Just a normal everyday visit to any bar in New York.
Kind of.
He knew where he was going, because the thought of seeing Nate again made him smile, and he desperately wanted to just talk to him. Or kiss him. Or both.
He was disappointed not to see Nate behind the bar, instead he spotted Pops watching another guy who was mixing and muddling and doing whatever it took to create a cocktail. When the coolness of the city gusted in with Jared, he shut the door as Pops looked up, saw him, and then smiled in welcome.
“Just in time, kid!” he exclaimed, and gestured him over. “Jared, meet Gregg.”
Gregg and Jared shook hands. This must be the Gregg who maybe wanted his own bar one day, and he did seem very proficient with the way he handled the bottles. “We’re making… what’s it called again, Gregg?”
“Rum Martinez—”
“Rum, maraschino liqueur, vermouth, but we don’t have toasted wood chips or digital smoke infuser, so apparently it will never be as good as the original, but we could always rename it to like, I don’t know, Rhea’s Rum, or something. Let us know what you think.”
“I actually came in to see—”
“Just a sip.”
Jared did as he was asked, the smokiness of the mixed liquors hitting the back of his throat and filling his mouth with warmth. He was tempted to drink it all, but that wasn’t how tastings worked, right?
“Really good,” he summarized, then pushed the crystal tumbler back to Pops.
“Hmmm,” Gregg murmured, and then traced his finger down a list on a sheet of paper. “Would you say that wood chips would make it more or less—”
“He won’t know that,” Pops interrupted Gregg who went back to his list. “I bet you’re here to see Nate, right?”
“I was just going to get a drink,” Jared lied.
Pops raised a single eyebrow in silent comment. “You just caught him, he’s in the office but he’s heading home soon,” Pops explained all of that then topped it off with a smile and a wink and thumbed to the door in the corner. “He’s been in there too long.”
“Is it okay to just—”
“He’s got his head in numbers, go rescue him.” He slid the tumbler back, then pushed another toward Jared. “On the house, take this for Nate and ask him what he thinks, then tell him to go home. We got this.”
Jared took the glass with him, heading around the bar, and knocking on the door, hearing a muffled come in, peeked inside. Nate’s serious expression vanished in an instant, in fact it wasn’t so much pleasure as utter relief.
“Since when did four plus four not equal eight?” he blurted, and Jared placed the cocktail in front of him.
“Pops said you need to try that,” he lied. “And to tell you that you need to go home.”
“I will as soon as I get this to balance.”
“Give me the math.”
He poked at his laptop, and then slid it over. “I swear numbers will be the end of me.”
Jared only had to glance at the sheet he was working on to see where the error was. “You’re rounding up or down all the way through so it’s inevitable that you’ll be out at the end, because you’re adding up what’s behind the numbers, not what you see on the screen.”
Nate took a sip of the drink and looked at Jared with a blank expression. “Can you… magic…” He waved at the laptop, and Jared leaned over, followed the formulas back to the root of the issue, then a couple of changes later and everything added up. Not just that but Nate had finished his cocktail, staring at the empty glass as if it was going to bite him.
“That’s good,” he muttered, and then glanced up at Jared and gave him a shy smile. “Hi.”
“Hi.” Jared sat on the edge of the desk, crossing his legs at his ankles and sipping his drink.
“You’re here.”
“You sound shocked.”
Nate sighed and shook his head. “You came over, we watched a kids’ movie and ate crispy lasagna, then I moped, the kiss was really quick, and I thought for sure I’d never see you again.”
Jared counted the items on his fingers. “You didn’t mope, I loved the movie, and the lasagna, and spending time with you and Luka.” He put his empty glass down, then held out a hand, and after a moment’s pause Nate took it and allowed himself to be tugged to his feet. “And the kiss was so perfect I’d like to do it again.” Nate almost melted into him, but then he pulled back as if a thought suddenly occurred to him.
“I’m working for the next few nights, but after that, I made a decision that we should get dinner or something? Or not a decision, but there’s a lot of things to think about, and I decided to ask you on a date… shit, I’m crap at this.”
“A date would be good.” Jared tugged a little more and Nate had to take a step forward to keep his balance. “There’s this awesome diner I know that has these old-fashioned slot machines, give Luka a roll of quarters and he would love them.”
“No, not with… not that I don’t appreciate that you want to include Luka, because he’s a really important part of my life, but… look, I’m messing this up. I meant just the two of us. Maybe?”
“You did?” Another tug and Nate was just one tiny step away, but even though Jared had thought of nothing else but kissing
