“Invite her out for your birthday,” Jake suggested again. “Friends go out for each other’s birthdays. You’re not making any assumptions or declarations by including her. Me and Tommy aren’t even bringing chicks, so it’s not like there’s gonna be a couples vibe or anything. You like this girl. You like being around her. Stop wasting time you don’t have.”

Danny ran his hand through his hair as Jake’s words echoed in his ears, bouncing around his skull and burrowing into his consciousness until they were beating in his blood.

You like being around her. Stop wasting time you don’t have.

He hadn’t seen what he was doing as wasting time, but Jake did have a point. His days were numbered, and he wanted to spend as many of them with her as he could, friends or otherwise.

Stop wasting time you don’t have.

Danny twisted the cap back on his drink. “I’ll think about it,” he said. “Can we shut the fuck up about this now?”

Jake gave him a flimsy salute before he shoved the rest of his sandwich in his mouth.

“By the way,” he garbled around his mouthful. “I’m not bringing a girl, but I might still try to get a blow job in the bathroom. Leah doesn’t need to know that, though.”

And just like that, Jake was back.

Danny burst out laughing before he threw a wad of tin foil at him, and Jake shrugged, wiping his hands on his pants before he stood and made his way back out to the garage.

Danny shook his head as he turned back toward the table, and then he reached in his pocket and pulled out his phone, staring at the screen for just a moment before he opened a new text window and clicked on her name.

You free this weekend? We’re hitting up Dave and Buster’s for my birthday.

He hit send and exhaled, putting the phone on the table before he picked up his pizza.

A minute later his phone vibrated with her response, and he stopped chewing as he swiped the screen with the side of his finger.

Happy birthday! And definitely. Call me later.

He smiled, clearing the screen before sliding the phone back in his pocket.

No more wasting time you don’t have.

“I’m not going in that thing,” Leah said as she took a sip of her beer, and Jake scoffed.

“Oh come on. It’s a game!”

“Yes, it’s a game. A 4D game where you lock yourself in a confined space and not only see and hear but also feel the monsters attacking you if you don’t kill them fast enough. No thanks.”

“What are you, eight?” Jake said. “It’s not real.”

“Then you go in!” Leah said through a laugh.

Jake smirked, resting his elbows on the table as he leaned across it toward Leah. “Care to make this interesting?”

She put her beer down and mirrored his position, leaning toward him. “Always.”

Danny grinned as he brought his drink to his lips, his arm resting on the back of the booth behind her.

“Okay,” Jake said, sitting up and looking around the table. “Okay, so…”

“He’s got nothing,” Tommy said with a laugh, and Danny chuckled as Leah sat back against the booth, turning her head to look up at him. He looked down at her, a smile curving his lips, and she shifted in her seat, closing the small distance between them so that their bodies were touching from shoulder to knee.

His arm came down from the back of the booth, wrapping around her shoulders, and she brought her hand to his knee under the table.

From the second he had picked her up that night, he could tell something was different. Not only was the awkwardness between them gone, but any hesitation, any sense of restriction, had completely vanished as well. On the ride down, she had reached over the console and held his hand. And several times throughout dinner, she had found an excuse to touch him. A playful slap here, a shoulder rub there, and now her hand on his leg.

On the surface Danny was completely calm and collected, but underneath, his adrenaline was racing with every touch, with what it could mean, with the awareness that each one heated his veins and made his heart beat faster and his breathing grow shallow.

“Got it!” Jake finally said, grinning triumphantly. He reached across the table to the remnants of their appetizers and pulled two buffalo bites off the plate. He put one in front of Leah, and the other in front of himself before grabbing the hot sauce from the side of the table and shaking an excessive amount on each one.

“Dude, those are fucking Firehouse wings,” Tommy said. “What are you doing?”

“Upping the ante,” he said before he reached into Tommy’s plate of nachos, pulling two jalepeno peppers out of the cheese and placing them on the top of each piece of chicken, like a cherry on top of a sundae.

“Is he gonna make me eat that?” Leah said in Danny’s ear, and he leaned down to her, reveling in the scent of her hair.

“You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do. Tell him to fuck off.”

“Swear jar,” she said, and Danny grinned as she sat up to face Jake. “Alright, what are we doing?”

“We each eat this. Whole thing. One bite. Whoever drinks first, loses. And if you lose, your ass goes in Dark Escape.”

Danny watched as Leah pursed her lips, weighing her options.

“So, we’re not allowed to drink anything,” she clarified, and Jake smiled.

“Not unless you want to lose.”

Her shoulders rose as she took a deep breath, and then she exhaled in a rush. “Okay, let’s do it.”

“Seriously?” Jake asked.

“Yeah,” she answered with a smile. “Why? Were you all talk just now?”

Danny smirked as he and Tommy made eye contact across the booth.

“Nope,” he said a beat too late, picking up the horrifically enhanced buffalo bite, and Leah did the same, holding it out to him.

“Cheers,” she said, tapping hers to Jake’s, and then they both popped them into their mouths.

For the first few seconds, they chewed in silence, but then it started.

Jake’s face turned beet red as he began to chew faster in an attempt to get it over with, and Leah pressed her fingertips to her lips, blinking rapidly as her eyes began to tear.

Danny brought his hand to the back of her neck, rubbing gently as he leaned toward her ear. “You can drink. I won’t let him make you go in there.”

She shook her head. “I’m good,” she managed hoarsely, and then she closed her eyes and swallowed hard.

Across the table, Jake was banging his fist against the side of the booth, his eyes clamped shut as he tried to force himself to swallow.

“Woo!” Leah exhaled, her eyes watering heavily as she reached for the spoon in front of her, and then she leaned across the table, dragging it along the mound of sour cream on the top of Tommy’s nachos.

Danny watched her bring the spoon to her lips, licking the excess sour cream off the sides before she put the spoon in her mouth, sucking on it like she was eating a lollipop. She slowly pulled it from her lips, turning the spoon around and dragging her tongue up the back of it to remove every last drop before she placed it back on the table.

Holy. Fuck.

He glanced across the table to see if the others had been watching her—if they were reacting to what she had just done—but Jake had both fists clamped in front of his eyes, breathing like he was about to give birth, and Tommy had his head thrown back against the booth, laughing hysterically.

He turned back to see Leah staring up at him. Her face was flushed and her eyes were still glassy, but she certainly wasn’t feeling Jake’s pain.

“What?” she asked softly, and Danny stared at her, saying nothing. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

He opened his mouth but closed it before he could formulate a response, and the corner of her mouth lifted.

“Are you kidding me?” she said through her smile.