Page 82 of Drop the Gloves
Worth a shot.“Sure.”
Slowly, Amy got a very broad picture of things.They were having sex regularly whenever Evan’s schedule allowed.It’d been going on sporadically for a few months.Evan didn’t know where it was going, denied feelings being involved, but said he wanted it to continue for now.No, they hadn’t talked about it.Yes, Evan was more physically attracted to his current hookup than he could ever remember being before.
Amy took it all in, but then grew quiet after dessert was dropped off.She stabbed her chocolate cake while she chewed over whatever she was going to ask next.
“I’m not going to look at you as I ask this, because you have a terrible poker face and I don’t want you to accidentally confirm or deny something you don’t mean to, but...”Amy took a deep breath, her gaze fixed pointedly at her plate.“Are you hooking up with another player?”
Evan stared at her dumbly.“Huh?”
“I changed my mind.Don’t answer that,” she said, holding up a hand.“It’s better if I don’t know.Dating a professional athlete is always complicated, so I can see that being a huge stumbling block for any relationship.Dating a queer professional athlete is harder.Twoqueer NHL players sounds like a nightmare.”
Evan swallowed.“It’s happened,” he said defensively.
“Oh, I’m sure it’s happening right now.”She still wouldn’t meet his eyes.“And there’s exactly one public example of it, and they’re engaged.”She looked up.“I guess what I’m saying is...be careful.Whether you’re with another player or not, that’s not the point.A lot could go wrong very quickly.Unless you’re ready for a lot of press and attention, just make sure the two of you are on the same page.It’s a lot for someone who’s comfortable with their sexuality, and you’re new to the whole gay thing, apparently.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” he grumbled, because she was.If he couldn’t wrap his head around being gay, how could he ever hope to do it with a national audience?And Evan couldn’t even say for certain they were in the same book, let alone on the same page.“We’re being careful,” he promised.
“Good.”She offered him a bite of cake and then wiped her hands.“This is a big deal.We’re gonna celebrate at the bar.”
“Celebrate what?”
“Figuring out who we are is an accomplishment, no matter how old we are when we do it.You don’t have to be anywhere tomorrow morning, do you?”
“Flight to Quebec isn’t until noon, but I have a curfew.Gotta be back at the hotel by nine.”
“Grown ass men with a curfew,” she said with an eye roll.“What a life.”
“It’s gonna be rough when I gotta grow up, eh?”He was only half-joking.He did worry about what would happen when he retired and had to do things without the structure of an NHL season or the day-to-day routine of practice, games, and meetings.A life when he no longer spent half his time traveling…weird.
“Probably,” she said.She held up her wine glass.“To figuring out this adult bullshit one step at a time.”
He clinked his glass to hers.“Maybe I’ll get there one day.”They each finished off their glasses.
“Don’t worry, Evan,” she said.“We all get there.Eventually.”
34
Evan stumbledinto the hotel at 8:55 p.m.with the stink of stale beer and perfume following him from his Uber.His stomach sloshed uncomfortably from wine and beer, and he desperately wanted to get to his room so he could down an entire bottle of aspirin and five glasses of water.Or, at the very least, so he could be close to a bathroom if he ended up throwing up.
Each step felt like lead.He barely recognized a bunch of his teammates in the hotel bar across the lobby, singing off-key to a song he didn’t know.When he squinted over, he thought he saw Riley in the middle of them like a band conductor.Evan smiled and took a few steps to the bar, but the room swayed and his stomach gurgled in warning.
Instead, he made a beeline to the elevator on unsteady feet.The dull mechanical hum of the elevator almost put him to sleep, but the ping and lurch when he arrived on his floor woke him up long enough to stagger to his room.After two tries to make his key work, he was inside.He kicked off one shoe, made it as far as the bed, and collapsed face first.
He’d planned on finding Riley to hang out, but his brain was sluggish and his body wasn’t cooperating much, either.Maybe if he took a little nap, he’d sober up enough to invite Riley over.
Mmm, Riley…
He woke with a jolt, unsure of where he was or the time.He had to piss, though, so he wandered to the bathroom, ended up in a closet instead, and had to turn around to try again.He drank a glass of faintly metallic tap water, then another, and the last responsible decision he made before passing out was setting an alarm on his phone.
There were some notifications begging for his attention, but his blurred vision couldn’t make them out.He ignored them all, wiggled halfway under the covers, and decided that whatever it was, it could wait until morning.
* * *
Evan wasn’t much of a drinker.He didn’t remember how much he’d had with Amy at the restaurant bar after dinner, but it was well past his comfort level.It’d been too much fun, relaxing and forgetting all his worries while playing stupid games like Rock Paper Scissors and a very drunken version of I Spy.
A lot of it came back to him when he woke up with a headache.Some of it went away when he figured out how to turn off his alarm, but not enough.It was rough, making himself presentable enough to wander down for breakfast, and his stomach rebelled at the thought of eating.
“You look like ass, bro,” Dalton said as he sat down next to him with a plate piled with three waffles covered in eggs and syrup.Evan closed his eyes and breathed through his mouth so his stomach could settle.“Late night with your girl?”
