Page 41 of Her Three Tech Bros

Jade beams, looking around. It’s beautiful up here, especially with the sun just beginning to set. There are candles literally everywhere, and a man sits at a piano in one corner, playing a soft melody.

A waitress appears seemingly out of nowhere and guides us to our table. Menus are already placed in front of each of our seats.

“Can I get you anything to drink while you’re ordering?” the waitress asks.

“We’ll take your best red,” Ethan answers.

The waitress nods and walks away.

“I’m sorry, I should have asked you if red was okay,” Ethan says to Jade.

“No, I love red wine! It’s totally okay.”

The waitress arrives with the bottle, pouring us each a glass before walking away.

Jade takes a sip, moaning as it hits her tongue. The sound immediately takes me back to all the nights I’ve spent coaxing that same moan out of her. Well, a much louder one, but still. A quick glance at my best friends tells me that they’re obviously thinking the exact same thing.

As we all open up our menus, the awkwardness settles in. I silently urge myself to break the silence, but for some reason, I just can’t make myself do it. Thankfully, I don’t have to because Jade saves us all.

“What are you guys getting? Everything sounds so amazing that I don’t think I can choose,” she says.

“I was thinking about doing the mushroom risotto,” Logan says.

“The pasta alla norma sounds good,” Ethan answers.

I look at my own menu. “I might go simple with a carbonara.”

“That all sounds delicious. I’m debating between the caprese gnocchi and the lasagna. What do you guys think?”

All three of us try to answer at once, and the atmosphere immediately gets awkward again. Logan grimaces, and I try to laugh it off, while Ethan just waits a beat before opening his mouth again.

“I say go with the gnocchi. It’s probably amazing here. You can get good lasagna pretty much anywhere, but gnocchi is much harder to get right.”

“I agree,” I chime in.

Logan stays silent, pretending to be extremely interested in his menu.

“I think you guys are right,” Jade says.

The waitress arrives and takes our orders. Once she’s gone, the deafening silence is back. It can’t continue like this, it just can’t. I do the only thing I can think of and try to make everyone laugh.

“So who wants to place bets on which one of us Jade accidentally calls by the wrong name first?”

Jade's mouth pops open in shock, but she doesn’t look mad. Ethan bursts out laughing, and I even see a half smile trying to make its way onto Logan’s face.

“A hundred bucks says she’ll mix up you and Ethan first,” Logan says, surprising us all.

Jade swats him on the arm playfully as she giggles. “Stop! I will not!”

“Hey, why me?” Ethan says, pretending to be hurt.

Logan just shrugs, smirking as he sips his wine.

“I would never do that!” Jade protests.

“You better not,” I say, winking at her.

“Oh, yeah? What would you guys do to me if I did?”

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