Marik didn't choose to end up a bartender, but he also didn't choose to lose his job in the university tutoring center, either. How was it his fault that two students decided the tutoring center was the perfect place to brawl out their feelings on a Friday night, when he was the only tutor on staff? Okay, so maybe he might have egged them on a little bit. But that shouldn't have gotten him fired.

He dropped the beer-reeking rag he held into the bucket of grey water, grimacing at the whole thing. His life had gone from sitting in an air conditioned room and telling people how to win over their science professor, to cleaning up spilled alcohol and vomit. But hey, at least it meant free drinks? And attractive men. He wandered back behind the bar and dumped the nasty water into the mop sink to fill it back up, and turned around just in time for the door to open. In walked a trio of men, laughing and pushing each other in that way 20-somethings often do.

And in the center of them was a golden-haired god. He was tall, thin, and definitely spent most of his free time at the gym. Marik only realized he'd been staring when Jenny, the barkeeper, elbowed him in the ribs. "Stop ogling the customers, you weirdo. Finish refilling your bucket and get out to table 12. Someone rejected their alcohol all over the floor."

His stomach roiled at the thought of yet another vomit puddle, but such was the life of working at a bar. At least it gave him a chance to get closer to the blonde stranger and get a better look at him.

He walked from the back with the same dingy bucket and rag, presumably to clean up the 'spill' a guy two tables away made. Jacob didn't bother giving the bartender another look. It was clear from the way his eyes locked onto him the moment Jason and his friends stepped inside that he was interested. Another guy looking for a hookup at the back of a dive bar. Jason used to be that guy, attached to no one, caring nothing about the consequences of a quick hookup, until Trevor came along. Trevor turned his world upside down and then burned it all to the ground. No one will ever get the chance to hurt him like that again.

Jason looked back at the guy just as he was slopping vomit into the now dirty water. His brown hair fell into his eyes just a touch, but he didn't need a cut. On him the style worked. Everything about the man screamed 'not right' for a place like this. His geeky glasses, thin physique, and the way he kept his head down when he wasn't casting glances Jacob's way, of course. He looked more like a professor's lapdog, the kind who begged for more homework because they finished their fifteen-page essay in one day. Not that any of that made him ugly. On the contrary, he looked great. He was just Jacob's type, if he still would have had one. But Trevor.

"Man, stop staring at the geek and come play some pool, Jacob," Tristan said. They sat across from one another, so Tristan definitely saw how many times he'd looked at the floor two seats in front of them. Jacob couldn't help it; it was like his eyes were drawn to the beautiful guy crouching down just out of reach.