It was tempting as hell to find an excuse to sneak away and fuck Allie in the bathroom again. But I had bigger plans for this night. We all did.
By the time dessert rolled around, we were all laughing more boisterously, talking over each other with more enthusiasm, thanks in part to the continuous flow of booze. There was something else though. Something less familiar than alcohol but twice as strong. For the first time in all my years of ostensibly being “on the market,” at least for people looking for one night, I was enjoying the lead-in. The part of the night that wasn’t about sex, wasn’t even necessarily leading in that direction. Was this how dating felt for everyone? Exhilarating, almost magic, rich with possibility and hope and a more rewarding kind of fun than casual hookups?
I didn’t think so. Somehow, I knew this was all a special Allie-induced case.
Fuck, was I falling for her? Was I even capable of that?
Before Allie Tate came back into the picture, I would have said no. And it shouldn’t be in my head now. This was our first date. Butterfly territory.
Without the booze loosening me up, they’d feel more like pterodactyls. Maybe people who felt this kind of shit all the time,people who dated and didn’t just fuck around, were tougher than I thought. A soft kind of tough. Like Allie.
Allied insisted that we all split a dessert. When we finally settled on something chocolate—a crowd pleaser, since four was certainly a crowd for a date, but I could tell all three of us guys had an unspoken agreement to pick the dessert Allie wanted most. This night was about her. About giving her the treat she deserved.
“Alright, one chocolate ganache cake for the lady,” our server said, “Anything for you three gentlemen?”
“Oh, it’s for all of us,” Allie blurted out, a little tipsy and completely adorable. She giggled, then her flushed face turned serious. She looked up at the waitress’s face.” Actually, could you…make it like an extra big slice? For me and all three of my guys to share,” she explained, and I heard Luca choke as he sipped his drink. The woman’s face took a second to catch up to her brain, and then she blinked hard and looked around our table, taking each of us in with a new understanding.
“Oh,” she said by accident. “Um, it could cost extra, but?—”
“Not a problem,” I slid in. “Anything for our girl.”
The waitress blinked, blushed, and hurried off to fulfill our request. The second she was out of earshot, Allie burst into contagious laughter, making all of us lose it.
“You’d think she’d have seen polyamory before, considering she works in LA,” I quipped, and Allie snorted, covering her mouth after, as if it wasn’t the cutest fucking thing.
“Most people are probably a little less shameless about it,” Luca guessed between his own soft laughs. And there was the awareness with all of us too, that we weren’t quite committed to this kind of unconventional relationship long-term. It was a miracle that we were cool enough about it to be joking together now.
We were still fighting small bursts of giggles, fueled by champagne and the intoxication of Allie Tate’s company, when our chocolate explosion of a dessert made its way to our table. Allie’s eyes got big, and she excitedly distributed forks to each of us, taking the first bite for herself.
It was sweeter than chocolate, sharing the joy of the dessert with her. Allie ate the cake with a nearly lust-blown expression, alternating between dizzy smiles and moans that made my pants feel too tight, my skin too warm for the cool restaurant AC. When Cade, Luca, and I conceded the last bite of the gooey cake to her, she smiled like she was seeing the sun for the first time after a long winter. It was how I felt in her presence, and I was struck all at once with an urge to keep her smiling like that as long as I could. Every day. Forever.
I shoved back the frightening thought by looking forward. This night wasn’t over just because we’d finished dinner and dessert and I’d taken care of the bill, including giving our server a generous tip to make up for how we’d scandalized her. It was when a sleek black vehicle slid up in front of us outside of the restaurant. Allie looked at me, correctly guessing that the swanky ride was my doing. She raised an eyebrow.
“Where are we going now?”
“You didn’t think the night was over, did you?” I asked her, my lips settled into a crooked half smile, and my two best friends mirrored my expression as Cade helped Allie into the car. I nodded to the driver, who already had the destination programmed into his GPS.
“This is so…secret agent-y,” Allie laughed, and that gave us guys plenty of fodder for making fun of her in that flirtatious way she loved.
Our next stop was a surprise courtesy of Luca. We spent the ride over to our next destination playfully fighting off Allie’s attempts to guess where we were headed, but when we pulled upto the kitschy bar with a big neon microphone attached to an all-caps KARAOKE sign, Allie squealed. The secret was out.
“No way you guys brought me to a karaoke bar,” Allie laughed, looking to each of us with stars in her blue eyes.
“Guilty,” Luca said, a little apprehensive. “But you don’t have to sing if you don’t want to. I just…thought you’d?—”
“I love it,” she said, and she was dragging us bodily into the establishment.
Allie was so excited about every part of the bar, from the cute twinkle-lights on the slightly elevated karaoke stage to the place’s signature cocktails named for classic karaoke songs. It was busy tonight, but not so packed that Allie thought it’d be a waste to even try and sign up to sing. So she promptly got on the list and spent the half hour or so before her turn trying to convince the three of us to sing something with her.
“I’m completely tone-deaf,” Cade said, shaking his head. “I’ll just enjoy your performance and hold your drink while you’re up there being a star.”
“I’d probably get up there and forget how to even breathe,” Luca said, cringing. “And you’ll be the highlight anyway. You don’t need me cramping your style.”
Allie rolled her eyes then slid all the way over to me, a little wobbly since she was close to finishing her fruity Britney Spears-themed cocktail already, and she’d had a couple of flutes of champagne at the restaurant. I was glad she felt safe enough to indulge herself, but figured I should get her some water. Luckily, Luca had it covered, bringing her a full, ice-cold glass while she was trying to convince me to sing with her eyes.
“Focus on your solo performance, superstar. After that, maybe we’ll talk.”
When it was her turn and the emcee called her name out to the crowd, Luca, Cade, and I cheered like the drunk frat boys we’d been the night we first met Allie. She laughed as shebounded up to the stage, taking a shining gold microphone from the employee’s hands like she owned it. And then her familiar pop standard song choice started up, and strangers in the room let out whoops of recognition.
