Dr. Jacobs took the empty seat next to Aidan and hailed the server. Min took a sip of the soda, keeping an eye on him over her glass as she did. Henry tried to surreptitiously push his drink away from himself. Jeff draped an arm around Henry’s shoulders, a silent claiming, almost daring the professor to say something. Dr. Jacobs pressed his lips together and looked away, clearly choosing to ignore the half-finished gin and tonic in front of the underage freshman.
“Liam. Good to see you,” Aidan said, tilting his glass towards Dr. Jacobs before draining it.
“I didn’t know you were in town,” Dr. Jacobs replied. “Your father said you were in France.”
Aidan shrugged and smirked at Min. “Change of plans.” Dr. Jacobs’ jaw clenched, his eyes bouncing between her and Aidan.
“Your father said you were accepted to the young artist program in Houston,” Dr. Jacobs continued.
Aidan shook his head. “Program doesn’t start until January,” he said as Lucy returned to the table, wedging herself between the professor and Aidan. The tenor’s arm lazily slid around Lucy’s waist and she preened.
As the server approached, Henry and Jeff got into a heated debate with Lucy about the new hot-shot choral composer on the scene. Dr. Jacobs ordered a glass of chianti. She could almost taste the wine on his lips.
“You and Mel are the only people I know who order wine at a bar,” Bobby laughed, slinging his arm over her shoulder.
Dr. Jacobs’ eyes were glued to Bobby’s hand where it rested on her upper arm, his jaw clenched, and brow furrowed. He met her eyes again, his gaze hard. Possessive.
She took another deep swig of her drink and noted, with alarm, how much she liked that Dr. Jacobs was jealous. She wanted him to possess her, to make her his.
Aidan’s rambling increased in speed and volume with each sip of his drink, bombarding Dr. Jacobs with questions about the winter opera.When would they announce it? What composers were they considering?Dr. Jacobs’ answers were short and gave nothing away.
Dr. Jacobs drained his chianti and set it down on the table harder than necessary. “Bobby,” he barked. “Will you get me another? And one for Min, too.” He gestured to her empty glass before pulling a few bills from his wallet and handing them to Bobby. He looked startled but took the bills all the same and headed to the bar with a mumbled agreement.
Maria and Phoebe appeared at the table, having spotted Dr. Jacobs, and took seats on either side of Min. Dr. Jacobs fought back a smirk. She knew she should look away, that she shouldn’t be staring at him so openly in the middle of the bar, especially not when Aidan was paying entirely too much attention to her. But that curve of his lip was hypnotizing.
Maria joined Aidan in his barrage of questions. Dr. Jacobs noticeably relaxed, though, and answered with more humor. Bobby returned with two glasses in his hand, a chianti for Dr. Jacobs and another ginger ale for Min. He set it in front of her and draped one arm over her shoulder again, his other wrapped around Phoebe’s waist. Dr. Jacobs frowned and scraped his hand over his lips and chin before taking a large sip of his wine.
The waves of tension rolling off Dr. Jacobs combined with the lingering feel of Aidan’s hand closing around her knee, made her chest tighten. Her eyes darted around the table – could anyone tell that she was inching closer and closer to a panic attack? When Aidan ran the toe of his too-expensive shoe over her ankle beneath the table, she sprang to her feet, shrugging off Bobby in the process. Dr. Jacobs shifted to the edge of his seat, his eyes searching, his body coiled and ready to spring into action. Somehow, he knew – he always saw so much more than she wanted him to.
“I’ll be right back,” she mumbled. “I need some air.”
“I’ll come with you,” Jeff offered.
“No,” she said too quickly. “Thank you. I just need a minute.”
The cool evening helped calm the heat in her face, the crisp air burning her lungs, at once painful and grounding. She paced like a lion in a cage and tried to zoom in on anything other than the sick feeling in her stomach at coming so close to touching Aidan again and the growing frustration that she couldn’t touch Dr. Jacobs or, hell, even talk to him the way she wanted to. The hole in her chest deepened, sinking into the ache in her abdomen. What she wouldn’t give to be back in Italy.
She leaned against the wall of the bar, the cold stone at her back a grounding force. She didn’t need to look when the door opened to know who was approaching her, his footsteps steady and confident, until they slowed a few feet from her.
“There’s nothing going on with Bobby,” she said.
“I didn’t think there was,” Dr. Jacobs replied.
She glanced at him, her eyes dipping to take in every inch of his polished perfection. It hurt to look at him, to have him so close and know he wasn’t going to take those final steps to close the distance. She closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the stone. Pretending she was okay around Aidan was hard enough; she didn’t have the energy to pretend she was okay with Dr. Jacobs, too.
“You certainly seemed to be thinking something,” she mumbled.
He shifted his weight between his feet and shoved his hands in his pockets. When he took a step closer, she turned her head to look at him, surprised by his approach. He leaned his shoulder against the wall next to her, dipping his head so his breath moved her hair as he spoke. “I didn’t like him touching you.”
“Why?” she asked, barely keeping the pain out of her voice.
“You know why,” he whispered. He dropped a feather-light kiss on her temple, his hands never leaving his pockets, and then took a step back.
She followed the form of his retreating back as he made his way back to the bar door.
“I wish it was you touching me,” she called after him, her voice breaking on the words.
He stilled but didn’t turn to face her. She watched his shoulders rise and fall with his breathing, saw the muscles of his back tense beneath his t-shirt. When his reply came, his voice strained, he spoke so quietly she wasn’t sure she’d heard him correctly. The words lingered in the air, though, even as he pulled open the bar door and disappeared inside.
