“Wait, what did I miss?” Dan looked between them.
“Nothing,” Teddy tried.
“Just some inspired stress relief, babe,” Rick supplied, putting his arm around Dan’s shoulders and winking over at Teddy and Finn.
“What?When?” Dan exclaimed, but the obvious answer dawned on him with his own darkening blush. “Erina would flay you alive!”
“Please.” Teddy barked a laugh. “If she knew, she’d have been the first one to high-five me.”
“Ha!” Rick raised his hand over the table. “I’ll pick up that slack.”
Teddy did not want to give in, but he also felt like he’d earned it.
He gave Rick’s hand a quick smack, and Finn laughed.
“Now leave it alone,” Teddy said. “I’m trying not to scare this guy away after how badly I’ve handled things since we met.”
“Intermission wasn’t handled badly,” Finn said.
“That’s because you did all the work.”
They shared the laugh this time, and Teddy realized he no longer felt as ancient as he had at the start of his night, mostly because being with Finn made him feel ten years younger.
“While I am still mildly offended you two snuck off for… whatever you did,” Dan said in reprimand, “you’re also kind of adorable.” He leaned into his husband beside him.
Teddy had to agree, and when Finn found his hand beneath the table, he gave it a firm squeeze.
“I just realized,” Finn said, turning back to Dan and Rick, “you two know everything about us and how we met. But how did you two meet?”
Dan nearly spat his beer all over the table. “We do not need to tell that story.”
“Aw, come on,” Rick said. He loved that story, and Dan loathed it, so Teddy generally liked hearing it too. “This one”—he tugged Dan closer against his side—“drunk off his ass and wearing a mesh tank top of all things, comes right over and gives me a lap dance as his opener.”
“You said hello with a lap dance?” Finn nearly spat out his beer too.
“I was very drunk,” Dan defended.
“Rick had just directed his first play on a big stage,” Teddy said, enjoying the heat of Finn close at his hip. “He was still getting his feet wet with writing, nothing of his own published yet, but hoping to get Playwright in Residence one day, so we were celebrating a successful opening night.”
“Which play?”
“As You Like It. I helped choreograph the fight scenes, though that isn’t my forte,” Teddy said when Finn’s eyes lit up. “As a joke, we had two of the sword props on us.”
“And Danny Boy here”—Rick leered playfully at his husband—“giant nerd that he is, has a huge hard-on for knights in shining armor.”
“Legendary heroes,” Dan corrected—as if it mattered.
“Said he liked the look of mysword, if you catch my drift.”
“Rick!”
“Aw, hush, those exact words came out of your mouth. I’m not making shit up.
‘If thou remember’st not the slightest folly
That ever love did make thee run into,
Thou hast not loved.
