"You're cheating!"

Alex narrowed his eyes at Nick when the latter gleefully placed his final three cards on the table.

"I'm certainly not cheating," Nick replied with a grin. "I just learned from the actual best, which isn't people at the casino, but grandparents in nursing homes who do literally nothing else but play all day."

"You got Rummy lessons from grandparents in nursing homes?" Alex repeated incredulously.

Nick cringed at how lame that sounded out loud. "Not actual lessons," he hastily defended himself. "And not from random grannies. I just played with my own grandparents whenever I visited them on the weekend."

"Wait, so how many hours did you actually spend practicing this game with them?"

Nick cringed harder. If he told the truth, which was nearly every Sunday before he went abroad, Alex would definitely think he was lame. "Too many. Trust me: too many," Nick dodged around giving an actual answer.

A smile lit up Alex' face. Nick was sure he was going to mock him, but all Alex said was: "That's sweet of you. That you visit them that often. And it clearly has other benefits too."

"Yeah," Nick muttered, looking down at his beer as he suddenly felt a little shy.

The guys from his old football team had never understood why he wanted to hang out with old people that often, and had made fun of Rummy, asking if he meant 'rum' instead. Nick had laughed along and complained that his parents forced him to go, but secretly he'd always enjoyed listening to his grandparents' stories.

"Since I'm obviously not going to beat you at card games, how about a round of pool?" Alex pointed at the empty pool table. "Unless you're going to tell me Efren Reyes happens to be an old family friend and you learned from him."

Nick laughed. "I have no hidden skills at the pool table—my only experience is playing on drunken nights out like this. Promise."

"Good, same. Let's go then." Alex got up and carried his, and one of Nick's two beers, to the pool table. Nick followed after him.

"We have to drink the same amount to keep this a fair contest," Nick pointed out. "I'm going to get one more beer for you."

In all honesty, Nick only wanted to buy Alex a drink as a silent thank you for not making fun of him, but he didn't need to know that. When Nick returned from the bar with one extra beer, Alex already had a cue in his hands. He was staring at the entrance, and Nick followed his gaze.

A young man with dark curls and dimples when he smiled was taking his coat off near the door. He wore a black shirt with an ace on it, so Nick presumed he was one of the waiters coming in for his shift.

"I can entertain myself for a while if you want to go talk to him," Nick offered Alex.

Alex tore his eyes off the curly-haired waiter and pulled a face at Nick. "No thanks. I can get rejected by a straight guy any other day of the week. But I don't often meet someone who can match me in games. So let's play some pool."

Nick cast one last glance at the waiter Alex liked, briefly checking if he and that guy had anything in common physically-wise out of curiosity (they didn't at all), before focusing on Alex getting the balls ready on the pool table.

There was an incredibly open door 'at least you get to touch balls' joke to make here, but Nick pressed his lips together. He'd learned from before—he wasn't going to create more awkward situations for himself. He just took a swig of one of his beers and waited until Alex was done with the preparations.

Contrary to Rummy, it was clear pretty fast they both kind of sucked at pool. But they sucked about an equal amount, which made it fun to play anyway. At some point they challenged each other to start trying increasingly harder and ridiculous shots. Nick made the mistake of trying to hit the ball with the cue behind his back, and somehow pocketed the 8-ball and the cue ball.

"Shit," he swore. "That's an instant loss, isn't it?"

"Fuck if I know." Alex chuckled. "But I'm going to rule that you're right because that means I win."

"Fine," Nick said. He was slightly dizzy from the alcohol by now, having foregone his usual glasses of water in-between, and was eager to sit down for a moment.

Nick lowered himself on the bench adjacent to the pool table. With a sigh, Alex slumped down next to him.

"This is great," he said. "Wish we'd met and found this place earlier. We could've tried way more games. Don't get me wrong, Lara and Mia are great, but they only want to do 'Exploding Kittens' and other flashy, luck-based games."

Nick chuckled. "Yeah, it's the same with my friends. If they ever wanted to play a game in the first place. Most of them aren't into it. Or only shooters."

"That too, sounds familiar. Unfortunately," Alex said. He sighed deeply. "I don't want to go home yet, man. I want more nights like this one."

"I know." Nick looked around the Ace of Spades. While he expected it to be quieting down the later it got, the opposite seemed to be true. There were more people now than when they came in, and everyone seemed to be having a good time; there was lots of laughter at the different tables. Nick had to admit he was having fun, too. The beer and the company had made him forget home and his life lacking any sense of direction.

"Can't say I've ever had a great night with someone I got rejected by just days before." Alex laughed, making Nick turn to him.

"Come on, you didn't 'get rejected'," Nick replied.

Alex' smile faded. There was a confusion in his gaze, and the sudden realisation that that remark could be taken very differently hit Nick. The weird tension between then was back.

"No, I mean: you hardly even hit on me at all," Nick quickly added. "We talked for a moment and then I left. No big deal, right?"

"Right, you probably get this all the time," Alex said. "Whenever you go out."

Nick nearly choked on his own spit from the sudden laugh welling up in his throat. "Sure, all the time," he sarcastically answered. "Men and women just falling at my feet."

"I mean, why not? You're hot."

Nick stared at Alex for a moment, wondering if the guy was pranking him here. Nick knew he wasn't necessarily ugly, but hot? "You're literally the only person who ever said that to me," Nick blurted, before instantly regretting it. He was being far too loose-lipped here, but the words just fell out, and he couldn't help but chuckle at his own stupidity. "So thanks for saying it, I guess."

Alex snorted. "Thanks for letting me say it without feeling so threatened you try and bash my head in, I guess," he retorted playfully.

"If you would've told any of my football friends at home they were hot, they would have told you to fuck off," Nick easily admitted. And they would be calling Nick gay for not doing the same. And for allowing Alex to sit so close to him on the bench that their arms brushed against each other.

And for thinking the attention was extra flattering because Alex was far from an ugly guy. He looked like he could be on Instagram and TikTok; an influencer. He was someone who clearly took care of his hair and face, and was just nice to look at and clean-cut. Nick wasn't going to claim he was a great judge of men and their looks, but come on, he wasn't going to deny some men were good-looking. Alex was one of them. Even when he frowned at Nick.

"Your friends sound like a real group of winners," Alex said.

"Why do you think I grabbed the first opportunity to take a plane away from them?" Nick joked, though, it was only half a joke.

Alex clearly took his words seriously. The crinkle between his brows deepened. "Really? That was why you went abroad?"

"No, that wasn't why," Nick said. He hesitated for a moment. "But it was part of why."

"Because you didn't fit in with them anymore," Alex guessed startlingly correctly.

Nick shrugged. "Yeah... we have nothing in common anymore now."

"Their loss."

Nick felt a flush creep up his cheeks. Alex looked so sincere; he really seemed to mean what he said. Nick had never ran into guys who flirted with him like this... or literally had anyone tell him things like this, and he didn't quite know how to deal with it.

"Alright, that's enough. Stop saying things like that," he muttered.

"Nope," Alex replied, teasingly nudging Nick's shoulder with his own shoulder.

"Yes," Nick replied childishly, nudging him back.

Their conversation was resembling Carson teasing Lara. The thought flashed through Nick's mind just as he and Alex looked at each other and both smiled. There was a pause. A moment in which everything seemed to go quiet and the world around them didn't exist. Alex' smile faded as their faces were suddenly quite close together. There was that look. That kind of look, right before you—

"Uh, I need some fresh air," Nick stuttered, breaking eye contact and promptly rising to his feet. He nearly lost his balance in the sudden movement, but as soon as he'd regained it, he all but ran to the door, snatching his coat from the rack as he went.

His heart hammered in his throat as he stepped into the night.

What the hell just happened?