Drinking together (Part 1).

I still felt fine by the time evening rolled around, if somewhat tired because of practice and because spending nearly all day with people who aren’t my girls is exhausting in and of itself.

As I went to the kitchen to check the pantry to see what we’d eat tomorrow, I was starting to make a list of the things I’d have to do. There was the usual workout routine and I had to practice more on my own, but I also had to record some stuff for the channel. If I manage to get everything done quickly, I should have enough time to get some proper rest before the week starts again…

“Oliver,” Grace called me from the living room. “What are you doing?”

“Hm? Just checking that we have enough beef for tomorrow’s stew,” I told her, taking the frozen meat from the freezer and leaving it down in the fridge.

She let out a heavy sigh. “So you’re still too busy to let yourself finally relax?”

“I mean… I don’t want to forget to take out the beef,” I said innocently.

“Fine. Now, come on. We’re all in the bar. It’s about time we use it properly, right?” Grace came up to me, grabbed my hand and guided me out of the kitchen, leaving me no room to refuse. Not that I was going to.

Like she said, everyone was gathered at the bar. We had a low table with two couches across from one another, set up specifically for when we decided to hang out here. The living room was pretty comfortable, too, so we had yet to use the bar until now. Spread across the table were plenty of snacks. A variety of chips and dips, ham, cheese, mixed nuts and what seemed to be a bowl of grilled shrimp.

“Oliver, order up!” Mila said, raising her glass and gesturing towards Diana, who was behind the counter finishing up another drink.

“Order up!” Fern echoed, raising her glass with Mila. Her cheeks already seemed to have a faint red tint, which told me she was at least one or two glasses in already. Seeing the chocolate in her glass, I understood that we had yet another victim of the sweetness of the mudslide.

“Like they said, order up,” Diana herself told me.

“...Do we have any wine?” I asked her.

“We do. Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot?” she asked me.

“Merlot,” I said.

“What’s a Merlot?” Noelle asked.

“And since when do you drink wine?” Alice asked with a soft giggle.

“Merlot is a type of grape used to make wine. It has a softer and sweeter taste than other varieties. Seeing the food you prepared, wine seems like the best choice to go with them. Blame my job for making me learn this stuff. Actually, blame her,” I said, nodding towards Diana.

“Knowing this is stuff is part of what makes you popular with the customers, so you should be thanking me,” Diana said.

“Come on, sit down,” Grace said, scooting to the side so I could sit next to her.

I did, then Diana came over with my and Grace’s drink, set them down in front of us, then sat down to my left after bringing her own glass of wine.

“How was practice?” Noelle asked me.

“We might actually be able to do this,” I said. “We’re not as terrible as I thought we’d be.”

“See? I told you,” Mila said.

“I was going to ask if some of you would like to go to that event,” Fern said. “So it was a huge surprise to hear you’d be playing there.”

I nodded. “It did come out of nowhere. Luna and Ruby could’ve just performed by themselves, but Steven has been trying to butter us up to the idea of forming a band. I guess he’s getting to them.”

“And you, apparently,” Grace said, taking a sip of her piña colada. “You’re stubborn enough to refuse if you truly believed it was a bad idea.”

“Yep, that sounds like our Oliver,” Sarah said.

I groaned. “I guess. My… apprehension has nothing to do with their skills, really. It’s that… save for Eric, I just met them. And I’m not getting any sort of… supernatural feelings about them. Neither negative nor positive, so… I wanted to wait a bit longer.”

Diana finished eating a piece of cured ham and turned to look at me. “Not even from those two girls? They’re pretty cute.”

“Right?” Sarah nodded in agreement. “I can see that they’re not fully your type, but… maybe like 70% your type?”

“Hey, they’re dating each other, so it’s not even appropriate. Besides, you know that the trigger has little to do with how they look, right?” I told them. “There was this girl we met at the mall once who was also really cute, yet all my senses were telling me she was bad news.”

“Oh, right. Her…” Grace said. “I’d almost forgotten.”

“Wait, that happened?” Fern asked. “Like, your magic senses told you someone was dangerous?”

“Not ‘dangerous’ per se. More like we’d be totally incompatible. The exact opposite of what I felt when I met you and Diana.”

Fern smiled and hid a giggle behind her glass. Even Diana seemed to get a little giddy, though she was a lot better at hiding it.

“Hey, speaking of those magical senses,” Alice began. “Did they say nothing about the rest of us?”

I shook my head. “No, but I’m pretty sure that’s because we hadn’t developed our abilities to that point yet. I only started to be able to read minds… When was it? I think it was a few weeks before you and I went out on our first date,” I told Alice. “And even then it hurt my head.”

“Fine, I’ll believe it,” Alice said, picking up a small cheese cube and eating it to hide her pout.

“But it’s true…” I said.

“Let her be,” Sarah said, nudging Alice with her shoulder and grinning teasingly. “She just wants to hear you say that you’re perfect for each other.”

“Alice is a lot needier than she appears, after all,” Mila said.

Alice grumbled. “‘Needy’ is too strong of a word.”

I took a sip of my glass of wine and took a deep breath. I could practically feel both my mind and body relaxing. This casual atmosphere with the girls… there’s nothing like it.

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