Chapter 2
Tate
At what point had we gone from friends with questions to actually dating?
I knew Joel had been very clear about the fact he felt special and he was happy with how things were going. He might not have defined out loud what he thought we were doing but he knew he was important to us, and judging from the amount of smiles and laughter he'd given us over the past week or so, he was fucking delighted about everything we'd done.
But clearly we'd jumped from friends doing shit and being happy about that to dating. Being Olive Garden special was some kind of level of dating and even Dean hadn't blinked at the idea, so chances were that he thought we were dating too.
It kind of made sense in a weird circular logic kind of way because if we were doing shit together and sleeping together most nights and going out to dinner where Joel felt special that had to mean we were dating. But it also brought up a lot of questions I hadn't really thought about.
What would push us from dating to being something like boyfriends?
What were the other levels of dating if being Olive Garden special seemed to be a solid first step?
What was Dean expecting beyond Olive Garden dates?
I was turning into the worrier in the group, but I couldn't stop the questions firing through my brain, and for once, I was really glad he was the one driving. Control freak tendencies aside, I knew I was too distracted to be behind the wheel.
That was weird in itself because I was usually really focused and he was the wildly overthinking one.
This was all Brady's fault.
"Does Tate want dessert too?" Joel was half turned around in the front passenger seat and looking at me like I was a broken TV. "I can help him pick one if it's hard."
Dean hummed and shook his head as we inched closer to the restaurant in the slow-as-fuck traffic. "I don't think that's the problem, but thank you for offering to help him."
"You're welcome." Sitting straighter, Joel basked in being a good boy. "I could help him eat it too if that's the problem."
I had no doubt about that.
Laughing, Dean shook his head. "No, I think he's just taken my place as the overthinker for the moment."
Joel's head turned so far around it looked like we'd somehow ended up in a horror movie. " Why would he do that ? Did we break him? Wait. Did Brady break him? Did Brady's Daddy break him? Do you know what his name is? He frowns a lot."
Maybe?
Quick shrugs from both of us had Joel moving on quickly from that last question. "Brady's kind of nosy but I was good at keeping stuff private, and I don't think I even told him I'm little. Did I?"
That was a good question.
"Um, you didn't tell him you weren't, so I think he just jumped to that conclusion." It was a correct one, though, so I wasn't surprised when Joel brushed that issue off too.
"Why are you being Dean?" Joel's question made me bark out a laugh but he was being serious. His frown was so cute it made it hard to stay worried, though. "Who broke you?"
"Um, Brady." Yeah, there was no way around that answer. "But he didn't mean to."
Rolling his eyes, Joel sighed. "Some littles are very hard to deal with. You're lucky I'm so laid-back."
There was no good response that didn't involve laughter, so I tried to ease my way around it. "You are an amazing sub and a great friend, but I kind of got stuck on that ‘what are we' part of the conversation."
Head cock.
Hum.
It seemed to be a question that required thinking drama, so Joel even sighed and turned around toward the front to take a deep breath. "People like to complicate things."
Was I people?
Was Brady people?
He made it really hard to be stressed sometimes…Dean must find it exhausting to be worried all the time when Joel was so funny. It just took so much work to push past the urge to laugh and still find things to be concerned about.
Maybe that was why he thought we all needed to get enough sleep? His brain was always working overtime.
But I didn't get much of a workout this time. Being dramatic thankfully didn't take long, and as we started to turn into the parking lot, Joel was half around in his seat again. "We all know we're special. We talked about that the other day. But sometimes knowing we're special isn't enough. Do you need a label?"
What had he been reading online?
"Did your mother tell you to ask that?" Dean asked the question that'd started bouncing around in my head.
"Yes." Joel didn't seem offended by it and answered like it was a simple question. "She explained that some people liked labels and some people needed them. Some situations just need them too. Like explaining what I was. It was helpful and I hadn't realized having an extra label besides gay would be important."
Okay, that actually made sense.
"I already have my labels, but I think that Tate needs an extra one." Joel was looking back and forth at us like we were an interesting science experiment he didn't understand yet before he settled on Dean. "Do you need an extra label?"
It felt a bit like we were having to come out of the closet again, but I knew he hadn't meant it like that. Joel just had to do everything in the most interesting way possible.
"Can I think about it?" Dean either took a cop-out or needed to actually think, but either way, I nodded along with him. "I don't know what to say other than I like your labels too."
Ass kisser.
"Yeah, thinking would be good but I promise not to overthink." When Joel gave me a skeptical look and raised one eyebrow, I laughed. "No more turning into Dean. Promise."
"You two are ridiculous." He scoffed as he parked the car but he didn't say I was wrong. "This is not my fault or my worries."
It was Brady's fault.
And possibly my worries…I might've picked them up from Brady too, though.
"No worries." Not big ones anyway. "Dean is contagious and I didn't realize it."
"Bless you." Joel seemed to think treating it like a sneeze was the best way to fix things. "We'll get tea on the way home. That always makes everyone better."
He was teasing, right?
Joel climbed out of the car before I could figure out a way to ask about that, though, and then he distracted me again before he shut the door. "Does Brady not understand about Santa?"
My first reaction as I got out of the car was to treat that question logically, but when I saw Dean blinking at him oddly, I realized that might be a mistake. We definitely needed more information first, so I tried to be subtle about gathering it as I shut the door. "What do you think?"
Had we ever heard Joel talk about Santa?
We'd always gone home and spent winter break with our families. He'd mentioned getting presents and having dinner. I remembered that because they always had duck at Christmas and I just couldn't get past that.
Yeah, I was going to wait on any Christmas assumptions.
"Santa is not as judgmental as he seems to think." Shaking his head, Joel sighed and started heading for the door. "He's very forgiving. Otherwise, he'd end up with too many toys leftover and not enough houses to put them in. People just make one bad decision after another."
It wasn't until Dean sighed that I realized Joel was halfway across the parking lot talking to himself. When we were both in motion again, I glanced toward Dean, glad he was confused too. "He's fucking with us, right?"
Dean let out a long breath. "If Brady still believes in Santa, there's a good chance that now Joel thinks he has to believe too."
Oh fuck.
"But he also might be fucking with us to give you something else to worry about." Dean huffed. "He's done that to me before, so I'm confident he knows that trick."
Joel was an adorable pain in the ass.
And that little nut was currently bouncing at the door, waving at us. "I need noodles and dessert. Hurry. Don't forget I'm special."
"He's just a dramatic attention whore at the moment." Dean's grumbling wasn't nice but it was accurate based on how big Joel was smiling at the old people who walked past him.
"Have a good evening. I hope you're special too." Joel's smile was still so big I couldn't decide if he was messing with the old people who'd looked at him weird or not. "If your partner doesn't think you're dessert special, you need a new one."
Fucking with them.
He'd been fucking with them, right?
Dean's sigh said he wasn't sure either, and it was probably fucked up, but it made me feel better. I also felt good when he just changed the subject instead of figuring it out. "What kind of noodles were you thinking about?"
"Long ones." Joel's delivery was so perfect it took me a few seconds too long to realize he was telling the truth. "I want to wind them up."
My father was right…I'd always attracted weird people.
"Then how about alfredo?" Dean realized faster than I did that Joel had been serious, but I had a feeling that was because of the Daddy part of him. "And if you make a mess, it won't stain."
"It's that one shirt." Joel shrugged and waved his hands around. "I don't spill stuff on anything else."
That was debatable…but it was a good distraction and kept Joel rambling about it until we'd been seated by the hostess.
In the back of the restaurant where they sat the weird people who were talking to themselves.
Yep, not a single person around us and that wasn't supposed to be suspicious at all.
"This is so romantic." Joel just wiggled in his seat and stretched his feet out so he could play with my legs. "Now we don't have to behave."
That was her strategic mistake.
Joel behaved in public when we had an audience but she'd taken away the audience. "What do you think Brady and his Daddy are doing for their scene tonight? I only heard something about vibrators."
"I thought it was vibrations." Dean blinked a few times as he looked up from his menu. "Weren't they talking about music or something?"
No.
They never talked about anything normal.
"Either way, I'm not sure we're the kind of neighbors who should ask about that kind of stuff." Saving Dean from whatever was making his eyes so big was my first goal and making sure Joel knew not to be a pain in the ass was the second. "I think we're the type who just say hi in the stairs. Today was an anomaly."
Hopefully.
The neighbors weren't assholes but I wasn't sure I was ready for their level of nosy…or helpfulness. Brady would end up giving me an ulcer if I started overthinking our decisions after every visit…and he might kill Dean.
Our worrier had done a great job in the moment, but I wasn't sure how he'd do in the long run. If his Daddy side stayed out around Brady, it'd probably be fine, but that brought up other fun questions like how he'd deal with Brady's Daddy…and whatever bad habits Joel picked up from Brady.
Joel cocked his head and put on his cute thinking face as he considered what I'd said. The fact that he was putting so much effort into looking adorable said he wasn't really invested in the outcome, so I focused on Dean.
Hmm.
His eyes were normal-sized again but he was watching Joel like our sub was a kink-bomb that was ready to explode.
"What if I want to talk to other littles and play with them?" Joel somehow managed to time that perfectly for our server to show up at the table.
As I tried not to laugh and Dean just sighed, the guy grinned. "Welcome to Olive Garden. I'm Marshall and I'm going to be your server today. Once I get your drinks, I can point you to the littles over at the college if you haven't run into them yet, or I could give you the contact info for the grown-up kink crowd that meets on a regular basis."
Their employees had gotten a lot more helpful than the last time we'd been in.
"You get all the weird customers, huh?" Dean was shaking his head before the guy had time to nod. "Great."
"I get the best stories to tell and most of the time the kink community tips really well." He seemed to be enjoying our drama too, so I had a feeling part of his enjoyment was some kind of Dom thing. "I'm also impossible to shock, so you don't need to worry about stopping your conversation randomly every time I walk by to check on you."
"That's good to know. Thank you." Joel's wide-eyed smile and the way he was radiating utter delight would've gotten him a date with our waiter under other circumstances, but luckily for him, we were there to keep things from getting confusing.
Our waiter just gave Dean and me curious looks causing me to shake my head. "He's just cheerful."
And Joel's head cocked as he blinked. "And cute and now confused."
That got a chuckle from the server. "You've got a handful."
Oh yeah.
But he was ours…we just had to figure out exactly what that meant.