At least, I thought it would be a date until Noah’s brother also invited himself, and going to a late lunch with two brothers couldn’t be a date. Dates did not involve two guys with one girl. Even when that one girl was attracted to both of the guys.
On the way there, Brandon regaled us with tales of his previous experiences at Hibiki Grill. “So, the guy juggled knives while the food cooked,” he said as he pulled the door wide open and held it for us to enter.
Noah gave me a worried stare as we entered the restaurant ahead of his older brother. “That seems dangerous and prone to cause some sort of lawsuit to me.”
Noah asking me out that day came out of the blue. I wasn’t sure he’d ever noticed that I also volunteered in the kitchen when he’d turned up. Like most high school kids, he wanted to get extra credit for his resume’s volunteer work.
Where I was quiet and unassuming, Noah was my opposite. Loud and lively. He was a gifted math geek, and not exactly standardly sexy, but he had a quick wit about him, which made him very popular. He was a class clown at school, but not to the extent of annoying, and he had the brains to counterbalance any tomfoolery. He shut up and got the work done when he had to. He was a fun person to be around, and he had good values.
Secretly, I was thrilled he’d asked me to lunch, and I would have had no hesitation in dating him if it wasn’t for what had happened between me and the twins, and the fact that I didn’t know where I stood with them.
Brandon followed us in and then quickly took control. He was the grown-up here, and it turned out he’d phoned ahead and made a reservation.
We found our seats—Brandon sat opposite me, and Noah beside me—and we placed our drink orders. The knife-wielding maniac would take our food requests soon enough.
“They’re not going to fling a knife at anyone, now. Any risk they take is calculated, or this place would have closed years ago,” Brandon whispered across the table at us.
He didn’t need to work to get through college; their parents could pay for it all, and so he gave his time for free at the soup kitchen. Even though it was voluntary, he focused on the job and handled it responsibly. The way he selflessly devoted his spare time to charity inspired me and many other young kids.
As someone dedicated to doing good deeds, he was my hero and role model. I admired him from afar, a sort of big brother I never had.
I’d been out with him delivering meals and hot drinks to people sleeping rough on the streets. And through spending time with him, I’d found his charms were obvious. A bit of a romantic, yes, but his kind heart was unavoidable.
I was a fidgety mess as we settled in, wondering if I should even be in a restaurant with Noah and Brandon when my mind was full of the two guys who’d taken my virginity and had sent me sweet messages.
And now, if I was reading things right, two other brothers were in competition over me. It was a strange turn of events.
“Just saying, it better be a good show to be worth losing a limb over. Not to mention the food, I guess. That’s probably important in a restaurant.” Noah was boyish, more so than his older brother, of course, but also more than the twins. I guess he was the least intimidating guy to go out on a date with.
This was the weirdest date-not-date, which I wasn’t going to lie to myself and pretend wasn’t a date.
The sensitive big brother tried to do something that worked for everyone, so no one had to feel bad. I saw right through Brandon’s plan yet went along with it anyway.
It felt like a betrayal to the twins, going out with two more hot guys and just making more of a mess of things.
“Like these people never saw two guys and a girl having lunch together before,” Noah said, his eyes scanning over the rest of the restaurant.
“Three’s kinda an odd number at a table,” Brandon replied. “But that shouldn’t attract a second glance.”
“Uh, well, we are dressed kinda shabbily. And sweaty from doing kitchen work. Maybe we just look odd to them,” I said.
“Extra weird then,” Noah smiled, “because you look more than fine after a long stay in the sweaty kitchen.”
The comment made me blush. I swear Noah had never been like that before; he’d never noticed me before.
“So,” Brandon said, leaning toward me. “This can’t be the first celebration of your graduation. What have you been up to?”
Noah glanced toward him, and I just stared at him, gathering my thoughts.