Bad Things

Chapter 21

Twenty-One
☢☢☢

[ Mature Content 18+ ]

The air was cool and playful in the garden, dancing along with a gleeful Italian love song being sung by a band at a corner while a small audience had gathered around them to sing along, laughing and drinking champagne. Jay looked as good as an angel in his suit (without a tie as always) as he strode over to join Al and I. Even from the distance, I could see his blue eyes burning as bright as the lights in the garden.

"Hey, Al! Since when do you get to go out with a girl like that!" A man hollered over the din, slightly drunk and face flushed red with laughter.

"It's been a good year!" Al replied to him as we met Jay mid-way among the crowd.

"Hello, beautiful," he quietly smiled at me, hands jammed in his pockets.

"Hi."

"Thanks, Al. Come on. Let's go get a drink."

"Shall I leave you guys?" Al asked, thinking Jay and I might want to be left alone now.

"No!" Jay and I answered together.

We went and sat at a table in a corner where it was relatively quiet compared to the buzzing noise we were wrapped up in. Jay whistled for Champagne that was immediately brought to our table. I looked around the place to get a feel of it since I still seem to feel a little flustered and out of place for a while there.

"You okay?" Jay asked me.

"Yeah, I'm good." I nodded and took a delightful sip of my champagne.

"It's a nice place," I said as my eyes wandered off again.

Long decorated tables stood piled up with food, that I didn't feel too interested in at the moment. Golden lights hung overhead from the branches of a huge oak tree beside us. The sky had been clear all through the day and I bet that the stars might be out in full glitter above us, but the lights illuminated in the garden hardly made us able to see anything.  At the corner where the band was, a group of older men began singing a  soulful Italian song, all raising their glasses to the song and bellowing out their operatic voices.

"Sounds like a fun song," I commented.

Jay smiled at me. "They make it sound fun but it's actually a very sad song."

"They know how to make fun out of everything," Al said watching them.

After drinking with us for a while, Al left us to join other friends. Jay pulled his chair closer to mine.

"Ricardo wants to meet you," he said, "He'll be asking for you later."

"Why?"

"Since we're dating, he's curious. He was the one who actually asked me to bring you tonight."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"I didn't really want to bring you here, because of the risk. But I'm glad you're here though. It's good to have you around."

"I'm happy to be here, see what's it like. . . I'm not afraid because I have you."

He nodded and held my hand under the table over my thigh, slowly and gently entwining his fingers with mine.

"When the party's over, we'll have better things to do, naked in bed," he murmurs trivially under his breath, his eyes wandering ahead of him aimlessly.

I found my chest suddenly bubbling with laughter at his words. He looked back at me and smiled with brilliant amusement in his eyes.

"I can't wait for it, Lo. I want you all the time."