9. Parker
PARKER
“Aren’t we underdressed for this place?” Phoenix asked as we stood on the walkway leading up to the steakhouse. “By a lot?”
“Not when you’re one of the owners,” I explained, shrugging, because for the most part it had been an investment.
I was a, mostly, silent partner since I didn’t know fuck all about advertising or what it took to keep a restaurant running efficiently.
When it came to the menu, however, I’d had the opportunity to contribute by working with the kitchen staff to pare down their old dishes, which had offered way too many options.
Slowly, we’d molded Silver Medallions into a place that prided itself on making the best steaks around.
“Oookay, not what I expected,” he replied. “But cool, as long as I don’t wind up with snails on my plate.”
“I promise, there are no snails. Just giant slabs of meat, baked potatoes that will melt in your mouth, and pie with as many flavors to choose from as the farm stand has toppings.”
“Seriously?” he asked, eying the converted manor house with skepticism. “Because it looks way too fancy for what you’re describing to me.”
“Because most of it is a bed-and-breakfast, the steakhouse is this way,” I said and took his hand, leading him up the walkway.
There was a small party of four in front of us and a couple in front of them, but Jamie tried to wave me forward when he spotted me. Shaking my head, I stayed where I was, with a mental note to speak to him about that later. There was no reason for him to treat me any differently when I dropped in.
“Man, that smells good,” Phoenix said once we were seated in an alcove with a magnificent view of the valley and the long shadows the sun was beginning to cast across it. “There’s nothing better than pigging out after a long ride.”
“I think that’s true no matter what the mode of transportation is.”
“I just have one question for the man with the convertible,” he said. “If you buy it to drive with the top down, why not just get a motorcycle and be done with it?”
“Because I prefer to be the passenger when I’m on two wheels, or three.”
“Ahh. So the car is…?”
“Beautifully suited to the illusion.”
“If you say so,” he said. “Not that I mind you hanging on to me, but if neither of you two ride, the only way we can go anywhere together is going to be in Aspen’s SUV.”
“That’s the conclusion I came to as well.”
“I’m going to have to get used to riding in a cage,” he moaned.
“Does that mean you’re choosing us over the motorcycle?” I asked, winking so he’d know I was just giving him shit.
“That or one of you is going to have to follow or be left behind,”
“Oh, it’s like that?”
“Maybe you can play rock-paper-scissors,” he remarked, tapping his chin with his index finger.
He’d taken his fingerless gloves off and set them between us on the horseshoe-shaped bench.
Every alcove had one, and the best part was that there was room for five if you added a chair.
When I’d texted Aspen to tell him where we were stopping for supper, he’d texted back a sad-face emoji followed by a middle-finger one when I said we wouldn’t be able to bring anything back for him since we were on Phoenix’s bike.
“Or flip a coin or something.”
“Or maybe we can just hogtie you and stuff you in my trunk.”
“Back to your non-existent trunk space again.”
Our waitress brought menus and took our drink orders all with a straight face, though I knew she’d heard every bit of our conversation.
“Seriously, though,” I said, pressing the menu down on the table when he went to raise it. I needed to see his eyes for this. “Is being with the two of us something you’d consider, or are you trying to make up your mind about which of us to choose?”
“Shouldn’t Aspen be part of this conversation too?”
“Ideally, but since he isn’t here right now and I’m impatient as hell… Can you please put me out of my misery? I know what I want the answer to be, but not everyone is open or comfortable with a poly lifestyle.”
“I’m good with it being the three of us,” Phoenix replied, and actually looked relieved.
“I hoped neither of you would ask me to choose, because I don’t think I would have been able to.
Spending time with you both is awesome, whether it’s one on one or when the three of us are together, but it is more fun when it’s the three of us.
Unless we’re playing UNO, then Aspen is just mean. ”
“Tell me about it! He’s like that with every card game, I swear.
I have never seen anyone have that kind of luck everywhere else but at a casino.
As soon as he sets foot in one, lady luck abandons him at the door, and it’s like he’s never played cards before.
Late-night poker with the guys at the theater, he cleans up.
Saturday gin with the drag queens, he’s vicious.
Vegas? He tucked tail and went to a burlesque show. ”
“I bet he would not like you telling me that, either.”
“Probably not, but it’s too late now,” I replied, snickering and letting go of his menu.
He was still studying it when the waitress came back with our drinks, so I asked her to please give us a few more minutes while he made up his mind.
“Did you really have to make it so hard to choose?” he grumbled after our waitress left. “I want the ribeye, that much is easy, but whether to get the brisket mac and cheese or the lobster mac and cheese is fuckin’ killing me.”
“Get them both.”
“Maybe, but there are a trio of desserts calling me that I need to pick from too, so I have to leave room for one of them,” he declared.
“True, but everything comes with two sides anyway, so you might as well get them as yours and quit trying to talk yourself out of it when you know you want them.”
“I’m glad it’s mac and cheese you’re peddling and not something bad for me,” he replied.
“You need to steer clear of bad things for a little while.”
“With pleasure. You wanna stand outside and keep them from becoming part of my job? I’m sure we can find a T-shirt in your size. My uncle has them printed up with the club logo on the front and bouncer across the back with our slogan underneath it.”
“Which is?”
“‘We’re all about a good time, just don’t be a dick about it,’” he replied.
“My grandmother talked him out of putting an actual dick on the back instead of the word, and by that I mean she told him that he wasn’t to do it under any circumstances or she’d beat his ass.
She even borrowed my great-grandfather’s cane and waved it at him. ”
“How many generations of your family are still living?”
“Four,” he replied. “My great-grandmother just turned eighty-two a few weeks ago; my grandmother is sixty-four, and my mom is forty-eight in case you were wondering.”
“And you’re twenty-seven, which means she was, what, twenty-one when she had you?”
“Yup. She’s still mad that I waited to come until after her birthday.”
“How far after?”
“The next day.”
“Oh man,” I said, laughing and needing to take a sip of my drink before I could say anything else. “Can you blame her for still being pissed?”
“Not really.”
“My folks had me young too,” I replied. “I couldn’t wait to head for the city where I had a chance to figure out what I wanted to do with my life without my old man in my ear all the time.”
“What did he want you to do?”
“Anything besides modeling,” I huffed, just as our waitress returned to check on us again.
He ordered the ribeye, medium-rare, which I knew he’d enjoy because it was thick as hell, and got both mac and cheeses, as well as the chocolate lava cake for dessert.
I couldn’t wait for him to taste the freshly churned French vanilla ice cream they topped each lava cake with, the mini scoops fitting perfectly in the indent in the cakes. A single spoonful was pure perfection.
And that was when it dawned on me that I might have a fellow foodie on my hands. Holy smokes, how much fun would that be to spoil my pup with all kinds of treats?
I ordered the porterhouse, a twice-baked potato with all the trimmings, candied carrots, and a hunk of crusty garlic toast that they made with French bread they baked here too.
I stopped her before she walked away and ordered a second piece, since something told me that he’d want one as soon as he tasted it.
“I left home two days after I graduated,” I said, once our waitress had finished with our orders. “The only reason I stuck around the extra day was because my sister was competing in a rodeo competition the day after I graduated, and I promised to be there to cheer her on.”
“How’d she do?”
“Came in second. She lives across the street from our folks with a trio of sadistic felines. They act like Satan’s bastard stepchildren whenever I’m around.”
“Could it be because you don’t like cats?”
“I like cats just fine. I love cats. I’ve been thinking about going to the shelter and adopting a pair to be my writing buddies,” I explained. “It’s just her cats that don’t like me.”
“You know cats can sense when someone’s sketchy.”
“They also spend entirely too much time licking their own assholes, so I’d rather not take advice from one.”
“That’s rude. No wonder cats don’t like you.”
“Just those cats.”
“If you say so, but if you go to the shelter and all the cats turn their backs on you and stick their tails in the air, we’ll know what the truth is.”
“I’ll just have to show up carrying catnip.”
“Wouldn’t that be considered enticement?”
“Yup.”
“So what made you decide to go to New York City?”
“I was already in the industry. Mom and I had been running back and forth for years, since we only lived forty-five minutes outside of it. The job offers were steadily pouring in with no sign of stopping, so why choose anything else? The pace out here is way more suitable to my liking, but nothing beats a New York subway for people watching and the chance to develop new characters.”
“I bet. I can’t imagine what it’s like for the bike messengers there after what I’ve seen the ones here go through,” he said.
“I once went shot for shot in a game of I bet my job is more dangerous than your job with a bike messenger, and I’m ashamed to say I lost when we got to the never have I ever part.
Some of the patrons might get a bit rowdy and far too lit some nights, but I’ve never had to dodge a car door with a bus right next to me. ”
“Some of those assholes see the bikes coming and still open their doors,” I said. “At least they did in New York. I haven’t heard of that happening here.”
“Some people are just dicks.”
When our food arrived, I watched his face light up when he saw the size of the steak, and sure enough, when I offered him a piece of my garlic bread, he readily accepted the rest of it after the first taste.
“This doesn’t taste like any mac and cheese I’ve ever had before,” he said as he dug into the one with chunks of brisket mixed in. “Not that it’s saying much, since aside from my grandmother, the rest of us make ours from a box.”
“How does she make hers?”
“In a giant pan she pulls out of the oven,” he explained. “That’s the only part I ever see, since anyone who hasn’t experienced menopause is banned from her kitchen.”
“You’re welcome in mine,” I replied. “I bake my mac and cheese too and am fond of adding bits to it to make it special. Wait until I make wings for you guys. I always serve them with a jalapeno-popper mac and cheese with crumbly bacon bits folded in.”
“I’m glad there’s food in front of me or you’d be making me hungry right now,” he said in between bites.
“Since you asked what I wanted, can I be real for a moment?” Phoenix asked.
“Please do.”
“You guys are amazing,” he said. “I feel like I can relax when I’m with you.
I love that we designed our characters to work so well together on game night.
We didn’t even have to talk about it to get things to work out that way for us.
The drag show was an absolute blast. I can’t believe you got up there and did a lip-sync with the drag queen encore. ”
“That must have been after the last Tropical Thunder,” I admitted, rubbing the back of my neck as my cheeks heated up because I didn’t remember that part as clearly as he seemed to.
“Yeah, it was just after the bartender hollered Last Call,” he explained. “But he’d already cut you off by then, so you decided to go up on stage and join the final songs instead. I’ve got pictures. I shared them with Aspen, since you guys were up there singing with your arms around one another.”
“And I haven’t seen them yet because…”
“We got busy, and I forgot about them,” he said, but he pulled his phone out after the next bite of steak, and suddenly my message box was flooded with over a dozen different images of me and Aspen, as well as the other drag queens.
Someone had draped a boa around my neck, and I was using someone else’s silver platform boot for a microphone.
Clearly a good time was being had by all, and I was grateful to him for capturing it since I’d forgotten all about that shoe.
Particularly, how I’d gotten hold of it in the first place.
“What I’m getting at it is that it’s cool the way we have things right now.
We don’t have to make anything official we can just keep chilling the way we’ve been and see what happens.
We haven’t known each other that long, ya know, and there’s, well, I don’t care that you guys are a dozen years older than me, I’m good with that.
But we’re from different worlds, and mine’s ugly.
I don’t want the bullshit I deal with touching your lives or affecting how we feel about one another.
And before you ask, I’m not gonna quit, either, though I have been thinking about some changes we need to make at the door because it’s never been this volatile around the club before. ”
“Any recent changes that might shed some light onto what flipped the switch on things?”
“Yeah, one or two, but that’s all I’m gonna say about it. It’s family business.”
“In time, I hope you’ll be willing to let me and Aspen become your family too.”
“I promise to try, but you have to promise something too.”
“What’s that?”
“That you’ll keep me, even if your friends don’t approve.”
A shy blush crept over his cheeks then, highlighting the stitches that still slashed across the bridge of his nose.
Since words didn’t feel like enough in this moment, I scooted closer on the bench, moved his jacket and gloves to the other side of me, and tugged him close to my side, hugging him as best as I could with the table in the way.
“Any friend of mine who can’t appreciate how awesome you are doesn’t deserve to be called a friend,” I declared, pressing a kiss to the top of his head. “I’d be honored to have you for my pup and to be able to call you family. So please keep your promise and try, okay?”
He snuggled close, uttering the two words I desperately needed to hear in that moment.
“I will.”