The smirk on her face, half-raised and incredulous, promised this would be an interesting conversation.

“Wait, excuse me?”

“I’m a succubus. I don't know how we’ve managed to know each other for this long without ever bringing it up, but there you go.”

The scent of coffee tints the air with a gentle, encouraging shade. Today was a lazy day, 13:00 on a holiday that cut right in the middle of exams week. A welcome break. I was planning on sleeping the day away when Mica invited me to our usual café, a couple hours earlier. The way she said it, I thought it was a small celebration of sorts. Instead, luring me in with the promise of free food, only making her intentions clear once I was halfway through a sandwich, she confessed she’d fallen in love with me. I almost choked. This too was a celebration of sorts, I suppose.

“Rana, cut the crap. Please. I’m trying to be serious.” An exasperated sigh drew itself out from her, sitting across me, the noise of strangers unravelling itself in the background. Through her jitters and the blush starting to show itself on her cheeks, the work she put into doing her hair and the almost-invisible layer of makeup, her efforts to impress stung me a bit, seeing how she’d never go through this much work on for herself. Seeing her dolled up like this, sitting by out usual spot, was more than enough to prove her sincerity. She looked cute. That aside, no one should ever have to go through that much trouble for me. Her lips pursed together, expecting a serious answer.

I sipped on my coffee, good if it wasn’t so overpriced, feeling like I was back in high school all over again, wondering how to phrase this. The odd thing about invisible differences is that they only become a problem if you make them out to be one. It was a delicate art of flowery language and nonsense, so I threw caution to the wind and spoke frankly. “Basically, imagine me as someone from those smut stories and myths, decreasing inhibition and increasing desire. The actual medical details are way more complicated, so this’ll do for now.”

I told her about the aphrodisiacs I sweat off. I told her about the pills I take to control my hormones. I told her about how she was just infatuated with me, and that I probably need a stronger dosage, or she needs a way to lower her sex drive. Without me. She nodded out of courtesy, and out of courtesy only.

“Sorry, this is all a bit, um, unexpected. you don’t really have that whole ‘vivacious, flirty’ vibe that succubi have, you know.”

The stereotype was unwelcome, but expected. It was fine. I’d think the same if I were in their place. The least I could do was tease her about it. Wiping my mouth, I flicked my tongue across my lips and caught her eyes following it in the instant it was out. “Oh, are you telling me I’m not attractive?”

She corrected herself in her stutters. “Well, I mean, um,”

I laughed it off and egged her on, no hard feelings. Looking into her eyes, I noticed that she was looking at me differently. Ah well, these infatuations pass. After an awkward giggle that lightened the mood, an awkward smile crept on her face, and she interviewed me rapid-fire.

“why do you keep complaining about being single?”

“because I am.”

“what about just being lonely?”

“making friends is a bit more difficult when you’re not sure if the person you’re talking to wants to get to know you or just fuck you.” “That goes for romance too, now that I think about it.”

“does it affect how horny you are?”

“I dunno, I’ve never not been a succubus, as far as I can tell. I’m probably in the mood for it way more than you, if that’s what you mean, though there’s only one real way to find out”

“Um, right. Fuck. Does anyone else know about this?”

I shrugged. “eh, it’s on my papers, though I’m pretty sure only like ten other people know.” Somewhere behind me, someone spilled coffee all over himself. “I was outed back in high school, and being known as a sex demon isn’t exactly the most flattering thing in the world, y’know.”

“Why tell me, then?”

“Because I still wanna keep you around.”

As the hours of the day swept past us, that line would bury me again and again, eventually convincing me to take a chance with her. To be fair, I did find her pretty cute, too.