. She came in, opened the bar behind me, served herself, and sat down in one of my guest chairs. She frowned at me as she sipped her triple pour.

"Hi, protector of the not very innocent." I greeted.

Another frown. "I am not sure how I feel about you and Nico talking about me." Denise said.

"I am not sure what you can do about it." I said.

Frown. Sip.

"Not that you care or even should care, but I like Nico. Never met him before, so he only came highly recommended, and that only by actions. You and Anne. I am not sure why you walked away from him. Not only is he nice, and not only does he care about you, but he is DeWayne level nice looking. I think I saw him on the cover of a romance novel once. Greek dark good looks. The works. Anne must be thanking you every day."

Sip. "I left him because it was not honest to be with him." Denise said.

"So he said." I told her. Matches what you said or implies along the way. I did not tell him that. I let him tell me about you because it was interesting to get that viewpoint. I still think you are nuts to leave him. Did I mention Greek god good looks, and he cares about you enough to risk talking to me about it? By risk, I mean apparently, someone told him I could thrash him."

"Damn. You two really did talk about me." Denise said.

"He did not tell me what you are like in bed, which is fine as I want to find out about that for myself someday. He did not mention what you like. What you do not like. Your favorite flavor of ice cream, which is Strawberry, but I knew that part from watching you at Ninovan events and seeing what you pick out after dinner. Nico mentioned nothing of that nature, so yes: we talked about you but not all about you. I suppose I shall have to ask you when the time comes. My conversation with Nico was all about caring about you. The person. As I said and to his credit, he approached me to have this discussion after you filled his mind with all the things I have done. World's deadliest male Vampire. Knowing that I could kill him where he sat, and he could do nothing about it, he verbally worried about you to me. Worried that I might be jealous of the fact that you had sex with him last night. Him and Anne, technically."