the bar, he reminded himself that they were still mostly strangers, that it wasn’t okay to want to devour the pretty boy without at least getting to know him a little bit first.
“Two of your best dark ales, please,” he said to the bartender when he got to the bar.
“Full meal or snacks, sir?” the young woman asked, eyeing the menu in his hand.
“Full meal, please. One Caesar salad to share, one jalapeño and peppered bacon mac and cheese, and one butternut squash and lobster mac and cheese.”
The young woman wrote his order on a tab and then handed him two beers and two glasses on a tray.
“Your food will be out shortly, sir. Where to?”
“Table for two at the back.”
He pointed to where Bennett sat watching him, and tore his eyes away from the sight of his date looking edible in his lavender shirt and dark jeans.
“Name on the tab, sir?”
“O’Leary.”
Returning to the table, he set the glasses down and offered Bennett one of the bottles.
“Cheers,” Bennett said, tipping his glass to Jordan’s after they had poured the drinks into them. They each took a sip before Bennett continued. “So, what was the emergency at home?”
Jordan swallowed some more beer and chuckled before answering. “I had to do a bit of cleanup. Just as I was getting ready to leave, one of the dogs had an accident that required me to clean up his mess.”
“You have dogs?”
“Not really.” Jordan grinned at the puzzled look on Bennett’s face. “They’re not my dogs, they’re my landlady’s.”
“Why didn’t she clean up her own dog’s mess?”
Jordan chuckled. “She’s eighty-eight years old and suffers with rheumatoid arthritis. One of the things I do for her is look after her dogs. But I was out a bit later than normal and they hadn’t had their walk yet. She hadn’t been feeling well enough to let them out into the little back yard. Hence the accident.”
Bennett’s eyes widened. “How many dogs does she have? And why does she even have dogs if she can’t look after them?”
Jordan chuckled again. This was as good a way to get acquainted as any, he supposed. “She has two dogs, and they’re her companions when her son isn’t around. Which he isn’t much. He’s in the Army. I rent one of the units in the duplex she owns so I can look out for her when he’s not home.”
“That’s kind of you.”
Jordan’s chest tightened with pride at the warmth in Bennett’s voice. “Rod is part of our friend group. We look out for each other. My living in the apartment is him helping me out.”
He stopped talking, not really wanting to discuss anything too personal. Bennett didn’t need to know all the details of his life. He didn’t want to talk about his past. He’d left it behind…at least, that’s what he kept telling himself.
“How so?”
He liked that Bennett was curious about him, though. The attentive way he was even now looking at Jordan, waiting for him to answer the question, was wholly focused. He wanted nothing more than to sink into the well of Bennett’s attention. But they weren’t anywhere near that point, and he needed to keep reminding himself of that.
“I’d been living in a tiny little apartment. I hated it, but on my beginning teacher’s salary, and with a mountain of student loan debt and other bills to stay on top of, I couldn’t afford anything better.”
Bennett seemed to think about that for a second before responding. “Why didn’t you share a house with a friend?”
Jordan sipped his beer and smiled. “I’m not much into sharing living space,” he said, trying not to let any emotion leak into his words. “I had roommates in college, and that was enough for me.”
“Bad experience, huh?” Curiosity shone from Bennett’s eyes.
Jordan sighed quietly. He really didn’t want to delve too deeply into his past, but Bennett seemed to know exactly how to wheedle information out of him without apparently even trying.
“I’m not much of a party guy, and recreational drugs weren’t my cup of tea.” That was all he was prepared to say about his life as a college student.
“Me, either,” Bennett offered, surprising him. “The only thing I had in common with my college roommates was horniness.”
He laughed, but his cheeks grew pink, which led Jordan to believe that his sex life had been wild when he had been a student.
“Frat boy?”
“TKE,” he said with a wry grin. “It was eye opening, to say the least.”
Jordan didn’t know how