We walked into Marco’s. Only Presley and Zoey were there, but that was something, at least.
“Hello, Ethan,” Presley said. Her tone wasn’t overly friendly, but she at least acknowledged him. She leaned close to him, and for a moment, I thought she was going to kiss his cheek. Instead, she whispered something in his ear, and Ethan’s eyes went wide.
“No!” he said quickly. “I would never.”
“Better not.” Presley took a step away from him, and Zoey walked up. I glanced at Presley, wondering what she had said to him, but she wouldn’t meet my gaze. Zoey elbowed me in the side and smiled with bright red lips.
“Ethan, this is Zoey.”
“Hi, Ethan. Tell me all about these piercings and tats.”
We all sat down, and Ethan relayed the story of what his tattoos and piercings meant to him. Presley looked bored, but Zoey appeared interested in his explanations. She insisted on seeing the tattoo of the roses, and Ethan had to unbutton his shirt a bit to show her.
Zoey give me a wide-eyed smile and fanned her face as she nodded toward Ethan’s partially bare chest. She grinned and licked her lips when he looked down to button up his shirt. I scowled at her and tried to hold back a smirk.
We sat at a table and ordered drinks. Presley picked out the priciest wine on the menu, and Zoey went with her usual vodka and tonic. When Ethan ordered a Coke, I followed suit.
“You don’t have to do that,” he said quietly.
“Do what?”
“Order a real drink if you want,” he said. “It won’t hurt my feelings.”
“Maybe I want a Coke.” I tilted my head as I looked back at him.
“You don’t.” He smiled and shook his head. “I don’t want you to change your behavior because of me. If you do, you’ll end up resenting me because of it. Order wine or whatever else you want. It doesn’t bother me.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure I want you to enjoy your time with your friends, and I’m sure you’d rather have alcohol. So do it. We are going to get an Uber back anyway.”
“All right,” I said, “if you insist.”
I flagged down the server and asked for a martini. Ethan smiled as I took my first sip.
“I don’t want you ever going against what you want for the sake of sparing my feelings,” he said. “Certainly not for something as stupid as what you want to drink. If it’s something important, we can talk about it first.”
“Are you sure you aren’t older than you say?” I asked. “You are awfully wise.”
Ethan brought his fingertips together to make two large circles, which he then placed over his eyes as he began to make owl sounds.
“All right!” I said with a laugh. “You have just proven how childish you are!”
He continued with the owl impersonations until my sides hurt from laughing. Presley and Zoey looked at us like we were both nuts.
We ordered pizza, and Presley started giving Ethan the third degree. She asked him about his parents, why he dropped out of school, and his head injuries. She gasped when he told her that he couldn’t read, and that spurred a ton of other questions. Ethan answered each one in turn and with a very matter-of-fact tone. Presley tried to hide how impressed she was by his frank answers, but I saw through it. Mostly I hoped she wasn’t making Ethan too uncomfortable, but he seemed all right with her interrogation. I reached under the table and grasped his hand. He smiled at me and squeezed my fingers.
Eventually, Presley relented.
“Selfie!” Zoey squished her head in between mine and Presley’s, held her phone up high, and took a couple of pictures as we all smiled and held up our drinks. Ethan scooted away a little, avoiding the camera.
“Let me see it!” Presley said, grabbing at the phone. She examined the picture closely and then played around with the filters. “All right, that’s acceptable.”
“You could have been in the picture, too,” I said as I leaned close to Ethan.
“That’s okay,” he said. “Let’s take one of us.”
We spent a minute taking pictures with both of our phones. The first few were good ones, and then Ethan started making goofy faces. I joined in, and pretty soon we were both laughing.