"Uh… Guys, I know you're in the middle of something important and all but… Mason?"
"WHAT?!"
"Why is a guy sending you nudes? I knew you were gay but—"
"?! Give me that!!"
Snatching the phone off my hand he turned to look at his messages hiding from us so ineptly that I took it as a chance to tease him a bit more.
"So you can't even wait to look? Naughty. I knew this was the real you."
"That's not it! Look!"
"Woah~! No thank you, I saw enough. I don't want to see a random guy showing his thingy. I'm a pure lady, okay?"
"I do want to, show me," Sophie, contrary to me, leaned over the table to take a peek.
"I'm telling you that's not… Oh, gosh he did send one, fufu~ Ooh… Mason likey~"
"Mhm~ Sophie too. Good catch, Mason. I'm proud of you."
"Fufu~ thanks~" Both smirked at Mason's phone, blushing as they appreciated what I didn't want to see. I gave them a moment for them to fully appreciate it only to make them fall from the horny cloud later.
"Yeah, so that wasn't it, huh? Was it actually a video that he sent you since you stare so much?"
"! No, wait, really, it wasn't— THAT wasn't all of it!"
"Mhm… You know, you just came out but you're now just shamelessly exposing yourself without an ounce of care. Congratulations, I'm actually shocked this time but not for the original reason, darling."
"Yeah, darling. I'm also shocked. Do you think he's bi? I want his number if he is."
"D*mn it. You two! He's just– just–! Why do I have to explain this?!"
"Right. We should get used to this kind of thing. Next time you'll be using the wig you hide in your closet to welcome us into your house."
"!? You saw that?!"
"... I told you we knew… I'm still a woman, remember? It comes with the gender, the scary instinct, see?"
"See?... He gave you his number, ask him if he's bi," Adding to our usual nonsense, Sophie was actually concentrated on zooming in on the guy's picture, flipping Mason's switch very effectively.
"He's not bi! And that's not it!!!", snatching his phone from Sophie's hands this time, Mason yelled quite nicely. Showing me the real stuff because of which he's been going crazy about, "a gay pub! It opened recently so he sent me its link!! That's what I wanted to show you!"
"... So you go to hardcore ones, huh? I didn't know you had it in you. Nice."
"N–.….. Either way," cutting himself off in the middle of telling a lie, Mason controlled himself, making Sophie and me share a truly surprised glimpse since it meant he did hang around such places, "It's just a pub… nothing bad about it."
"Mhm… Sure. If you say so."
"What's the name of the place?" Sophie asked, actually curious, "Is it close? I've gone to a gay pub before, the ambience is nice, many handsome men too."
"Hmph. Thank you."
"Ugh. Not you, a*shole," pushing the shameless acting proud Mason, Sophie continued, "the few times I went there I actually noticed something interesting. You know, since I like watching from the shadows, remember?"
"... Yeah, you should actually stop that. I heard a guy at uni say you might be the stalker type of toxic. It'll be bad if that rumour grows..."
"Ah, no way, again!?" clutching her head at what I told her, Sophie suddenly became concerned, "was it the guy who's always in a red hoodie? Or that one that has blue dyed hair?? I did follow them a bit too much, I think. I kind of got lost in thought and well… f*ck. So they saw me..."
"Yeah, so, just stop that. Please."
"A–Alright, I know… I'll be more careful from now on."
"Just don't do it!" Mason and I snapped. Knowing that she would eventually find herself in prison because of that.
"Anyways" she ignored us, like always, "In an interesting place like that, I found something very very, VERY interesting… It's kind of a rule even since many of them do it when they are at places like that."
"What is it?"
"Well, you see... Gay men… They have a classy kind of flirting," becoming serious, Sophie said almost ominous, making me intrigued by how confusing the story was in itself, "I noticed they tend to approach their target and invite them to a drink. Very smoothly, very classy… Quite sexy too."
"Oh… That… Yeah, most do that." Mason agreed, confirming her theory.
"But, you know, even if they are rejected they still buy them the drink most of the time," enthusiast while telling us about it, Sophie smiled while making herself comfortable, "I found that really interesting. Classy and well-mannered flirting. I was surprised and actually sat at the bar to see it from up close since you know what I say: F*cking get that close-up or no sauce for the house will fill your mouth."
"Huh? What's that even mean? Since when do you say that??" Mason asked.
"… Forget it. You wouldn't understand it."
"Whaever. Going back to the flirty free drink, it's somehow a thing of etiquette if I have to name it, you know?" Proud, Mason flexed about it.
"I don't know. This is the first time I've heard of it." I said quite impressed.
"Even if you've heard of it you would forget cause you don't actually care."
"Yep. That's true." Gulping down a bit of a new can I shrugged not too interested since it seemed like the conversation would be over soon.
"Sigh... Either way. When I saw that, I was really jealous. If you think about it, there must be guys who practically never pay for their drinks thanks to that unspoken etiquette. Heteros also invite women to drinks but... there's something special about this specific kind of flirting... While I was at the bar that night I even saw how a guy bought around three drinks for another guy who said nothing would happen between them and I was like… if only I were more manly maybe I could also get—?! Dude! Layna! You could drown in free drinks if you went there!"
"What?"
That was the moment an idea that wouldn't last as long as I had hoped came up.