Page 59 of Perfect Storm
“Rest up, Banks. We’ll be back at it in two days.”
“For sure, Coach.”
It wasn’t a guarantee, or quite as good as Levi had promised Aidan, but it was an opening. And all Levi needed was the opening.
He found Aidan in the locker room, lounging against the wall next to Wes. They were discussing the game.
“Hey,” he said, as Aidan glanced over, “that thing we talked about? It’s happening. Next week.”
“Seriously?” Aidan said. “You just asked and Coach was like, sure! We’ll let you decide the offensive line formation?”
“Shhh,” Levi said, glancing around. But Ross was already gone. Probably licking his wounds in the training room or the shower. “Ned wants to tell Ross himself.”
“I can’t believe you just told him and he said okay,” Aidan said, disbelieving tone out in full force.
“He said he’d let metryit, and frankly, after today he was already thinking he might, but I can’t imagine me taking the initiative hurt.”
Aidan rolled his eyes, but the corner of his mouth was lifting into a smile. Like he just couldn’t help it.
Levi couldn’t help how much he loved it.
“Hey, you said you’d make it happen, and you did.”
“Manifested that shit,” Levi teased.
“Anybody gonna tell me what’s going on, or are you two just going to stand there and flirt about it?” Wes asked.
Levi watched as Aidan froze and then forced himself to relax. On the other hand, it was hard to be bothered when he pretty much owned up to it. He was flirting with Aidan, no question.
“Levi’s getting himself moved to left tackle,” Aidan said under his breath, just loud enough for Wes to hear.
Wes nodded. “About fucking time,” he said.
“Yeah, I can’t run for my life the way you can,” Aidan pointed out dryly. “So you can imagine how I feel about it.”
“Good work, man,” Wes said, clapping Levi on the shoulder, tugging him into a quick bro-hug.
“Hey, don’t get too excited about it. Maybe he’ll suck worse than Acker,” Aidan said, but he was still smiling, like he couldn’t stop.
“Bullshit,” Levi said, smiling right back. “Ipromised.”
“Yeah, if that was all it took,” Aidan retorted, but Levi could see he didn’t mean it.
He’d known that it would feel some kind of way to stick his neck out for himself, but he hadn’t known that it would feelthiskind of way when it came to Aidan.
And as much as he kind of hated that he’d set the terms of the sex pact a year out, it occurred to Levi that maybe it was better this way. Maybe he needed some distance. If Aidan landed in his bed right now, it might not stay a friends-with-bennies situation for Levi. He justlikedthe guy.
Yes, some distance would be a good thing.
"You gonna tell me what’s going on with you and Banks?” Dawson asked, tone blunt, as they waited in Aidan’s favorite sushi restaurant for their rolls to arrive.
Aidan choked on a bite of his seaweed salad. “What?”
“What’s going on between you and Banks?” Dawson asked again, leaning forward and setting his elbows on the table. “You forget I know you.”
“Knewme,” Aidan corrected, but Dawson brushed the reminder off.
“Don’t be stupid,” Dawson said. “You haven’t changed that much. Really at all. You pretend to be chill, but we all know you’re not. It’s not even a surface-level fake-out, dude.”
