“Yours? I thought they were Beyoncé’s?”
Jax laughed, squeezed Ari’s thigh under the table, and turned to Adi to continue their conversation. His recounting of bar stories got them to their drinks, and for several minutes, everyone was distracted giving their orders.
“I cannot imagine having to play such derivative music every night is very entertaining for you,” Marco said into the silence after the server left.
Ari wondered if Jax would let him start kicking yet, but Jax gave another almost vapid smile and said, “It’s not to everyone’s taste, I’m sure. But like I said, I like entertaining people, and most people are entertained by derivative pop music.”
“Jax is very good at it too. The patrons at the bar love him.”
“I’m sure they do,” Marco said.
Jax squeezed Ari’s thigh once again, and when the server stepped back up to the table to inform Marco that they were not able to make the alterations on the dish he requested, Jax leaned in to murmur in Ari’s ear, “That definitely isn’t a kickable offense.”
For a while the conversation eased away from them, but Jax quickly became everyone’s darling—well, except Marco’s—as he charmed them all.
“It tends to be above the layman’s understanding,” Marco said when Jax asked after Marco’s advisory work at the conservatory. “I’m working with students who are heavily steeped in compositional theory.”
“That sounds intense,” Jax agreed. “I’ve barely taken piano lessons, so I have very little knowledge about theory.”
Adi’s eyebrows flew high. “I’m even more impressed at your improv now.”
Jax flushed. “Well, you know, if you don’t know the rules, you don’t have to worry about breaking them. Besides, I was mostly flirting with Ari.”
Ari might not be one for PDA, but how could he resist? He lifted Jax’s hand to his mouth and pressed a kiss to his knuckles.
“So what kind of work do you do with your students?” Jax asked Adi, and spent several minutes asking her follow-up questions about teaching musical improv. Soon he was leaning across the table asking if she had any advice for his job, nodding along with her answers.
“You look very happy,” Chuck said softly to Ari.
“I am. Jax is… special.”
“He is that, and very good for you too.”
“He is indeed very good for me,” Ari agreed as he considered how loose he felt at this meal, how natural it was to be in public with Jax, introducing him to friends.
After their dishes were carted away, when Jax was making noises about dessert while Ari gently urged him on, Chuck asked what had brought Jax to Boston. “Ari has said he followed you here, and from your accent and your job, you’re obviously not local.”
“Oh,” Jax said, looking up from the menu. He’d made drooling noises over the chocolate gateau. Marco was looking down his nose so hard, Ari could practically see up it. “Needed to come back and finish the PhD.”
Chuck blinked but barely missed a beat. “Oh?”
“Yeah, I got interrupted a couple years ago. I was putting it off—going back to school and all—but MIT’s letters were getting kind of angry.”
Marco choked on his water.
“What is it about?” Chuck asked.
“Statistical models. Applied mathematics,” Jax added with an almost apologetic smile that seemed to say,Don’t worry, I won’t bore you with details.
“Youare earning a PhD in mathematics atMIT?” Marco said, the disbelief so clear that the whole table fell into an awkward silence.
Except for Jax, who blinked guilelessly and said, “Everyone needs a hobby.”
Ari briefly contemplated crawling under the table to blow him.
Marco turned red. “Going to MIT was a hobby.”
“Massachusetts is a nice place to live when it’s not winter. No one wants to live in New Jersey, even if Princeton is beautiful.”
