Page 6 of What Are the Chances
I spotted Levi from above as he lifted the Olympic bar over his chest.
The weights room was packed with hockey players. There was a lot more to our program than skating. As far as dryland went, this was my favourite. All weights. No cardio. I fucking hated conditioning. I did it because deep down I knew it was important for my game andblah blah blah. But I’d take a bench press over a box jump any day of the week.
“Is Hughesy coming tomorrow night?” I asked.
We had a Wednesday night home game, which wasn’t exactly prime time, but it would be busy regardless. College students didn’t operate on a Monday-through-Thursday versus weekend basis like the rest of the world. Every night was a party night. Though I’ll admit, a weekend game was always rowdier than a midweek one. Throw the wordsFridayorSaturdayin front of it, and the crowd went wild.
“Nah. She’s got a meet out of town.”
Damn. I considered Hughesy to be Levi’s good luck charm. Not that he necessarily needed one, the guy was a gun whether Grace was there or not. But there seemed to be no distractions between him and the game when Grace was close by. It’s like between her and the ice, his entire world was concealed within the one arena.
It’d taken time getting used to my best friend, who’d been anti-girlfriends his entire life, becoming inexplicably whipped. But it was a good change.
Levi exhaled deeply as he pushed the barbell away from his chest. He was starting to slack so I helped him guide it back into place. After setting it on the racks, he blew out a heavy breath then sat up.
“Before I forget, I promised Grace I’d help her out with some student-PT-gig she agreed to.” He scooped up the towel he’d been lying on, using it to wipe his sweaty forehead. “But I’ve got to film some fucking hockey-versus-football sporting quiz with Ryker Richardson for the Phil-U socials.”
I snickered. For a while, Ryker Richardson had been Levi’s archnemesis. An immature bet they’d made had them fighting over Grace for the better part of last semester.
Once Grace fell for Levi and forgave him for the bet, Levi and Ryker had let bygones be bygones and landed on some kind of weird friendship.
Levi peered up at me. “Can you take my place?”
I dropped my towel onto the bench he’d just deserted before laying down. “Student-PT-gig?” I reluctantly questioned.
“I don’t know all the details,” Levi admitted. “But you’d be doing me a solid. Tripp’s already in. I’d ask Ryan, but he has class at the same time.”
I wrapped my hands around the barbell, getting it into position. While there was a small part of me waving a red flag, the rest was telling me I was being paranoid, which is why I found myself nodding.
“Sweet. It’s on Thursday morning. You can drive Hughesy to campus for me.”
“Jesus, man. Driving her to campus, doing her favours,” I listed. “Do you need me to sleep with your girlfriend while I’m at it?”
Not the right joke to make to Levi, especially when he was about to spot me. Even though he knew I’d nevereverdo that, and Grace wouldn’t either, he was a complete caveman when it came to her.
I’ll admit, I knew the feeling all too well. Caring about someone to the depths he did was a blessing and a curse.
He growled. “Spot yourself fucker.”
I chuckled. “Don’t be a drama llama.”
He heaved a heavy sigh before placing the barbell in my raised arms. I closed my fists around it.
He solidified his footing. “But on that note. Are you going through a dry spell?”
His question surprised me. Luckily I was at the beginning of my set and not the end, otherwise I might be wearing the barbell.
“Why?”
“You’ve just seemed, I don’t know, extra focussed on the ice lately.”
“Is that a bad thing?”
“Well, no. But you know sex and hockey can coexist, right?”
Of course I did. I wasn’t celibate. Just because I wasn’t as outwards as Ryan and Tripp were when it came to sleeping with puck bunnies, or I didn’t pick the most popular girl on campus like Levi’s ammo used to be, it didn’t mean I didn’t have my options. It just wasn’t my priority right now. I didn’t want the effort of having to get to know someone new, and I didn’t want the strings that came with sleeping with the same person repeatedly.
The latter was something I’d only done once since freshman year. Although the girl had understood our arrangement for what it was and never asked for more, it’d felt too relationship-like, which made me squirm.
