I was happy to oblige. All the texts came from me, though they started with, from Nolan, or from Elijah. And of course all replies came to me. I read them, but I didn’t filter them. That’s not what we were about.
From Santiago: ‘please say you’re going to come with us this Saturday. We won’t be able to come if you don’t.’
Response from Gwen: ‘If there are nine of you, I expect to come at least nine times!’
From Manny: ‘I know you’re not dating. So, this Saturday, we won’t consider it a date. No pressure, but you have to say yes.’
Response from Gwen: ‘I love it when a man tells me what I have to say. Will you tell me what I have to wear, too?’
From Manny: ‘As little as possible.’
From Taylor: ‘I wonder if you’ll be able to tell me and my brothers apart. I’ll be the sexy one, the one you can’t keep your hands off of. Don’t worry, though. I won’t mind.’
Response from Gwen: ‘I know it will be difficult to tell you guys apart. Which one of you is the cocky one? I can’t remember.’
From Axel: ‘I’m looking forward to seeing you this Saturday.’
Response from Gwen: ‘I haven’t said yes yet. Or are you guys not into the whole consent thing?’
From Axel: ‘You said ‘yes’ to me with your eyes. But, also, please actually say ‘yes’ with your voice. We are very big into the consent thing.’
From Travis: ‘The last time I saw you, you offered me your muffin. I’m hungry again!’
Response from Gwen: ‘The last time I saw you, you took your nut and left. Let’s not have a repeat performance of that.’
From Nolan. ‘You’re all we’ve been talking about. This Saturday is going to be great. We’ll be on our best behavior.’
Response from Gwen: ‘I’m sorry to hear that.’
“Is it possible,” said Nolan, “that this girl is actually into all of us?”
“She’s just having fun,” said Elijah.
“She’s just leading us on,” said Tristan.
“That’s not like Gwen,” said Axel.
A few of us, myself included, laughed. “So you know what she’s like, do you?” I said.
Axel shrugged. “You can just tell. I have a good feeling about her.”
“Let’s hope you’re right,” I said. But deep inside, I had the same feeling too. Gwen gave off such positive vibes, I couldn’t imagine that she’d be playing games with us—at least not the hurtful kind.
“Why don’t we ask her?” said Nolan. “Send her a text, ‘are you just playing with us? Or are you serious?’”
“It’s a bit premature for that, don’t you think?” I said.
We had a bit of a debate. Tristan and J.P. agreed with Nolan, that we should come right out with a declaration and ask her to do the same. But I stood my ground. “Let’s not blow this, guys. Let it develop naturally.”
“What’s natural about a girl dating nine guys?” said Nolan with a bit more snark than I was used to hearing from him.
Axel snapped at him. “Hey! It’s perfectly natural. There’s nothing wrong with it.”
Nolan put his hands up defensively. “I didn’t mean anything by it. I was just saying.”
Axel glared at him then looked away.
I took note; judging by the expressions on the faces of the other guys, we all took note: Axel is taking this very seriously.
To break up the slightly awkward mood that had settled on our conversation, I said to Nolan, “Are you all right with that? We play it cool, don’t show our hand just yet.”
“Yeah, I’m cool with that,” he said. “We’ll let it play out”—he glanced at Axel—“naturally.”
I was excited for Saturday night; we all were; that was the topic that dominated all our conversations. But Gwen made us wait till Friday night before she actually confirmed that she’d go out with us. Even though we’d pretended to be confident, it was a huge relief. We’d built up such high expectations. She asked if it would be OK if she brought her friend Holly along. We told her that would not be OK. ‘We’re not interested in any other girl,’ I wrote her. ‘All we want is you.’
We suggested going dancing at The Cellar. She said she’d never been. Neither had any of us, except Santiago. Letting Santiago suggest the club might not have been the best idea, but there was something about the name of the place that we all found appealing. Plus, it wasn’t far from the base or from The Bean Counter, and we assumed Gwen didn’t live far from her place of work.
We offered to pick her up, but she insisted on meeting us there.
“Why do you think she doesn’t want us to pick her up?” I asked the guys.
“Maybe she doesn’t feel comfortable getting into a car with nine horny Marines,” said Elijah.
I shook my head. “No, it can’t be that.”