The video ended.
“Paul?” Vince said, his voice neutral.
“Yes, Vince?” I still hid behind the napkins even though my eyes were no longer filled with lemon water.
“Remember when you were taking me home from the hospital a few days ago and you thought I was just really stoned and you were talking about your period ghost and I said I thought I was going to fall in love with you?”
I thought he hadn’t even remembered saying that. “Yes, Vince, I remember.” And I did. It wasn’t something I thought I was ever going to forget. Not for as long as I lived. I was pretty sure he was going to retract that comment pretty damn quickly.
He took a deep breath. “Well, I’m pretty sure I’m about halfway there now.”
I lowered the napkins from my face and stared at him. He looked uncharacteristically flustered and couldn’t quite meet my eyes. His cheeks pinked a bit. “You just watched a YouTube video of me falling into a hippo exhibit at the zoo and swallowing hippo-shit water and now you’re halfway to being in love with me after knowing me for only a few days?”
He nodded. “Sounds about right.”
“Oh sweat balls,” I said. But I reached out and grabbed his hand.
He grinned and squeezed my hand back.
And that would be a great place to end the first date, right? That declaration, the knowledge that I’d swam with hippos, that Santiago might or might not have put pubes in the food that would come later. It’s magical! It’s wonderful! So very, very romantic! Nothing could make it better!
Nope.
“Paul!” my mother shouted from behind me on the street. “Yoo-hoo! Paul, dear! It’s me, your mother! Your father is with me too! Paul! Oh, for heaven’s sakes, Larry, I don’t think he can hear me. I’m practically screaming his name. Maybe he’s going deaf.”
“You aren’t practically doing anything,” my father said mildly. “I’m pretty sure they can hear you down in Mexico.”
“Lawrence Auster,” she scolded. “What a mean thing to say.”
“Just… ignore them,” I ground out to Vince.
“Are they your parents?” he asked, looking over my shoulder. “They look like that picture you have in your bedroom.”
“When I say so, get ready to run, okay?” I whispered harshly. “On three.”
“What? We’re not running.”
“One—”
“Yoo-hoo, Paul!”
“Two—”
Vince waved over my shoulder at my parents.
“Three!” I got up and started running, but Vince didn’t let go of my hand. Apparently his muscles were quite real and Vince was just a tad bit stronger than me. I only made it two steps toward the exit before I was jerked back to the table. Vince spun me around neatly so that I landed on his lap, my back to his chest. To give him credit, he didn’t even cry out in massive pain as my bulk landed on him, surely crushing him to dust, especially given how sore he still must have been. I was too shocked at this sudden turn of events to even feel remotely sorry, given that he was a traitor along the lines of my dog.
“You can’t run away from your parents,” he admonished lightly. “It’s rude.”
“I don’t want to be your boyfriend anymore,” I told him, quite sure of myself.
He rolled his eyes. “Yes, you do. I make you so fucking happy.”
“Gross. You do not,” I mumbled, doing my damnedest to ignore that little glowing light in me.
Matty and Larry Auster were very curious by this sudden turn of events, watching the two of us closely as they walked up the sidewalk toward us. I tried to move off Vince’s lap, but he wrapped his arm around my waist and gripped me tightly, his point very clear. It probably didn’t help things when I wiggled in his lap to get more comfortable and felt his dick against my ass. He groaned just once, and it was quiet, but it was enough to make me freeze as his cock hardened while my parents were standing two feet away.
“Paul,” Dad said in greeting, looking amused. “Nice to see you, son.”