Part Two

Glory and I hung around the empty shop a bit longer, lingering in our afterglow. I don’t think either of us were particularly eager to head back out into the real world, but we both started getting hungry for lunch. “Do you want to drive the golf cart back to the house?” Glory asked, as we finally headed back outside and into the sunshine. “Sure, but I’ve never driven one of these things before,” I said. I hopped into the driver’s side seat and Glory climbed in next to me. “It’s just like driving a car, but more fun,” Glory said. She was right. Somehow, driving a golf cart over the orchard’s property was really fun. Plus, with Glory at my side and the sun shining down on us, everything felt perfect. Neither of us talked much on the way back, but I could tell that it was a pleasant, content silence. I really appreciated that Glory didn’t feel the need to fill every silent moment with chatter, and I also liked that I didn’t feel nervous or awkward if I didn’t have anything to say. My mind wandered a bit, wondering if Glory was too good to be true, or if I was just convincing myself she was perfect because she was beautiful and the first girl who had ever shown a genuine interest in me. But there were just too many things I couldn’t ignore. Some of them seemed like simple, trivial things, but everything had a way of adding up. For example, someone like Zach, my former top-knot-vegan-gym-bro manager, never ate junk food. A simple date of donuts or ice cream would have been out of the question for him. He probably took his dates to the gym and then they got protein shakes afterwards. But with Glory, donuts and ice cream were just normal, fun things to do. Things we could enjoy together. Plus, Glory loved dogs, which was a huge bonus, and Biscuit seemed to love her, too. Glory even took the time to help me find a new food for Biscuit at the grocery store. Not everyone would care enough to take the time to understand why it was important to me, or have the patience for that kind of thing. But Glory did. I also left the city and came all the way out here to Bloomfield, just to get to know her more. Not everyone would be okay with that, but I was really enjoying Bloomfield and helping out at Applegate Orchards. I didn’t love that my income stream and living arrangements were hanging in the balance of whether or not this relationship worked out, but it was a risk I was willing to take, especially since I had a really good feeling things were going to work out just fine. Better than fine, actually. I glanced over at Glory as I thought this, and saw that she was looking ahead of us and smiling serenely, with the gentle wind blowing her hair over her delicately pointed ears. Yep, she was definitely worth the risk. The whole move was still a bit of an adjustment, but I liked the idea of continuing to work outside, and was also looking forward to the busier fall season, when the shop would be open and there’d be pumpkins and corn mazes. I always loved fall and Halloween, so I was actually excited to work at a place that fully embraced the season. I wasn’t sure what my position would be when the time came, but if I ever worked in the shop, every time I walked in and looked at the counter I would think of Glory. We made it back to the house, and I parked the golf cart in the storage barn. Glory linked her hand with mine as we walked into the kitchen. As soon as we entered, Biscuit greeted us, her pink tongue lolling out of her mouth and wagging her tail excitedly. “Were you a good girl while I was gone?” I asked her and pet her head. It was a dumb question. She was always a good girl. “She just napped the whole time,” Dot said, flying into the room. “Well, thanks for keeping an eye on her,” I said. It was nice knowing that when I went out and did errands, Biscuit usually had some company, instead of being in my apartment alone. And it was especially nice that most days she was able to come to work with me, out in the orchards. She seemed to really be enjoying her new country style life. I’m pretty sure most dogs would prefer it over being cooped up in a small apartment and going for leashed walks on concrete sidewalks. I helped Glory put together some cheese sandwiches and cucumber slices for lunch, and Glory cut up some cucumber into tiny pieces for Dot. I held out a slice to Biscuit, and she happily chewed it up and immediately asked for seconds, so I obliged. Healthy human treats were fine. Cucumbers were mostly water, anyway. Soon enough, Quinn came in from the living room where she had been reading, and Kora came in from the orchards for her lunch break, and they helped themselves to the food. “Did you enjoy the tour?” Quinn asked me. My thoughts immediately went back to the fun Glory and I had while in the shop and I nearly choked on my bite of food. I cleared my throat . “Yeah, it was great.” I looked across the table to Glory, who was fighting a grin and her cheeks were rosy. Kora looked back and forth between the two of us, but kept her thoughts to herself. Yep, she was still incredibly unnerving. She seemed like the kind of girl bestie who would fuck my shit up if I ever broke Glory’s heart. Good thing I wasn’t planning on doing that. “Anyway, how is the weekend crew?” Glory asked Kora, clearly desperate to change the subject. Glory successfully managed to steer the conversation to work stuff, and I was content to just sit back and listen. Lunch came to an end, and Glory ended up having some work to do with the orchard’s online shop. I decided to go over to my bunkie with Biscuit. I kind of wished I was working in the orchard again today, so I would be busy and I could distract myself from stressing about my upcoming dinner date with Glory. I was excited, and this morning in the shop had been fucking amazing, but I was still nervous about it being our first real dinner date. And my first dinner date, ever. But it was nice to know it would also be Glory’s first dinner date ever. A sick feeling crept into my stomach as I wondered if I should have told Glory that she was also my first everything. She made it clear that I was her first boyfriend, but I had said nothing in return. Maybe she just assumed I’d had previous relationships, and I wasn’t really doing anything to persuade those assumptions. But the more I thought about it, the more it felt like I was lying by omission which…was definitely not the right way to start a relationship. Even someone as inexperienced as me knew that. The one small thing that was holding me back was that I didn’t want her to think I was a loser for being twenty-four and never having a girlfriend. It felt like I’d be admitting to her that my life before her was just one depressing failure after another and that would somehow paint a different picture about the guy she was dating. I ended up sitting on my bed with Biscuit, scrolling through internet information about dragonkin women and Kailanorian refugees. I wanted to know more about Glory, and the others, but it was hard to tell what was fact and what was fiction. There were a few books on the subject of Kailanorians, including one that was by a well-renowned university professor, so I hit the ‘Buy Now’ button and downloaded the ebook to my phone. I did a quick search within the book for the word ‘dragonkin’, but there was only one brief chapter, and it covered most of the stuff I had already learned. I sighed, running a hand through my hair in frustration, unable to get rid of the nervous jitters about tonight’s date. And I knew I was searching in vain for some tidbit of information that would make me the perfect guy for Glory, and I also knew that was ridiculous. Most of the time, when faced with a difficult task, I could do some research and then know what to do: how to fix a toilet, which affordable phone should I buy, or what fruits and vegetables were safe for dogs. These were all tangible things with answers readily available to me on the internet or in a book. But how to date a dragonkin girl who you were pretty sure you were already falling in love with? There was no guide for that. I also really wanted to know about all the dragonkin mating, baby making, egg hatching stuff, but I wasn’t able to find anything online and the ebook didn’t have any information of that sort either. Glory promised to talk about it soon, but if she didn’t bring it up, I would. I felt like I had a right to know what was going on and what would be expected of me. I ended up reading about fifty-percent of the ebook, because it was still interesting, even if it wasn’t specifically about dragonkins. About an hour before the agreed upon meeting time with Glory, I took a quick shower, and then started figuring out what I was going to wear. I didn’t have many options and just went with nice jeans and a light blue dress shirt, but the shirt was wrinkled to shit from being tossed in my suitcase and prior to that it had been shoved in a milk crate. I couldn’t even remember the last time I wore the shirt. It’s not like I got dressed up often. Or ever. But I was glad I had the hindsight to throw it in my suitcase. I left Biscuit napping in my room and headed over to the house to look for an iron. I tentatively let myself in the back door that led into the kitchen. It still felt kind of weird to just let myself into their house, but Glory had insisted it was fine. Quinn was reading in the living room and noticed me come in. “Do you need help with something, Dennis?” she asked, shutting her paperback and walking over to the kitchen. “Yeah, actually. Do you guys have an iron?” I asked and held up my wrinkled shirt. Quinn laughed. “Yes, of course we do. It’s just downstairs. I can show you.” We went down into the spacious, unfinished basement, where they had a washer and dryer, and an ironing board was already set up. Quinn got the iron out of a cupboard. She filled it with water in the laundry sink and then plugged it in. “Thanks, I can take it from here,” I said. But Quinn held out her hand expectantly. “I can do it for you.” “It’s fine, I’ve ironed this shirt before. I know what I'm doing.” My dad had taught me, since he had been my stay-at-home parent who did the majority of the housework. He thought it was important I knew how to do adult things, like learning how to do my own laundry and ironing. I had complained as a teen, but I was thankful for my dad’s life lessons once I was out on my own. My dad also tried to teach me how to cook, but I was never any good at it. But this: this I could do. “I’d like to help,” Quinn said insistently. “I want you to look nice for Glory.” I was going to argue that saying it like that made it sound like she did not believe me when I said I could iron, but instead of bickering, I just gave in and handed her the shirt. I leaned against the washing machine as Quinn ironed, puffs of steam occasionally filling the air. “Do you like Glory?” Quinn asked. I laughed at the absurdity of the question. “I very much like Glory,” I said with zero hesitation. “That’s good,” Quinn said, but remained focused on her task. “She definitely likes you. Kora’s helping her with her hair and makeup for your date tonight.” “Really?” I said. “And um…can I ask how Kora feels about all of…this?” “About you and Glory?” Quinn asked. “Yeah. And…Glory has mentioned…other stuff…about you and Kora.” I wasn’t entirely sure how to bring up the fact that Glory said the three of them were an all-or-nothing package. It seemed like so far, Quinn was a bit more shy than Glory and was hanging back, letting things unfold between the two of us. And Kora didn’t seem to like me at all and mostly seemed annoyed by my presence, so I wasn’t sure how all of this was going to work out. “Kora can be protective of Glory, it’s just the way she was brought up,” Quinn said. “So she may take a bit longer to warm up to you.” “How exactly was she brought up?” I asked. “I thought the three of you were all raised together, here in the group home.” “I meant before we came here,” Quinn said. “Ah, okay,” I said. I still wanted to know more about that, what their lives had been like before being thrown through a portal and arriving in Ontario of all places. But I also knew it was not going to be a happy story, so it never felt like the right time to ask. Just like the fact that I rarely brought up that my parents had passed away. “All done!” Quinn said, brandishing the shirt for me to see. She finished ironing much faster than it would have taken me, and the shirt looked perfect. “Awesome! Thank you,” I said. “Can I see how it looks?” Quinn asked. “Are those the pants you’ll be wearing?” “Yes. Is it fine that they’re jeans?” I asked, willing to take any advice she was willing to throw my way, since I was shit at this stuff: dates, dressing up, and making an effort to look good. None of this came naturally to me, but I really wanted to be presentable to Glory, especially since I’d just been informed that she was taking extra effort to look nice tonight and was having Kora help her. Not that she needed much help, in that department. “They’re nice jeans. They should be fine,” Quinn said. “But can you change shirts so I can see?” “Like, here?” I said. “Yeah,” Quinn said. “I’ll turn around.” Quinn handed me the shirt and then turned her back to me. I pulled my t-shirt off and put on the dress shirt. Just as I finished buttoning up, Quinn turned back around. “Hmmm,” she said, looking me over with her pale blue eyes. “It feels like it’s missing something. Come with me.” “Uh, sure,” I said.