Page 38 of Totally Played
“Are you going to watch the game tomorrow?” he asks, spooning ice cream into his mouth and slowly removing the spoon. It’s probably supposed to be sultry, but it’s doing nothing for me.
“Yeah, didn’t Calvin tell you? He left me a ticket at the gate to sit with your family again.”
“Oh, he didn’t say. I was going to offer that, too. I guess we are more alike than I thought.”
“I’d say you’re pretty different.”
“Really?” he asks, leaning forward and resting his elbows on the table. “Calvin said you picked that he wasn’t me from the start. It was the hair, wasn’t it, or the outfit? I wanted him to wear this.”
“Umm, no, I’m not sure what it is, actually.”
“Well, I had to give him props for stepping up for me. Not many straight guys would go on a date with a man just to help their brother out.”
“That’s true. But he did sort of tell me right at the start, so it wasn’t a date so much as it was a bro-date.”
“Calvin came up with that, didn’t he?”
I laugh. “Yeah, he did. He even had Tim and the others calling it that by the end of the night.”
“You saw Tim?”
“Yeah, after drinks, it was too late for our dinner reservation, so he dragged me through the streets to Tim’s place. I didn’t know he owned Roaring Barbeque. His burgers are amazing, but the new sauces we tried, mmm, just thinking about that plum one has my mouth watering.”
“Gross to the plum, but hey, it sounds like you had fun.”
“I did. We did. Oh, and you should have seen this cat. Calvin totally thinks it’s obsessed with me because it would walk back and forth, following me everywhere I went. Oh, and Calvin opened the cage thing and let out cats, so we were all crawling on our hands and knees trying to catch them.”
“He’s usually more normal, I promise. When he’s on his own, he can be a bit…”
“He was great,” I say, heat flooding my face, and I dip my spoon into his ice cream, popping it into my mouth.
“Mmmm,” I moan as the cold creamy caramel coats my tongue.
“Good, isn’t it?” he says with a smile, but it’s thin and forced.
“So good,” I say and hold out my plate. “Want to try the sticky date pudding? It’s gluten free.”
“No, thanks, tastes too much like plums, bleh.”
I shrug and finish off my dessert, and when the bill comes, he grabs it before I can even offer.
“You can get the next one,” he says with a wink.
“I can do that,” I reply, strolling toward the door.
“Did you drive?” he asks, and I shake my head.
“I don’t live far, and it’s nice out. You?”
“I walked, too. Can I walk you home?”
“Sure,” I say, and I turn and make a start toward home.
We’re quiet for a long time, and it’s not that easy silence, the kind that you can just sit in with a person. The air is thin and cold, and I wrap my arms around myself, fighting the bitter chill.
“Here,” he says, stripping off his jacket and stretching up to wrap it over my back. The warmth of his body still in the soft leather it wraps me like a blanket, and I pull it around me tightly.
“Thanks.”
