Take a Chance on Me

by Alexa Land

  Duke’s voice was a low growl when he said, “You know what’s unacceptable? The fact that you think you can let yourself into my home, insult my boyfriend, and talk to me like I’m a child!”

  His father turned to me and bellowed, “I bet you’re to blame for all of this! Duke has always been weak, so it must have been easy for a cheap little hustler like you to insinuate your way into his life! Did you get him hooked on drugs? Is that why he’s acting like this?”

  “Listen, Hagrid’s evil twin,” I snapped, “if you think for even a minute that amazing saint of a man is weak, then you’re not only an asshole, you’re also really fucking stupid!”

  The man turned bright red and hissed, “How dare you speak to me that way, you piece of trash!”

  Duke yelled, “I want you out of my house and out of my life! I’ve put up with way too much for too long, and this is the last straw. Get out!”

  His father snapped, “This is totally unacceptable! You’re to address me with respect!”

  “You don’t deserve respect!” Duke’s eyes blazed with anger.

  “Somebody needs to teach you some manners, you worthless disappointment!” His father balled his hands into fists and looked like he was about to lunge at him, but Duke stared him down unflinchingly.

  After a moment, his father backed down. But he made no move toward the door, so I snapped, “Duke told you to go! Now are you going to get out of here, or do I have to make you leave?”

  The man narrowed his eyes and snarled, “I’d like to see you try!”

  With that, I ran to the couch, picked up the bucket of miniature beanbag crabs from one of my games, and started pelting him with them as I yelled, “You don’t deserve Duke, not after the way you treated him! You should be ashamed of yourself!”

  The crabs completely threw him off. He shielded himself with his hands as he stammered, “You’re crazy!”

  Duke marched to the door and held it open as he told his father, “We’re done. Don’t bother coming back, because I’m changing the locks.”

  I kept up the constant barrage of crabs, chucking one after another at him until he turned and fled the house. Duke slammed the door behind him and leaned against it, and I murmured, “Wow, what a dick.”

  “Yup.” After a moment, he grinned a little and said, “I can’t believe you pelted him with crabs.”

  “Well, he wouldn’t leave.”

  “It was very effective.”

  As I put down the bucket, I said, “I’m so sorry I bit you. Are you okay?”

  “Don’t worry about it. I’ll be fine.” He crossed the room to me and pulled me into a hug. Then he kissed the top of my head and said, “I’m going to get a shower. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

  When I nodded, he headed down the hall to his room. I knit my brows with concern as I watched him go. The only thing I could do for Duke at that moment was feed him, so I went to the kitchen, got a pot of coffee going, and gathered the ingredients for breakfast. On a whim, I also quickly mixed up a batch of blue icing and used it to write a message and draw a picture on the vanilla cake I’d baked the night before. Then I got busy mixing up some batter.

  By the time Duke joined me maybe twenty minutes later, I’d turned the kitchen into our own, personal pancake house. I transferred the last batch from the griddle to the heaping platter I’d kept warm in the oven and told him, “You have your choice of banana, chocolate chip, and party explosion pancakes. Feel free to mix and match.”

  I took a pot from the stove and poured a stream of warm blueberry syrup into what was meant to be a cream dispenser. The white, ceramic vessel was in the shape of a cow, and the syrup flowed out of its mouth, which I thought was hilarious. I put it between the two place settings on the kitchen island, and as Duke took his seat, he asked, “What does a party explosion pancake involve?”

  “Sprinkles, chocolate chips, bananas, edible glitter, and chopped up peanut butter cups. They’re pretty freaking awesome.”

  Duke glanced at the vanilla cake, then rotated it around to face him and chuckled. I’d written, ‘I’m sorry I bit your dick,’ and added a drawing of a penis with a sad face. “I really am sorry,” I said.

  “It was an accident. You don’t have to keep apologizing.”

  “Did I break the skin?”

  “Yeah, but just a little.”

  I exclaimed, “Oh my God! Do you want an icepack?”

  He grinned at me. “I really don’t.”

  “Oh. Right. That would actually suck.”

  Duke thanked me when I handed him a cup of coffee, and he stacked a few pancakes on his plate as I turned off the stove and joined him at the kitchen island. Instead of eating anything, he began to fidget with his fork, and after a while he said, “I’m sorry you got caught in the middle of that.”

  “I’m not. You needed backup.”

  “My father was totally out of line with the things he said to you.”

  “I’ve been called worse.”

  “That doesn’t make it okay.” He stared out the kitchen window and was quiet for a while before saying, “My father and I have argued before, but never like that. I wonder what the upshot will be.”

  “What do you want to happen?”

  “I don’t know.” He ate a bite of the party pancake and said, “This is really good.” But after a minute, he pushed back his barstool and said, “Sorry, but I don’t have much of an appetite right now. Can you save some of these for me?”

  “Of course.”

  “I’m going to go out for a while and try to clear my head.”

  “Sure, no worries. I’ll see you later.”

  He kissed my forehead and left by way of the garage. I sighed quietly and climbed up on the counter with a big pancake in my hands. It made me sad that he was hurting, and I couldn’t do anything about it.

  The garage door rattled open, then closed. I wondered where he’d go. He said he wanted to be alone, but if he changed his mind, who did he have to turn to?

  I tore off a bit of pancake and ate it, then jumped a little when the connecting door to the garage swung open. When Duke stepped into the kitchen, I said, “I thought you left.”

  “I started to, but then I got to thinking.” He came up to me and slid his hands around my waist, and I wrapped my legs around him. “I’ve always dealt with everything by myself. That’s all I know. But I realized I don’t have to do that anymore, because now I have you.” That was one of the best things I’d ever heard. I set the pancake aside and draped my arms around his shoulders, and he said, “Everything feels so uncertain right now. Everything but this.”

  “What can I do to help?”

  “You’re already helping, so much more than you know.” Duke kissed me, and then he picked up the platter of pancakes and said, “Come on, let’s try again with breakfast.”

  Chapter Ten

  I called Duke as soon as I got off the bus that evening, and he answered with, “Hey! Where are you?”

  “About three blocks away. Rehearsal ended a little early, so our choreographers could regroup. Want me to stall for time?” We’d agreed that I’d come home for our date at seven. It was about six-forty, so I started walking in exaggerated slow motion, which earned me a bunch of funny looks from the people at the bus stop.

  “Nope, everything’s ready. Come on home.”

  “Okay, great.” I started walking at a normal pace and said, “I’m going upstairs to shower and change as soon as I get there, but it won’t take long.”

  “I figured you’d want to do that. See you soon.”

  Duke was waiting on the front steps when I reached the duplex about five minutes later. He was dressed in a white T-shirt, khaki shorts, and flip flops, and he greeted me with a new set of keys because he’d changed the locks that day, and a single, hot pink Gerbera daisy. I kissed his cheek and thanked him for the flower, then asked, “Should I go by what you’re wearing and dress accordingly?”

  “I’m sure you’ll put your own, unique s
pin on it, but yes. The date is taking place in our backyard. I know that sounds lackluster, but I hope you like what I have planned. Oh, and try not to peek back there, okay? I want to surprise you.”

  “I gotta be honest here,” I said as he held the door open for me. “I’m terrible when it comes to stuff like that. It’s not that I want to ruin the surprise, but I’ll be drawn to the view outside my bedroom window like a moth to a flame.”

  “I thought that might be the case,” he said with a smile, “so I did something to help you out. You’ll see what I mean.”

  When I reached my bedroom, I burst out laughing. Duke had hung a sheet over my window from the outside, and had decorated it with a rough approximation of my usual view of the yard, rendered with colored markers. I was still smiling as I headed to the shower.

  About ten minutes later, I bounded downstairs barefoot and dressed in a romper printed to look like the universe. On the front of it was a picture of a cat surfing on a huge burrito. I’d decided to default to playful instead of sexy on the Quinn’s-closet-continuum, because Duke was dressed casually and I didn’t want him to think I was coming into the date with any expectations.

  Duke was waiting for me in the living room. He’d added a red Hawaiian shirt and a lei of purple orchids to his ensemble, and he slipped a matching lei around my neck and grinned shyly. “Oh, sweet,” I exclaimed, “a Hawaiian theme! The lei is gorgeous, thank you. How did you find such a thing in San Francisco?”

  “You can find anything in this city, including leis and Quinn-worthy cocktail garnishes.” He stepped aside to reveal a pair of hollowed-out pineapples on the coffee table, each overflowing with umbrellas, skewers of tropical fruit, swizzle sticks, and little plastic toys. I squealed with delight, and he chuckled at my response and said, “I thought you’d like that.”

  “I love it!” He handed me one of the pineapples, and after I took a sip from the coiled, purple straw, I told him, “It tastes as good as it looks, which says a lot because this is the greatest beverage I’ve ever seen.” Duke seemed pleased by that.

  We carried the pineapple drinks through the kitchen and paused at the back door, which was covered with a sheet. He looked a little nervous as he held the makeshift curtain open for me. My mouth fell open as I stepped into a tropical paradise.

  The yard had been completely transformed. The first thing I saw was a pair of eight-foot-tall palm trees. Duke had cut them out of plywood, painted them, and outlined them with Christmas lights. They arched toward each other, forming a gateway to wonderland. A metal fire pit blazed near a beautiful tiki bar on the patio, and the lawn was rimmed with a dozen tiki torches and dotted with inflatables, including a dolphin, a palm tree and a few colorful inner tubes. Duke said, “I hope it’s okay that I raided the box labeled ‘pool toys’ that you’d stashed in the garage.” I nodded as I wandered wide-eyed across the patio and stepped onto the lawn.

  The two show-stoppers were a six-foot-wide children’s wading pool, which was home to half a dozen little plastic boats traveling in a circle, and a big, metal swing set, which looked like it belonged in a city park and spanned the width of the lawn. As I stood there with my mouth hanging open, Duke explained, “You’d mentioned how much you loved that sushi restaurant with the little boats. This is my version. The sushi looks clunky, but it tastes okay. I tried to make it like you showed me that one time.”

  We walked over to the turquoise plastic pool, which was printed with cartoon fish and seashells, and I saw that each of the toy boats was carrying a different variety of sushi. He’d covered them with little sheets of plastic wrap and added a couple edible flowers between the sushi rolls. A straw beach mat, topped with two place settings and strewn with more flowers, waited for us beside the pool. I put my pineapple drink on the mat, and Duke did the same before we walked back to the swing set.

  As I blinked at it in wonder, he explained, “You said you missed the swings you used to have at your parents’ house, so when I saw this for free on an upcycling website, I thought you might enjoy it.” A tear tumbled down my cheek, and when I turned to Duke and crushed him in an embrace, he asked, “Are you crying?”

  I pulled him down to my height and kissed him, and he gently wiped the tears from my cheek as I whispered, “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  “You did so much for me. I’m overwhelmed.”

  “You’re the most amazing person I’ve ever met, Quinn, so I couldn’t just take you out to dinner or something ordinary. You deserve a first date as fun and unique as you are.”

  I held him tight and asked, “How did you do so much in a single day?”

  “I actually found the swing set on Monday. Finn let me store it at his house, and he came over right after you left this afternoon and helped me install it. He invited us to dinner next week, by the way.” Duke looked around and gestured at the plywood cutouts. “I made the palm trees on Monday and Tuesday, and I actually found the bar last week. Someone had put it out on the sidewalk with a ‘free’ sign. I refinished the wood and added the wicker panels and bamboo trim. It’s lucky you rarely go into the garage.”

  I looked up at him and said, “Last week? You hadn’t even asked me out yet.”

  “It was just going to be a present, but then I ended up theming our first date around it. Right after you moved in, you asked if you could put a tiki bar in the living room, and I totally shut you down. Later on, I realized how unfair that was. It’s important to me that you to feel at home here, so after tonight, we can set up the bar near the fireplace.”

  “You’re the kindest, most thoughtful man in all the world, Duke.”

  He lightly ran the back of his hand over my cheekbone and murmured, “I just want to make you happy.”

  “Mission accomplished. Nobody’s ever done anything like this for me. It makes me feel so special.”

  “Good, because you are.”

  “Can we use the swings yet, or does that cement around the legs need to dry?”

  “It was actually really stable even before I embedded it in quick-drying concrete, so I think it’ll be just fine.” Three swings with black rubber seats were suspended by thick chains from the metal crossbar. I took the one in the center, and Duke gingerly sat on the one to my left and said, “Finn tried it out, but I haven’t yet. Let’s hope it actually holds my weight.”

  “I’m sure it will,” I said as I started to glide back and forth. “Did this come from a park? It’s super sturdy.”

  “It’s from a private school in South City that’s putting in a new playground. I would have gotten the slide too, if I thought there’d be room for it.” He pushed off with his feet and grinned as he sailed through the air. “This is fun. I haven’t been on a swing since I was about seven years old.”

  “It’s fantastic!”

  We laughed as we swung higher and higher. Eventually, we both stopped propelling ourselves and joined hands as we gradually slowed. When we were nearly at a standstill, I jumped onto the lawn and stood in front of him, and when Duke swung up to me, I grabbed the chains to stop him and kissed him deeply. Then I climbed onto his lap and wrapped my legs around his waist, and Duke grinned at me and started swinging both of us. “I’m amazed that you installed this permanently in your backyard,” I said as I draped my arms over his shoulders.

  He held my gaze and murmured, “I guess it’s my way of saying I hope you’re around for a very long time.”

  “I’m not going anywhere.” I leaned in, and he licked my lip playfully before kissing me.

  We spent a long time on the swing, kissing each other as we swayed back and forth. But after a while, I shivered a little, so Duke carried me across the yard and put me down beside the cozy fire on the patio. As I held out my hands to warm them, I gestured at the round, brass fire pit on its metal stand and asked, “Is this new, or did you have it in the garage?”

  “Actually, I borrowed it from Xavier. He made me promise not to throw it out.”

  “Why would he
say that?”

  Duke grinned and said, “Every time he uses it, I get nervous and tell him not to burn the house down. He probably figured I was sick of worrying about it.”

  Once we’d both warmed up a bit, he tilted his head toward the wading pool and asked if I was ready to eat, and I exclaimed, “I’m hungry enough to eat an entire fleet of sushi!”

  We settled in on the straw mat, and he draped a blanket over my shoulders before plucking the little squares of plastic wrap from the boats as they motored past. The sushi procession was led by a radio-controlled speed boat, which towed five brightly-colored bath toys. “Here’s where it gets a little awkward,” he said. “There’s only one speed on the motorized boat, and it’s a bit faster than I would have liked. Also, I looked it up and saw that the little boats at the sushi restaurants carry small plates, which is what you grab when you see something you want. But every plate I tried ended up capsizing the boats, so I left them out. Now we have to do this.”

  Duke picked up a set of chopsticks and leaned forward, then made a quick grab for a sushi roll as it floated past on the bow of a red and white tug boat. He lost his grip on it, but ended up catching the roll with his free hand before it hit the water. On the next lap, I plucked a roll from a plastic yacht with my fingers and said, “In Japan, it’s perfectly acceptable to eat sushi with your hands. Your way looks fun, but I think I’ll skip the chopsticks. That way, more sushi will end up in my belly, instead of at the bottom of the deep blue sea.” I tossed the California roll in my mouth, then murmured, “Mmmm,” and gave him a thumbs up.

  “Really? Is it okay? I ended up overcooking the rice and made another batch, but I thought maybe I’d overcooked that one, too.”

  “It’s delicious. Thank you again, Duke, for all of this.” I caught another California roll and tossed it in my mouth.

  “You’re welcome. I enjoyed putting it all together. My motto was ‘think like Quinn’ so that’s why it turned out to be fun.”

  I leaned against him and said, “Actually to me, this is all pure Duke. It’s clever, considerate, and completely exceptional, just like you.”