The Seaside Cinema was one of the most popular theaters in the city because of its dual offerings. The building had been sectioned off, with everything on the right open to the generalpublic. They played all sorts of films from PG to R-rated, but they were just regularly airing movies.
The left side, however…
“Please tell me you didn’t.” Nate felt his cheeks heat as his sister and Verga shifted uncomfortably next to him.
Kazimir, to his credit, looked just as perplexed as they were. “We’re all over the age of adulthood, so I naturally assumed…” He turned to Neve. “You’re not here to see the new Bind installment?”
Nate didn’t even know what that was. “Of course not! We’re seeing—”
“We figured we’d leave that to when we come just the two of us,” Neve interrupted with a laugh. “I’ve been waiting for months though. Wasn’t the last one the best?”
“But aren’t you curious who’s behind the mask?” Verga jumped in. “It drives me nuts sometimes wondering.”
“He fixates,” she said.
“What are you guys talking about?” More importantly, did Nate want to know?
“You haven’t seen one yet?” She tilted her head at him, then told Kaz, “Hate to break it to you, new guy, but that’s not really something I can see my brother getting into.”
Kazimir’s mouth quirked up in a knowing grin. “Oh, you’d be surprised.”
“Hey!” Yup. Nate didn’t like this. At all.
“Really?” She gave him an appreciative look that had Nate bristling. “Good for you, big brother.”
“Please just stop talking.” He covered his face and wished the ground would open up and swallow him whole.
Until it hit him…
“Wait.” He stared at her. “You…?”
“Am a full-grown adult who gets up with adult things with my adult partner?” she filled in. “Yeah. Kinbaku is fun.”
“Kin—” Right. It was called Bind. Question—unfortunately—answered.
“You guys should see it,” Verga not-so-helpfully suggested, taking Neve’s hand and stepping toward the right side of the theater. “We’ll meet up after and do dinner still, how does that sound? Nate?”
“Like an actual nightmare,” he stated. “I came to watch a movie with my sister, not—”
Neve pulled him to the side suddenly and huddled in. “Don’t be an idiot and ruin this. He’s hot, like,superhot, and he’s into you. Those tickets cost a small fortune too, by the way. We’ve been saving for weeks so we can go see it.”
They were expensive? It wouldn’t be cool of him to waste—
Wait. No.
“He’s the one who bought the wrong tickets,” Nate pointed out. “How is that my problem?” It was easy to say, but on the inside the guilt was starting to gnaw at him. Except, it was tearing him in two different directions. “What about you? I promised we’d watch Get Friends together.”
“It’s not like I’m alone,” she reminded. “Besides, I’m guessing the two of you haven’t been together that long?”
He hesitated but then nodded.
“This is a date, then,” she seemed more excited about it than he did. “Unless you don’t like him?”
Nate couldn’t exactly explain to her how things had started between them. He also couldn’t bring himself to tell her he didn’t like Kazimir at all because, well, that wouldn’t be entirely true. It was unclear when he’d started hating Kaz less—maybe it was just a sex thing—but the fact that he felt bad over potentially wasting the guy's money was proof that was the case.
“Go,” Neve insisted. “You deserve to have some fun, and I can’t remember the last time you liked someone enough to agreeto date them! This is great. I’d feel awful if I stood in the way of that.”
Nate winced, but she didn’t notice, already turning back toward the others.
