Chapter Twenty-One
Nick
Within the hour, Jaymie and I were in a cab headed to a five-star restaurant called Volt in downtown Berlin. She looked fucking gorgeous and I found myself feeling restless beside her in the backseat. The dress she’d pulled from the long garment bag was emerald green and seemed to hang from her shoulders like it was made to adorn her body. “You’re beautiful,” I said as the street lamps flashed by, a constant strobe light that gave her a magical, almost shimmering effect.
“Thanks,” she said quietly.
Volt was about fifteen minutes from the hotel, and by the time we got there it was drizzling just a little bit. Jaymie squealed as she ran from the car to the doors of the restaurant, and I held my arm up so she could duck under me to save herself from the water. She laughed, exhilarated by the run once we got inside and she’d made it without melting. The restaurant was warm and low-lit, wood and brick in a modern-meets-industrial-meets-elegance sort of feeling. Rows of tables lined the narrow walls, with fire escape style upper floors overlooking them. A fireplace crackled at the far end of the room.
“Willkommen!” a maitre’de said, stepping out from behind a low desk at the entry way.
“Hello,” I said, “er.. Two?”
“Ahh, visitors,” he said, smiling, “Welcome, in that case.” He grabbed two English menus from behind the desk, “Right with me.” And we followed him up a staircase to the furthest table on the second level of seating, overlooking the fireplace and the other patrons below. “Do you want to drink?” he asked, waving a wine list before us.
“I’ll have some red wine,” Jaymie replied, “Whatever you recommend.”
“We have a very nice Dornfelder,” he suggested, “It’s a very good wine. Very German.”
“Sure,” she smiled shyly, and he turned to me.
“None for me, thanks,” I answered.
“Your waiter will bring that to you in just a moment, miss,” he said, and he dropped the two English menus down in front of us with a flourish, smiled, and walked away.
Jaymie and I looked around the restaurant in silence for a few moments. Even though the music and atmosphere was elegant and mellow at this point, I could see how Volt might come to life later at night or with the right crowd, it had potential to double as a club the way it was set up and decorated. I looked over at Jaymie, who was watching the flickering fireplace, and I realized I had no idea what the hell to say.
“This place is nice,” she commented, looking up at me, catching me staring. “Very industrial, yet chic.”
“I like it,” I agreed.
“So…” she raised an eyebrow, “Do you bring all your German girlfriends here then?”
I shook my head, “Never been here before. Another first.”
She smiled and looked down at the menu, a little bit of a blush to her face.
I looked down at the menu, too, and we busied ourselves with selecting meals in silence for a couple of moments so that by the time the waiter arrived several minutes later with Jaymie’s glass of Dornfelder we knew exactly what we wanted to order. He put a basket of bread in the center of the table. Jaymie ordered a pasta dish and I got a lamb and kale sandwich and the waiter swept away, leaving us to ourselves.
I watched as she raised the glass of wine to her lips and sipped. She smiled as she lowered the glass, “Mmm,” she mumbled. “He’s a genius, that’s good stuff.”
“We can get a bottle,” I suggested.
She twirled the glass gently between her fingertips. I realized that she was just as lost for words as I was. We never had to manufacture conversation between us. Typically by now on any “date” that I’d been on with Jaymie, we would’ve been in the restroom for a quickie. I felt stirrings in my pelvis at the thought of it. But no, I told myself. This was different, tonight was different. She’d said the L-word on the plane, and as much as I’d wanted her to not love me, I couldn’t help but know that she did and… and maybe even feel the same way back.
And love didn’t always resort to quickies to keep from having to talk to each other.
I have a feeling that’s in the rule book somewhere or something.
“So,” I said.
“So,” Jaymie said.
“So,” I said again.
Jaymie laughed, “Jesus. We’re so awkward at this, you’d think we were strangers. What the fuck?”
Her cursing made some of the tension of the moment lessen for me and I laughed. Whatever happened, I realized, she was still the same Jaymie.
“Nick,” she said, “In all seriousness. How high should my hopes be? About us, I mean?”
I stared into her eyes, considering her, us, everything. A warm sort of feeling crawled through my stomach. “High,” I answered.
She lifted her wine to her lips again, a smile spreading across her mouth, “I like that answer,” she said, as she sipped, never moving her eyes from mine.
Jaymie
Nick was smiling at me from across the table still as I held my glass to my mouth, my eyelashes fluttering at him over the rim. I lowered the glass and he followed my hand as I brought it to the table, his eyes paused halfway… on my chest.
He licked his lips.
“So what are you thinking about right now?” I asked him.
Nick’s eyes traveled up to my face. “I… uh…”
“Perv,” I laughed.
Nick grinned, a little bit of a blush playing around his cheeks. “I am not,” he said, talking to his placemat.
“No?” I kicked my shoe off under the table, and slipped my foot up the length of his leg, “Are you sure?” I asked as my toes reached his thigh and slowly made their way upward. He closed his eyes and bit his lip when my toe made contact. I smirked, “Impressive bulge for someone who isn’t being pervy,” I commented.
Nick groaned quietly as I rubbed him gently through his suit pants with my toes, looking as innocent as could be from above. “Jesus,” he mumbled.
I dropped my foot away from him as our waiter returned. “More wine, miss?” he asked me, and I held up my glass in response. Nick was trying to collect himself while the waiter poured the ruby drink into my glass. I smiled across the table. “Can I get anything else for you?” the waiter asked.
“We’re good, thanks,” Nick replied, and he turned to watch as the waiter walked away.
I took the opportunity. While Nick was turned, I ducked under the table and crawled toward him. Nick jumped in surprise when I put my hands on his legs and pushed his knees apart. “Oh fuck,” he whispered. “Jaymie.”
“Shh,” I whispered back.
I pushed open his suit jacket and reached for the belt and buttons on his pants, undoing them quickly. He shifted his hips forward in the seat as I started rubbing his length slowly. “Shit,” he whispered, “Oh shit.” He was crazy responsive to my touch, his body pushing against my palm until I wrapped my fingers around him and guided him into my mouth. He almost choked and jerked his body in surprise. “Fuck,” he groaned. I laughed around him and bobbed my head against him. He put his hand on his leg, squeezing his knee with his fingers in reaction to my motion.
I think I had him pretty close to the end of his rope when I heard the waiter on the stairs and I released him quickly and backed away, hitting my head on the underside of the table. Nick scrambled to close his pants and I climbed out from under the table, catching the tablecloth on my way, my hair getting messed up. The waiter was just arriving to the table as I popped back up. Nick was flushed, still fiddling with his pants. “I found my contact lens,” I said, holding up my fingers, pinched together and I turned away, pretending to put in an imaginary contact lens.
The waiter didn’t say anything, but he smirked knowingly as he put our plates down on the table.
Nick stared at me as I started eating after the waiter had gone away. “What?” I asked.
“Just… your mouth, I can’t take my eyes off it,” he said.
I laughed, “Is my lipstick all fucked up now?” I asked.
He laughed, “Nawh. Well, maybe a little. But it’s okay. It’s hot as hell.”
“It’s the least I could do,” I said, “Considering what a wonderful place you’ve brought me to and everything. Consider it payback,” I smirked at him, then went back to eating my pasta.
“Jaymie,” he said, his voice serious. I looked up at him. “I don’t expect you to ‘pay me back’ with sex. You know that, right?”
“Yeah,” I answered. I sipped my wine.
He picked up his sandwich, stared at it, then put it back down. “Like seriously you get it, I want to be… yanno… more… right?”
“More?”
“Yeah. Like. Not just about sex?”
I nodded.
“Okay,” he said, and he picked up the sandwich again and took a big bite. As he chewed he studied me carefully. I speared a few more bits of pasta and chewed right back at him.
I wondered if he knew how much it was killing me not to beg him to get the treatment. If he could guess how many blow jobs I’d wager in payment if he’d just let the doctors fix him. My heart was screaming at me to make him an offer, to tell him to name the price it would cost to make him go. But my head was catching the whimsy of my heart, reminding it what Brian had said.
”The first rule of Brian’s Code is that you cannot tell Nick about the Code.”
“How very Fight Club of you,” I’d chided him.
“You’ve met Nick. This is way more intense than Fight Club.” Brian’s eyes had twinkled. “The second rule of Brian’s Code is that Nick must always, always, always think that all major life decisions are his own. As they say, you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink. This is a true story. However, you can lead the horse to water after feeding him a whole bunch of salty snacks and he’ll figure out his thirsty all on his own, if you know what I mean?”
“You mean drop hints until he thinks of it on his own?”
“Exactly. Say it without saying it, and when he comes up with the idea you congratulate him like it’s an entirely original thought.”
I’d laughed, “You seriously think this will work?”
Brian had smirked, a dangerous twinkle in his eyes, “Jaymie… How do you think we’ve survived for twenty years with him? Just remind him what it is that’s worth living for and he’ll come to the conclusion on his own with the slightest of nudges in the right direction. Trust me.”
Well, I thought, staring across the table at Nick’s flushed face as he ate his lamb and kale sandwich, You better be right, Brian.
I had a lot to lose if he was wrong.
Chapter End Notes:
If you're curious, here's a link to a 3D view of the restaurant I was basing this chapter on: http://www.restaurant-volt.de/volt3d/
