Page 38 of Puck with Karma
“How about,fuck me, Xander! Harder! Harder!” My friend is now acting all goofy on the screen of my laptop.
I got on a video call with them as soon as he walked out the door, feeling just a tad disappointed that he didn’t kiss me before leaving. I gave myself a small pep talk about how we are not in a relationship. I just met the man, regardless of the fact that he’d given me the best orgasm of my life.
“So, you still haven’t seen him naked?”
Riley sounds beyond amazed by my adventure. She’s been staying quiet as I gave her and Hannah the rundown of my day. Since I didn’t have a phone, I had to contact them from my laptop.
“Not yet,” I blush to the roots of my hair.
“This is so amazing.” Riley gets closer to the screen, her eyes as big as saucers. “Does he know Bran?”
She never got over her crush on my brother. She’s become the biggest New York Sliders supporter from afar. I’m pretty sure she even has a jersey with his name on the back, somethingIdon’t even have, and something she would never admit to.
“I never asked,” I shrug. “But I’ll ask. I mean, the goal is for me to reach out to my brother at some point.”
I feel nervous just thinking about it, so I’m just going to drag it out for a while. What if Bran wants nothing to do with me after all these years? This no contact rule that he imposed on us has hurt me the most. Our older brother doesn’t seem to care, and neither do our parents. Meanwhile, it’s consumed me and has been the driving force behind me deciding on a career.
“Your mom’s gonna be so mad,” Hannah sing-songs. “She’ll blow a gasket for sure. Make sure I’m present when you tell her.”
All three of us start laughing, me more so that they don’t know how scared I am of all this. I have this big knot in the pit of my stomach on a daily basis. In fact, the only time when I didn’t think about it was during the time I spent with Xander.
“The Sliders are not doing so well,” Riley changes the subject, for which I am grateful. “I read somewhere that Van Boyd might retire.”
Van Boyd plays defense for the New York Sliders, and, according to the tabloids, he is my brother’s best friend. I hate the fact that I have to learn things about my brother from reading the gossip rags on the internet.
“Forget about that,” Hannah interrupts. “Let’s talk more about Xander Hamilton, and how Abby can get him naked already.”
She stops talking, her eyes on something off the screen.
“I just did a search on him,” she informs us in a very business-like manner. “He is twenty-eight. Oh wow…” We can hear her mouse clicking now. “He is actually from Minnesota.”
“Is that important?” I’m not sure what she’s trying to tell us.
“I don’t know,” she shrugs. “I just thought I’d mention it.”
Riley rolls her eyes and smiles softly into the camera. We are both used to Hannah’s abrupt changes in conversation or the way she imparts with any information.
“He has a sister,” Hannah continues her report as she reads off her screen. “She is younger.”
My mind goes to earlier when Xander was asking me about whether I had any siblings. He then specifically asked if I was close to my two brothers. Now it’s making me wonder whether he gets along with his sister.
“His manager is his father.” Hannah is still at it.
“Okay,” Riley clears her voice gently. “We can look up his Wikipedia page and read on him on our own.” Hannah’s head turns so fast, it’s about to swivel. “We just want to hear about Abby’s day, right?”
I am so close to laughing when Hannah is just staring at her screen, blinking in distress. I am surprised as well. We are not used to Riley speaking up. She usually just goes with the flow, and she doesn’t interrupt anyone, very respectful of what they say.
“Ha,” Hannah finally snaps out of her stupor. “I bet you wouldn’t say that if I was reading Bran Karlsberg’s Wikipedia page.”
Riley’s face is on fire, but she tries to play it cool.
“You’d be begging me to whisper it in your year.” Hannah is on a roll. “Anyway,” she straightens back up. “There’s nothing else that’s interesting about Xander. He doesn’t really do much other than hockey. A charity event once in a while.”
“Maybe he’s a homebody.” Riley shrugs with relief now that the spotlight is off her.
“That may be,” Hannah agrees. “But wouldn’t it be nice if the home his body was so attached to was not just a random apartment across the arena?”
“Hey,” I jump to his defense. “It is a very nice apartment. Much bigger than mine. Two bedrooms.” I cross my arms as if to make a point. “So you know.”
