“So is this a habit of yours, leaving your bag behind in order te strike up a conversation?" He grinned and nodded at the bench where I had been sitting. Lying beneath it was my book bag. "Wouldn't it be easier to just walk up to a guy and say hello?”

“Let's just say that I'm not the kind of guy your mother would want you hanging around with" - Vincent (Die For Me)”

“How about I take you to my studio? Much less dangerous. Plus, I need a model and you could sit for me.""You want me to sit for a portrait?" I asked stunned."Actually, at the moment I'm concentrating on full-length nudes, in the spirit of Modigliani," Jules said. He was making an effort to keep a straight face. "Just kidding, Kates. You're a lady."Jules was trying the guilt-trip method of attack. And it was working."Ok I'll pose for you," I conceded. "But under no circumstances will any article of clothing leave my body whilst I am in your studio.""And if you're elsewhere?" he asked, breaking into a sly smile.I rolled my eyes.”

“Lucky man,"Jules said to me, leaning over to kiss my cheeks. "What I wouldn't give to be in your head." Instead of the usual quick air-kisses, he took his time kissing both of my cheeks tenderly. "Jules!" I gasped, feeling myself blush. He stood, looking up in space, and raised both arms as if in surrender. "Okay, okay, man. Hands off, I get it! But it's not often we get a young pretty human in the house. in fact, it's never.”

“Okay, Kate, first of all, you’re touching me,” Vincent said for the room to hear. “So I’m not a ghost.”“And we’re not true zombies,” Charles said with a grin, “or he would have already eaten your face off.”

“And I've got THIS," I pulled out the signum and held it up for him to see, "that says I'm kindred. And I've got THIS," I pointed at my head, "that says I'm as smart as you. And I have THIS," I held up my middle finger, "that says go to hell, you immortal bigot."And with that I spun around and stomped out the door, filing the expression on Arthur's face in a mental folder labeled "Kate's Proudest Moments".”

“Kate, I admit that we aren’t in the easiest of situations. But are you always this . . . complicated?”I opened my mouth to say something, but Vincent shook his head, grinning. “Actually, don’t answer that. Of course you are. I wouldn’t be so totally into you if you weren’t.”