Page 178 of Untouchable

“Well, I kind of felt him up a little bit, too, but I was too nervous to go below the waist.” He takes a sip of his champagne. “Okay, I know you said you didn’t want to hear about firsts, but there was this one really fucking hot thing I did—like, mind-meltingly hot—where this guy I was dating took me to this nice hotel and then while we were making out, he started to fi—”

Parker can’t finish because Harp is tickling him, and Parker yelps for mercy, nearly sloshing his champagne onto his lap.

They sit for a few more minutes like that, talking about nothing much. Parker backs off from the conversation about firsts, and Harp doesn't move to fill the space with something new.

In the back of his mind, he is trying not to think about the dinner reservation they have downstairs.

The clotheshe packed aren't much nicer than the ones he's wearing now, and he dreads being surrounded by the group downstairs. Groups of people in general are intimidating, but his anxiety becomes exponentially worse when it's compounded with people who outclasshim.

He regrets making the reservation, telling Parker about it, because Parker is obviously excited. He'd guessed right that something big and public and symbolic like this would be something Parker appreciates—and now that he has committed to it, he wants to do it right.

"What?" Parker asks, noticing he's frowning.

"Oh, I'm... a little antsy, I guess. Do you want to go for a walk? We could see the hotel grounds."

“Oooh, yeah,” Parker says, hopping up. He looks down at himself. “Hm, I guess I should probably put on clothing.” He kneels by his suitcase and unzips it. “Hm, well, I don’t have a ton of nice clothes because someone led me to believe we were going to do something outdoorsy because of his lack of hints. So… hope the restaurant likes flannel.”

He begins to pull his clothing on.

"I'm sure it's fine," Harp says, watching Parker get dressed and trying not to fidget.

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