Ari frowned and looked not entirely convinced. Jax squeezed his hand.
“Also, sorry, but do your parents think you’re a girl in the early twentieth century? Why marry you off to a doctor?”
“My parents are doctors and neither of their children are. It’s their last chance to get a doctor in the family. Or so they think.”
That made a weird sort of sense, Jax supposed. “Wait, isn’t Ben—?”
“He’s a psychologist. Not quite the same as an MD.”
“Ah.” Again, weird sense. “So when is this meet happening?”
“Well, my parents are available to meet you this weekend. We could do Sunday dinner?”
“Okay. Yeah. Let’s do that.” Jax sipped his cooling tea and wondered if it was too soon to brace himself for the meeting. He looked up and caught Ari looking back at him. His eyes were fond, and a little smile curled his lips. Jax wanted to kiss him. “How do you feel about PDA?”
“At this very moment? I think I feel almost favorably about the idea. But creeper pictures of me have found their way to the internet, and I’m not overly fond of the idea of any moment with you being treated that way.”
“That is… totally fair. Also, how did you make ‘Don’t kiss me’ sound sweet?”
“If you like, we could go back to my place for that kiss?”
Jax wasn’t sure how far he wanted to take things. He was exhausted from the uncertainty of the past few days, but he really wanted to kiss Ari. “Okay. Let’s do that.”
AT ARI’Sthey barely made it through the door before Jax cupped Ari’s face and gently kissed him. Ari hummed and wrapped his arms around Jax and held him almost tenderly.
They didn’t stumble to the bed or start taking off clothes. Instead they curled up together on the couch, close and touching, kissing almost chastely. It kind of felt like high school, and Jax couldn’t say he disliked it.
“I think I’m too tired to move.”
“You will have to move eventually when you go to your shift.”
Jax groaned. “Don’t remind me. Can’t I just hide on your couch forever?” He tried to burrow into the cushions and ended up pressing his face to Ari’s chest. His chuckle made Jax’s head vibrate.
“I would gladly give you safe harbor from all the evils in the world,” Ari murmured. His soft, deep rumble sent shivers down Jax’s spine. “But I am not sure Murph counts. In fact, excepting his atrocious habit of using thick Newfie slang solely for the purpose of getting out of conversations, I can’t think of anything very dastardly about him.”
Jax hummed. Thinking about Murph made him want to blush and squirm with embarrassment as he remembered the trouble his stupidity had caused, but he shoved those thoughts away and focused on Ari’s warm body. “He does make me carry kegs. From the basement. With the spiders. And the things with more legs than spiders.”
“The horror.” Ari’s voice was dry as kindling. “Very well. I shall keep you safe here in my ivory tower.” He curled an arm around Jax’s shoulders and held him close. “I will defend you from marauding arachnids and unreasonable barkeeps for as long as you like.”
Jax snickered. “My hero. Can you also protect me from drunk patrons who just want me to sing ‘Piano Man’?”
“Oh, definitely. I have been known to stop Billy-Joel-requesting drunkards in their tracks.”
“Good.” Jax snuggled closer, and then his stomach reminded him he’d been off his food for two days. “Hey, Ari, does your ivory tower have any food in it? Because I could really go for some lunch.”
Ari pressed his face into Jax’s hair. “There is some. But I think today is a ‘Screw it, let’s support a local business’ day. How do you feel about gyros? There is a place down the road that makes some excellent sandwiches.”
“Hm, depends. What kind of sides come with it?”
Ari whipped out his phone. “Let’s see.”
An hour later they had decimated their lunch and were watching TV, though Jax wasn’t so much watching as staring in its general direction. Ari had put onThe Golden Girls, and Jax had lost track of the plot about five minutes in. He wiggled and settled his head on Ari’s shoulder. He would close his eyes for just a minute, and then maybe he’d be able to keep them open.
But when he opened his eyes again, the credits were running, Ari’s fingers were threaded in his hair, and he was chasing away the memory of—
“I’m guessing there’s noGolden Girlsepisode about string theory?” Jax said groggily, blinking away the last traces of the dream, in which Betty White had moonlighted as a theoretical physicist.
Ari paused with his fingers tracing the shell of Jax’s ear. “Not that I’m aware of.” His voice radiated amusement. “Although it sounds intriguing.”
