Page 27 of Level Me Up

I give her a look; she isn’t herself tonight. I wonder if there is more to the story she isn’t sharing.

We head through the revolving doors and are greeted to our right by a nice-sized concierge desk. To the left, is a large, modern looking set of leather chairs and a couple end tables and a massive fireplace. One of the men behind the desk smiles politely and asks my name. I tell him who I am and who we are here to see, and he checks the list in front of him. With a nod, he says we can head on up.

“Wow, this place is so fancy-schmancy, Morgan. Not where I expect them to live,” Ruby says taking in the niceness of the elevator.

“Yeah, I know. And I thought our apartment was one of the nice ones. This place makes ours look like a dump.”

“No way. This one just makes your apartment look more loved and more lived in,” says Ruby.

Minutes later we are in front of Dex’s apartment. I knock, and within seconds, Link answers the door. “Well hello, ladies. Welcome to our humble abode.” He bows dramatically and swipes his arm across his chest and into the apartment.

The inside of the apartment looks exactly like I expected a bachelor pad to look and nothing like the rest of the fancy apartment building. We walk into a short entryway to the living room. The room features an overstuffed leather couch and chair. The lighting isn’t great, but there seems to be plenty throughout the room.

On the opposite wall from the couch, there is an enormous TV and entertainment center that houses a lot of gaming stuff. There is no dining room table, but there is a large bar that faces the kitchen. It has four tall leather stools pushed up to it. That has to be where they eat, if not in front of the TV. We passed the kitchen as we walked in. It is small, but upon first sight, looks clean. I wonder which of them is the cleaner and which of them is messy.

By the time we come to a complete stop in the living room, Dex is coming out of what I guess is his room. Simon is sitting on the couch. Link asks on his way back to the kitchen, in an overly feminine voice, “I’m making margaritas! Who wants one?” Ruby and I both raise our hands.

“Hi,” Dex says as he comes over to me and leans in to kiss my cheek.

“Hi.” I try not to sound breathless, but that’s how I feel. Taking him in, he is just as handsome tonight as he was two days ago.

“Did you guys find us ok?”

“Yeah, we took a cab so… easy-peasy,” I say with a smile.

“Great.”

Gia is standing almost behind me, like she is hiding, which is so not like her. Dex notices and says, “Hi Gia, glad you guys could make it. You met Link, and that is Simon over on the couch.” Simon unfolds himself from the couch and walks over to shake Gia’s hand. It's not until she accepts his hand when he truly sees her. I can tell because of the look that crosses his face, is one of confusion mixed with recollection. Next to me, I swear I can hear her gulp.

“Hi, Simon. Been a while, yeah?” She forces a smile.

“Umm. Uh. Yeah…you could say that,” he says as he drops her hand as if it burned him.

“What? You guys know each other? How?” Dex asks with curiosity as Simon walks back to the couch.

“Link, can you grab me a beer?” Simon's tone is clipped.

Honestly, I thought he would be happier to see her. Now I know she didn’t tell us the whole story, before. After this exchange, I'm almost positive Simon is the unnamed boyfriend that she refused to talk about all those years ago.

Gia shrinks back into the group, trying to hide. Gia might seem a little stand-offish, reserved when people first meet her, but she isn't shy. She's a great person. She is the friend you want in your corner. She isn’t afraid to tell it like it is, but she knows when you need love and support and not just the cold hard truth. I really can’t see anyone not liking her. And I hate seeing her like this. Ruby passes us and hands him a beer. She then retreats to the bar stool she has claimed to watch the events unfold. I bet it’s also to keep an eye on Link, who’s making her margarita. She is usually the bartender.

Simon takes a swig of his beer and replies to Dex’s question, “Yeah. We grew up together, but Gia moved away in high school. Never saw or talked to her again. Until now.” Well. That didn’t sound bitter or anything.

Gia turns to Dex and adds, “Yeah, we had to move. Rather abruptly. I lost contact with everyone back home.”

“Ok. Well, this has gotten off to a great start. Here you go, Morgan.” Link hands me a strawberry margarita, and I see that Ruby is already drinking one. He gives Gia and Dex each a beer and retreats to the kitchen to get another beer for himself. Dex grabs my hand and pulls me to the couch, and Gia sits in the chair.

“I thought we could order some Chinese, but I didn’t know what you girls liked. The menu is up on the bar, Ruby.”

Ruby starts looking at the menu. The three of us always order the same thing, so we’ve got our ordering down to a science. Dex leans back and puts his arm round the back of the couch. There seems to be a slight awkwardness between us, which is normal in new relationships. I want to snuggle back into him and get all up in personal in his space, but this is technically only our second date. Ruby corrected me earlier that it is our third, but I’m not so sure the Visionwave party counts.

I do know that you can cut the tension with a knife. Simon looks ticked off, and Gia looks so uncomfortable. I lean over to Dex and whisper in his ear, “We’ve got to do something or this night is going to go down in history as the worst ‘friends meet the friend’s night’ ever. “He chuckles in agreement.

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