On the porch step, she turned to him and asked, “Drink?” He couldn’t disagree with that either.
A WEEKand a half before Christmas, Jax’s mother sent him to the grocery store to get a few “necessities.” Even in his younger days, Jax had never called pinot grigio and a couple pounds of Lindt chocolate necessities, but to each their own. He hopped in her car—a fancy hybrid that was actually kind of fun to drive—and went to the good grocery store a little farther out.
He had already snagged the wine and the chocolate and was touring up and down the aisle looking for anything else they were missing in the kitchen—he hadn’t yet broken the habit of buying in bulk to limit grocery trips—when Ari appeared around the corner.
Jax’s heart lurched in his chest.
When they were together, they never ran into each other by accident—not with Jax’s work schedule and Ari’s tendency to shut himself away with his piano. They had to coordinate every meeting.
He was utterly unprepared to come face-to-face with Ari in the wild.
Not that the international aisle of the grocery store could really be considered the wild, but—
Jax didn’t have time to strategize. Before he could even weigh his options—continue forward or attempt a strategic retreat—Ari looked over from his perusal of the imported honey and caught his gaze.
Fuck. Now what?
“Jax,” Ari said quietly. “I… hello.”
Now forced and awkward small talk, apparently. Had Jax been a puppy-kicker in a past life? “Hey,” Jax replied. “You look… uh….” The usual thing was to sayyou look good, right? Except Ari didn’t look good. His hair was still as glorious as ever, glossy black curls falling to his chin, sharp cheekbones, beautiful dark eyes. But he seemed gaunt. Had he lost weight? His shoulders were hunched.
Maybe it was just the winter coat.
“You don’t have to lie to spare my feelings,” Ari said, a little stiffly.
“That’s not really my forte,” Jax agreed, his mouth once again lurching ahead of his brain.
Once upon a time, Ari might have laughed. Now he only grimaced. Jax desperately wanted to flee, but his feet seemed rooted to the floor. “Nor mine, apparently,” Ari said. “Jax… I know our relationship is irreparably damaged, but I—”
Jax’s phone rang at full volume, interrupting both of them with an old Spice Girls B-side. Grateful for the excuse, Jax said, “Sorry, I better….” and picked up. “Hey, I’m almost done at the store. What’s up?”
“Did you get marshmallows?”
“Marshmallows,” Jax repeated, half turning away from Ari. Well, there definitely weren’t any of those in this aisle. “They weren’t on the list. What do we need—”
“For hot chocolate, obviously.” He could practically hear his mom rolling her eyes, though at least she didn’t addduh. He bet this was what the fancy chocolate was for too.
You know I’m mostly done wallowing, right?he wanted to say, but then he glanced at Ari and… okay, maybe there were a few more weeks of wallowing in his future. “Obviously,” he agreed and let his voice go teasing instead. “Hey, Christine, just wondering—you do remember which one of us is—”
“Finish that sentence and you can forget about me making you cocoa,” she threatened.
“Shutting up!” Jax said cheerfully. “Anything else?”
She paused as though considering. “IsDie Hardon Netflix?”
“Hobbes has it on DVD.”
“Perfect. See you soon, then.” And she hung up.
She never was one for lengthy goodbyes. Jax slipped his phone back into his pocket and turned back to Ari, but as soon as he did, Ari turned away as though he’d just remembered a critical shortage of harissa back at his place. Plausible, Jax supposed, but then Ari didn’t exactly cook much.
“I’m sorry,” Ari said finally. “You must be busy….”
Jax was, actually—he only had a few hours to spend with his mom before he had to be at work—but also he was ready to be out of Ari’s immediate presence. His palms were sweating and his chest felt tight. “Yeah, sorry, I can’t really… chat.” Not that they had much to say to each other.
“Of course. I understand.” He cleared his throat. “Ah… but I should mention I still have your keys and helmet. I could drop them off? I was going to bring them to the Rock, but I didn’t think you’d want to see me at work.”
He wasn’t wrong about that. Jax realized with a pang that Ari had never been to his house. Did Ari even know where he lived? “It’s okay, I… I’ll come pick them up.” Call it closure, or whatever. “I’ll text you to arrange a time?”
