Bolivar Read online

  “Good. Now, hire a taxi and go to this address.” He quickly scribbled down an address and then put it on top of the box. “It’s a cafe. You’ll need this, too.” He pulled out his wallet and handed me a wad of twenties. “Have something to eat while you’re there. Now, get going. He’s expecting to meet you for dinner.”

  I’d barely had a chance to sit down yet, and Bolivar was already sending me away. I called a cab and then I was gone, but I was not happy about it. Though I hadn’t really wanted to stay, either. Bolivar made me tense, and I really had no idea what to expect out of him. My time until I got back home was already feeling like it was going to be miserable. I couldn’t help but start to count the hours.

  Where Bolivar seemed nothing like the dragon I had imagined him to be, Imrel was everything I’d pictured a dragon to be like. He looked like he was in his sixties and never smiled at me or even acted like I was welcome in his presence. He treated me as a lowly human, exactly what I’d expected Bolivar to do.

  “How is my old friend?” Imrel asked as we sat at a table.

  I shrugged. “I only met him today.” I’d already given him the present, and he had put it aside, appearing to give it no consideration at all.

  “And you already don’t like him. Unfortunately that feeling won’t get any better. He’s a difficult one, but if you’re determined to get away from him you can always get out of your family’s contract with him. All you have to do is find a girl, get her pregnant, and then wait until your child turns eighteen and it can leave home to go work for him. Simple enough, really.”

  I felt like Imrel was laughing at me, too. We humans must just be one big joke to these dragons. “Thanks. That won’t be happening, though.”

  Imrel stopped smiling and seemed to actually consider me for a moment. “I see. Well, you could always do what your great-grandfather did and simply stay with Bolivar until he finally kicked him out. You know, I think the only reason your great-grandfather even decided to have a kid was because Bolivar told him to. He certainly didn’t seem like he was all that close to his family whenever I talked to him.”

  He might have been trying to get a rise out of me, or he might have just been talking and didn’t realize that he was being mean. Either way, it would be best to change the subject. I looked to the simple, plain cardboard box with the bright red ribbon that I’d delivered to him. “What do you think he got you for your birthday?”

  Imrel looked as well, but he only smirked at it. “I know what’s in it. Absolutely nothing. The same thing he gets me every time he has a new assistant. It’s a game we play. The present is for me to see what his new human looks like. I approve of your looks, and I think you’ll be entertaining enough for him, but I doubt you’ll enjoy the work. You humans aren’t built for the long haul. I think you’ll be bored and wishing to get out of serving him within the year, if you’re not thinking that already.”

  I sat back in my chair and considered what he was saying. My great-grandfather had certainly liked being with Bolivar, so maybe Imrel was wrong. “How long have you had your assistant?” He wasn’t with anyone right now, but I knew that all dragons had assistants, so he had to have one around here somewhere. Maybe they were waiting in his car or something.

  “She’s been with me for about six years now, though I rarely see her. She comes back for a week or two and then she’s gone again. I don’t mind. She’s there when I need her, which is all that matters.”

  I didn’t get it. I’d been told that I would be working closely with Bolivar, that really I would never leave his side. But, then again, I was already away from him. He’d sent me away less than an hour after I’d arrived, so maybe there was a bit of truth to what Imrel was saying. “What does she do when she’s gone? Does she have meetings with other dragons?”

  Imrel laughed. “Not at all. She’s got a credit card and a bucket list for every country. Her passport is nearly full by now. She’s at my beck and call when I need her, and in exchange for that I give her as much freedom as I can. She would’ve gone mad if I insisted she stay with me constantly. Your great-grandfather certainly enjoyed his time away from Bolivar. I have, too. While Bolivar and I used to be close, we can’t be anywhere near each other now. If we have a problem you’ll either meet with me, or with my assistant. Her name’s Kelly. You two could take a vacation together if you wanted to, or you could come spend a week in Canada with me, assuming Bolivar ever lets someone as good looking as you out of his sight. Don’t worry about that, though, I’m sure he’ll get bored of you soon enough, and then you’ll have some variation of your freedom back.”

  He got up to leave, but I wanted to keep talking to him. I had so many questions for him, and so far Bolivar hadn’t talked to me at all like Imrel was.

  I was back at Bolivar’s house by midnight. I thought I’d just go to sleep, but he was still awake and his bedroom door was open, so I figured I should probably stop by to say hi.

  He was sitting up in bed when I went to his doorway. “Hi.”

  Bolivar looked up from the heavy book in his lap to consider me. “Did you have a good meal?”

  Aside from the eight-hour round trip, it had been fine. I shrugged. “I’m tired. I’d like to go to bed.”

  “Did Imrel offer to let you stay with him for a week?”

  “Yeah. I won’t, though. I mean, I’m your assistant, not his.”

  Bolivar snorted. “You can still be my assistant while you’re halfway across the world exploring Japanese temples if you really wanted to. I was just going to give you a heads-up. Spending a week with Imrel will only let you see Canada through his bedroom window.”

  I got what he was saying. I’d dated guys. My virginity was technical, at best. “You think he wants me.”

  “Imrel wants everyone. I just wanted to warn you before you thought of a bunch of things you wanted to do there and then came back complaining that Imrel was always too busy to show you around except when he wanted to have sex with you. I’ve heard that complaint before, and it gets old.”

  I let that sink in, but I didn’t ask which of my ancestors had chosen to have sex with a dragon. “I thought that kind of thing was off limits.”

  “Not really.”

  “Oh.”

  Bolivar turned back to his book, and I realized that I was holding him up. “Well, goodnight then.”

  “Goodnight.”

  I left him and went right to bed, but I heard him down the hall from me, the quiet turning of his pages, his gentle humming as he read. I fell asleep to the sounds of him nearby.

  When I woke up, Bolivar was in the kitchen with a pot of boiling water on the stove and two massive lobsters scratching across his kitchen table.

  “Um. Are those breakfast?”

  “Brunch,” he corrected me.

  It was nearly ten, and I’d seriously overslept. “So I should probably tell you that I haven’t had much seafood before.”

  “Well, this is Maine, and pretty much all we eat is seafood and blueberries. You’ll develop a taste for them sometime in the next twenty years.”

  He assumed that I was going to get someone pregnant and get out of my obligation as soon as possible.

  “Do I just drop them in, then, or what?” I was trying to be helpful, but the lobsters were kind of weirding me out with their giant claws and large bodies.

  Bolivar gave me a dark look. “Of course not. That’s barbaric. How would you like it if someone threw you into boiling water? No, we will kill them first by putting a knife through their brains. It’s quick and they don’t suffer.”

  It was still hard for me to watch him do it, but it seemed fast enough.

  “Can I do anything to help?” I didn’t really want to, but I was there to be his assistant. Mostly I just wanted to talk to him and find out more about dragons. I still wasn’t fully convinced that he even was one, aside from the picture I’d seen. And yeah, that was pretty good evidence, but only evidence of him being really fre
aking old. Nothing more.

  Bolivar had his back to me while he put the lobsters into the pot. “Can you make a risotto?”

  I didn’t even have the faintest idea of what that was. “No. But if you showed me—”

  “Some other time I’ll give you a cooking lesson. How about taking out some of the hoagies and putting some butter on them? Then toss them in the oven for a bit. We’ll have lobster rolls for brunch. Have you ever had them before?”

  “No. I didn’t grow up on a lot of seafood.”

  He shrugged without looking back at me. “That’s not going to be an issue here, unless you suddenly decide that you hate the taste of it. Then, at that point, I’m really not sure what to feed you.”

  I smirked and got to making the rolls like he’d told me to. “I’m not completely helpless. I can make my own cereal and—”

  He took a sharp turn toward me. “And you’re mine for the next eighteen years, at the very least, so I want you eating right and taking care of yourself. That starts with no cereal.” He dismissed me with that, returning to his cooking.

  I could have easily said that I would do what he wanted to. I could have even reasoned that he was just trying to take care of me and wanted me to be healthier. But I balked at what he was saying. I’d been told my whole life about how I was supposed to act around the dragons, and how I was never supposed to disagree with them about anything, but I couldn’t roll over and let Bolivar be right. Not about something as simple as my choice of breakfast foods, and not about the bigger stuff either.

  “No. I’ll eat what I want to.” My voice was quiet. I was trying to be respectful. But I had to draw the line somewhere and I wanted to start right here and now. What would be next? Him telling me when I could and could not talk to my parents? Whether I could respond to texts from my ex who still randomly messaged me sometimes when he was bored? No. I worked for him, I worked with him sometimes, but I wasn’t handing over my life to him.

  Bolivar turned around, and I waited for his reprimand. I expected him to argue with me, or maybe even yell at me. I thought he would tell me I’m stupid, or just to do what he said, but then he smiled at me. “What kind do you like?”

  “Uh.” I hadn’t been expecting that at all. “Anything with bright colors and lots of marshmallows, actually.”

  “I’ll send you to the store after lunch and you can get whatever you’d like for yourself while you’re there. Now, finish up with the rolls. The lobster is nearly done, and then we can have lunch once I mix it with a few other things.”

  He turned back around, and I stood there looking at him, not really sure what had just happened. “Were you just testing me?”

  “Yes. I don’t want someone who will bend at my every word. You’ll have much more fun here as long as you keep that backbone intact, and I’ll enjoy your company more too.”

  I guessed that made sense. It was nice, though, that he wanted me to argue with him. I hadn’t been expecting that at all. I’d sort of expected him to bark orders at me and make me scrub his floors or something.

  We ate outside on two low wooden chairs that were sitting on the small rocks. The surf was about ten feet away from us, which was fine by me. I’d never been a great swimmer, and the ocean was pretty intimidating. It was so big, so dark, and so very deep.

  I decided at that lunch that I liked lobster. At least I liked it the way Bolivar made it for me. It was sweet and creamy, and I enjoyed the crunchy bread with it. I finished my sandwich quickly and wanted another, but he’d only made enough for each of us to have one which, was okay. Really it was. Only I was still hungry.

  “I’m going to be out here for a while, if you want to go in and do something,” he said, handing me his plate as if I was supposed to go clean up after him. Actually, I was. Part of me being here with him was that I was supposed to be taking care of him.

  I got up and started to walk away, but I stopped, turning back to him before I got too far. “What will you be doing?” I was curious enough about him and his life that I wanted to ask, even though I didn’t really have any business knowing his secrets, which I’m sure he had plenty of.

  “Sunbathing. I’ll be naked, and I like my privacy.”

  He wasn’t looking at me—instead he was focused on the water, which was a good thing, since then he couldn’t see me blushing.

  “Okay,” I mumbled, and then I hurried away from him.

  As I was inside cleaning up and putting things away, I couldn’t help but turn back and sneak a few peeks at him. I expected to see a naked man. What I hadn’t expected to see was a patch of dark blue scales running down his shoulder and winding over his back. They ended at his hip and seemed to curve around his side. I didn’t keep looking past that, though. Honest. I wanted to. He had the kind of body I liked—slim with plenty of muscle. But his scales reminded me of what he was. He was a dragon, not a human man, and thinking that he looked good naked probably wouldn’t change much of anything.

  By the end of my first month with him, I’d done little more for Bolivar than clean up after him. I didn’t really mind. It wasn’t like he was a slob or anything. I had an ex, Jack, who never cleaned up after himself at all. My family had pretty much left me alone. I guess to them I was out of sight out of mind or something. I’d get a text here or there, but nothing really more than that. We’d always been pretty close, so the distance hurt, but not as much as I expected it to.

  For the most part I was just bored. Not bored out of my mind bored, but my days were monotonous. I got up when I wanted to and I either ate with Bolivar or there’d be a pile of dishes for me to clean up and I’d eat my cereal. I had six different cereal boxes to choose from. I was never lacking in food, especially when it came to sweets, and as long as I didn’t eat his chocolate truffles, we were fine.

  I checked in with Bolivar throughout the day, but he never really needed me for anything. I don’t know what my great-grandfather had done for him, but I don’t think it had been all that much. It couldn’t have been, really. I kept my space clear, I cleaned up after myself, and I generally just watched TV, or movies, or went for a walk along the beach. There wasn’t much else to it.

  So, since I didn’t have anything else to distract me, I started texting Jack again. We’d been broken up for a year by my choice and I hadn’t really expected him to return my texts. I mean, there wasn’t much else to say when you’d told your ex he was boring because he wanted to wait to have sex until marriage, but I just needed someone to talk to. I was going mad all alone, so when Jack texted back, two days after I texted him saying Hey. What’s going on? I was glad to be talking to him again, even if I did still think that he was a bit boring.

  He texted all the time which was nice. Bolivar and I would be eating dinner and my phone would beep, or I’d be brushing my teeth for bed and there would be Jack, saying he missed me. It was sweet, and yeah, I was starting to miss him again too.

  “Who keeps beeping at you?” Bolivar finally asked me, nearly a month after Jack and I had started texting again.

  We were in the living room, watching a movie. I had popcorn, he had his chocolate truffles. It was our usual Saturday night routine. “My ex, Jack. We’re talking again.”

  “Were you serious with him?”

  I shrugged. If we were going to be making conversation and asking personal questions, I figured it was only fair if I got some from him too. “Are you gay, or what? You dated Imrel right?”

  “Imrel is a dragon,” Bolivar sharply corrected me. “I highly doubt that it’s the same thing as dating a human man. But yes, to answer your question, I do prefer to spend my time with men.”

  He was so prim and proper about it. “I do, too. Except, Jack wasn’t interested in spending time with me or anyone else, really. He wanted to wait until marriage. It was a dick move on my part, but that’s why I broke up with him.”

  “Because you value sexual satisfaction more than you value his feelings. I see.”

&nb
sp; I rolled my eyes and chose not to rise to Bolivar’s bait. He could think what he wanted of me. I knew I had screwed up. The past month of texting Jack again had reminded me of all the fun times we’d had, all those little moments that I had overlooked when I’d been dating him and when I had decided to break up with him. “I’d given him an ultimatum.”

  “Those never end well.”

  I snorted. “Oh, I know that, now. But back then? A year ago I was horny and mad at him because I didn’t get it. I thought he was just being stupid.”

  “And it turns out you were being the moron. I see.”

  I resisted the urge to flip him off. “Do you want to see a picture of him?”

  “Sure.” Bolivar didn’t sound particularly interested, but I already had a picture of Jack and me up on my screen. It was actually my background pic and had been for the past week. It had replaced the pic of my dad and me when I’d been a kid that I’d kept there for years.

  “There was this time, like six months into dating him, that I’d thought he could have been the one,” I said as I got up and brought my phone over for him to see. Jack was a good looking guy. He had gorgeous shiny black hair and big brown eyes. And his smile was huge and always there for whoever was around him. I missed him. I wished that I was with him then instead of stuck there with Bolivar for another month before I went for my two-week break over the holidays.

  Bolivar looked at the picture and then handed it back to me without a word.

  “Well?” I asked him.

  But Bolivar just shrugged and popped another of his truffles into his mouth. “What would you like me to say? I don’t often go around commenting on the physical attributes of human boys. He looks like a teenager, the same as you do. You two appear happy together. I don’t believe in anything as predetermined as the one, but if there is only one person out there for you, then hopefully you and he get to enjoy a good long life together where you visit him for four weeks in the year and he pines miserably for you the other forty-eight.”