“Only after I give you your present,” I said, rummaging in my shopping bag to show off the box of chocolates. “Here! For you.”
Her eyes sparkled, and she took the box gingerly. “Don’t tell me I forgot a special occasion,” she said, and I laughed.
“The special occasion is that I love you and I missed you while I was at work. So there you go. Plus, the flavors seemed kind of wild, and I know you love sampling weird flavors, so Ithought you’d like them, but be careful because one of them is chili and your little baby mouth will catch fire.”
She leaned through the window to plant a swift kiss on my lips, opening the box as she did. “Thank you,” she said. “I’m going to have to up my random gift game too.”
“Please. I have so many of your candles.I’mtrying to keep up withyou.”
She opened the box, checked the flavors against the little card with it, and she plucked out the chili dark chocolate one, and she pressed it up against my lips. I snorted, and I broke out laughing as I accepted it. “Now,” she said, “you’ve also given me the gift of saving me from a fiery death.”
“It’s barely even spicy,” I said through a mouthful of chocolate that was, in fact, barely even spicy. She gave me a skeptical look.
“That’s what you said about the ramen the other day, darling.”
“And it wasn’t that spicy!”
“I felt like I needed to go to the emergency room. My ears were still ringing the next morning. Now put your cute butt in the passenger seat so we can go, or Cat’s going to come over here and throw us in her trunk to get us there.”
I wasn’t planning on being a kidnapping victim today, so I joined her, went around to the other side and hopped in the car just as she tried the orange clove chocolate and set the box down in the back, murmuring contentedly. I asked her if it was good, and she asked me if I wanted to taste it too, and I wasn’t really thinking about the implications and just said yes automatically, so I wasn’t prepared for when she leaned across the center console and kissed me. Let alone when she turned it into a quick and heavy makeout session that left me lightheaded as she settled back into her seat.
“Good, right?” she said.
“What? Oh. The chocolate. Yeah, I mean, I’m already satisfied with the gift. I mean, not that I needed you to kiss me to make it even. But it’s a bonus.”
“And that was just for one chocolate. I’m going to have to do a lot more to make it even.”
“You don’t need to do that,” I said, putting my hands up. “It was just a gift to say I care!”
“Alyssa, I’m coming onto you.”
“Oh! Jesus. Right. I got you now.”
She laughed, which was nice that she didn’t mind dating a woman who was a bit slow on the uptake.
We put on her Evermore CD just like that first time I’d been in her car, and we headed for the Birdhouse, where there was already some life and activity we could hear from the parking lot. It opened up and enveloped us once we got in through the front doors, and I’d barely gotten inside before I was attacked, a force crashing into me that turned out to be a Cat-shaped projectile weapon that latched onto me in a hug.
“Alyssa,” she sang. “I love you.”
“Oh, wow, you’re already drunk,” I laughed, patting her back. “What are we going to do with her, Jade?”
“She’s got the metabolism of a hippopotamus, so let’s just put her on a couch for fifteen minutes until she can be normal again.”
Cat stepped back from the hug, eyes gleaming. “I’m glad you made it and that Jade didn’t go holding you up all night! I thought I’d never see you again and Daniela would pout that you weren’t here and then I’d have to cheer her up!”
“Uh-huh… cheer her up,” I said, mostly just to myself, not even signing it. I wondered what… cheering her up looked like. She and Daniela still hadn’t gotten together, as far as I understood, but they’d been more and more inseparable. Andif they’dkinda sorta had sex a little bitanother time, well… I wouldn’t be surprised.
“What was that?” Cat said. I shook my head.
“Nothing,” I said, picking up the signing again. “Just… happy to be here! I mean, it’s been ages since I was here, last night.”
“Tell me about it,” she laughed, slumping back against the bar. “I love the Pride events and I’m glad I got to help out, but I need like two weeks of never looking at a timetable again. Kev! Get me another drink!”
Jade frantically shook her head at the bartender, and he nodded, pouring a plain soda water and squeezing some lime in. Cat had her back to him, and in this state, she probably wouldn’t notice, but it wasn’t enough to cover for the situation completely, because Linda came huffing over to the three of us, signing pointedly.
“Cat, you cannot have another drink already.”
“I’m good! I’ve got the constitution of a horse. I’m a cat with horse lungs.”
