He sat at the bar with a glass of vanilla rum and Coke at his elbow, looking down at his phone. It was a cold and rainy Tuesday night that chased off all but the hardiest, most dedicated clientele of the White Rabbit. Down the bar were a few bearded regulars swapping work stories and drinking beers, their attentions focused on themselves except when it was time to order another round from the new kid tending bar. From time to time, he looked over and eyed them anxiously for something else to focus on.
The past few weeks had been some of the best he had had in a very long time. His first date with Malakai Pryce went off without a hitch. They had gone to the carnival, explored different foods, and played carnival games (avoiding most of the rides for fear of Quinn's untimely death by mechanical failure). That night Quinn had even managed to win his date the smallest stuffed turtle that the water-gun racing booth had to offer, despite protests from Mal, who had won Quinn a sizeable stuffed lobster by throwing darts. At the end of the night, Mal had walked him to his apartment building with the leftover food and stuffed animal shoved under his arm. When the time came to part at last, Malakai left him with a sweet, passionate kiss that made the human re-consider inviting him in for more. Instead of vocalizing his desire, Quinn bit the inside of his lip tightly. Yet neither of them approached the topic and Quinn went to bed alone that night with only a smile and a memory to warm him - as he had originally intended for himself.
Each week since there was at least one new adventure to be had with the vampire - a night picnic at the beach, a movie at the drive-in theatre in a town nearby, a night of improv comedy at a local human club. Somehow each night ended with a delicious kiss and a wave goodbye. Quinn was surprised by how much he enjoyed the ease of it all, including going home alone. Not once did he feel Malakai pressure him to step farther than kissing and tender hands. He enjoyed the lack of hunger from his date, the affection without strings of hot lust. It was something so unfamiliar to him that he found himself lost in the depth of each kiss, the feeling of the vampire's cool hands on his face, his shoulders, his waist. He could have melted in his entryway with just his touch.
Their kisses were simple and unexpectant, though more than once the pleasure of connecting with Mal in such a sensual way caused a stir in him that he had to resist giving into. Of course he wanted Mal, his daytime fantasies becoming more vivid and detailed now that he was his. Yet in the moments of being close to Malakai, he would step away, or find something else to engage his wondering desire in, uninterested in ruining their current connection with something as casual and potentially meaningless as sex.
The memory of his not-relationship with Jeremiah still clung to the back of his mind and Quinn couldn't help but judge himself for his strong desire to bed Malakai. There was still that lingering embarrassment that reminded him that the only reason he knew Malakai at all was because of having Jerry as a fuckfriend. And what a friend to have. A little voice in the back of his head reminded him of how it might look if he tried to seduce Malakai on their first, second, or even third date. And despite knowing that who Quinn had previously slept with was, in reality, none of Malakai's business (not that he ever attempted to make that knowledge his business at all,) Quinn couldn't stop that niggling voice reminding him of how hyper sexual he had been with Jerry, Mal's best friend. Something about the situation was still mildly weird for his own moral code.
Quinn had always made it a habit to not fall for or fuck any of his friend's exes or close friends - it brought things to an awkward place when things didn't last. Now he was in the very same situation he had always told himself to avoid with the desire to date and sleep with Malakai.
They would have to tell Jerry eventually, he had told Mal. Quinn had spent too many years of abuse in the closet to be anything but open with his people about who he was dating. The problem was that he hadn't spoken to Jerry really since that last argument after he had gone an slept with Quinn's boss... about six weeks ago. So far Quinn had managed to evade all questions and gossip about his dating life by keeping his dates with Mal silent (though he did tell Rachel because, well, he told Rachel everything). It appeared that Mal was doing the same thing; when To Ashes had played during one of Quinn's shifts, the only nagging that was done by someone was from Lisa-Joe when Malakai came up with a playful greeting and requested a drink, causing Quinn to flush quickly and get the vampire a disguised drink of tapped blood in an opaque cup. Upon questioning, he had quickly shrugged it off as him liking the way that Mal looked that night - a common observance from the people at the bar who had the privilege to lay eyes upon him all done up for a show. It helped that Mal's smoky looks always gave him that kind of reaction, though there was a sort of secret pride at knowing that Mal had chosen him to date.
But it was more than just keeping it from people for the sake of privacy - though telling Tommy would have definitely ensured that the gossip made its way around the bar to Freddy, a fact that Quinn was in no way ready to deal with. There was a part of Quinn that promised him that this whole thing with Mal wasn't going to last. Malakai was sweet, thoughtful, fun, responsible, and exciting to be around. He was almost perfect and perfect men didn't date Quinn. He was used to the assholes, the neurotics, the abusive douchebags who couldn't figure out their own emotions, or the bastards who couldn't figure out how to keep their dicks to themselves. Selfish men. Crazy, rude, loser men. If there was a type attracted to Quinn, that was it. He had long ago given up on finding the reason why this was the case - especially after Mike - and had just accepted the fact that hopefully one day, one of them might be tolerable enough to deal with for a while, men willing to grow into emotionally mature humans.
This whole thing with Malakai, however, felt so radically different from everything he was used to and so Quinn wasn't convinced that he was good enough for him yet. And before he announced his partner to the whole world and had it implode in his face, he wanted to wait to see where this was going. It all looked promising; Quinn still felt the flutteriness in his chest whenever there was a cute text or a phone call from him. The privateness of the whole thing was nice too, allowing him to feel out this one without anyone knowing any differently. Of course, he didn't want to keep it all quiet forever.
But one of the first obstacles to get over was Jeremiah Peterson.
He had texted Jerry earlier in the night and invited him to the Rabbit for a casual chat, though despite it being his idea, Quinn had a bit of that usual anxiety around confrontation. Not that they would burst out into a fight or anything. No, this was about peace keeping and boundary setting. Jerry was good at understanding that much anyway.
Quinn looked down at his phone, rereading the last conversation with Mal where they both discussed the best ways to let Jerry know what was up. After Quinn told Jerry, Mal would let Zach, Thor, and Kim know so as not to be surprised - not that Quinn was worried about any of their reactions. Hell, the only reason that Quinn had insisted on telling Jerry himself was their history together. Quinn figured it might be weird for Jerry to learn that his best friend was fucking his ex-fling - a courtesy that was not extended from Jerry in his case. Not that he and Mal were screwing yet anyway...
He sipped his drink and didn't look up from his phone, jiggling his leg against the foot bar of the stool he sat on. Everytime the door opened to let someone in, he lifted his eyes in the hopes of cutting off any awkwardness between Jerry and himself before it even happened. It wasn't like he hated Jerry after all. And now that he was dating Malakai, it was probably more than time for them all to play nice.
