Beer, Burgers & Boyfriends

“Joey, where the hell have you been!?” Jacob exclaimed with a frown when he noticed that I had finally returned from the restroom.

Simon had not gone back to the table with me under the guise of really needing to get back to work, but I secretly knew that there was an underlying reason that had not told me: he was extremely nervous to be questioned by my gossip-hungry team. I could not blame him honestly, because his impression of them was spot on, but I was also afraid that without Simon by my side all my friends’ arrows would be pointed at me. Before he had disappeared through the kitchen doors, Simon had made me promise that I would text him as soon as I got home and had given me one last sneaky kiss as a taste of what was to come. As I walked back to my table after our goodbye, I could still feel the lingering tingle that his lips had left on mine.

I had closed my hoodie as far as it would zip up to hide the love marks scattered across my chest and collarbones, but it was a fruitless effort because my neck - which was a little less easy to hide- had also been the unfortunate victim of Simon’s lips and teeth. I did not regret a single moment of what had just happened in the employees' bathroom of ‘Beer and Burgers’, but, as I quietly shuffled back to my place around the table, I felt a bit embarrassed when I noticed that my friends carefully watched my every move like a bunch of gossip-starved vultures.

“We um... We had a lot of difficulties with removing the stain from my shirt,” I muttered defensively while fidgeting with the strings of my hoodie. Unfortunately, my half-assed lie was not nearly good enough to make my friends drop their investigation.

Jacob’s frown became even deeper and he absentmindedly tapped on the table. “Even so, Joey, that took ridiculously long. Out of all the people I know, you are the one I would least expect to let his food go cold.”

“Wait, my food went cold?” I repeated upset. I would not want to trade the time I spent with Simon today for anything in the world, but it was still a shame that I had not gotten to experience the delicious food of 'Beer and Burgers' again. Oh well, that would be all the more reason to drag my friends back here in the near future.

“Yeah,” Jacob nodded indifferently, “well, it was about to go cold anyway and we didn't know when you'd get back, so we shared your food. Would’ve been a waste if we’d thrown it away.”

“Don’t try to sidetrack the conversation!” Noah intervened sternly. He looked extremely determined; nothing was going to distract him from interrogating me about my relationship with Simon. “We can clearly see the hickeys covering your throat, Joey, so don’t you dare try to deny that something happened between you and that blonde waiter! We're not leaving before you've told us everything."

“Fine, fine, you got me,” I laughed awkwardly in an attempt to curb Noah’s fanaticism. “We kissed and might have gotten a bit carried away, okay? And, more importantly…” I rolled up the sleeve of my hoodie to proudly reveal the phone number on my arm. “Tada! I finally scored his phone number!”

As soon as I revealed the phone number on my arm, my teammates went crazy and started shouting over each other excitedly to congratulate me. They also bombarded me with questions and I tried to answer as many of them (at least most of the ones that were not blatantly offensive) as I could. My friends’ new fascination with my love life only cooled down when we exited the restaurant and the main topic of our conversation shifted to our plans for the weekend.

I suddenly felt a slap on my back and I heard Jacob’s familiar, hearty laugh next to me. He threw an arm around my shoulder and smiled: “Oh, you’ve grown up so fast; I can still remember the day that you stole a box of pavement chalks from me, but in the blink of an eye you’ve grown up to be a strong, capable casanova wooing all the boys in town.” He dramatically acted as if he needed to wipe away a tear.

“Oh, please stop it,” I groaned wearily, throwing my head back onto Jacob’s arm. “I’m already starting to regret telling y’all about what happened. I’m never going to hear the end of this, will I?”

Jacob snickered: “Nope. Then again, you would not have been able to keep it a secret for a long time anyway.” He nodded back to the rest of the group. “Some of these boys are terrifyingly good at playing investigator, so even though you’re a pretty decent liar when you want to be, they'd find out eventually… Speaking of which, I still want that box of pavement chalks back, you lying thief!” He playfully poked my side, which made me laugh.

He then added with a more serious tone: “I’m proud of you, Joey. I really am, and I hope that Simon will make you happy.”

My heart swelled up with pride, hope and love at the mention of Simon’s name and I looked up at the beautiful blue sky with a bright smile on my face. “Thank you, Jacob. And about that: he already does.”