A/N: Thank you to both Supergactik and SmilingSatyr for their reviews! And to remove any fears, this is not an NTR story.

  My eyes widened, and I took her hand out of reflex. “We never dated.”

  “Didn’t you?” Victoria said, and her tail, fluffier than Vanni’s I noted absentmindedly, waved back and forth. “She talked about you allll the time.”

  “I did not!” Vanni’s ears drooped as she followed her arms and gnced at the ground.

  “So this isn’t Liam?”

  “Okay, let’s all chill for a second.” I held up my hand. “It’s nice to meet you. But like I said, we never dated.”

  Victoria’s tone was overly casual, and she pretended to study her nails. “Really? Because we did. For several months. She never mentioned it?”

  “No?” Vanni’s face was red, and she refused to meet my eye. “You never mentioned that. Which, considering how much you teased me about getting a girlfriend, is strange.”

  “It was a lot of fun, but not a big deal.”

  Victoria’s tail straightened up behind her like an excmation point. Vanni bit her lip and cursed herself. Someone around us let out a long, loud, ooooooh. Another voice, a woman yelled out, you tell her Vanni! A step brought me closer to my friend, and I looked about to see if anyone else would get any ideas to join our conversation. None did.

  With a shake of her head, Victoria pressed the menus tight against her chest. “Wow, alright. So, a table for two then? Maybe I can order Vanni a shoe for the foot she just stuck in her mouth. At least you didn’t call me an experiment.”

  “Oh, shut up,” Vanni grumbled. “You were the confirmation, and you know it.”

  I resisted the urge to ugh, not helped when Victoria winked at me. If she wasn’t that upset, I couldn’t see a reason to be. She waved for us to keep up, and we followed her through the restaurant. Vanni didn’t take her eyes off the woman as we made our way to the table.

  Our short walk slowed to a crawl thanks to the owners’ peculiar design choices. In complete disregard of logic, or what I suspected were several fire codes, they had elected to toss as many tables into the space as they could manage.

  We squeezed through narrow gaps, and around other customers, and as I went, I counted each type of uniform. Though the distribution of workers had always skewed towards the mines, the sheer infrequency of steel mill jumpsuits was odd to me.

  It was obvious this was a popur spot, and the smell that wafted from the kitchen expined why. The simmering scents of meat were distracting enough that I was happy to chalk the discrepancy up to the time. Vanni had dragged me here early. Maybe it was simply a te-shift day at the steel mill.

  Through it all, Victoria found plenty of ways to show off. More than once she had to bend down to hear a customer better, or swing her hips wide to avoid another server. Beside me, Vanni’s attention remained glued to the other woman. When she spotted me watching her, she jabbed me in the side. I chuckled, which earned me a gre.

  Finally, Victoria showed us to our seats, and Vanni all but shoved me down. Our table, crammed into a corner near a window, was underneath a strange mural. A collection of Beastkin wolves and humans sat around a cookfire. Banced on a long stick over the fmes was a cooking pot, which spewed out what appeared to be green smoke. I didn’t understand it.

  Vanni slid into her seat opposite me. Victoria kept the menus under one arm and simply pulled out a pad with an attached pen and asked. “Your usual?”

  “And a burger and strawberry milkshake combo for him.”

  “Hey, I can order for myself.” My protest fell on deaf ears, Victoria’s pencil already scribbling something before he gave me another wink.

  “You know she was never this forceful with me.”

  “Oh my God, Victoria!” Vanni groaned, and covered her face with her hands, but it didn’t hide the blush. “You’re the worst. I regret introducing you to him.”

  I shrugged and put on a pleading look. “You’ll have to teach me how you do that. If I say that kind of thing, she hits me.”

  “She does like it rough.”

  “Victoria!” This didn’t come from Vanni, but a male voice that boomed from the kitchen. His accent was unfamiliar. Victoria straightened and darted off without so much as a goodbye.

  “Are you alright?” I asked Vanni after she stopped covering her face.

  “Yes.” Her pointed look made it clear I should not continue that line of questioning. “No. I didn’t break up with her because I’m secretly in love with you. Vic really was my insight that I wasn’t into boys or having children.”

  Unable to help myself, I leaned in. “Did she want kids?”

  “Yes, despite the impracticalities. That, and she was practically ready to move in by our third date. She’s great, and the physical intimacy was amazing, but she wanted way more than I did. It’s a pity that she might be my only choice in a small town like this.”

  “You’re a hot punk girl who runs a record shop. Put your name out there, you’ll have three or four girlfriends by the week’s end.”

  “So what? I can match all yours?” She teased, but the slight blush on her face told me she was thinking over the idea. “Oh, no, wait, you’re a one-woman kind of guy, aren’t you? More literally than most.”

  “And we’re back here again.” I made a show of slumping in my seat.

  Her foot lightly kicked mine. “Did you think I was going to drop it? You want to date my mom. This is important.”

  Despite her words, she didn’t continue right away. Instead, she slowly tapped out a beat on the table as she stared off into space over my shoulder. I recognised the soft tap, tap-tap-tap, tap. It was a song we made up as kids. She let the silence stretch on for so long that I almost started to fidget. Then she spoke.

  “Are you actually interested in dating my mom? Or is it just a…” She paused as though she was struggling with how to phrase it. “God, don’t make me say it. You know what I mean, and I don’t really want to think about it more than I have to.”

  I chuckled, and the gre she shot me made me ugh harder. Once I composed myself, I attempted my most serious face. Then, when she cracked up, I rexed and answered as honestly as I could. “Yes. I want to date Caroline. To let you know though, I’m not interested in a one-night stand. Not with her, or anyone really.”

  “Your time at college must have been dull with that attitude.”

  “Or maybe I had fun elsewhere.” I gred, but the sternness wasn’t there. “But I do want to try dating her. Maybe it’s me being a young idealist or whatever, but sue me. I like the idea of taking things slow.”

  Vanni stopped her relentless tapping on the table. “Slow, huh? You’re actually serious.”

  “Yup, I am. Not that it matters. Unless you know something I don’t, I doubt she’d go for it.” The self-pity in my words made me wince.

  “Maybe not. It’s not like Mom has exactly dated a lot herself. You should try, see what happens.”

  “Are…” I paused, the insanity of my next question boggling my mind. “Are you actually suggesting I try to seduce Caroline?”

  “It might be a pleasant distraction for her if you aren’t too much of a pervert about it. Plus, we can skip the awkward part of me having to get to know the guy she brings home and move right into me telling you that you’re not my real dad.”

  I let the idea sink in. Through the jokes, I could sense the raw emotion there. The vulnerability it had taken for her to give even this level of permission. A flood of emotions ran through me, but our dynamic helped me filter down to one response.

  “Probably wise, you calling me that would be weird. But what did you mean about a distraction?”

  Vanni didn’t answer. I thought she was ignoring me until I realised her attention had shifted to Victoria’s approach. My assumption that she was checking her out again faded when I saw the food. Though important, the incoming development dislodged the conversation from my brain. The burger was massive. Cheese all but dripped down the sides, and there was already a pool of sauce at the bottom of the tray.

  Next to it sat a milkshake that looked fancy enough to be a meal in itself. The pink liquid frothed, and strawberry halves ringed the top. It was ridiculous, and I suddenly understood all the praise without even tasting it.

  “You’re staring,” Victoria teased as she pced it down before handing me my food.

  I pulled my eyes away from the burger and to what Vanni had ordered. It was a bowl of different meats cut up into star shapes. Her drink was dark and fizzy, with chocote and mint ice cream at the top. A rge metal straw stuck out of it, a mirror of my own.

  “This is.” I shook my head. “Yeah, I get why Caroline sang its praises.”

  “Right? You really cannot beat a Ronaldo’s meal,” Vanni said as she licked her lips.

  Victoria cackled. “Gods, you two are old friends, huh? Enjoy, don’t choke.”

  Her words washed over me as I poked the burger. A soft bun covered meat seared to perfection. My mouth watered, and neither of us did anything for the next few minutes but sate our appetites.

  “Okay.” My pte rattled when I bumped it with my now quarter-full shake. “So this pce is amazing, and you’re fine with me moving forward with Caroline, I guess? What’s the catch?”

  “No catch. I think it’ll be good for her, and for you. On the off chance it works, you’ll go into it without any of the hang-ups of her previous dates. If it doesn’t, you’ll hopefully move the hell on.” She jabbed a star-shaped bit of meat at me.

  “Riiiight. How should I go about this pn of yours? I can hardly knock on her door and be like, Hi Caroline, want to go on a date?” I mulled the idea over. “Well, I guess I could, but I won’t.”

  Vanni covered her mouth and ughed. “Good idea. Maybe wait a few days, see if something naturally comes up? I’m not saying you have to do it tomorrow, just that you have my blessing or whatever.”

  “Your permission is an important component of any courtship.”

  “Damn right.” She straightened up, all poise and grace, like a proper dy. “How could you do anything without my acknowledgement?”

  “Sneakily, I’m sure.”

  Despite the jokes, I felt freer. As if a weight I didn’t know I carried had vanished from my shoulders. Vanni changed the topic, and I half-listened to her as she spoke about some obscure band she’d discovered. It was interesting, but I couldn’t help but let my mind wander to our previous subject.

  What would a date with Caroline be like? How would I make it work? What would we do? Would it be weird if I took her here? My smile at the idea was thankfully taken as agreement with whatever Vanni had just said. I continued to chew on my burger, which somehow tasted better than before.

  With Vanni’s permission, did that mean I had a real chance? Should I take it slow, or rip the band-aid off? I didn’t exactly want to blurt it out, but I knew trying to make it a big romantic moment with loads of bells and whistles would be silly. The first step would require finding out what she thought of me; a discovery process that could take days.

  A whispered internal voice called me a coward, but I squashed it. We had time. I needed to reacclimatise myself, anyway. Get used to my old town once again. Work on my portfolio. It would be fine; a few days couldn’t hurt. I still couldn’t shake the idea that I was stalling.

  With effort, I dragged myself back into the present. Good food, fun conversation, and then renewal of an old friendship took up the rest of my evening. The more sedate walk home helped both my head and stomach. Vanni pulled me into another hug when we reached her gate. She didn’t bring up our earlier discussion, which I was thankful for.

  I waved goodbye for the second time that day before I went inside. Even while getting ready for bed, my mind raced with ideas, only stopping when I eventually fell asleep.

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