"You sure about this? I'm not exactly much of a drinker...." Gabby asked as she applied the last of her make-up.

Caddie raised an eyebrow in amusement, "You don't have to drink with us."

"I know, but I'm just worried I'll feel left out if I don't."

"The whole point of this is to introduce you to him. And you'd be surprised how much he can put down without getting drunk; you won't be left out."

"Okay, okay," Gabby chuckled. She made some final adjustments to her leg, then stood up. "How do I look?"

Caddie looked upon his girlfriend, hearts practically in his eyes. She was in the most stunning sleeveless red dress, her usual necklace framed perfectly between its straps; she wore two silver bangles on her right wrist, and a gold one on her left; her eyes were shadowed with red, and her lips were framed with pink; and her usual zig-zag socks adorned her feet.

"Amazing," he breathed, absolutely enamored.

Gabby smiled, then gave him a little peck on the cheek. "Good. Then let's get going."

Caddie pulled his jacket on, then checked his phone. "Alright, he says he was able to close early, so he's already on his way."

The two of them headed out the door, where Aly was waiting for them. "Took ya long enough," she teased.

"Thanks for being our driver," Caddie smiled.

"Of course; someone here has to keep a clear head."

Caddie slugged Aly in the arm, before they got into the car and drove off.

-♪—-+-•——•-+-—♪-

When they arrived, the two of them walked inside, while Aly drove off to run some errands. Caddie began looking around, eventually spotting a red tail waving to him, so they headed over.

Gabby's first thought when she saw him was to wonder if she'd suddenly been transported back to the 1980's. He was wearing a turquoise shirt and hat, as well as a loosened red tie that matched the hat's band. His green eyes were underlined with slight bags, and spikey hair poked out from under the hat. His orange-ish red body was speckled with darker scales, with two darker stripes running to halfway down his back, his segmented underbelly was peach-yellow, his articulate tail was holding up his mug of beer, and his stomach was slightly distended.

"So glad you could make it," Lex greeted as they sat down, his voice tinged with a Spanish accent. "I assume you're Gabby?"

Gabby nodded. "And you're Caddie's boss?"

"Lex Salvador, at your service," he set down the mug and held out his tail. Gabby blinked, then realized what the gesture meant, and she shook hands with him.

"So, tell me about yourself," Lex began. "Caddie here says you're quite a catch."

Gabby blushed. "Well, I like astrology, I'm the heir to Skylar Prints, and I was born without my left leg." To emphasize her point, she swung her prosthetic leg to poke out from under the table.

Lex whistled at the sight. "Did you make that yourself?"

"No," Gabby resettled, "but I do maintain it myself."

"Nice." He took a swig of his drink. Caddie waved down a waiter, and they ordered. Caddie asked for a witbier, while Gabby decided to get a strawberry daiquiri, and Lex asked for another drink.

"What're you having?" Gabby decided to ask him.

"Doppelbock," he replied nonchalantly.

Gabby raised an eyebrow. She'd done some research in preparation for today, and was aware that it was a pretty strong beer. Did he have a driver sorted, or...?

Lex seemed to catch her expression, because he clarified, "I have a condition that makes me abnormally tolerant to beer."

"Right," Gabby remembered, "Caddie mentioned something along those lines."

"Oh? What else has he said?"

"Well, I think he's mentioned that you're engaged?"

He nodded, took off his hat, and grabbed a picture from the inside. "Jamie's one of the best people I've ever met." He gave the picture to Gabby, who looked over it. It depicted Lex draped over the shoulders of a colorfully-dressed human with blond hair, their noses touching lovingly. "He helped me get past a really bad break-up, and I helped him when his parents disowned him."

Gabby gasped. "I'm so sorry to hear that! I haven't told my own parents yet, so I can only imagine how it must feel."

"It was rough," Lex admitted as he took back the photo, "but we were there for each other when we needed it, and I'll always be grateful for that."

At that moment, the waiter came back with their drinks. Gabby took her drink, swirled the straw around for a moment in anticipation, before finally deciding to take a sip. Immediately, she was hit by a flavor similar to cough syrup, and actually swallowing it proved a bit difficult.

Lex noticed the expression. "Try squeezing more of the lime into it; they probably didn't use enough."

Gabby took his advice, and when she tried it again, it was quite a bit better. Not great, but at least she could down it without much discomfort. "Thanks," she smiled. He returned the gesture, albeit with less teeth.

Caddie decided to speak up. "So, how's business been?"

"Pretty good; like I said, it was slow today, and Nick said they'd handle the closing shift, so I got to get here early." He took a swig of his drink. "Ramona found a crate of lagers in the back that wasn't accounted for in the last inventory check, so she offered to cover its cost and take it home with her."

"Aw, lucky!" Caddie bemoaned, only half-serious.

"And of course, Tyler was bartending, so he had to deal with the rowdy patrons you're so good at dealing with. He handled it pretty well, but I might switch him with Ramona so he doesn't get over-stressed.

"But enough about work! How's your weekend been?"

"Fantastic! Gabby and I went to the fair, where we played some games, had too much funnel cake, and we even ran into Agni."

"Oh, Agni! Man, it's been a while since I've seen him; what's he been up to?"

"Not much, really; still working at that arcade, but he finally got that nose ring he was so indecisive about."

"Well, what was the verdict?"

"The color was good, and it felt natural, but he said the shape made it protrude too much into his field of view."

"Ah, yeah, that's always a bummer. I remember this one time I went to a masquerade, not knowing my first ex would be there. So, I got this fancy mask...."

Watching these two talk, Gabby could really understand how they became such good friends. She simply sat there and watched their banter for a short while, taking another sip of her drink and finding it rather pleasant now.

"...and the feathers went up my nose, sending me into a sneezing fit! I got hors d'oeuvres all over her!" Lex mimed the action with his tail, causing Caddie to nearly spit out his drink in laughter.

He quickly swallowed, then began to chuckle. "Oh gosh, I can't even imagine how embarrassing that must've been!"

"Yeah, that wasn't my best day." He then glanced over and saw Gabby just watching them. "Oops! Sorry if we're leaving you out, Gabby."

"No, it's fine; I was enjoying watching you two talk."

Lex shook his head. "No, I insist; I'm here to meet you, after all. Do you have any stories you'd like to share?"

She thought for a moment. "Well, there's this one involving my old bike."

"Oh, here we go!" Caddie rolled his eyes in bemusement, receiving a playful slug on the shoulder from his girlfriend.

"Anyway, I was 11 or 12 at the time, and my friends and I were riding bikes in my backyard. Our house is surrounded by fences that protect us from a steep drop-off, with a walking trail at the bottom and large bushes growing from the cliffside. We were having fun, y'know, but my friend Polly had the 'brilliant' idea to set up this ramp, and dared us all to jump over her."

Lex looked concerned, but Caddie explained, "She was an armadillo, and had curled up both for protection and to make it easier." That let Lex relax a little, but he was still rather worried.

"Regardless, my other friends went first, and they cleared her no problem. I, however, was still learning the ins and outs of my new bike, and accidentally gunned it too hard. Only realized once I was in the air how high I was going, so I kicked myself off the bike in reflex, and that push caused it to sail right over the fence and off the cliff!"

Lex gasped.

"Thankfully, I was only bruised from the fall," (that made him sigh in relief) "so I ran inside and got my parents, and we began to search for the bike. However, no matter how hard we looked around the bottom of the cliff, we couldn't find it."

"What? Where'd it go?"

"We couldn't figure it out; it might've gotten lost in the underbrush, or rolled into a nearby creek, but regardless, it seemed lost forever.

"That is, until that fall, when we were taking a walk along the trail. I heard a snap, and looked behind us to see my bike just skidding down the cliffside, just past our legs! It turned out that the bike had gotten stuck in one of the bushes that was growing there, shrouded among the leaves, and it only fell once the weather weakened it!"

Gabby started laughing. "It was scary in the moment, but looking back, it's hilarious!" Even Caddie, who'd heard the story a thousand times, got a chuckle out of it.

Lex was still concerned. "So, the bush just happened to conceal the bike in the perfect way? And nobody noticed until it fell out, which happened to be right as you were passing under it?"

"Yup; we don't trim those bushes, since they're not really visible to the public."

A momentary pause followed, Gabby's words processing.

Then all three of them started laughing loudly, Lex even hitting his tail against the table. They shared in the mirth for a solid ten seconds, before they eventually got control of themselves again.

Lex wiped away a tear. "Woo, I haven't laughed like that since Jamie's mom tripped on her own purse. I can definitely see why Caddie considers you a keeper."

"Thanks!" Gabby grinned, and Lex followed suit, his smile comfortably wider than before.