Page 48 of After the Siren

Chapter Twenty-Four

Theo wasn’t panicking. He was just considering all of the possibilities and choosing to focus on the ones in the box labelled ‘catastrophes’. There were several possibilities in there, and he was taking them out individually and examining them.

He’ll hate it. It’s too much.

Everyone else will hate it.

This is the worst idea imaginable and everyone was too polite to tell you.

Intellectually, he knew it wasn’t the worst idea. Xen would have told him if it had been. And if not Xen, then Paddy, because Paddy was also quite perceptive but, unlike Xen, he didn’t adjust his comments to avoid hurting people’s feelings.

But nevertheless, here Theo was, sweaty-palmed and knocking on Jake’s door, feeling like he was picking up his date for the school formal. All he needed was a wilting corsage.

It had been a big couple of weeks. The two of them had told Paddy and Xen that they were together, and endured the ensuing hail of jokes.

He’d told Jenny he was bisexual, though not about Jake.

She didn’t give much away, but the smile she’d given him when she’d said, ‘Thank you for telling me,’ had felt very real.

He’d recruited Eva and hit send on the email he’d drafted to his parents.

They’d called him the following day, and they had the best chat they’d had in quite a while.

Theo suspected he had Eva’s intervention to thank for that, but he’d take it.

He’d also been able to report to them that he’d earned a Distinction in Property Law, which had probably helped.

He exhaled. This was a good idea. This was going to be fine.

Jake opened the door, grinning. He’d followed Theo’s instructions and was wearing jeans and sneakers with one of his nicer hoodies.

Theo was almost one hundred per cent sure that Jake was going to love this idea.

He’d made sure to run everything past Jake – subtly.

Checked that Jake was cool if Theo organised something for his birthday, checked that he was okay with Gabby, Dex and Drips knowing they were together, ascertained if Jake had a violent aversion to laser tag or Italian food.

‘Hey.’ Jake pulled him into a kiss as soon as he was through the door.

‘Happy birthday,’ Theo said against Jake’s mouth.

‘Thanks.’ Jake’s hands were roaming, sliding down Theo’s back to his ass, and Theo grabbed his wrists.

‘We don’t have time,’ he said.

Jake looked up at him, all mischievous blue eyes. ‘Are you sure? It is my birthday.’

‘Yes,’ Theo said firmly.

Jake sighed. ‘Fine. You gonna tell me what we’re going?’

Theo looked nervous. That wasn’t new, but Jake wasn’t sure what he was nervous about. Jake still had both his hands on the small of Theo’s back. He thought that if he was really persuasive, he might get them down the front of Theo’s pants before they had to go.

‘So what are we doing?’ he asked, crowding Theo against the wall.

Theo exhaled. He couldn’t meet Jake’s eyes.

‘I wanted to take you on a date,’ he said, speaking faster than usual.

‘And I know we can’t just go on a date in public, but I can take you on a date with some cover, so we’re going go to laser tag, and then we’re going to go to dinner, and I’ve sorted it so a few other people are coming.

But they’re all people you know, so we can also be on a date. ’

He looked like he actually thought there was a possibility Jake wouldn’t love this idea.

‘You’re taking me on a date ?’ Jake took his hands off Theo’s back, but only so he could hook them behind Theo’s neck and pull him down for a kiss.

‘Yeah,’ Theo said, when they broke apart.

‘Are you doing this because I said I’d never been on a date?’

Theo looked a bit sheepish. ‘I want to take you on a date. And you should get to go on dates. You’d like dating.’

‘Why?’

Theo pressed a kiss to Jake’s jaw. ‘You like people.’ Another just under his ear. ‘And you love attention.’

Jake shoved Theo away, then tugged him back in for a proper kiss. ‘Don’t be mean to me on my birthday,’ Jake told him, once he needed to breathe.

‘You like the idea?’

‘Fuck yeah,’ Jake said. ‘Best birthday ever.’

He pulled Theo down for another kiss and tried to show his enthusiasm for the idea with his mouth. Theo spun them so Jake was pressed against the wall, and Jake was pretty committed to being late for laser tag when Theo broke the kiss.

‘We shouldn’t be late,’ Theo said, re-tucking his shirt. ‘Xen and Paddy are meeting us there, and we don’t want to give them ammunition to pay us out.’

‘It’s my birthday. The party starts when I get there.’

‘But our laser-tag booking starts at six.’

Jake pouted, but allowed himself to be led out the door.

He hadn’t played laser tag since he was at school, and it turned out that playing with a group of professional athletes was quite different.

Theo was the most competitive player imaginable, and the sort of person who strategised.

Theo and Gabby formed an unholy alliance for a while, and because it was Jake’s birthday everyone was making it their personal mission to fuck him up.

It was a good thing he was quick on his feet.

Theo was so focused on actually winning at laser tag that Jake had to shoot him several times before he’d allow himself to be pulled behind some fake debris to be kissed.

Jake had just managed to distract him very thoroughly from the game when Paddy – fucking Paddy, fucking again – managed to fall over them, and then Dex barrelled in to end Paddy’s life and Jake was glad for the low lighting.

It was absolute chaos. Jake wasn’t sure he’d ever seen Theo laugh so much. They were all going to have a lot of bruises for people playing a game that was, theoretically, non-contact. Lucky it wasn’t paintball, or somebody might have died.

Theo won, because he shot Gabby in the back (figuratively, literally) at a crucial moment, and his smug little smile made Jake want to do unspeakable things to him.

They piled out, sweaty and laughing, and Jake hoped wherever they were going wasn’t posh, because none of them looked ready for anything with tiny plates or weird edible foam.

In fact, dinner was at a low-key Italian place in Collingwood.

Jake had heard of it but had never been.

The waiter led them into a small room at the back, separated from the rest of the restaurant by a floor-to-ceiling wine rack.

There was a round table set up for five, and then a two-person table complete with flowers and a candle.

Jake blinked at it. It definitely said date , but it also . .. wasn’t exactly subtle.

‘Jaze and Stavsy lost at laser tag,’ Dex told the waiter, who’d clearly recognised the group. ‘So they’re on a date now.’ They gestured at the table. Dex lowered their voice theatrically. ‘Jake was hoping it would be Drips.’

Jake looked at Theo. It was brilliant. Not that Jake really thought anyone would give a shit, but if the staff were footy fans and recognised them, it was perfect cover. Exactly the sort of joke they’d expect.

‘Is this okay?’ Theo asked. He held the chair for Jake.

Held the chair. Jake heard someone snort behind them and gave them the finger behind his back.

He was on a date, and he was going to take all the fucking chivalry Theo wanted to give him while they were here, and then he was going to take anything else Theo wanted to give him later. Say please and thank you , too.

‘It’s perfect,’ he told Theo.

Theo sat down across from him. ‘I mean, don’t call it yet.’

Jake knew he was grinning like a dumbass. He reached across the table and brushed his fingers over the back of Theo’s hand. ‘Thanks.’

‘You’re welcome.’

It turned out that being on a sort of double date with a group of footballers was not the most intimate dinner imaginable, but it was definitely funny .

The rest of the group managed to get through the entree and half of the main course before they started actively commentating the date.

Dex could do eerily accurate impersonations of a lot of football personalities.

Jake half expected Theo to be embarrassed about it, but he clearly thought they were hilarious.

Jake was realising that Theo actually could be pretty chill – when he was around people he trusted.

‘Want to try one of these?’ Theo said, pointing to what Jake now knew were zucchini flowers. Who knew that zucchinis had flowers ?

‘Sure.’

Theo speared one with his fork and then, instead of putting it on Jake’s plate, held his fork up to Jake’s mouth.

Jake blinked at him. Okay, if he wanted to play it like that.

Jake leaned forward, holding eye contact, and opened his mouth, wrapping his lips around the fork and pulling back slowly. Something shifted in Theo’s gaze.

Someone, probably Paddy, wolf-whistled.

‘Urgh, gross,’ Dex said, breaking their commentator impression. ‘Make it stop.’

Theo started to laugh, and then there was almost a full-scale incident, because that set Jake off laughing too and his mouth was still full of cheese and zucchini flower.

They managed to eat dessert without too much input from anyone else, because Paddy and Gabby had become so outrageous in trying to one-up each other that they’d drawn the attention away from the date.

Jake and Theo were able to share some sort of chocolate-and-caramel thing and make heated eye contact without anyone making vomiting noises.

‘So, what do you think of dating?’ Theo asked, quietly.

Jake glanced towards the other table. ‘Next time, let’s see if we can lose the entourage.’

Theo smiled. ‘Agreed.’

‘But I would’ve been stressed if we’d just gone out on a date. Like, maybe it would’ve been fine, but also maybe someone would have snapped a pic and put it on Big Footy or something.’

They wrapped up dinner when the volume reached an uncontrollable level. Xen was making noises about bedtime while the others were in an argument about where to go next.