Josh Murphy - in his 60s now, old flame of Val's from college. One of the only people in her life she can be 100% honest with. One of her closest friends, a constant source of angst she tries to hide as he gets older and she doesn't. She loves his family (from afar? Would they know she's a vampire? Seems risky)
Ophelia Alvarez, a woman in her 40s who runs a local art program for kids in the area. Val volunteers to teach writing here and works with the kids to maintain her humanity and prevent herself from becoming jaded with the passage of time.
Mateo Jones, a boy who went through the art program, and Val found he had a knack for poetry and a love of the written word. He's 19 now, a fragile sort, very quiet, but friendly, artistic. Maybe asexual, maybe just deeply shy, but loving the romance of life vs. one on one relationships. He's at UCSC, they correspond with letters and poems.
