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And now he was hanging out with me and my friends as if he were one of the originals. I had to remind myself that he was only pretending to know me for my friends, and for what? So that I could avoid a couple minutes of awkward conversation?
Or because he just wanted to be around me? Like I wanted him to.
“So,” Lou said, sitting back in his seat, putting an arm around his girlfriend, who was beginning to look more and more lively as time passed. I wondered if maybe she was a vampire and needed the moonlight to charge up her batteries. “How do you know Mason, Neal?”
Ah, fuck.
We never really got a chance to solidify any backstories in this “fake” friendship of ours. We had only talked about ourselves and then got too busy rubbing up on each other to talk about anything else. Which I totally didn’t mind, but it made moments like these complicated.
“From work,” Nick said.
Fuuuuck.
He had no idea what Mason worked as. He couldn’t have predicted the literal grave he dug himself.
“Oh snap,” Lou said. “Wait, so do you embalm bodies, too? Or are you involved more on the business side?”
Nick almost spit out the beer he was drinking. To his credit, he covered it well with a follow-up cough. I had to steer this ship in a completely opposite direction because Lou had set us straight toward an embalmed iceberg.
“Neal was talking about Mason’s last job,” I said, feeling weird using Nick’s middle name, as if I’d known him for years already and gotten used to calling him by his first. “His dog-walker job.”
“Right. Exactly.”
I noticed Ace shoot a suspicious look toward us, but I ignored it.
“So is that what you do now?” Jada asked. Her boyfriend had ended up getting seasick and stayed inside their room to try and sleep it off.
“Not exactly,” Nick answered. “I do a lot of work with my therapy dog, but that’s not my full-time job, no.”
I flashed back to the elevator and how Nick took it all the way to the top level. He definitely wasn’t a dog walker, I could be sure of that.
“All right, you know what, everyone put your fingers up.” Jada held her hands in the air, all ten fingers out. “We’re playing Never Have I Ever.”
“Oh lordy,” said Ace, who eagerly put his hands up. I had a feeling he’d take off his sandals and throw his toes up in the air, too, if he could.
I turned to my side, trying to give Nick a look that said you could go. And if the look didn’t do it, I threw a nod toward the doors that led into the ship. I didn’t want him feeling like he was some kind of hostage. He could go have drinks by the bar and hop on Grindr if he wanted to. I was sure he could find a seaman or two who would be more than willing to go up with him to the penthouse suite.
Nick subtly shook his head and put his hands up, smiling as he did it. He looked at my hands. “Come on, let’s play.”
There was my confirmation. Nick was here because he wanted to be. I put my hands up, joining the circle of wiggling fingers.
“All right, so to recap rules, if you’ve done something that’s talked about, put your finger down. The one with the least amount of fingers wins both in the game and at life!” Jada clapped her hands and started us off, going the nonsexual route first by saying she’d never skydived. I remembered playing this game in college, always being one of the people with the most fingers in the air. I had been pretty innocent back then.
Ace was next. I expected another softball question but was quickly reminded that with Ace, one could never expect anything.
“Never have I ever… been double-fisted.”
Lou snorted at that, and Jada laughed out loud. I put my head in my hands, laughing into my palm.
“What? I couldn’t say just one fist, since… well. Yeah. Who’s put their fingers down?” Ace looked around the table, his innocent eyes bright with the moonlight and twinkling fairy lights. “Y’all wanted to play, right?” He laughed as Rex kissed the side of his head. Ace seemed to have melted instantly at the touch, slinking sideways into Rex, practically climbing onto his lap.
“All right, I’m next,” I said, still holding up all ten fingers. I noticed Nick had his fingers up, too, leading me to believe he’d never jumped out of a plane or had two fists up his ass, and definitely not at the same time.
So, he wasn’t a risk taker. Duly noted.
“Never have I ever…” I tossed around a few statements in my head, not knowing how dirty to go with my turn. I looked around at my group of friends and knew I couldn’t pump the brakes now. After Ace’s fisting fiasco, I figured I had to keep the sex ball rolling. “Never have I ever gotten my salad tossed.”
