Testing and tasting.

When Sarah and I came out of the bedroom, deciding to only put our underwear back on, we saw Mila, Alice, Noelle and Diana still playing a board game at the table while Grace looked on. Noelle glanced at us and pouted.

“Am I the only one who feels guilty that Red has to go outside when we start doing… stuff?” she asked.

“Don’t be. He’s mostly an outside dog,” Diana told her. “Even when I let him in he’s only allowed in a few places. He has his dog house outside, and even his own bed.”

“If you say so…”

“Who’s winning?”

“I’m not sure,” Mila said. “I’m really just trying to keep up. This game is really complex…”

“Alice is getting better, though,” Noelle said.

“I think I might beat Diana this time!” Alice said, grinning excitedly.

“Does that mean you’re giving up your turn with Oliver?” Grace asked with a teasing smirk.

Alice turned to me with a pleading look. “Just give me a couple of minutes, please!”

“You’re not beating me, Alice. Just go and take your turn,” Diana told the blonde, casually eyeing her dice and her hidden objective card.

I had to hold back a snicker. I could sense that Diana was actually nervous that Alice might take the round and had decided to bluff.

“I could use a small break,” I said, smirking and looking directly at Diana as I said that. “Focus, Alice.”

Alice beamed. “Thanks!”

I saw Diana grab her phone and handle it all casual-like, but a moment later I heard my phone buzzing in my pants’ pocket. When I went to check, I saw a message from Diana saying ‘You suck’ and I really had to try hard to hold back my laughter.

I stopped to watch the girls play for a moment, but I was absolutely lost. I couldn’t fully remember how the game was played and they were already in the final stages. That was when I noticed all the girls had a drink by their side and I decided to try my hand at something again.

“Diana, can I make myself a drink?”

“Hm? Oh, sure. Make whatever you want,” she told me.

I went to the bar with a drink already in mind. Diana had said my negroni was perfectly fine, and that was what I needed. Something I could make competently.

I added campari, gin and sweet vermouth to a mixing glass with ice, carefully measuring each liquor, and began to stir. As I did, however, I… How do I say it? Turned on the magic. It was still a very foreign thing to consciously do, but when I did I felt my body heating up from the inside. It didn’t hurt or make me sick, though, unlike the last time I tried. Frey had said it wouldn’t happen again unless I went crazy with practice, and I made sure to measure myself as well. I strained the drink into a rocks glass with a couple of ice cubes and garnished with an orange peel.

I let out a soft sigh and turned the magic off, feeling how my body slowly cooled down. I was starting to imagine it like a switch I could flip, and I think that in itself made the process easier. I was feeling fine, thankfully, but now… I had to taste it.

I took the smallest of sips, practically tasting the negroni with only my lips and already I noticed something very weird. The drink had ice, was shaken with ice and yet it was warm. Not quite hot, but very warm. The ice wasn’t melting, either, which made it even weirder.

I had another taste, this one with a proper sip, and made sure to properly taste the liquor. It really was weird. It tasted like a negroni, but only barely because it was warm and that changed everything. When my tongue touched the ice it was cold as it should be.

How the fuck did I manage this?

I kept quiet about it, drinking it carefully with slow sips as I watched the girls play. With every taste I became more and more convinced that this wasn’t good. Not just strange, but also not good. But more importantly, I was trying to see if I would catch any weird side-effects from it, and so far I felt nothing. Did I just change the taste without adding any magical effects? At times like these I wished I could talk to Frey directly, but I knew she wanted to keep herself away from my day-to-day life.

The girls’ game ended with Diana managing to squeeze in a win, if just barely. Alice put her forehead on the table and let out a loud, frustrated groan.

“So close…”

“Too close…” Diana said, counting the points again.

“How on earth did I beat you?” Mila asked Noelle.

“I was going for something and it didn’t work… Ugh.”

I drank the last of my negroni, and for whatever reason, that last sip tasted the worst. So bad, actually, that I had to wince.

“What’s wrong?” Grace asked me, seeing me make that weird face. “Does it taste bad?”

“I tried to add magic to the process,” I said. “Now it tastes warm despite having ice. It’s not good.”

“Excuse me?” Diana asked, turning around on her chair right before standing up and walking towards me. “Let me see.”

“Sorry, I drank it all,” I told her.

“Didn’t you just say it was bad?” Noelle asked me.

“Well, I wasn’t gonna waste it.”

“Wait, you added magic to it?” Alice asked, standing up and coming towards me as well. She watched as Diana picked up the glass to sniff it. “Um… How do you feel?”

“Normal. No side-effects for me,” I told her. “But it could be because I’m 50% sexual energy by now.”

“True,” Grace said. “I’m curious what would happen if we drank it, though…”

“Exactly my thoughts,” Alice said.

“I’m just shocked you made a drink with ice taste warm,” Diana said. “Spicy, maybe, but I don’t think that’s what you meant.”

Should I make another one? I felt confident that drinking it myself would be fine, but I wasn’t so sure about the others. I threw the question at Frey, hoping she’d give me some sort of signal. I asked her if it would be safe for them to drink a cocktail with sexual energy in it, and in response I… felt a faint, not unpleasant tingle between my legs.

I didn’t know she could do that, but I’d take it as a yes.

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