Chương 36: Double Date

Ch 36. Double Date John was walking arm in arm with Andressa when they arrived at 'Grimnar Axe-Tossers Axe Tossing Tavern'. The exterior was basically exactly what he'd expected, rough hewn stone with a number of banners painted with orcish war-tribe symbols and with a number of daggers, axes, swords, and knife protruding from the wooden sign that showed a smiling orc, presumably Grimnar, holding two war axes the size of horses that were dripping with red paint at their edges.

"I'm surprised Rene picked this place," said Andressa.

"I think it may have been his squeeze."

"From what he's told me, I think she's the one that does the squeezing." John chuckled as they walked inside. There were orcish servers, but Rene had already arrived and waved them down as they got there. They walked over to the table which was set at the end of a long throwing gallery with thick wooden walls on either side. Esme, Rene's dwarven paramour, was in the process of checking the balance of one of the axes as they arrived.

John had only ever seen her in overalls, but this time she was wearing a simple light gray dress, with her hair in neat braids and most of the grease that tended to accumulate on her was wiped away. She did still have a toolbelt at her waist, but John supposed there were a million ways those tools could randomly come in handy in Avalon, so he decided not to question it. John gave Rene a brief hug and Andressa hugged him as well while Esme sent the throwing axe she'd been holding flying toward the target at the end.

She hit it at the edge, making the hanging target bounce and dance for a moment before settling. She held out a hand to John.

"Nice ta see ya again, fire-kissed." John gave her a firm shake.

"Good to see you too, Esme."

"Fire-kissed?" asked Andressa.

"Just something my clan calls the orange haired." Andressa smiled, a bit of the fire that sometimes manifested in her eyes sparking for just a moment as she looked at him.

"I think it works for you." She turned and held out a hand to Esme.

"I'm Andressa." Esme took Andressa's delicate hand in her powerful one and gave her a firm shake.

"Nice ta meet'cha."

"Same." She gestured to the throwing axes and target.

"Can I join you?" Esme scoffed in a friendly way, an ability John thought was unique to dwarves.

"If ya think you can take me."

"You boys want to join?" asked Esme.

"Maybe after a drink or two," said John.

"Yes, I could go for a bit of wine first," said Rene.

"Suit yerself love," said Esme as they moved a few feet away to select their weapons of choice from a nearby barrel. As they walked away, both Rene and John slumped a bit in their seats.

"You alright?" John asked Rene.

"I will be fine Mon Ami. It is just… Esme is not the most gentle lover. I am so covered with bruises that even the walk here was nearly more than I can bear." John looked slyly to the ladies, and slid a small red vial over to Rene who took it and looked at him questioningly.

"A healing potion. It mixes best with food, so I was planning on having it with my meal."

"If you are hurt, you should keep it." John sighed.

"Her nails leave my back looking like a roadmap of Avalon, but I already had some with breakfast so it's not too bad at the moment. You are welcome to it."

"Merci," he said with a nod, slipping it into his jacket.

"I suppose I could always tell her to give me a break."

"It's good to establish boundaries like that," said John, nodding his head. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"I'd really rather she keep bruising me though." John smiled.

"I'm more than willing to suffer the claw marks on my back as well." There was a loud thwack and they both turned to see that Andressa had managed to sink an axe perfectly into the center of one of the targets. Esme had a look of surprise on her face, but Andressa herself seemed more concerned with one of her nails.

"She's stronger than I thought she was," said Rene.

"Demons are all very strong. There just aren't too many of them in Avalon, particularly outside the Little Hell, so I think people forget that." Rene nodded, and an orcish man barely wearing a shirt approached the table, placing down three tankards of ale, a glass of wine, and two large plates piled high with what looked to be heavily sauced and seasoned meat. He pointed at the tankards.

"Drink," then he pointed at the plates, "Food." Finally he pointed at the axes.

"Entertainment." At a loss of what else to say John just looked at the man and smiled saying, "Thank you."

"Welcome. Please leave good tip." They nodded and the orc walked away. The ladies had one more round, with Andressa again managing to outdo Esme, much to her dismay. Then they sat down with Rene and John. John was struggling a bit with the heavily spiced meat, quickly draining his tankard in an attempt to cool his tongue and sensing very clearly that the combination of heavily spice meat and alcohol in his stomach would be costing him dearly later on.

Esme and Andressa were having no problems of course, and Rene was sweating less than John so he presumed he was the only one really having issues.

"Ben is quite upset with you," said Rene, taking a moment to clear his throat with a sip from his tankard, which the orc had actually filled with wine rather than ale just for him, and then wiping his hands with a napkin. John took a moment to wipe up his own face, grateful to take a break from the food to allow himself a bit of recovery, but not eager to discuss this particular topic.

"I'm quite upset with him."

"He made many references to a concept not from my time called, 'bros before hoes'."

"He was dating a whore?" asked Esme.

"No, some men on Earth simply refer to all women as hoes," explained John.

"Is it simply that common a profession?" asked Esme.

"No, they mean it derogatorily in most cases. Though some women and men call one another names out of affection. Kind of like a dwarf calling another dwarf a beardless son of a worm even though they're best friends."

"Ah," said Esme, nodding in understanding before she returned to tearing through a piece of meat like a mole through dirt.

"I just wanted to say that I could mediate for you if you'd like? You yourself advocate talking things out between people and communicating." John sighed.

"I do, but I just… what he did was so thoughtlessly cruel."

"This is true, but they didn't date for that long, did they? Perhaps she's taken it well. She seemed like a mature person."

"It's not about her reaction, it's about Ben's thoughtlessness. His lack of empathy."

"I don't know that he understands that. I think if you maybe reach out to him he might be able to come to it himself." John paused and took a long sip of ale.

"I suppose…"

"No," said Andressa, putting the food she was eating down and burning away the sauce on her lips and fingers to clean them quickly.

"I know you think you need to be the one to reach out and fix things, but I think just this time you should wait for him to be the one to come to you."

"It's my job," said John.

"But you told him off as a friend, not as his therapist, and it's his turn as a friend to figure it out." John frowned. His instinct was to go with Rene's idea, but perhaps Andressa was correct. Ben had only responded to tough love so far. To John forcing him to confront his issues because otherwise he'd just talk around them and make excuses forever. Not to mention that she was right. He and Ben were friends, he wasn't only his therapist.

He'd made their relationship messier by allowing that, but Ben had also taken advantage of it every chance he got. It was his move now. He sighed.

"How about you and I table that and we throw some axes for a bit? I think if I eat any more of this meat it may kill me." Rene laughed lightly.

"Alright, we shall give it a try." They approached the axes and gave them some tentative swings. John went first and attempted to throw his by raising it back with one arm and throwing it as hard as he could. It made it to the target, but hit with the handle rather than the head. Rene did much better, throwing his with both arms from behind his back and angling it upward a bit so that it could make its way into the target and sink into the wood of it. John gave him a high-five. Esme grinned at Andressa.

"You may have beaten me, but my man restored my honor." Andressa's tail flicked a bit.

"I'm fairly certain he'd need to sink four more axes to restore your honor, Esme." The dwarf went a bit red and chugged her ale.

"Move over Rene, I'm going for another round against this red one." The boys raised their eyebrows, but shrugged and returned to the table. John pushed the plate of meat away opting to stick to just his ale for the rest of the night.