Page 56

“Two Bellinis and water, please, Elio.”

With a dip of his head, he walked off, leaving us to peruse the rest of the menu. Connor reached over and laced our fingers together and squeezed. After a few minutes, he set aside the menu and asked, “What would you like?”

I shook my head. “We are celebrating you, so I want you to decide. Besides, you know me. I’ll eat just about anything.”

“Then I think we should get the four course tasting menu, since we’ve never been here before.”

I nodded at his suggestion, but turned curious. “What’s a Bellini?”

“Oh, you’re going to love it. It’s peach purée with sparkling Italian wine. Since we have plans after, we should take it easy on the alcohol for dinner.”

Until our food arrived, we spoke of other scripts we read and interested us.

“You should pick a script you like and star in it yourself.”

Connor laughed. “But now I know what it’s like to be in charge, so it might take some convincing to get me to back away from the director’s chair.”

With a casual shrug, “Why don’t you do both?”

Intrigued, he grew silent as he contemplated his choices. I hid the smile because I planted the seed. Connor was brilliant at everything he did. Not only because of the passion behind his drive to be the best, but because he loved what he did as an actor and now a director. But that was a subject for another night.

Everything was exquisite from the Cesar salad with charred romaine, a bolognese with wild boar and veal, both a first for me, followed by a smoked dill salmon on a delicious risotto, and to top off the meal, a delicious chocolate cake with peanut butter gelato.

The chef, who turned out to be Elio and Aria’s uncle, Dante, welcomed Connor into his kitchen and after I took about a dozenphotos with them, loving the ones where my boyfriend made the entire staff laugh, we left with promises of returning soon.

Connor slid his fingers against mine as we headed toward the parking lot. I entered the address into the GPS and in less than fifteen minutes later; we arrived at the second half of his birthday night celebration.

“Where are…” he paused as he took in the neon sign and the rainbow arch above the entrance.

“Perfect timing. Let’s head in and get a seat close to the stage.” As we entered, I verified our reservation and paid for several cards and two daubers, and led Connor to an open table right off the stage and in shadow. There was recognition in the eyes of the employees and people here for bingo, but no one bothered him.

As we sat down, I slid in next to Connor, who was closest to the stage, and handed him six bingo cards and kept the other six. I turned and glanced at the stunned expression on my boyfriend’s face and asked, “Have you ever been to drag queen bingo before?”

“No, I don’t think I’ve even played bingo in my life.”

“It’s low key enough you should be fine, and from what I researched, it looks fun. I’m sure they will go over the rules, but they call out a letter and number, and you place a dot over it with your dauber. You win if all the dabs are in a row, whether horizontal, vertical, or diagonal, and you shout bingo and they come over to verify you won.”

“Um, what if I win? What do I get?”

At this, I shrugged. “No clue. But with a host of drag queens in the mix, it’ll be interesting.”

Interesting didn’t even describe it. Since they hosted bingo every month, the crowd was raucous when the night started off with a gorgeous queen in a black sequined dress, introducing herself and cracking a few jokes as we relaxed into our seats.

As they started the wire tumbler rolling, a queen in a pink strapless dress sashayed over to us and I noticed her eyes widened as they took in my boyfriend. Her hand ran up his arm as she leaned closer and said, “Hey, handsome.”

He smiled at the queen, causing her to put a hand on her chest and fan herself. “You should come with a disclaimer, sitting your sexy ass over here with that smile.”

I laughed, and although she had eyes for Connor, she asked, “Who’s this cutie patootie?”

“I’m…”

“No, let me guess. You’re part of his harem and you’re here to recruit others to this very just and sexy cause.”

“What qualifies as a harem?” I asked.

She threw her head back and laughed. When she recovered, she winked at me and said, “No clue, just a girl’s fantasy.”

The games and the queens were entertaining, and I won a huge flesh-colored dildo while Connor won a hard, sleek purple vibrator, which looked uncomfortable to use, no matter how much lube was involved. But who was I to judge? We gifted them both to a bridal party near the front as we left, and Connor was gracious enough to pose for a couple of pictures and wished the bride the best for her upcoming nuptials.