Lance was almost back into the kitchen when a pair of hands slid over his eyes. Lance grinned. “Hmm, I wonder who it could be?”
Josh laughed and turned his boyfriend to face him. “I was bored so I decided to come and harass you at work.”
Lance laughed and took Josh’s hand in his, leading him back into the kitchen. Joey was working on another dish, and Britney and Justin were still washing the dishes, since they hadn’t exactly gotten it done earlier.
“Hey Josh,” Joey said with a wave and a mouth full of pasta.
“Joey, that’s nasty,” Lance told him, hitting him with a dish towel. Joey just laughed and swallowed. “It’s good,” he said.
Josh looked over to see that Britney and Justin were kissing.
“Whoa, do they do that often?” he asked.
Joey sighed in exasperation. “Not again!”
“See, if you worked here -we- could do that all day,” Lance said with a grin.
“Getting paid to kiss you all day? Sounds like the best job their is.” Lance and Josh grinned at each other and started to lean in to kiss each other, but Joey said, “Please, there’s already too much cheese in the pasta, we don’t need even more from you two.”
Lance rolled his eyes. “That was lame, Joe. Come on,” he said, to Josh. “Where are we going?” Josh asked.
“We’re going to see if this couple I’ve been serving needs anything else. One of them looks like he’s miserable, so I’ve tried to be as nice as I can to him.”
Before they could get to the table, someone ran into Josh, prying his and Lance’s hands apart.
“I’m sorry,” the person, a man, said.
“No, it’s... Danny?”
“JC?”
“Oh my God.”
Lance looked back to see Josh and the guy from the table he had been waiting on, the one with the attitude, hugging each other.
“How have you been?” Dan asked as Josh pulled away from him.
“Okay. How about you?”
‘Okay, he’s just been okay?’ Lance thought to himself.
“Good, I’ve been good.”
“That’s good.”
Lance heard someone approaching him from behind, and he looked back to see the other guy from the table, the nice one, approaching them.
“Man, it’s been a long time. What are you doing here?” Dan asked.
“I live around here now.”
‘Yeah, and you’ve got a boyfriend,’ Lance said in his head.
“What...what are -you- doing here? I mean, you moved to Miami, didn’t you?”
Dan nodded and said, “Yeah, it’s nice down there.”
“Do you know that guy?” the man from the table asked Lance in a whisper. “Is his name Josh?”
Lance looked at the man with a quizzical expression. “How did you know that?”
The man nodded to himself before clearing his throat, loud enough for Josh and Dan to hear. They looked over and it was like they had just noticed, or remembered, that anyone else was there.
“Oh God, this must look so weird,” Josh said. “Lance, this is Danny. Danny, this is Lance, my boyfriend.”
Dan looked sharply at Lance, and Lance smirked. “I believe we’ve met. How’s the food?”
“It’s excellent,” Chris said, and Dan turned to him. “Oh hey, did you finish your food?”
“No, I just came to see where you were,” Chris told him.
“Oh, well, I think you two know each other,” Dan said, looking from Josh, to Chris, back to Josh. They both nodded.
“Hey JC, why don’t you join us? Chris and I were just in the middle of eating dinner,” Dan said. “Your friend here is our waiter, I’m sure he wont mind if one more person joins our party. Right?” he asked, looking at Lance.
Josh looked over at Lance for a moment before turning to Dan. “I’ll be there in a minute, okay?” Dan nodded and walked off, Chris following him.
“Who is that? And why did he call you JC?” Lance asked.
“That was Danny. You know, the guy I was dating before I met you. I told you about him, remember?”
Lance was silent. He didn’t know what to say, the situation had just become ten times more awkward for him. “And JC is what I used to go by when we were dating. You know, Josh Chasez, JC...”
“Yeah, I got it,” Lance said, more sharply than he had intended to.
Josh sighed and took Lance’s hand in his own. “I know this must be awkward for you, it is for me too.”
Lance nodded. “Have you already eaten or do you want something?”
“I’ve already eaten, but,” Josh said, pulling Lance closer to him and pressing their foreheads together, “I would like some coffee. You know what kind I like.”
Lance laughed softly and smiled. Josh pulled away and headed towards the back of the restaurant, while Lance went into the kitchen.
*
