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Mark relaxed. “Cool. Actually, can you give me a second?” He thumbed behind him at the hallway to the bathroom. “If the waitress comes by, grab me a gin and tonic.”
Ben nodded as Mark got up, then without really thinking, he rose and walked over to the bar. This time, Nova was waiting, watching with a small grin and his arms crossed over his chest. “Not a total disaster so far,” Ben said.
Nova snorted. “The night is young, but isn’t Chanukah about hope?”
“Depends on who you ask,” Ben told him. “I’m a history professor, so…no. But I appreciate the sentiment.”
“I feel like there’s a story there, and you’re gonna have to share one day,” Nova said with a grin. He busied his hands, and then a glass of Seven and Seven appeared on the counter. “For your date?”
“Oh. Uh…” Ben felt a little rocked by surprise that Nova remembered. And oddly touched. “Gin and tonic?”
“Any particular kind of gin?”
“I’m picking up the tab tonight, and I’m a state college professor, so…let’s not go too top-shelf here.”
Nova laughed and winked as he grabbed a bottle from the well and fixed the drink. “Ten bucks he won’t be able to tell the difference anyway.”
Ben couldn’t help his smile. He liked Mark so far, but with Nova, it was almost like they had an inside language between them, and it made him feel…warm. Safer than he might have if he’d been doing this alone.
“Wish me luck,” Ben said, tipping both glasses in farewell.
“If that’s what you want,” Nova answered.
Ben opened his mouth to tell Nova that yes, luck would be nice because it was going better than before, but something stopped him. He stared at Nova’s wide, gorgeous eyes and felt something flutter in his chest. “Don’t leave me tonight.”
Nova’s top teeth dug into his bottom lip for a second as he leaned forward. “Wild horses couldn’t drag me away. Not when you might need my help.” He licked his lips, and Ben’s heart thumped harder. “Good luck, Ben.”
Unable to say anything else, Ben headed back to the table to wait. Mark was gone for so long he started to get nervous, but before he could panic, Mark appeared looking a little flushed.
“Sorry,” Mark said. “There was a line.”
Ben couldn’t help his frown. The bar was nowhere near as busy as it had been the night before, and he hadn’t seen a single other person come in or out, but what reason did he have to lie? Maybe the guy had a nervous stomach, and it was easier to say there was a wait than he was shitting his brains out.
Ben pushed his glass close to him, and Mark took it, taking a long swallow.
“Oh, this is the good stuff. Are you spoiling me?” Mark asked.
Ben almost laughed and fought the urge to look back at Nova. “Maybe I am. I have to say, the last blind date I had from the app did not go this well.”
“I like when people set the bar lower for me,” Mark said.
Ben tried not to grimace. “Well, consider the bar six feet under.”
Mark laughed, then grabbed his menu and tapped his finger over the wings. “These?”
Ben flinched. “Anything but?”
Without argument, Mark went with the sampler, which did have the wings, and the bruschetta, but the variety of it was different enough that his stomach didn’t feel like twisting around itself.
“Well,” Mark said once they placed their order and an awkward silence had settled. He folded his hands on the table. “I’d better ask about you because when we get to me, you’ll see I have a bad habit of talking about myself for way too long.”
At least he was self-aware, Ben thought. He cleared his throat. “There’s not a lot to tell. I’m a professor at the university—history, though sometimes they ask me to teach intro-level Hebrew.”
“You’re bilingual?” Mark asked, looking somewhat impressed.
Ben shrugged. “Something like that.”
He was a polyglot, though not really on purpose. It just sort of came with the territory when his classes started requiring Latin, Greek, then French, and eventually German. He threw in Italian after a while because he figured why not, and he’d taken four semesters of ASL after having a few Deaf students who struggled to find interpreters so they could attend office hours when they needed them. Lately, he’d been eyeing Russian for the next semester because one of the perks at his job was getting free courses whenever he wanted, and the perks of not being in a relationship meant he had the time.
