Page 98 of Looking for Group
Kit’s eyebrows quirked mischievously. “Are we going to order a big plate of spaghetti and meatballs for a main?”
“We should. I spent all day sourcing a fat Italian stereotype with an accordion.” This won him a laugh. “No, but seriously,” he went on, “the pasta’s usually a bit crap. They call it Pizza Express for a reason.”
They both had pizzas in the end. Drew normally went for the American Hot, but he changed his mind at the last minute because chili and dating didn’t really mix, and just had the American. Kit ordered something complicated with chestnut mushrooms, a cheese that didn’t sound like cheese, and truffle oil.
Drew’d been managing the enormous menu for so long that he felt a bit naked once it was taken away. Now there was nothing between him and Kit except the table and the flower, and he was worried about staring. The truth was, he liked looking at him, and he was getting used to looking at him, and he was still getting used to liking looking. Kit had this one piece of hair that wouldn’t quite stay with the rest, and curled down over his forehead. Drew kind of wanted to brush it back up, just to see it fall down again.
Shit, he was meant to be talking. “Uh, so, how was the masqueraid?”
Kit’s eyes brightened. “I love Greyhallow. Have you ever been?”
Drew shook his head.
“Oh, it’s amazing. As far as I know, it’s got no connection to any plot or anything. It’s just Count Greyhallow is an eccentricwizard who has invited the PCs to his house and wants to test them to see if they’d make suitable heirs. You can only get in by doing this incredibly long quest chain, which gives you five gold pieces and an invitation to Greyhallow Hall.”6
“Let me guess. Bjorn’s the one with the invite.”
“A couple of people have one but”—Kit smiled—“Bjorn likes to make a big thing about letting everybody in. He’s got this speech about how back in the day there used to be instance attunements and you couldn’t just wander through the front door with your welfare epics.”
Drew smiled back. “And you had to slash-walk to the instance uphill both ways at five frames per second in the snow.”
“It’s like you were there…” Kit glanced up hesitantly from his glass of water “Except I missed you.”
“I missed you too. We were playing board games.”
“What were you playing?”
“Arkham Horror. Do you know it?”
“No, I don’t have much opportunity for board gaming, except at the guild meets or when I visit Jacob in Germany. Last time we played Carcassonne with his kids.”
Drew wasn’t sure what to make of that. He’d known Kit wasn’t particularly sociable, but he couldn’t imagine having so few friends you couldn’t make up the numbers for a two-to-six-player board game.7 “You should join us next time.”
“I’d like that.”
Well, that had been easier than he’d expected. It was sort of a consensus amongst his friends that they tended to scare people away, but then Kit hadn’t met them, so maybe that explained his willingness to spend time with them.
Just then, the dough balls arrived and conversation ebbed for a bit while they tucked in.
“I think you were right,” said Kit. “These probably do have cocaine in them.”8
And Drew smiled, feeling like he’d given good date.
“So how come you were in Germany?” he asked a little later as the waiter was clearing away the starter. “Was it a gap year thing?”
“Oh, no, I go out there most summers.”
He blinked. “Just to see Jacob?”
“He’s one of my best friends. It’s nice to meet up, and he’s got a family, so he can’t travel as much.”
“Isn’t Ialdir like fifty?”
“First off, he’s forty-five. Secondly, so what?”
Drew nearly said,Haven’t you got any friends your own age?but realised at the last minute that it was probably the worst thing he could possibly say. And Kit was already sounding a bit defensive. “Sorry,” he tried. “It’s just my parents are in their forties, so it feels a bit weird to me.”9
“Isn’t that more about them being your parents than how old they are?”
