Hooking Up With My Dad's Best Friend

“I could eat something.”

Neither of us ate breakfast this morning. We slept in instead because we had a late night. Bryce decided he wanted to figure out which one of my vibrators was the most effective. That turned into a detailed evaluation process that involved his tongue and fingers, and me dissolving into a puddled mess of pleasure and orgasms.

My stomach growls as I think about food, and Bryce laughs. “Diner it is.”

It’s one of those places that’s designed to look like a diner from the fifties, and it smells amazing the second you walk in. “I want a burger,” I say as we sit down in a booth. “I think this place probably has amazing burgers.”

“I can assure you that they do. I’ve eaten here before on my way back and forth.”

“Perfect.”

There’s one of those little juke boxes in the booth with us, and Bryce pulls out some coins from his pocket and puts them on the table. We listened to a little radio on the way up, but not much. Of the things we’ve talked about, music hasn’t really been on the list. Oldies are the only songs available here. “What are you going to pick?”

I flip through the menu, slip in a quarter, and watch him break into a smile when “I Can’t Help Myself” starts to play. I mouth the words to him, subtly dancing in my seat. He sings them back. Actually sings. Out loud.

Holy shit, he has a great voice. “I didn’t know that you could sing!”

“All British men can sing,” he says matter-of-factly. “It’s a little known secret.”

“That, for sure, is not true.”

“How else do you think we’re so popular?” he winks.

“Your accents may melt panties at the drop of a hat, but I’m pretty sure that’s the only thing that all British guys are guaranteed to have a going for them.”

Bryce sits back and crosses his arms over his chest. “Is that so?”

I nod. “Yep.”

“Speaking as a British man,” he says, “I might know more about it than you.”

I smile. “You’re speaking as a British man who is stupidly, absurdly hot. Everybody is going to think that you’re gorgeous no matter whether you can sing or not.”

The waitress walking up to our table proves my point, and I have to stifle my laughter. Poor girl, it’s not her fault. Bryce would take anybody by surprise. She’s looking down at her pad of paper, and when she looks up at him her eyes go wide. It takes her a full five seconds to get her face back to normal before she greets us. “Hey guys. What can I get for you?”

Bryce speaks before I can. “We’ll both have burgers,” he says. “And I’ll have a glass of water. What would you like to drink, Katti?”

I raise an eyebrow at him. The way he says it sounds like a challenge. And I spotted quite a few delicious things on the menu. “I’ll have the biggest Oreo milkshake you have,” I say.

“Sure,” she says, still looking at Bryce and not at all at me. “Are you sure there’s nothing else I can get you?”

Bryce is still looking at me with a self-satisfied, smug smile. “No, thank you.”

I can tell she doesn’t want to walk away, but she finally does, with a glance back toward the table more than once. I have no doubt that she’s telling the other servers about the hottie at our table. That’s one thing I’m not worried about. Bryce is one of the most loyal people I know. I’d never have to worry about him going behind my back with anyone.

“Would you like me to prove to you that all British guys can sing?”

“No,” I say, laughing. “Because all your singing will do is prove that you can sing, and I didn’t sign up for a musical lesson today. But other than Ed Sheeran and the Beatles, that’s not proof.”

He shrugs. “I think that’s plenty proof.”

I roll my eyes, but reach out for his hand. He takes mine without question, smoothing his thumb across the palm. “British singing abilities aside, I don’t know what kind of music you actually like. If you had more options than the oldies in the jukebox, what would you pick?”

The waitress appears with Bryce’s water, and what might be the biggest milkshake I’ve seen in my life. Oh fuck, that’s not what I expected when I asked for the biggest one.

That’s just something you say when you’re trying to be indulgent, you know? Bring me the biggest one! Bryce laughs as I stare at it. I didn’t think I was going to have to add a second stomach to my body in order to eat it. “You’re totally going to have to help me finish this,” I say.

He shakes his head. “That’s on you. I have to keep my physique in fine form for my new lady friend.”