Speed dating at Blacktusk Inn - Part 19 (Patreon)

Balthazar’s desperation and willingness to cause a public scandal is beginning to sour your solid first impression of him. You take a deep breath, and a step forward. You’re thinking of taking his hand to soften the blow, but it’s possible that teasing him with physical contact will just rub salt on the wound.  “I apologize, Balthazar, but I have preferences of my own. I hope you can respect them.”

He looks around, realizing what a scene he’s making. “No, I… I understand”, he sputters, trying to maintain his eloquent affect, and utterly failing. “I suppose, if you happen to change your mind, you… you can always find me if you look for the alchemist’s guild in Blackhill. I’m quite well-known there.”

Balthazar grabs his glossy black cloak off the rack in complete silence, and leaves through the front door, which slams itself shut behind him. It appears in his rush to leave he forgot to be careful with his hands, and the formerly dull, black doorknob now sports a shiny golden handprint around it.

Right on cue with the noise, Asu gets up from his seat and begins walking across the bar. Rokash shoots him a mean look and steps in front of Charlie as if to protect him, but Asu ignores them and continues making his way towards the exit. “Poor fella”, he says, opening the door and looking back with a smile. “So sad and vulnerable… I better go make sure he’s alright!”

The imp leaves as well. You feel concerned for Balthazar, but at the end of the day, you know he can turn Asu into a very expensive ornament if he tries anything funny. He’ll be fine.

“I imagined everyone revealing their predilections could lead to some tensions, but my word, I didn’t imagine it could get this serious.”

The bartender scratches his head and picks up Balthazar’s sheet off the ground. “This one’s not too bad”, he says, crumpling the sheet into a small golden ball. “He didn’t forget to pay, at least. You should have seen last week’s.”  

“Tell me all about it”, you reply, taking a comfortable seat next to the bar.

You spend the rest of the evening, as promised, listening to the bartender (who you confirm is indeed called Genaro) tell amusing stories of rude customers, jilted ex lovers bumping into each other at the bar, and many more. It seemed to get him to come out of his shell.

He was only occasionally interrupted by Charlie and Rokash, who seemed to have hit it off and kept ordering food and drinks and making noise in their little corner. You were so enraptured by your host that you only noticed how handsy they were getting with each other when the orc, now covered in more hickeys than pieces of armor, approached the minotaur to request a room for two. They stumble out, and you find yourself alone with Genaro.

“I was thinking of making the same offer, if that’s not too forward.” He looks to the side. "Our nicest room is free at the moment."