A Beautiful Dark

asked casually.
    “My what?” He looked confused.
    “Your fight with Asher?”
    His face clouded over. “Oh,” he said. “That.”
    “I take it not that well?”
    “It’s more complicated than that,” he said, looking away. I took that as a signal that our conversation was over, so I closed my eyes again. I felt mildly snubbed. Cassie could chase him away in order to reclaim her seat. Or flirt with him. Whatever she wanted to do.
    “I’m sorry,” he said beside me.
    “What?” I opened my eyes, surprised.
    “You shouldn’t worry about Asher and me.” He appeared almost apologetic, and something inside me softened a little. “It’s been like this all our lives. Listen,” he said, shifting a little on the couch to face me. “I feel like we haven’t gotten off to the best start. I usually like to kick things off with a fight to break the ice, but I guess this time it didn’t work, huh?”
    I stared at him blankly.
    “Sorry,” he said with a small smile, “I’m not very good at small talk. I don’t often find myself starting over in a new place, getting to know strangers.” Asher had alluded to the same thing, but I somehow got the feeling it wasn’t as hard for him. I wondered at Devin’s lack of the same kind of brazen confidence. He was so classically attractive, with the hair, skin, and features of a fairy-tale prince. Everything about him was just so . . . perfect . How could he not see that in himself?
    “You’re doing okay,” I said, a smile coming easily and naturally. “Maybe you just need to give people a chance to get to know you.”
    He lifted his gaze to me. His eyes were really incredible. Soft and hard at the same time, water and ice, and the bluest blue I’d ever seen. They almost didn’t look real.
    “I saw Asher talking to you over at the coffee bar,” he said, and I could see the tempest forming in his eyes. There was a slight lilt to his cadence, almost as if he’d worked hard to banish an accent. I couldn’t place where it might have come from. “He’s trying to win you over.”
    Even when Asher wasn’t here, the argument was still triangulated. It was like they were programmed to interfere in each other’s lives.
    “Is that what he was doing?” I asked, not bothering to hide my annoyance.
    “It’s what he always does. Whatever he wants. He doesn’t care at all—” He stopped abruptly and glanced at me. Hesitation flickered across his face.
    “About the rules?” I finished for him.
    I almost laughed at the shock that passed over his features, as though I’d reached out and slapped him. I sipped calmly on my latte and studied him over the rim of the mug. “I overheard you guys on Saturday,” I said. “Before you knocked me over.”
    He furrowed his brow. “What . . . what exactly did you hear?”
    I shrugged noncommittally. “Something about your rules. I got the impression he wasn’t too impressed with them. So what are they exactly?”
    Devin looked away. “It’s a code that I . . . Look, it’s nothing.” He sighed. “We don’t have to get into it here.”
    I laughed. “Well, based upon what I saw—you know, trying to destroy each other in a crowded coffee shop where anyone could have gotten hurt—I’d say your code isn’t working too well.”
    “Asher doesn’t understand. Rules exist for a reason. He doesn’t grasp”—he glanced at me—“why they’re important.” With that, he seemed to run out of steam. “It’s our problem to resolve. I shouldn’t have bothered you with it.”
    “No, really, it’s okay,” I said. “It’s interesting. And hey, I think you mastered the art of small talk.”
    A corner of his mouth curled up, and the tranquility returned to his eyes. “Maybe. Not really. I just knew you’d understand. You seem very precise.”
    Precise. I did sometimes have control-freak tendencies, but it was an odd thing to say—and an odder way to phrase it.
    Devin may have been beautiful, but it was no use denying there was something strange about him.
    “Ahem.” Cassie cleared her throat. She and Dan were standing above us, grinning, clearly waiting for an introduction.
    “Devin, these are my friends Cassie and Dan.”
    “Hey, man,” Dan said, doing that chin-nod thing guys always do.
    “Hey, man,” Devin repeated, but the way he said it sounded unnatural, slightly foreign—more formal in its casualness than if he’d simply said hello. He stood up. “I should go.”
    “Oh, no,” Cassie