Boyfriends with Girlfriends by Alex Sanchez Page A

agreed on a date for dinner Saturday, and both were able to relax a little. After that they talked for a while about dancing, swimming, and working out. As soon as they got off the phone, Lance speed-dialed Allie and told her about the call.
    “Super!” she exclaimed. “I knew you could do it.”
    “Yeah, but if he and I are going to keep dating, I think we should agree to be exclusive. Don’t you think?”
    “Babe, this is only your second date.”
    “But this feels so weird. If he wants to go out with other people, then I don’t want to date him. He’s got to decide on one or the other.”
    “Hmm . . .” Allie thought about that while she painted her toenails. “ . . . The danger with an ultimatum like that is: What if he says no? Then what do you do?”
    “Well, then I won’t go out with him.”
    “Really?” Allie asked.
    “I don’t know,” Lance admitted. “Why does dating have to be so complicated?”
    Later that night when he took Rufus out for his bedtime walk, Lance’s mind wandered back to thoughts of Sergio. Hopefully one day he’d be able to dance with him.
    “I need the car for Saturday,” Sergio told his parents at dinner the following night.
    “Are you going out with Serena again?” his mom asked eagerly. “When do we get to meet her?”
    “No, things didn’t work out with her,” Sergio said, slicing into his pork chop. “I’m going out with Lance instead.”
    His mom and dad stared across the table at each other, obviously wondering if he meant going out as friends or on a date. He decided to let them wonder.
    Whether they figured it out or not, on Saturday his mom didn’t give him any churros to take to Lance, and his dad didn’t slip him a twenty.
    “I wish my folks could be more like yours,” he told Lance when he picked him up. Once again Lance’s parents had invited Sergio to sit and chat. It felt so great to be treated as if dating a guy was the most natural thing in the world.
    When Lance climbed into Sergio’s car, he handed Sergio a bag of jelly beans tied to a little white teddy bear. “Here. I got this for you.”
    “Wow. Thanks, man.” Sergio stared at the unexpected gift, recalling when Zelda had given him a teddy bear—a little brown one. After their breakup he’d buried the little bear inside his closet, along with a ukulele and the love notes she’d given him. He now propped Lance’s bear onto the gearshift console between them and opened the jelly bean bag. “Want some?”
    “Sure.” Lance held out his hand but instead he got a jelly bean pressed into his mouth. “Thanks! So where are we going?”
    “It’s a surprise,” Sergio said and drove to a nearby strip mall that Lance had never paid much attention to.
    “Have you eaten here before?” Lance asked when they parked and walked toward a storefront restaurant called Zanzibar.
    “Nope. A chick was handing out half-price coupons at the mall. It’s Ethiopian. Where the hell is Ethiopia anyway?”
    “Um, Africa.” Lance had never eaten African food.
    Inside, the restaurant had an herby spicy smell. Exotic music played over the speakers: drums, bells, flutes, and horns. . . . A tall dark-skinned waitress in a white sequined gown led them to a low, round woven-basket table. The place had no chairs; they had to sit on floor cushions.
    “Are you okay?” Sergio asked, watching Lance shift and wobble on the floor cushion, trying to get comfortable. His long legs made it difficult.
    “I’m good,” Lance said, not wanting to be a spoilsport. He pointed at the trophy animal heads of antelope, oryx, gazelle, and ibex mounted on the walls. “Is that what we’ll be eating?”
    “Yeah.” Sergio gave a laugh.
    When the waitress returned to take their order, she recommended the “Sampler for Two” entrée and brought them a basin of water for washing their hands.
    That’s weird , Lance thought until he realized there wasn’t any silverware. This was nothing like any restaurant he’d ever