“What did he say?”
I stare at the back of his head. “The bar we’re going to has really crusty bread.”
ELEVEN
Lina
The soundsof a live band travel down to where we are on the beach, and up ahead are the patio lights of a weathered-looking bar.
“Oh,” I say, “it’s one oftheseplaces.”
“What do you mean?” Georgia asks.
We walk up to the bar and get smacked in the face with the noise of a live band playing an Eagles song. The patio is weathered, paint peeling, wood creaking, its old picnic-style tables worn down by a coat of salt spray and age, as if they’ve seen countless summers. A massive American flag and a few umbrellas are faded, hanging limp in the breeze, fabric fraying, colors washed out by the sun. The patio is filled to the brim with locals, faces bright red with sunburn and comfortable in their beer and classic rock.
Georgia takes the lead up the steps, while the rest of us share the slight hesitation that people of color often take on before entering an ‘Amurrica’ space like this one, and this time, the weed isn’t helping.
Georgia takes Oliver’s hand, familiar with this song and dance, and I take Dom’s, or maybe he holds his out to me. I delight in the scratch of his callouses on my palms.
“Carry yourself with the confidence of a mediocre white man,” Dom mutters to me, squeezing my hand, likely used to this with his whole brown, tattooed Gang DILF persona, winding through the crowd with his tranquil calm to find an open table.
We find one in the far corner of the patio, relaxing a bit as we realize everyone here is the happy kind of drunk that comes with beer all day on a beach, content to belt out the lyrics toTake it Easy, and no one spares us a second glance.
Dom eases me into the far end of the picnic table bench with a hand on my back, and it’s a familiar feeling from earlier, glorious, the feeling of his rough hands exploring my stomach, so confident and gentle I almost shoved my bathing suit aside and pulled down his swim shorts and rode his hard dick right there. I can hear him humming along to the band, and I realize it’s a habit that he and Frankie share, and I realize that I like that I know that about them. He sits next to me and presses his thigh against mine.
If I thought calm and intentional Gang Daddy Dom was hot before, it’s got nothing on a flirtatious Dominic. It’s a wondrous, overwhelming thing, being the sole focus of his giddy, silly, deliberate attention, like being tickled to death or showered incessantly with compliments.
“Oysters and beer, please,” Georgia tells the waitress when she comes over to us.
“A dozen Salt Ponds, please,” Oliver clarifies for her, “and we’ll both have whatever IPA you have on draft.”
Dom nudges me with his leg, indicating I should order before him.Manners, too?!“I’ll take a Corona, please.”
“Same,” he tells her. “Thank you.”
“We should get dinner, too,” Oliver reminds us, and after a slight pause, we all fire off delicious sounding food at random off the menu.
“That’s… a lot of food,” the waitress tells us honestly, after we finish.
We backtrack a little, “you can take off the mozzarella sticks,” “and the wings” “and the extra double cheeseburger” “and the brownie sundae?” “absolutely not” “leave the brownie sundae.”
“You know, I’m kind of surprised your parents never made you speak Tagalog at home,” Oliver says to Dom, after the beers have been delivered. “They made you do everything else.”
He shrugs. “They probably wanted me to focus all my energy on school. Which is in English.”
“How are they doing?”
“They’re fine. Ma just asked me to ship over aBalikbayanwith some Costco stuff for our cousins.” I watch the lines of Dom’s throat as he takes a sip of his beer.
“Where are they?” I want to know.
“They’re in Manila. They moved back home after I graduated from college. My Lola got really sick, so they went home to take care of her and just ended up staying.”
“Does it bother you that they’re not around for Frankie?” Georgia asks.
Oliver winces. It’s a tiny movement, but I notice it.
Dom’s expression darkens for a half a second, but then he shakes it off. “No, not really. We… Frankie and I are better off. We don’t have the best relationship with them.”
