While we nom our apps, the host seats a couple—one of them looks human, but the other is another one of those giant gray people with horns and wings—the gargoyles—that I’ve seen Darcy with a couple of times. He’s bigger than the other two I met, but he’s definitely someone a monsterfucker would love to have a little time in the sheets with. Hot like summer. While I’m staring at them, the server leaves with the human, and those two disappear beyond the same door Gregory went through.
Now I’m really curious to find out what’s happening.
“So what’s with the server taking one of the people at the table?” It would suck if Gregory didn’t get to eat with us.
Darcy’s hand lands on my leg and slides up toward my crotch. “It’s part of the surprise.”
“I’m not all that thrilled that y’all have decided to surprise us and Gregory needed to leave the table for it,” Bellamy drawls, frowning. “I’ll deny ever saying this, but it almost makes me wish Romily and Fox had decided to join us.”
“You’d have been sacrificed to the table along with Gregory if they had,” Darcy says, and Santanos nods in agreement.
“That’s true. Fox likely knows about or has been here before, and he would have pushed you out along with Gregory to avoid Romily volunteering,” he confirms, putting a potato wedge smothered in cheese sauce on Edovard’s plate.
“That’s the most alarming thing you’ve ever said to me,” Bellamy decides, glancing at the mystery door.
Santanos laughs, sounding like an angel, which to be fair, matches his cherubic features. “I’m pretty sure you said those exact same words when I told you to go see Gregory about the event planning for your twenty-first birthday.”
Bellamy turns a shade of red I thought was reserved for the cherries from my family’s orchard. “I was barely legal when you told me you were planning an orgy for my birthday. Most people offer to buy the birthday person a drink, they don’t plan—” Bellamy huffs, cutting himself off. “I’d never even seen another person naked.”
“Late bloomer, alright.” I hold out my hand to him for a fist bump, and he hits it over Darcy’s head with a doubtful expression.
“I don’t think twenty three is late blooming. I was busy killing people,” he grumbles softly.
Darcy turns to look at him, his voice full of surprise. “Really? I met you when you were twenty three.”
Bellamy blushes again, hiding behind a napkin. “You were hotter than the high I got from hitting my target from two miles away. Distracting and good for me. I needed to expand my horizons, and you helped me do that. I have no regrets.”
“Love that, man. Living life and having no regrets. That’s goals right there.” I’m glad he’s got perspective and he values it. That’s a good way to go through life.
He stares at me for a moment, but I have no idea what he’s got going on behind that blank expression before he blinks, turns back to Darcy, and says, “I see it now. It’s how chill he is. It’s the no shits given personality, isn’t it?”
Darcy grunts an affirmative. “It’s what caught my eye.”
I laugh at them both. “I have fucks to give. I’m just choosey about how I hand them out.”
“I’ve noticed,” Darcy assures me as our attention is drawn to the door behind which Gregory disappeared.
Our server comes out pulling what looks like a hovering cart, upon which is Gregory. I watch, surprised and delighted as the server and the host bring Gregory to the table and the hovering cart thing slides right into place, locked down with magnets. Gregory is nude except for our rolls of sushi and the sashimi we ordered, which are placed in a decorative pattern all over his body on leaves and fronds and other ornamental greenery. Flowers in his hair look like little cups holding small shots of an aromatic clear liquid.
“Oh Gregory. You look beautiful,” Edovard gushes, wide-eyed and clearly happy.
Gregory scowls silently at him, but Santanos pats Edovard’s hand. “He’s not going to speak until we’re done eating, my sweet. It might unbalance the table.”
Edovard nods with understanding, smiling at his boyfriend as Santanos uses his chopsticks to pull a piece off, holding it outto Edovard. “That makes sense. Good job, Gregory. Thank you for this surprise.”
As Edovard eats his food with a happy hum, Bellamy studies Gregory and the setting. “So this is what they meant by ‘table.’”
I grab my own utensils, pulling a piece of sashimi off our table. “This is fun, though. And Gregory is beautiful.”
“At least they covered his bits,” Bellamy decides, indicating a thick layer of fronds over Gregory’s dickular area.
“You have to unwrap your dessert,” Santanos says, smiling widely as he gestures to Gregory’s groin.
Bellamy pauses as I snag another bite. Honestly, the food is fantastic. Each bite is a treat, and even though they’re aliens, they really know how to prepare Earth cuisine.
“I’m not eating off Gregory’s junk,” he announces, shuddering.
I reach over with my chopsticks and lift a bit of the fronds hiding our dessert. A sneak peek doesn’t reveal much, but “I’m not making any announcements about my consumption of dessert until I see how it’s prepared.”
