“Well, thank you. I don’t know if I’ve ever had Patrón.”
The bartender appeared at that moment with their drinks and placed two shots of tequila beside two wedges of lime and a salt shaker. Ash reached for the salt shaker and brushed their hand over Luke’s.Ash’s first instinct was to recoil, but they kept their pinkie finger against the back of Luke’s hand for just a second before finishing their reach for the salt. Ash licked the space between their thumb and forefinger, poured out some salt, and handed the shaker over to Luke. Luke locked his gaze on Ash as he slowly licked his hand and layered it in salt. Ash’s breath caught in their throat—was this really happening?
Luke reached for his shot and lime, holding the glass in his salted hand. Ash did the same and held their shot glass towards Luke.
“Cheers.” Ash and Luke’s glasses clinked as they met before they both licked the salt off their hands, hit their glasses on the bar, and tipped the shot back. The tequila slid down Ash’s throat and didn’t burn quite as much as the cheap tequila they usually drank. When Ash bit down on their lime, they turned their gaze to Luke, who was gripping the edge of the bar counter and taking a large sip of his mixed drink.
“You really aren’t a tequila guy, are you?” Ash set their shot glass back down. “Oh shit, wait—what are your pronouns?”
“He and him,” Luke said, a little breathless. “What are yours?”
“They and them,” Ash said. “I’m sorry I didn’t ask earlier.”
“I didn’t ask you either,” Luke acknowledged.
“You used gender-neutral language before,” Ash started. “How did you know?”
Luke lightly touched the back of Ash’s right bicep. “I noticed your nonbinary tattoo.”
“I didn’t realize you could see it past my sleeve in this shirt.”
“Can I?” Luke asked, toying with the sleeve. When Ash nodded, Luke tenderly rolled it up to their shoulder and traced the lines of Ash’s tattoo with a feather-light touch. He traced down one side of the double helix that faded from yellow to white, then up the side fromblack to purple. The base pairs of the DNA tattoo went in order of the nonbinary flag from top to bottom.
“I got it when I came out,” Ash said as a shiver ran down their back from Luke’s touch. They didn’t know why they were admitting this to a stranger. “About four years ago.”
“It’s really well done,” Luke said, still admiring the ink. “Did you design it?”
Ash shook their head. “My artist is non-binary. Ze did a Friday the thirteenth flash, and this was one of the designs.”
“I really like it.”
“Thank you. Do you have any tattoos?”
He nodded. “I do, but I mostly like it because I have a PhD in biology.”
“Oh, wow! I just graduated with my PhD in chemistry.”
Luke’s fingers stilled over Ash’s arm. “Congratulations. Wasn’t defending your dissertation just…” Luke trailed off, as if searching for the right words.
“Fucking awful?” Ash offered.
Luke broke out into laughter. “Yes. Fucking awful.”
“What was your dissertation on?”
“RNA sequencing of biomarkers for thyroid cancer. What was yours?”
Ash blinked rapidly. “I modeled the binding interactions between thyroid cancer biomarkers for novel detection methods.”
Luke stared at Ash for several long seconds before replying. “That’s fascinating.”
Ash picked up their whiskey drink and realized, sadly, that they had finished it. They cracked open the vodka pink lemonade can and took a tentative sip. The sweetness cut the sharp bite of vodka Ash hated, and they couldn’t even taste the alcohol. This drink wasdangerous…
“So you said you had tattoos,” Ash asked as they drank. “What and where are they?”
A ghost of a smile brushed across Luke’s lips. He pulled up the short sleeve of his t-shirt to his shoulder, pulling it back so Ash could see his muscled arm in all its glory. From his shoulder down the top half of his bicep was the beginning of a black and white tattoo sleeve. Intricate designs of various molecules weaved around an atom. Ash could pick out oxytocin, adrenaline, dopamine, several benzenes, and caffeine, but others were lost on them. A double helix curved over his shoulder and disappeared under his shirt.
“I just started the sleeve a few months ago, but I want to do it in pieces. Tattoos are expensive.” Luke slid the shirt back into place.
