A group of friends streams their gaming on Wednesday nights. But not all the action is on the dining room table.

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Chapter 24 – An Evening With Friends

It took another three and a half flights of stairs for me to get down to the lobby and another flight back up once I learned the restaurant was on the building’s second floor. I was mulling over the desk attendant’s somewhat confusing directions when I pushed open the second-floor door, only to see Brian about ten feet from the door on the other side.

“Oh!” I said, jumping a bit but quashing the instinct to step back into the stairwell.

Brian chuckled. “I was just coming to make sure you were doing okay.”

“I’m fine,” I said, smiling up at him. “Why were you coming toward the stairs instead of the elevator?”

“You took them, didn’t you?”

“...Touché,” I agreed, giving him a suspicious look. “You know me too well, and now you must perish.”

Brian laughed again and closed the distance between us, wrapping an arm around my shoulders and giving me a gentle squeeze. “Can it wait ‘til after dinner?”

“This time,” I agreed, bumping him with my elbow and getting a happy but odd smile. “What?”

“Hmm? Oh, you just seem like you’re feeling happier, is all,” he said, squeezing me again as we walked down the hallway.

“I think I just needed a nap,” I told him.

“Maybe so,” he agreed, sounding unconvinced. “It’s nice to see though.”

“Oh, have I been too grumpy lately?” I asked, scowling at him.

“I wouldn’t say that,” he said, backing away from me a bit and putting up his hands, though his eyes were still crinkled with humor.

I sighed. “I kinda have been though,” I admitted. “But that’s gonna change. I’ve decided that this stuff’s supposed to be fun, so might as well try and enjoy it, right?”

“Right!” He agreed. “And left.”

“What?”

“To the restaurant.”

“Oh!”

The restaurant was called Cafe Kramer – appropriate, I suppose, given the hotel – and was made up to look like something I could only describe as halfway between an old-west saloon and a Cracker Barrel. The walls were covered in carefully faux-aged wood slats and old, rusty farming implements, and it had a darker floor that looked wood at first glance but felt like either tile or linoleum over concrete under my feet.

Combined with the country music blaring over the sound system and the bare tin with rough-cut wooden guards separating the tables and booths, it looked exactly like any of a number of “good ol' south” type restaurants I’d seen back home.

“Four hundred miles from home, but it almost feels like we never left,” Brian said with a heavy sigh, causing me to laugh since I’d been thinking almost the exact same thing. “Group’s over there.”

“Then lead the way, good Druid.”

“That I will, M’lady, that I will.”

The others waved as we approached, but nobody bothered to call out to us over the noise of the room. Brian using a hand in the middle of my back to guide me to a chair and then pulling it out for me did get us a couple of amused looks, but I ignored them.

“She finally makes it!” Maria crowed from her position at the nominal head of the table. “We thought you’d gotten abducted or something.”

“Nay, the brave druid kept me safe,” I tossed back, still in character after my and Brian’s exchange on the way to the table.

“Ah, so he did!” Aaron said, jumping into character as well. “Our thanks to the Druid who brought our princess safely to thine tavern.”

“Hail!” Sydney cheered, loud enough the table behind her turned to see what the fuss was.

“Hail!” Maria, Brian, and Deidre tossed in, too, before we all burst into laughter. Jonah rolled his eyes but didn’t even smirk when he did so, so I considered that as much positivity as I was gonna get from him for the evening.

"And would the noble lady care for a drink?" asked a waitress who seemed to apparate to my shoulder. To my surprise, she was in costume like us, with one of the restaurant's aprons tied over a set of neat-looking leather armor and her own set of elf ears peeking out through her hair.

"Indeed!" I said once I'd regained my composure. "What ales and fine wines do you have on offer, wench?"

She rattled off a list of drinks to me, then looked down and seemed to notice my baby bump for the first time. "M'lady...."

I sighed. "Just a coke is fine," I said, breaking character, but gave the waitress a smile to make sure she knew I wasn't upset.

"Very well. I'll be back to take food orders shortly."

I thanked her, then turned back to the rest of the table, who were looking at me with a mixture of amusement and puzzlement.

"Been getting that kind of thing a lot today?" Maria asked me, then took a sip of her own obviously alcoholic beverage.

"UGH," I groaned in response, slouching in my seat for just a moment before pulling myself back upright so as not to hurt my dress. "You wouldn't believe some of the crud I've had to deal with today."

"Guys holding doors for you, kindly older ladies asking when she's due, people offering you seats?"

"I mean, yeah," I agreed, shrugging. Then I glared at Maria. "She?"

"I'm kicking around ideas for if your kiddo's a boy or a girl, so I've got plans whatever the dice decide."

I tried to glare harder at her, but that only made her grin all the wider, so I brushed it off and continued. "I think I need to get a wedding band or something to wear with this damn thing, just so I get fewer questions about that, too."

Suddenly everyone's gazes turned to Brian.

"Hmm?" he said, looking up from his menu and shrugging. "What?"

"Nothing," Sydney said in a sing-song voice, then continued the sing-songiness into humming a few lines of 'Here Comes the Bride.'

Brian looked at her.

Then he looked at me.

Then he looked at the baby bump.

"Paternity test first."

"Hey!"

The rest of our friends laughed, and after a moment -- and a playful wink from Brian -- I did too.

"If you need a ring, I bet Aunt Cici can set you up with something later," Maria assured me. "She brought along a toolbox full of spare incidental props and repair materials just in case. I'd imagine she's got a wedding band in there somewhere."

"Aww, so no proposal?" Sydney asked, seeming legitimately disappointed.

"Not yet," Deidre said without looking up from her own menu.

Ugh.

"Dinner's on the business account. One alcoholic drink each," I made sure to get in before the cheering got too loud. That got a snort from Jonah and a few disappointed frowns from the rest of the table, but I found it hard to feel bad about it.

We spent the next few moments studying the menus, and I did my best to tune the sounds and smells of the room out as I figured out what I wanted. When the waitress returned with my drink, I was ready.

"Loaded baked potato."

"Ooh, that sounds good. Me too," Brian said.

"Coulda got tacos," I pointed out to him.

"Nah," he said, pointing to one of the nearby tables, where a plate of tacos sat. "See the shells? That ain't a taco."

"Aah," I said, rolling my eyes but not disagreeing with him. If there was one thing Brian took seriously, it was his tacos.

With the food order placed, and the waitress aware that I was taking care of the bill, the conversation resumed.

"...and after I got Jackson's autograph, we took some photos with fans in front of the doors to the auditorium. Have you guys seen that place yet?" Sydney asked around a mouthful of fried zucchini appetizer.

"Only in photos," I admitted. "It looked pretty big, though."

"Big is an understatement! I've been to concerts in smaller places!"

"That wasn't a concert. It was your cousin's band playing in the basement of an old flophouse," Deidre disagreed.

"We had to pay cover, so it counts! Anyway, place is massive."

"I didn't think anyone other than staff was supposed to be in there yet," I said, a little surprised. "I was told it was only being used for our shows, so we could leave things set up."

"Oh, Todd -- the camera guy we hired back in January? -- he let me in to check things out."

"Hmm," I hmmm'd.

"Don't be like that. He's been trying to get in my pants and just wanted to show off a bit. It's fine."

"Funny, guys don't usually have to try that hard."

"Hey!" Sydney complained, not at all actually offended by Deidre's barb. "Todd's a bit of a tool, but he wears a size fourteen shoe, so who knows," she said, giving me, Maria, and Deidre significant looks. "He -- oh, hey, food!"

The food was enough distraction that all conversation ceased for a while, giving me time to contemplate Syd's shoe comment.

Brian wore a size thirteen, didn't he?

I was pretty sure he did.

For some reason, that made me blush.

The potato was good and even bigger than I'd expected, enough so I was barely halfway through with it and considering a to-go box when I saw that Brian's plate was already empty.

"Did you even taste it?" I asked him, causing Aaron to choke-laugh around a mouthful of the steak he had ordered.

"A bit here and there," Brian agreed, eyeing my own plate. "You not gonna eat any more than that?"

"I don't think I could if I tried," I said, pushing my plate his way.

"And here I thought pregnant girls were supposed to be insatiable."

"That's ice cream and pickles," Maria said, getting a nod of agreement from Deidre.

"Ice cream?" I said, perking up a bit at that. "I mean, I could probably find a little more room...."

It was... fun, just sitting and chatting with everyone, and for the first time in a while, I felt like I was actually relaxing around my friends.

Just how long had I been letting the stress get to me?

And why?

"Hey, you all right?" Brian asked, leaning over and giving my shoulder a squeeze.

I looked in his eyes and saw the care and concern there. Then I looked around the table at all my friends, smiling and laughing. Oh, and Jonah was there too, and he didn't even seem to be trying to look annoyed.

"I'm great," I said, reaching up and squeezing his hand but letting it go just as quickly. I was great, but I was still confused by us.

That could wait 'til later, though.

"So, what's everyone else got planned for tonight?" Maria asked the table as the waitress cleared away the last of the dinner and dessert plates, mine not being the only ice cream bowl.

"Updating our social feeds," Syd said, with less enthusiasm than she'd had during the meal.

"I need to get back to our merch agent about an issue with the new mugs," Deidre said, holding up her phone for us to see the email displayed on it.

"I have to call one of the donors to the youth center to double-check a pledge," Aaron admitted, shrugging.

"Wow, busy, busy," Maria said. "I guess I could double-check my materials for the game tomorrow?"

I looked at the group again, seeing hints of the same stress I had been feeling. Maybe I wasn't the only one who needed to relax a bit more.

I pulled out my program for the con and looked over the night's events and couldn't help but laugh. "Guys, I got a better idea."

"Hmm?"

I held up the program so everyone could see it. "Who here wants to see a Rocky Horror show?"

"The merch guy can wait," Deidre agreed, her eyes sparkling.

"I can probably put together a Magenta costume if you give me half an hour. Think Cici would help?" Syd asked, giving Maria a pleading look.

Maria chuckled. "Guess if things go sideways tomorrow, I'll blame Leigh. Sure, let's go!"

I looked over at Brian again, saw his smile, and smiled back. He squeezed my shoulder again, and this time when I squeezed his hand, I kept mine there.

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