Page 30 of Love Limits

Yes they can! You said it. In our club the best dates are the terrible ones. Zhong lit up. Wait! I’ve got it. He took the DATE sign and raised it up near his forehead to flick his fingers out, merging it with the word TERRIBLE, which then exploded like a bomb.

Perfect. Ash signed it back to him. The disastrous date club.

Agreed. Zhong smirked. But I’m still going to sign it like this. He signed DATE and then had one of the D’s lurch toward Ash in a few jerky hops like he was going to attack their belly.

Ash fell back, protecting their vulnerable middle while laughter bubbled from their mouth. Zhong took that as an invitation and tickled their feet. They drew back into a ball, trying to protect everywhere at once.

They kind of loved and hated being tickled all at once. It was overwhelming, but somehow thrilling, too, to be so completely helpless to a few wiggling fingers from someone determined to make them laugh.

They still couldn’t help but think that Zhong would be an amazing Daddy.

Finally, Zhong relented and Ash stopped laughing enough to sit up.

Zhong gave them a stern look, as though the tears of laughter they were wiping away weren’t all his fault. If we’re going to have a club, he said with exaggerated seriousness, I think we need a charter. We should have an agenda for every meeting. I mean, what does our club do? Aside from texting each other when we’re on bad dates?

This was going to be awesome. New bingo cards? We could have a whole bingo card industry. And maybe… dating profiles? We have to help each other make dating profiles, and then skim through some of those dating sites. Some of them are hilarious.

Zhong shook his head. Think bigger.

Bigger? Um… Oh! When we have bad dates we get to sit on the couch and eat ice cream. Oh, and cuddle. And play board games. Which was what they’d been planning on doing in the first place, but it was much more fun with a secret club.

Excellent. Zhong agreed. And I had a disastrous date last week, so I think I need cuddles right now.

Ooh! Me, too! Ash flew into his arms and Zhong gripped them tight, without a single hesitation. Their legs tangled together and Zhong’s muscular chest was hard and warm against their cheek. It was so hard not to think of Zhong as a Daddy.

And ice cream? Ash poked their head up to ask.

Zhong nodded. I don’t eat a lot of dairy products, so I don’t think I have any. What’s your favorite type?

All of them, Ash said promptly.

Zhong ruffled their hair. He didn’t seem to have any hesitation around physical contact. We’ll write that into the charter, then. All of the ice cream.

Do I have to go on another crappy date first? I have Thursday off work, but my next date’s not till Saturday.

Nope. We still have plenty of other things to take care of on the agenda, right?

Right.

Do you want to start now? Zhong asked.

Not really. It sounded like anything else on the agenda would require moving, and Ash just wanted cuddles.

Zhong seemed to have interpreted their pause correctly. Do crossword puzzles count as board games? Because we can do one now without having to move. He picked up a tablet from the side table.

Yes! Crossword puzzles!

Zhong flicked it on, arms still around Ash, and navigated to the app.

Ash already knew that this club was going to be the best and the worst thing that ever happened to them.

How could they ever go on disastrous dates with other people when they could be sitting on Zhong’s lap doing crossword puzzles instead?

Chapter 7

Zhong

The next week flew by in a blur of happiness. Ash had come over for most of the day yesterday before going to visit their mother, and now Zhong was over at Dustin’s place, sitting in one of his favorite spots and doing one of his favorite things.