“Testing the waters,” said Bruce. “We know.”
“It’s a lot of pressure,” Ryan said, looking down at his place setting. “I mean this is our first date in— I mean… it’s not a date. I didn’t think this was—” Jennifer watched him start to panic. “I just meant…”
Thankfully, Bruce saved him. “You’re fine, Ryan. Remember to breathe.”
“I think we should all have some drinks!” said Jennifer, craving the sweet social lubricant. “Do you all think we should have some drinks?” She noticed that the pitch of her voice had elevated, and the realization kicked it up a few notches higher. “Drinks would be good. Maybe some wine.”
“Yes, I think some wine would be a fine idea.” Bruce caught the attention of their waiter and made the international drinking gesture. The waiter nodded and disappeared.
“Okay, guys,” Paige leaned forward again and dropped her voice. She waved everybody in. “Let’s make this a little bit easier for you. Because I’m sensing some…”
“Stress?” offered Bruce.
“Yeah.”
Jennifer and Ryan met eyes and nodded.
“Do we want to fuck you?” asked Paige. “Yes,” she confirmed, her voice now little more than a whisper.
Ryan immediately broke eye contact. “Oh, uh—” He stopped talking when Paige pressed a purple-nailed index finger against his lips.
“Do we want to be your friends even if we don’t get to fuck you?” she posed. “Yes!”
Bruce nodded. “So let’s not worry about anything beyond having a lovely dinner with awesome friends.”
“Because there’s no pressure at all.” Paige looked back and forth between Ryan and Jennifer. Then she smiled and held both thumbs up.
A waiter appeared with a bottle of red. “Your Barbera, Sir,” he said, showing the bottle to the foursome. Jennifer watched as the waiter uncorked the bottle and handed the cork to Bruce, who smelled it as the waiter poured a taste. Bruce swished, swallowed, then nodded. The waiter set and filled their glasses, then left the bottle and vanished back into the restaurant.
“I, uh,” Ryan began, stopping before more came out. He took another run at it, lifting his glass up. All eyes were on him, he wondered if this was a foolish idea, should he have left the toast up to Bruce? You can do this! “I just wanted to say that we, that Jennifer and I, haven’t made very many friends in our adult lives. But, uh, meeting you two, we right away saw— Right?” he asked Jennifer, who returned a nod and proud smile. “Right away, that you were both the kind of people we wanted to spend time with. Whatever that meant.”
Paige rubbed his knee in support.
He felt he should actually get to the toast part of his toast. “So, I guess then, a toast. To trying new things.”
The foursome clinked glasses.
“And new special friends,” added Jennifer.
“Hear that, angel,” said Bruce to his wife, “They think I’m special.”
“We, handsome. We,” said Paige.
As the wine and conversation began to flow, things began to feel more natural for Jennifer. Ryan had begun to sit up straighter, to drop the “uhs,” to smile wider. She thought he might actually be coming out of his shell a bit; regardless of where tonight led, this wouldn’t turn out to be one of those evenings where they had the I wish we’d just stayed home and watched Netflix conversation.
Such a relief.
“I honestly had no idea she was interested in me,” Bruce said, in the middle of a story about an evening at a sexy party.
“No, sure,” Paige laughed she turned to Ryan conspiratorially, “he says this every time, but the woman was topless.”
Ryan laughed, hard.
“So were you!” Bruce said.
Jennifer found herself entranced by both Bruce and Paige, but she was spending a lot of her evening, between bits of conversation, watching her husband. Her husband, who’d over the years become so withdrawn around other people, even around her. Look at him now, smiling, making people laugh with his own stories. This was what he’d been like when they’d met, way back then. She watched Ryan tell a story, surprised to realize he was telling the story of the girl he’d dated before her, talking about his lack of sexual experience. Her mild embarrassment at the subject being brought up was washed away by the fact that he felt comfortable enough to tell it at all.
“I just never had a chance, you know?” he said, “And she was surprisingly uninterested in anything but giving hand jobs. I never did see her with her pants off.”
“The trap of heavy petting,” offered Bruce.
Ryan laughed. “Definitely. I mean granted, I was getting regular hand jobs, so how much can I complain?”
“Bruce doesn’t like them,” said Paige.
“Hey now, let’s not be telling stories after school,” Bruce winked.
“You don’t?” asked Jennifer. She’d wanted it to come out coyly, but felt she’d missed that target a bit and just sounded surprised.
“Well, hey,” Bruce held up his hands, “I’ve never said that I don’t like them.”
“You don’t prefer them, then,” clarified Paige.
“Okay, true, I don’t prefer them.”
“I love them,” said Ryan.
Paige smiled at him. “I love giving them.”
Ryan almost choked on his bread-stick. Paige lightly patted him on the back.
“You okay, there?”
“I’m okay.”
Jennifer laughed, glancing down at Bruce’s leg as he spoke, recommending they not overthink his dislike of hand jobs. Trying not to overthink her next move herself, she placed her hand on his upper thigh and squeezed.
“So, when you masturbate the same way like that, heh,” Bruce turned and winked at her, “then it becomes difficult for anyone to… make it happen… without doing it exactly the same way.”
“And have you seen his hands?” asked Paige.
He looked at his hands, both front and back. “Guilty, I guess.” He rested his arm on the back of Jennifer’s chair, and she felt a light touch as he ran his finger along her back.
She let her eyes flutter closed for a moment. The fear they’d felt, coming into the restaurant, was a specter now, almost gone entirely. She still wasn’t sure where this would lead, of course, but she felt far more willing to go with the flow.
“We’d forgotten how to get ready for a date,” Ryan admitted when their food came.
“You’re fond of calling it that,” said Paige with a smile.
“Well, what do you call it?”
“With the food and drinks?” Bruce asked, gesturing to said food and drinks. “It’s dinner, Ryan.”
Feeling cheeky, Jennifer asked “And how about the… sex?”
“Dessert.” Paige smiled and ran her tongue along her upper lip.
Dinner progressed and another bottle of wine arrived. Ryan and Jennifer deferred to Bruce’s wine expertise, though he did consult with Paige when choosing between an Amarone and a Chianti. She chose Chianti, “Because I’m feeling spicy.”
“Jen said your kids are making inquiries,” said Ryan, later. “About the thing.”
“Oh, the thing!” asked Bruce.
“That thing we do?” laughed Paige, shimmying a bit.
“Yeah, as they get older they ask a lot more questions,” Bruce said. “Think we can stop them from doing that?”
“Getting older?” laughed Paige. “Not legally, I don’t think.”
“Maybe just the questions, then.”
“Questions like,” said Paige, “’why do you put your coat on in your bedroom?’”
Jennifer wasn’t sure she understood why herself, but curiously asked: “What do you say?”