Dean and I made an actual dinner and I’m very, very proud of it. More than I was at the tuna casserole that’s currently standing outside on the porch, because we had to get rid of the stench, pronto. I did snap a picture of it and sent it to my mom, accompanied with the words: ‘Google maps says: Try to turn around’. The dinner we made is surprisingly easy and it looks amazing. Just like Dean. He’s easy to be around and looks amazing. We take the plated dishes to the dining room and tell the rest of the guys that dinner is ready. The guys have spent the time Dean and I fixed dinner in the living room, drinking, and talking. They came into the kitchen to look if everything was going alright every now and again, but Dean shooed them away every time. For a guy who said he didn’t like to have fun in the kitchen after work hours, he sure seemed like he was having it. When I finally tuck into my food, I look at Gil. I’ve been a little giddy to talk to him all afternoon. I saw an announcement for a renaissance fair that I wanted to go to anyway but I don’t have any friends in Charlington to take with me and going alone wasn’t really my jam. The deal Gil and I had made for him to come to a renaissance fair was more than perfect. He could come along with me, and I wouldn’t be alone and still get to have medieval fun.
“So,” I start while four pairs of eyes focus on me. I return Gil’s look. “There’s a renaissance fair three towns over on Saturday.”
He laughs out loud as his eyes soften. He puts away his cutlery, sits back in his chair and focuses on me.
“Really? Somehow, I thought it might be months before one would be in the area.”
I shrug while I take another bite, which I manage to let fall out of my mouth back on my plate. Real smooth. “They’re more common than you’d expect. We tend to seek out our own,” I add with a wink.
“You’re just really anxious to hold up to your end of the deal,” he teases. “But sure, I’ll come to the fair with you on Saturday so we can get a move on this deal.”
While I should know better, I take the bait but I try to talk at the same time I try to swallow and almost choke on my food. Dean taps on my back while I cough until I’m able to breathe normally again.
“That’s not why I want to go to the renaissance fair,” I yell while I still see little bites of food get spit out of my mouth. I drink some of my water in order to get back to normal.
“What deal?” O asks as he looks at me curiously.
“Morgan takes me to a renaissance fair to learn about the people living the renaissance lifestyle and then I get to take her to Dominium to teach her about the people living that lifestyle.”
As he’s explaining our deal, I manage to get back to breathing completely normal again. While I’m curious to see what all the fuss with Gil’s establishment is about, I don’t want to go to the renaissance fair just so I get to go to his establishment. I actually like going to them, and I love to make other people like them too. Gil seems like someone who could really like going to the fair.
Jonah is smirking as he stares at me with a bite on his fork in front of his mouth. I expect him to say something, but he just keeps grinning. In fact, all the guys keep their mouths shut but I feel their eyes all turning to me.
“Stop looking at me! I know nothing about BDSM. Well, I’ve read Fifty Shades, but that’s about it. It’s rude to only have prejudices and not actually know anything about it.”
O bites his cheek as he tries to hold in a laugh. “You’re going to Dominium because it’s rude to not know about the lifestyle?”
I can see the flaw in that logic, but I don’t want to discuss me going to a kinky establishment with a gorgeous guy who obviously knows what he’s talking about. I can’t help it that I've only been in vanilla relationships. It’s not because I have an aversion to being experimental, the opportunity just never presented itself and you can’t miss something you don’t even know exists.
“She’s going to Dominium to have some fun,” Gil saves me, and I want to grab his head between my hands and give him a big smack on the lips. “Because that’s what it’s all about. Exploring your boundaries and to see what you’re comfortable with.”
I am nodding furiously, gratefully taking the easy exit.
“I thought you were all about true love,” O. says while he looks at me from beneath his eye-lashes, not smiling in any way. He’s deadly serious.
“I don’t think true love is in the cards right now. Fun seems a more reachable goal. Love has let me down and we’re done.” I make the done gesture with my hands to make them understand I’m serious.
“You’ll find it,” he says while looking down on his plate, his voice softer than it was just seconds before. He says it in such an earnest way it startles me. How did we go from talking about BDSM establishments to me finding true love? The weird thing is that I believe him when he says it like that. I clear my throat and he looks straight at me with his hazel eyes.
“Someday, maybe. Right now, fun is what I’m after.”
“Good thing you found a bunch of fun friends,” Jonah says as he slurps in the last strand of his spaghetti and finishes his plate, pushing it over the table. He casually sits back with his arms over the chairs. I can’t help but feel he’s putting more meaning in the words then they seem to have. He’s flirting again and my belly tightens from it. I choose to ignore it for now though. We’re having dinner, and I invoke a no flirting rule I just made up.
“Found you? I feel like a stray kitten that has been taken home by a bunch of kids, begging their mothers if they could please keep it.”
This gets me a round of snorts. I finish my plate of food as everyone empties their own. I don’t really care how this friendship suddenly started, but I’m here for it. Even if I’m the stray kitten.
The fairy lights I’ve hung on the porch are really pretty when it gets dark. They’re all kinds of colors and they’ve this setting where they sparkle. I love my parents’ house and garden in the dark. With all the lights, it looks like something out of a fairytale. O and I are sitting on the porch swing as it has gotten dark. We had some more drinks after dinner, and soon after Gil and Dean left to go back to Kinseltown. Jonah headed back home because he wanted to get a workout in before tucking in for the night. O had conveniently hidden in the kitchen when Jonah talked about working out and had stayed with me. I had let him, because who was I to judge a person desperately not wanting to work out? We had to stick together.
Right now we’re sitting side by side on the porch swing, and I try to throw my blanket over O as well. He gives me a look of pure disdain.
“What?” I snap.
“What is it with you and your mother and blankets? We live in Arizona. It’s hot like hell all year round.”
“Blankets aren’t for warmth, dipshit. They’re for comfort.”
“Well, I get pretty uncomfortable when it gets too hot.”