Page 86 of Heated Rivalry 1
Can you believe that shit with Zullo?
Frank Zullo was a defenseman for the New York Admirals who was known to be a hot mess. He had gotten arrested the previous night for bar fighting or something, and now he was off the team.
Shane: Yeah. It’s wild. I can’t believe they put him on waivers.
Lily: I fucking hate that guy.
Shane: Always seemed like an asshole, yeah.
He could recall a few times when Zullo had hurled a homophobic slur at himself or his teammates.
Lily: Fuck him. Scott Hunter must be happy.
Shane: Oh yeah. You could tell he always hated him.
Lily: One less homophobe in league.
Shane: Yeah, like one million to go, though.
He was in the middle of making his post-run smoothie. He turned on the blender and watched his phone for the next text.
This was new. He wondered why they hadn’t thought to do this before: talk to each other about hockey, even if it was mostly gossip. In the past they had only texted each other to discreetly arrange their hookups.
He wondered what had inspired Ilya to engage him this time.
Lily: Where are you? Home?
Shane: Yeah. Just got back from a run.
Lily: Nice. All sweaty? :p
Shane laughed.About to take a shower.
Lily: We should Skype while you do that. Video phone.
Shane: My phone would get wet.
Lily: Why have we never Skyped before?
Shane was surprised by this.You’d want to?
Lily: Maybe. Would you?
He assumed Ilya was talking about, like, phone sex. Or video sex. Or whatever. Shane had never done anything like that with anyone before. But itwasa possibility for them. If neither of them saved the call, it would be safe, right?
Shane changed the subject.Nice goal last night.
Lily: Yeah, well. You know.
Then,
Lily: I have to tell you this story Hammersmith told us last night...
They texted back and forth for most of an hour. By the end of it, Shane was stretched out on his couch, his thumbs flying over his phone’s keyboard, and frequently laughing into the empty room. He eventually reminded Ilya that he really did need to take a shower. He was surprised at how hard it was to end their conversation.
He had the embarrassing urge to writeWish you were hereor something. He resisted. Instead he wrote,Later, and punctuatedit with the emoji of a smiley face wearing sunglasses. Ilya signed off with the emoji of a kissy face.
Boston
