Dutifully, Jax took a whiff. “Oh. Wine shouldn’t smell like that.”
“Perhaps the cork shriveled and let air in the bottle.”
That would explain the vinegar bouquet. “Sorry,” Jax said, trying not to let on how upset he was. He wanted tonight to go perfectly—he’dneededit to go perfectly so he could finally get an angle on the question, “Hey, Ari, when am I going to meet your parents?” Which was really just a cover for “Hey, Ari, do you promise you’re really serious about us?”Now it seemed like the prospect was doomed from the get-go. “I’d offer to make you something else, but….” He gestured to the liquor shelf, which was kept under a locked gate when the bar wasn’t open.
Why couldn’t Jax do anything right? Murph would’ve given him the key for that if he’d asked. Jax could have paid for anything they used.
“Jax.” Ari’s hand covered his. “It’s only a bottle of wine—a drink you can only partake of in limited quantities anyway.”
Jax allowed himself to be comforted. Still— “I just wanted everything to be perfect.”
“If I required alcohol to enjoy spending time in your company, I would not do it.”
Smooth talker.Jax had no choice but to let it go. “All right, you make a valid point. Flatterer.” They could have a nice meal without alcohol.
Ari smiled, and Jax’s tension disintegrated further. “I have my moments.”
They made do with sparkling water, and Jax tried to relax into the conversation, catching up on what they hadn’t managed to talk about over the week.
The problem was that after a while, all Jax’s musician-bartender stories started to sound the same. Ari knew all his coworkers, so there wasn’t much Jax could tell him about them. And Jax was still puzzling out how to workso I met the guy your parents set you up on a blind date withinto conversation without it sounding accusatory. Probably because itwasaccusatory.
So conversation turned from shared stories of working at the Rock to Ari’s trip to Toronto and the album’s progress.
Jax scowled at his pasta, chased an errant noodle through a puddle of too-acidic sauce, and tried not to grit his teeth as Ari spoke fondly of Aiden Lindell and his sweet voice, his emotive expression, his—okay, Jax stopped listening. A man could only take so much.
“…collaborate with him in the future.” Ari paused. “Jax. The noodle is dead.”
So was the mood, Jax thought sourly. “Yeah,” he forced himself to say as he put down his fork. “Sorry.” But before he could excuse his distraction or even change the subject, Ari nodded and went on, apparently oblivious.
“Noella thinks she might be able to set up a synchronized tour so that Aiden’s available to perform live with me. That might depend on finding another artist he’d be a suitable opening act for—”
Jax dropped his fork in his pasta plate and finally let his mouth get the better of him. “Jesus. If he’s so great, why don’t you just go on a blind date withhim.”
Whoops.
When he looked up, Ari was staring at him with his mouth slightly agape, his eyes wide, two spots of color high in his cheeks. So much for finessing the conversation. Outright confrontation was always more his style. He should’ve known better than to try to be subtle.
Ari cleared his throat. “Jax, something is obviously bothering you. Rather than avoid the issue, could we… talk about it?”
Ugh.Jax had caught him in a lie—one of omission, but still—and he was still going to make Jax play the jealous lover?Fine.Jax would play the jealous lover. “I met a friend of yours last week. A Dr. Sohrab someone? He told me a story.”
“Ah.” Ari took a deep breath and set down his own utensils, not that he’d been using them since he’d been talking about Aiden for the past five minutes instead of eating the meal Jax labored over. “Youareangry with me.”
“No,” Jax denied. Off Ari’s infinitesimally raised eyebrow, he amended, “Fine, yes, I’m a little annoyed. Obviously you can’t control other people’s actions, but you should have told me about it after the fact. Do you know how it feels to have to work in a public-facing job all night after one of your customers tells you his parents set him up on a date with your boyfriend? And your boyfriend didn’t mention it?”
“You’re right that I should have told you.” Ari reached for Jax’s hand, and Jax grudgingly, against his better judgment, let him take it. “I didn’t think… well, I didn’t think.”
That wasn’t an apology, but Jax wasn’t finished airing his list of grievances either. “And speaking of other people’s actions.” He knew Ari’s parents were a challenging subject, but if Jax didn’t bring it up, he was going to drive himself to multiple root canals from all the tooth grinding. “I guess I don’t understand why your parents were setting you up on a date in the first place.”
Ari’s expression froze, but Jax could see the emotion in his eyes even if he couldn’t identify it. Fear? Guilt? Ari swallowed. “Jax….”
Yeah, Jax didn’t like where this was going. Would it be the thing that broke them? He’d thought they were on the same page, but he was learning they really, really weren’t. And that hurt.
Suddenly he couldn’t stand to be in the room with Ari. “I… excuse me.”
Not wanting to deal with the people he might see on the street proper, he went out through the break room. The exterior door stuck, and Jax had to throw his shoulder to get it open. It banged against the brick when he finally succeeded, and Jax stepped out into the November chill.
Ari stepped out behind him. “Jax,” he said softly.
