Page 35 of Perfect Storm
That shouldn’t have bothered Aidan. Who aspired to benice?
What was the saying?Nice guys finish last.
Aidan had no intention of finishing last. In fact, he had every intention of raising the Vince Lombardi trophy again before he called it quits.
“Nice guys finish last. I’m gonna remind you of that at the end of the season,” Aidan said casually. He wasn’t ridiculously superstitious, not like some other guys he knew, or likehockeyplayers, God forbid, but he wasn’t going to make promises now that he couldn’t keep to teammates.
Just to himself.
“Sure,” Nate said, chuckling under his breath. “But you couldtrythe nice-guy act, maybe?”
Aidan sighed. “Believe it or not, Iam. Maybe that’s why I invited Banks to live with me.”
“No, you invited Levi to live with you because Landry probably told you it was happening, and you didn’t want to argue with himorwith Riley if you said no.”
“It would be a lot easier if you didn’t know them,” Aidan said. Ridiculously, at one point, he’d even lorded it over Riley when Nate had ended up in Toronto.
Nate snorted a laugh. “You mean, easier if I didn’t know enough to call you on your bullshit?”
“Exactly.”
“You’re gonna be okay,” Nate said, clapping him on the shoulder and Aidan wanted to ask him what he was supposed to be recovering from—though of course,heknew exactly what he was recovering from, even if Nate couldn’t—and how Nate knew, somehow better than anyone else, that he was going to be okay.
He wanted to, but he didn’t.
But the thought lingered, anyway.
Instead, he watched the two other games in silence, then as Nate and Wes packed up the gaming equipment, Levi making jokes the whole time about how he was going to start digging through his boxes in storage right away, to make sure he wasn’t gaming system bereft.
Aidan had originally invited Dawson over because he’d wanted-slash-needed a buffer, but to his surprise, it was pretty chill after everyone left, quiet falling over the condo as the sun finished setting, the last of its light shifting across the Toronto skyline, before finally dipping everything in a dusky blue.
Levi retreated wordlessly to his room, and Aidan heard him unpacking.
His meal service dropped off his box for the week. He’d ordered double his normal amount, and after putting them away in the fridge, poked his head into Levi’s room, letting him know.
Levi raised his head, as he sorted through clothes on the bed, three of the dresser drawers open. “Thanks,” he said. “You didn’t have to do that.”
“Yeah, see how you feel about it when you eat their quinoa bowl for the third time in a week,” Aidan joked weakly. “Obviously if you want to make other arrangements after, it’s totally cool.”
Levi nodded. “Thanks, bro.”
After that, Aidan retreated to his own room, shutting the door behind him. They had an early call in the morning for the first day of camp, and he wanted to get a good night’s sleep.
But as he lay in bed, he picked up his phone after a long moment and ordered the same system that Nate had brought over, and any games that looked decent. Aidan hesitated for a second and then added a few more controllers to his cart before checking out.
When he got the confirmation, he took a screenshot and texted it to Levi.Now you don’t have to tackle your storage boxes, just Nate,he added as a caption.
Levi didn’t leave him hanging for long. He texted back almost immediately.BRO, you’re the best.
You ever gonna give that up?
What do you think?Levi texted back.
Aidan’s fingers hesitated over his screen. Maybe it would be easier to bring it up now, over the relatively bloodless arena that was texting, even though Levi was technically in the next room over.
He could say it. It would be easy.Bro, he could say,you ever think about when we kissed? Bro, he could also say,I can’t stop thinking about it.
Instead, he should say something like,bro, I can’t stop thinking about it, but I need to.
