Christian glared. "And whose fault is that?"
Julius grinned, but before he could respond the bathroom door opened. His smile was immediately replaced with a scowl when Zanipolo entered. "What are you doing here? I told you to dance with Carolyn."
"I did, but then she wanted to stop and she insisted I come check on Christian," he explained as the door closed behind him.
"Why would you need to check on me?" Christian asked with surprise.
"What happened?" Zanipolo asked rather than answer the question.. "You look like you wet yourself."
"Zanipolo," Julius gasped. "What have you done?"
Christian glanced to his father with surprise. Judging by his expression, he was reading Zanipolo's mind and was horrified by what he'd found there.
"Uh." Zanipolo eyed Julius warily and then glanced to Christian and said, "I was helping."
"Helping?" Julius asked with disbelief. "That wasn't helping you idiot."
"What did you do?" Christian asked, alarm beginning to crawl up his spine.
"Uh, well," Zanipolo was beginning to look worried.
"Carolyn asked me if you were all right because of how Julius dragged you off."
"And he told Carolyn that I had caught you winking at a waiter and I'd dragged you in here for an explanation," Julius said heavily.
Christian grimaced, but relaxed a little. She already thought him gay, telling her he'd winked at a waiter wasn't great, but he couldn't see it really being a problem.
He could explain everything when he revealed all later.
"And then he told Carolyn that this might be for the best and if you came out of the closet you wouldn't have to hang all over her anymore."
"What?" Christian squawked.
"But this way you don't have to kiss her and stuff. You can keep your distance and just gain her friendship and trust," Zanipolo said quickly. "I mean, I thought the kissing and having to control yourself was proving to be a problem." He glanced to Julius with alarm. "Isn't that why you dragged him in here?"
Christian growled deep in his throat and headed for Zanipolo, physical violence on his mind, but Julius caught his arm.
"We can fix this," he assured him quickly when Christian turned on him.
"Fix what?" Zanipolo asked with confusion. "She already thought he was gay. Now she just thinks you might know."
"Which means he doesn't need a beard," Julius snapped.
Zanipolo frowned. "Well, yeah, but they're becoming friends and-"
"We can't trust in that," Julius growled. "It's only been twenty-four hours. It's a very tentative friendship at best right now. Should that roommate of hers wake up in the morning feeling better and ready to have fun, Carolyn could drop spending any time at all with Christian."
"Oh," Zanipolo said, with dismay. "I didn't-I mean, I thought-"
He paused when Christian began growling again and sighed. "How do I fix this?"
Julius thought briefly and then said, "An orchid. You'll find one and-"
"Where am I going to find an orchid?" Zanipolo interrupted with a frown.
"I don't care. Rob a florist's if you have to, but if you do, leave the money in the till for it," Julius added with a frown. "But find an orchid, or something equally exotic and have the waiter bring it to her along with a card saying that she is as beautiful and rare as the flower."
Christian cleared his throat, and asked, "How is that going to fix-"