CHAPTER SEVEN #2
So, like, I’m into this guy and we kissed once but we’ve never done anything else even though we both admitted we want to.
We’re buddies and I broke up with my girlfriend recently but I’m looking for a low-key way to let him know I’m ready to date.
We’re on a work trip right now and we’ve gotta keep this quiet from the team—Graham backspaced and put in co-workers—so I can’t like …
ask him out to dinner or whatever. Any help here?
Graham read through it, then backspaced until he’d deleted the entire message.
No, it felt weird to post online.
When he’d signed up for Reddit initially, he’d already had a throwaway email account and had set up a generic, unidentifiable profile, but it still felt too risky.
And honestly, kinda pathetic. Graham shouldn’t have to resort to anonymously posting on forums to get date ideas.
He briefly considered messaging his older sister, but again, they were trying to keep this quiet. Well, Graham was. He wasn’t sure where Thad stood on any of this yet.
The pilot spoke, telling them they were approaching their destination, and Graham backed out of Reddit and shut off his phone.
After they landed, they got on a bus to their hotel in Manhattan.
They’d be playing the New Jersey Hornets tomorrow night and the New York Rockets the night after, before heading home for the season opener two days after that.
Ugh, way to start off the fucking season with a back-to-back and on the fucking road. Gross.
Whoever made that schedule was an asshole.
The bus was too crowded for Graham to pull out his phone, so instead, he spent the ride into the city talking to the guys about their plans for the night.
After they got settled into the hotel, they were doing a team dinner at a nice sushi restaurant, then guys could go off and do whatever they wanted after.
Maybe he could get Thad to do something with him then.
Graham was still mulling over what to do when they arrived at the hotel. As they milled around the lobby waiting for their room assignments and keys, he was getting desperate for ideas.
Impulsively, he turned to look at Tom who stood nearby. He was a happily married man, hopefully he’d have some good advice. “Hey. What was your first date?”
“With Krista?” he asked with a raise of his eyebrows.
“Uhh, no. Before your wife. Like your first date … ever?” He wanted to get back to the basics here.
“Oh.” Tom frowned. “Umm, going to the movies, I think. All I really remember was that we held hands and my palm was sweaty. But we were like … thirteen so my mom had to drive us. Why?”
“Just wondering. Some buddies and I were, uh, talking about it. We made a bet on what the most common first date was.” Graham blurted out the lie and hoped his face wouldn’t give him away.
Tom gave him a slightly puzzled look but nodded. “Yeah, pretty sure it was the movies, man.”
“Isn’t that like … everyone’s first date?” Ben joked. “If it was your guess, I bet you’d win that bet.”
A bunch of guys chimed in their agreement, although a few mentioned dinner or mini golf. Several said school dances.
Okay, so fairly standard answers all around.
That or hockey players weren’t that creative. Which was undoubtedly true.
So, did that help?
School dances obviously weren’t an option. Clubbing instead? Last season, Graham had tagged along with a handful of guys going to a gay club in LA. At the time, Graham had wanted to dance, felt very secure in his sexuality, and chalked it all up to being a good ally.
He was kinda starting to wonder now …
Thad had been part of the group too and at one point, Graham had seen him and some guy making out in the back hallway of the club. Graham had immediately walked away. He’d convinced himself it was because he wanted to be respectful and not spy on his friend in an intimate moment.
But again, he was really starting to wonder …
Graham sighed. He’d deal with that later. For now, he needed to plan a date.
Going clubbing didn’t feel like a first date activity.
Graham could probably get away with doing any of the others in public with Thad, since everyone knew they were already friends, but he had no idea where to find mini golf in Manhattan and he and Thad ate meals together all the time.
Movies, however … well, Graham didn’t hate that idea.
He could invite Thad to go to a movie with him and like … reach out and take his hand halfway through, maybe?
But what if he was weirded out and they got in an argument and …
Yeah, no, that wasn’t great. Maybe not in public then. Especially since he was trying to keep everything under the radar at least until he had a chance to talk to Thad about it.
Mini golf was definitely out in a hotel room and room service felt pretty … meh.
He could invite Thad over to watch a movie in his room though. No one would blink at that either. But there was no way to like … make it special. Make it feel like a real date.
Graham was still mulling over ideas when his name was called a few minutes later and he thought about it as he went up to his room.
He had a few hours to kill before dinner, so after he set his luggage down, he threw himself onto the bed and pulled out his phone again.
Okay, time to do some more research.
With only about ten minutes to spare before he left for dinner, Graham tossed his backpack on the bed and unzipped it.
Snacks spilled out. Movie theater butter flavored microwave popcorn. Candy. Soda. Nacho chips, cheese, and soft pretzels.
Okay, maybe he’d gone a little overboard. And the team dietician was going to fucking kill him.
But … it would be worth it, right?
Graham’s stomach tightened with anticipation as he thought about the night ahead. About what might happen after the movie.
Thad was … experienced. He might have expectations about where this would go and God had Graham thought about it and he wanted it, but he also wasn’t sure, like, what the protocol was.
He knew damn well Thad was the kinda guy who got on an app, swiped a few times until he found what he was looking for, then spent about two minutes ascertaining the other person was into what he was, then arranged to meet up.
Wham, bam, thank you, ma’am. Or, sir, in a lot of cases.
But Graham wasn’t into the whole hookup culture. He’d had a few one-time things, but they didn’t do much for him and Madison had been right when she said he was a serial monogamist.
Hence the panic.
And it isn’t gay panic, thank you, Thad and Madison. He wasn’t having a crisis about how to handle a dick.
Graham figured it was pretty much like handling his own, only it was attached to another person. Though … maybe he was a little unsure about the idea of that dick going inside him?
Based off a few conversations they’d had, Graham had a vague inkling Thad was a top most of the time. Though he also got the impression that he was sometimes up for bottoming if the other person wanted to top.
Which did fit his general personality of ‘up for whatever’.
But like, with Graham, what would he want? Hell Graham didn’t even know what he himself wanted.
He swallowed hard as he thought about the feel of Thad’s mouth against his again. Okay, he really wanted that part. For sure. So they’d … take it from there. How difficult could it be?
Graham just had to convince the guy he was into to give things a shot even though there were like nine hundred reasons they shouldn’t be together.
“Okay, I can do this,” Graham told himself sternly.
He almost believed it.