A Beauteous Flower

Chapter 19 - The Co-habitation Instigation

"Ice cream?"

"Yeah, I know a great little place."

Madison looked dubious. She was still uncomfortable about eating in front of Daniel, and she had just had a full meal at her favorite place for Chinese food. Besides, she wanted to get home as soon as possible and get in Daniel's pants before he got distracted by his work.

"Besides my best friend Burt is there and I want you to meet him."

Madison smiled and immediately warmed to the idea of ice cream. Daniel wanted her to meet his best friend and that was a good sign that their relationship had progressed. She had already introduced Daniel to her friends and frankly she was impatient to meet his friends. To her it was a public declaration that they were a serious couple and several consultations with her girlfriends caused Madison to consider it a necessary step forward in her relationship with Daniel. In more direct terms, it was about time.

"OK!"

A few minutes later they pulled up in a parking lot in front of a little shack of a place topped by a sign that read "Ice Dreams". A line of people stood in front of the window to order, and clots of people stood around a window at the side of the shack where they picked up their orders. It was a pretty plain crowd, and Madison scanned for someone who could be Daniel's friend.  Immediately Madison's eyes landed on a huge mountain of a man dressed in a black robe and a pointed wizard hat. A short-cropped beard and a gnarled staff completed the outfit as the wizard sipped on some flavor of a large milkshake.

"Oh my god!" Madison snickered into her hand.

"What?"

"That guy!" Madison smirked and pointed. "What a loser!"

Daniel smirked in the direction of the wizard man.

"That's my buddy, Burt."

Madison did a double take and her judgmental smirk faded in the shadow of her faux pas.

"Really ...?"

Daniel's smirk at Madison.

"Yep. Burt was my roommate for my last two years in college. Now he's my accountant."

"Oh."

Madison bit her lip and cast about for a recovery. She had just called Daniel's best friend a loser. There was no way to tell how many red flags she might have just raised in Daniel's mind. Madison knew girls who had caused good relationships to go down in flames over much less. Madison shot a sidelong glance at Daniel to try and read his thoughts, but, as usual, she could not read anything from his face.

"Burt LARPs in the park every Friday with his group, "The Acapella Adventurers". His character is called Macedon Starborne and he's a wizard."

Daniel chuckled a bit.

Yeah, he's a wizard with numbers and with magic."

"LARP?" Madison ventured cautiously.

Daniel nodded without condescension.

"Live Action Role Play. They pretend to have mythical adventures. You know. Like Dungeons and Dragons only with costumes."

Madison definitely did not know what Daniel was talking about, but she smiled and nodded anyway. In her estimation she was on thin ice as it was, and she did not want to risk further insults to Daniel or his friends with awkward questions.  Daniel winked at her.