“Yeah. Go out to dinner at a fancy restaurant or go see a movie or something,” Ryan said. “Do something that normal people do when they’ve just met someone they fancy and are trying to figure out if there could be more there.”
“I suppose it might work,” Nally said, rubbing the back of his neck.
“It’s worked for a million men before the two of you,” Ryan said. “You can’t sit around, terrified of moving forward, forever. We’ve all seen this coming for years, by the way.”
“Ugh, family,” Nally said, screwing up his face.
Ryan laughed and slapped his back. “Just go out on a date. What’s the worst that could happen?”
Nally sighed and nodded. Ryan was right. He and Jude were putting way too much pressure on themselves. They were being ridiculous. All they needed to do was be together and take one step at a time, and a real date was a good place to start.
SIXTEEN
“A date,”Jude said to his phone, recording a message on WhatsApp. “An actual date. You and me, out at a fancy restaurant somewhere, eating a shared plate of spaghetti by candlelight?”
He tapped his phone to stop recording and send, then went back to working on the new logo for Nally’s socials he’d been designing in the high-end graphics program he’d bought for his desktop and was doing his best to learn.
A few seconds later, his phone dinged. He tapped it to listen to Nally’s return message.
“Yes, a real date.” Nally sounded exasperated, which made Jude smile, because he knew it was just an act to hide his adorable insecurity. “Normal couples go out for dates, don’t they? Especially when they’ve just started dating?”
Jude’s smile grew. He touched record and said, “So are we an official couple, then? I mean, you inadvertently made it Instagram semi-official the other day, so I guess we are. We should probablytalk about it,” he teased, then hit send.
The arrows changed color immediately, and the microphone icon appeared under his message.
Two seconds later, he tapped to listen to Nally’s short message. “Wanker.”
Jude laughed.
Another microphone appeared, and after a slightly longer pause, Jude tapped to listen again. “No, I mean I’d like to go out to dinner with you. We’ve known each other for ages, and yes, Premier Inn happened, but we haven’t ever done things that people who are, you know,a coupledo. Don’t you want to give some of that a try?”
Jude beamed from ear to ear. He pushed back from his computer and picked up his phone. Instead of leaving another WhatsApp message, he called Nally.
“Of course I want to go out and do normal couple things with you,” he said, face heating with affection. “But you do realize that we’ve been out to eat together more times than I can count.”
“I know,” Nally said, as if the conversation had been ongoing the whole time. “But what if we went to someplace disgustingly expensive, like theSavoy GrillorRules.”
Jude laughed, leaning back in his chair so far he nearly knocked it over. “Those are Michelin starred. There’s no way we could get a reservation for any time before next Christmas.”
“We’re aristos, Jude,” Nally said with mock seriousness. “We should be able to get a reservation anywhere at a moment’s notice.”
“Aristos without the real money to back it up anymore,” he said.
“Exactly,” Nally said. “Isn’t that the definition of aristocratic these days? We’re posh slobs who slob knobs.”
Jude laughed harder. Fuck, he loved him. He loved Nally so much it was stupid. Nally completely got him and the bizarre mix of modern and ancient that they both were. Neither of them fit with the modern world, but they fit with each other, and that was all that mattered.
“Alright, I’ll tell you what,” he said, getting up and heading from his work room into his boudoir. “Since this is your idea, why don’t you pick the place and make the reservation. Then come and pick me up and whisk me off for a night of magic like I’m some sort of fairy princess.”
“I think I could arrange that,” Nally said. “My very own fairy princess.” Jude could hear the smile in his voice.
“And I’ll make the hotel reservation for the second half of the night and let you play top for a change,” Jude went on.
Nally’s gusted breath on the other side of the line had Jude’s dick pushing against the zipper of his jeans. “It’s a deal,” he said. “I’ll figure something out and call you back.”
“You do that,” Jude said, throwing open the door to his wardrobe.
The call ended, and Jude tucked his phone into his back pocket so he could sort through his clothes, looking for the perfect thing to wear for a hot date with the man he loved.
