Chapter Thirty-Two • Ouch • Damien #2
She waggles her eyebrows. “Who says we have to go home for that?”
I lose a little bit of my soul in the process of trying to come up with something to say that isn’t, Dinner later, babe. Public head, now.
Luckily for me, the surprise is blown before we even get inside. A squealing voice pealing through the parking lot before a gleeful Naomi careens into my girlfriend and steals her from her spot against my side.
“OH MY GOD. Lillith, girl, I have MISSED YOU.”
“Naomi?!” She balks after a breathless few moments. “What are you doing here?”
“Your boyfriend called me and told me to bring everyone after you’ve been bed-bound for a while,” Naomi cried. “By the way, good job, girl. He’s handsome.”
Binx appears in the doorway. His hair is longer than when we last saw him, and his glasses are pushed up crookedly into his hair. “Naomi. Damien said to wait at the table.”
“I don’t care!” Naomi calls without looking at him. Then she looks over at me, a challenging glint to her eye. “I don’t care.”
“Yeah, I’m getting that,” I say, smiling.
“Binx is here?”
“Hey, Lil,” he says a little sheepishly. “I finished my sketchbook, so I brought you some goodies.”
“Can we go inside?” Lillith asks me.
“I think we should; the staff is starting to look a little cranky,” I tease with a wink.
Naomi doesn’t let her go, just turning them both toward the door and walking with her inside while talking her ear off about some rare tomes she’s been squirreling away.
Binx waits for me by the entrance until I’m almost side by side with him.
He offers a hand, which I clap with my own before pulling him in for a hug.
“Thanks for calling us out,” he says.
“Hell yeah, man. I know she’s been missing you guys. Thanks for coming so short notice,” I say.
“She looks really happy,” Binx says. “I won’t lie, I was a little worried after meeting you a few weeks ago. But you seem even more besotted with her than she is with you.”
“Yeah, sounds about right,” I say, wrapping an arm around his shoulder and pulling him inside with me.
Raina is still at the table where Lillith and Naomi are settling in.
The table is already laden with about half a dozen small plates, each person with a whole fried fish in front of them.
As I sit with Binx, the waitress brings out two more of the small fish.
“Whoa, you guys already ordered?”
“It’s banchan,” Lillith says as she starts pointing out all of the options on the table.
“This is japchae; it’s like a sesame stir fried glass noodle.
This is a pan-seared tofu. Those over there are picked radish papers.
Then there’s a seaweed salad, some napa kimchi and a hot cucumber salad! It’s like a spicy pickle.”
She picks up her chopsticks and starts working on pulling the tender flesh off the body of the fish.
I follow suit. I take the first bite and nod.
It’s not bad. The tiny bones are a little unnerving, but when I look around the restaurant, I see other patrons eating it with a little rice or tofu. No big deal, it seems.
“Do you want mine?” Binx offers.
“You don’t want it?” I ask.
“I have some food sensory things. The bones freak me out, but I also hate looking rude. You’d be doing me a favor.”
“Sure, man,” I say, taking the small fish onto my plate.
I bask in Lillith’s happiness as she eats and catches up with her friends.
She makes up some fake ailment to explain her need to stay at home, but also explains that she’s getting better.
She tells them about what we’ve been up to—at least the PG version, anyway.
She tells them that they should come visit Odd Bird.
I love seeing her with her friends. Love seeing how much they love her.
Binx delivers on his promise of goodies, giving Lillith a tidy stack of drawings he’s made.
She flips through them after we all order our tofu and wait for our food.
Some of the drawings are of Lillith. Some of them are of both of us.
Some are of my hands, which makes her flush with embarrassment, as if I could ever dislike that she’s obsessed with my hands.
The meal is damn good. The soup is flavorful and unctuous and the tofu is silky like a poached egg.
I devour all of mine and Lillith requests several refills on her favorite banchan dishes (the seared tofu, the cucumbers and the japchae, I note for later).
By the end of dinner, we’re all full and lazy.
“Well, love birds, I have to go open the store, and I’m Raina’s ride. Can we call for the check?”
“I got it, don’t worry,” I say. “Thanks for coming out.”
“You’re paying, too? Oh, I like him,” Naomi says.
“Thanks, Damien,” Raina says as Lillith stands to let them out of the booth.
“No problem,” I say.
“I better go too,” Binx says. He doesn’t say so, but I think he might be hungry. He did his best to eat the food, I think, but I know sensory issues can be tough. He’s probably starving.
“Yeah,” I say, standing up to let him out too.
There are some hugs, some promises to visit each other, and then it’s just the two of us. We sit down and wait for the check. Lillith reaches her hand out across the table and I take it, leaning forward to kiss her knuckles.
“This was so sweet,” she says. “I missed them so much.”
“I figured you did.”
“When did you even find the time to invite them?”
“While I was changing and you were hanging out with Wren and giving her hell,” I said with a grin. “I got in touch with Naomi and she actually did the rest. I can’t take all the credit.”
“Still,” she said squeezing my hand. “Thank you so much. I loved this. And I love you.”
I kiss her hand again. “I love you too. Impossibly more every second, if you can believe it.”
“I can,” she says with a meaningful smile. “So, what’s next?”
“What. A piercing and dinner wasn’t enough?” I ask.
Her expression falls, and I laugh as how easy it is to mess with her. “I’m kidding. Of course we’re going somewhere else,” I say, before giving her a sober expression. “But need to talk before we go.”
Her face blanches, and I feel a little shitty for messing with her.
But not shitty enough that I regret it.
“What do we need to talk about?” she asks.
I rub my chin looking like I am feeling guilty.
“Damien!” she cries.
“Well, baby,” I say. “We need to do a little negotiating.”