The drive to the restaurant wasn’t too much longer, and they pulled around back and were led through a back door. The private dining room had been cleared out of press, and Archer locked eyes on his brother immediately.
He looked good, in his suit and tie, with his hair combed just so. It had gotten so much greyer than it had been when he first left for Paris, but it suited him. His face was soft, his laugh lines easy, the wrinkles on either side of his eyes deep-etched and filled with all of his repressed desires.
In reality, Archer pitied him. Rex had put his career above everything else that might have mattered to him once—he had sacrificed the chance at meeting someone who would love the absolute hell out of him, and fill those quiet, empty spaces in he had inside, all for this job.
He smiled when his brother waved him over, and he exchanged handshakes with the men and women at the table he’d never remember. Katerina had wandered off, and Archer tried to make himself comfortable around people who did this for a living. He wasn’t a totally anxious sort of person, and social situations didn’t frighten him. He and Rex could be masters of charm when they wanted to be, but Archer simply preferred the quiet laboratories at the university to anything else.
“…and he’s going to be working on his own research after this,” Rex was saying when Archer tuned back into the conversation.
The woman across from him smiled. “That’s fantastic. We need more visibly queer men in STEM.”
He agreed with her statement, but it was myopic and showed she had no idea what his field was really like. “I have quite a few brilliant colleagues who are a lot like me,” he said, trying to sound diplomatic. “There are other minorities in STEM that are tragically under-represented…”
“Q Magazine has been trying to get a piece done for a while, and maybe you’d consider giving us a call?” she interrupted.
He swallowed against tightness in his throat. “Ah. You know, I’m not great with that sort of thing.”
Her brows lifted and he felt the weight of her once-over. “Trust me, you’d fit right in on a cover.”
He bristled a little, and tried not to sound sharp when he addressed her question. “I think Q Magazine might benefit from branching out a little on who they put on a cover. I know that the tanned abs sell issues, but that’s not entirely who we are. Right? We don’t need to sell the importance of science on sex appeal.” He looked her in the eye, and he felt the shift into faint discomfort.
Rex let it carry on for a moment, then he chuckled and put his hand on Archer’s shoulder. “He’s been stirring the pot since he was little.” He launched into a story about Archer trying to kidnap a duck at the lake when he thought it looked lonely, and he pasted on a smile while mentally counting down the minutes before he could make his excuses and leave.
The first course hadn’t been served yet, but he wasn’t feeling particularly hungry. He wanted to go home and lay on the sofa and lose himself in a terribly done history documentary on old English castles. His hand curled around the stem of his water glass, and he stared at the condensation slowly melting in the heat of the room.
When his phone buzzed, he jumped, but Rex was engaged in the conversation again and no one was paying attention to him. He preferred it that way, but he wished it would mean he could slip out unnoticed. With a sigh, he pulled his phone out of his pocket and saw one of his oldest friend’s name on the screen.
Shen: Hang out tonight?
Archer: Pizza and beer at my place. I can’t go out.
Shen: Rex’s orders?
Archer: Welcome to my new normal.
Shen: C’est la vie. Carpe diem. YOLO.
Archer: Please don’t. Come by at seven. Bring supplies and I’ll give you cash.
When he tucked his phone away, he looked up to see Rex watching him and he flushed like some teenager caught passing notes. “Friend of mine,” he muttered.
“Just a friend?” The words were friendly, but there was a hint of warning, and he felt even more like some high school kid trying to convince his brother to let him go on a date.
“It’s Shen,” he said, knowing the effect his friend’s name would have on his brother.