Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 93267 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 466(@200wpm)___ 373(@250wpm)___ 311(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93267 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 466(@200wpm)___ 373(@250wpm)___ 311(@300wpm)
Surely there was some way to undo the damage here. Salem knew how to date, dammit; just because he sucked at long-term relationships didn’t mean he had no game. He had a very good idea of what Gregori liked, having seen his hoard, so it was kind of a no-brainer. The best lure was to find a play somewhere nearby and ask him out on a date. They’d barely had any actual dates, and now that Salem thought about it, it was rather a travesty. Gregori was marvelous fun on a date. He should be dragging the man out every weekend.
Right. Food, then time to look online for theaters and shows.
Also, he needed to say this right, not make it sound like a let’s-hang-out thing. This was to mend fences and hopefully get back into Gregori’s apartment, so he had to make it clear he was asking him out on a bona fide date.
Honestly, Salem wasn’t sure how much longer he could survive a Gregori-less apartment. The silence was killing him slowly.
No one was in the mess hall when he arrived, as it was well past lunchtime for most. There were still some hot plates out with leftover food, so he grabbed what looked good and ended up with a mound of food somehow. Eyes bigger than his stomach? Screw it, he was hungry.
Then he sat and plowed through about half of it in one breath before slowing down enough to pull out his phone.
All right, theaters.
Fortunately, there were a number of them in this area. He wasn’t too far from a city, after all, so it stood to reason. Some of them were community theaters, but Salem didn’t think Gregori would care. Salem had seen playbills from very small productions in his hoard.
He’d have to borrow some kind of translator earring from Evora. His Portuguese was limited, to say the least. But that was easily done.
Okay, what was playing right now? Salem liked theater too, so he wanted to pick something they could both enjoy.
Hmm, wow, they were doing Hairspray down here? Huh. Guess some shows were rather universal. Oh, Roald Dahl’s Matilda, too. Who’d have thought? Other showings were Kinky Boots (hard no), and oh-ho, they were doing West Side Story at the Teatro Riachuelo. It wouldn’t even matter if the whole thing was in Portuguese, as Salem knew the story, so he could watch it and not be lost. Plus, he knew Gregori liked theatrical plays, so it would be something he’d like.
Perfect.
Salem searched, found VIP tickets, and paid for them without a single wince. Okay, he winced a little. They were damn expensive. But for this, he was pulling out all the stops. Oooh, there was a way to contact the theater for special requests? Hell yeah. Salem promptly did so, as he wanted a playbill autographed by the cast if he could at all manage it. All right, request sent in. If he didn’t get a response, he’d enlist someone to help him message again in Portuguese. Just in case.
Tickets were for tomorrow, which meant Salem set three alarms on his phone, just in case, because he did not trust himself. He could forget to eat. That said it all.
Preparations made, he emailed himself the tickets so he could print them out later, then got up.
Time to hunt down his dragon.
Really, Gregori was so larger than life, he was easy to find. He’d be the type to anchor a group in a tourist country because of his sheer size. All Salem had to do was exit the mess hall, walk past the center courtyard, and down toward the beach.
Gregori was in dragon form, front legs crouched, rear end up in the air with his tail wagging. A clear come get me pose if there ever was one. Facing off with him were Ravi and Sora’s twins, also in dragon mode, who seemed determined to conquer this much larger dragon.
The kids launched themselves upward with a war cry, but the attack didn’t get very far. Gregori opened his gigantic mouth wide and caught them in a clean snap of the jaws. Salem’s heart jumped into his throat seeing this, and instincts almost sent him running down to the beach. Then he realized there was a lot of happy squealing from the twins. Gregori was clearly not biting down at all because their tails were wagging, bodies wriggling.
Salem wasn’t sure what the game was, but clearly all three were having a good time, so he wasn’t about to stop them for long. He just needed a five-minute pause.
Gregori spotted him and waved a greeting. “Hah hoooon gaaaa sooo.”
“Don’t talk with your mouth full,” Salem deadpanned.
There was a deep chuckle before Gregori signaled with one hand—wait—and then spat both kids high up in the air. They immediately flapped wings, flying about, still laughing. Was this a wind dragon thing? Or something they’d learned from their mischievous father? Despite barely being in the clan for more than a few days, even Salem had heard stories about Ravi.