"Hey." The woman tugged on his arm. "Your friend was wrong, wasn't he?"
"What?" Zaki forced his eyes back to her. "Just not used to never mind."
"It's okay." She gave him a knowing smile. "Thanks for the dance." And she headed back to her friends with a little flip of her hair. Fuck. Zaki had been figuring he'd buy her a drink, get her off the scent of whatever trail she thought she was on, but she'd dismissed him, clear as day.
"Strike out?" Pino asked when Zaki made his way back to the table.
"She had to get back to her friends." Zaki tried to sound regretful but doubted he was all that convincing.
"Fry?" Pino passed him a basket of sweet potato fries with some sort of mayo-based dipping sauce that was far spicier than it looked.
"Whoa." Zaki fanned his mouth, then noticed his beer had already been refilled. He took a swig. "Thanks, man."
"Not into spicy?" Pino managed to make the question sound rather suggestive.
Zaki could survive hours of surf torture, but he couldn't control his blush. "Nah."
"That's okay." Pino swiped a ketchup out of the condiment display on the back edge of their table, passed it to him. "Simple's good too."
Zaki honestly wasn't sure whether they were talking about fries anymore, but he nodded. "So...crap week?" he asked partly to avoid a long awkward silence and partly because he figured even Pino couldn't flirt while bitching.
"Oh man, you have no idea. Defended my dissertation back in the winter. I thought I had a job all lined up with War Elf"
"That huge role-playing game?"
"Yeah. I did my dissertation on a statistical analysis model of their users' usage habits over time."
"Impressive." Zaki blinked. He had a degree himself, but his BA in history didn't include the wherewithal to decipher all the lingo needed for a math PhD.
"Yeah, anyway, I was told they might have a place for me, but they don't, so now I'm stuck tossing my hat in the teaching ring. And it sucks."
"You don't want to teach?"
"Do I look like professor material?" Pino gestured at himself. Zaki let himself do the one thing he tried to avoid and really looked at Pino faded T-shirt advertising the game Rino boyfriend worked for, ripped jeans. Surprisingly full pink lips. Twinkling green eyes wait. Clothes. He was supposed to be noticing clothes.
"Not exactly," Zaki mumbled into his napkin.
"I had to wear a suit three times this week," Pino moaned.
"Dude, until you have to wear the same soggy BDUs for five days running, you don't get to complain."
"Okay, okay, you win. I'm just saying that this whole adulting thing bites."
Zaki had seen enough suckage in his life to decide that "adulting" was practically a vacation, but he nodded because a "suck it up, buttercup" wasn't going to go over well with Pino pity party.
"You know what we should do?" Pino brightened, getting a gleam in his eye that frightened Zaki more than a live grenade. "Shots. We need to do shots."
Across the room, the woman from earlier was talking to her friends and as if on cue, the whole table tittered and three blond heads swiveled in his direction before returning to the giggle fest. Fuck.
He knew he'd regret this, probably within the hour, but at that moment he couldn't stop his head from nodding. "Bring it on."
"Another round?" Pino headed to the bar without waiting for Zaki to say no. They'd done a round of shots, but Pino really needed at least two before he got buzzed. Pino had been intending to get his swerve on even before Zaki walked into Mellow all alone and put out over the no-shows. Oh he'd tried to cover it for like five seconds but Zaki had not been happy to see him. Which was fine, because Pino knew that, like Fireball shots, he was an acquired taste. And twice as much fun. Or at least he liked to think so.
Not that Zaki agreed Pino could tell that he was on the man's "barely tolerate" list, and even when he was talking about SEAL stuff, he didn't get particularly happy. Not that he'd gotten any happier when that chick had dragged him out dancing. Pino had figured he might lose Zaki for the night to those girls, but then Zaki had gone into tourist mode over the gay couples on the dance floor and had his sorry ass booted back.
Oh yeah, Pino had noticed all that. It was why he enjoyed riling Zaki up so much he was the gayest straight person Pino had ever met. And Pino had a mother who loved theater, Glee, and Drag Race. No, with Zaki, it wasn't what he liked or how he spoke or stood. It was his eyes.
Zaki pale spring-sky eyes went all hungry and needy whenever he was near two men being affectionate exactly how he'd gotten about the couple next to them and the guys on the dance floor. Even from where he'd been sitting, Pino could see that need rolling off Zaki when his attention should have been on the girl he'd been with. He got that way around their mutual friends a lot, and even had the hungry look when Pino and his roommate Brandon rolled around on the floor mock-wrestling during a LAN party. And it wasn't even a flirty thing Brandon was the brother Pino had never had, and tangling like happy puppies was just part of their shtick. Pino had offered Zaki a turn, but Mr. Big Tough SEAL had turned crimson and fled the room.
And therein lay the reason Pino was waiting on the bartender to get them their shots if he got Zaki loosened up enough, maybe the guy would actually talk. And despite what everyone thought about Pino being a loose cannon and immature, he totally could listen.
Finally, shots in hand, he made his way back to their table where Zaki was texting on his phone. He scowled when Pino set the drinks down. "I was trying two of my buddies, see if they wanted to come out and join us, but they've got plans."