'Tis confusion!

soda spice

Q cleared his throat and stepped a bit closer to me. He grabbed my hand and squeezed it a bit. "Ok then..let's go."

I could barely breathe. This was...this was...wow. just wow. My thoughts were total gibberish at this point. Brian Quinn was holding my hand. Q was holding.my.hand. I wanted to cry. Trying to regain my composure, I took off alongside Q, my head and heart swimming with emotion.

We walked hand in hand until we approached the pizza place. The rest of the boys were there, waiting to be seated. Q dropped my hand before we headed in.

"Please don't take that the wrong way. I just don't need the guys busting our chops, and I'm sure you don't either."

"Actually, I'm pretty sure we could both handle the ribbing, but whatever you think is best."

Q nodded and shrugged. "Maybe I'll work up the courage after we have a bite."

I smiled. "Whatever you say."

We headed inside and caught up with Sal, Joe, and Murr. 

"Took you guys long enough," Sal teased as we pulled up chairs. "What'd you guys do, sneak off and make out by the fountain?"

Q laughed. "Yeah, that's it. That's exactly what we did. And now I'm so hungry I don't even wanna think about anything other than pizza. We getting the usual?"

The others nodded in agreement. Q looked at me. "Not surprisingly, we can never agree on pizza toppings. So it usually ends up with Murr and Joe getting something gross like pineapple, tomato, ham,and broccoli. Sal and I, on the other hand,  go for pepperoni and sausage. Which sounds better to you?"

"Pepperoni and sausage."

"I hoped that's what you'd say. So that's one normal pizza,and one oddball. Cool." Q scooted his chair a little closer to mine. I felt his hand brush the top of my knee under the tabletop. Accidental?

The next half hour passed in a blur.  We ate pizza, cracked jokes at each other's expense. It was basically perfection. At one point Murr got up to use the bathroom. Sal took the opportunity to pour red pepper flakes into Murr's soda. "Murr hates spicy food," Sal told me. "This is payback for tripping me all day today."

Murr got back to the table, and we went about our business like nothing had changed. Sal kept stealing glances at Murr's soda. Eventually, Murr grabbed his cup, took a long sip, then spewed it out all over the table, soaking Sal. Sal jumped up from the table.

"Murray, you're going to tell me you didn't do that on purpose? Come on, man!"

"Sal, my drink tasted horrible! You were in my line of fire. Nobody told you to sit across from me!"

They continued arguing. Joe and Q looked at each other and rolled their eyes. Suddenly, Joe's cell went off. "Ohp, it's the wife..thank god. Excuse me." He picked up the phone. "Hi sweetie, baby, I'm so glad you called...do you want to talk for a long time?" He got up and left the table.

Q nudged me and eyed the door. "What say you and I let Murr and Sal work this out alone? "

"I thought you'd never ask. Where did you want to go?"

"I have something in mind. Come on." We left our share of the bill on the table and headed out. Once outside, Q grabbed my hand again. "This way. We passed it coming to the restaurant, I know it."

"I've worked at this mall for three years. Why not tell me where you're taking me?"

"And ruin the surprise? Not a chance." Q steered me over to a bench. "Wait here a minute. I'll be back."