Chapter 5 #2
Her arm is extended, the mug in her hand, but I don’t reach for it. I’m frozen, my body flooding with a mixture of embarrassment and humiliation. “I… don’t… do it for you anymore? You’re bored with us?”
She steps into me, taking my hand with her free one and pushing the mug into it before kissing me softly but deeply on the mouth.
She tastes like black coffee, which I’m not a fan of, but I kiss her back because I’m suddenly needy.
“I’m not bored, but we’re not connecting.
There’s this void or something. I’m scared this move will make it worse, not better.
So I’m just saying… think about a fantasy you’ve had a while.
Any fantasy. I’m up for it. Or at least willing to talk about it. ”
I try and absorb what she’s saying, but this whole conversation is overwhelming and odd. She’s right, there is a void, but I don’t think filling it with sexual fantasies is the answer. It’ll be fun, but would it fix anything? Probably not.
“Have a great first day,” she tells me, and I grab her around the waist and kiss her again. This time with tongue and intensity, and I don’t stop until I feel her nipples get hard against my chest.
“Do me a favor and be home when I get back,” I growl into her ear. “I want to break our dry spell, and you can pick the position.”
I nip the side of her neck, and she giggles.
Then I kiss her again, quickly, and head out into the living room.
I grab my bag with my workout gear and pull the keys to the communal family truck that sits here year-round off the hook by the door of the screened-in porch.
Outside, Grady is leaning against the old pickup with his gym bag slung over his shoulder and shades covering his eyes.
Vintage Wayfarer Ray-Bans. I learned last year, as I got to know him, that Grady’s hobby is collecting vintage sunglasses.
He’s got about forty pairs that he says he keeps on a special rack so they’re all on display, like art in his house. “You bring all your sunglasses in your carry-on?”
He nods as I unlock the truck, which is so old you actually have to do it with a key, not a fob. “Not leaving my babies behind or trusting them to the movers. I did that once, and my nineteen-fifties classic silver aviators got crushed beyond repair.”
We get into the truck, and after we’re both buckled in, I reverse from the driveway and head out of the small, sleepy community of Ocean Pines toward Route One.
The practice facility for the Riptide is only fifteen minutes from here in Old Orchard Beach near Pine Point.
The arena where we play games is in downtown Portland, which is between thirty and forty minutes away, depending on traffic.
I would much rather live out this way, but I’m not sure how Angie feels about it.
“I thought I knew Angie, from all the times she’s been at team stuff with the Quake, but clearly I was wrong,” Grady says after almost a full five minutes of silence.
“I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m not offended or anything, but she’s…
got no filter. I find it both refreshing and slightly amusing. ”
“She had a filter,” I argue softly and then steal a glance at him. He definitely doesn’t look like he’s lying or judging, which is good. To be honest, I think I would be judging at this point. “She seems to have misplaced it, though.”
Grady chuckles. “Again, I’m cool with it.”
“I’ll make sure she puts on a robe or something tomorrow morning,” I promise and try not the let the heat I feel in my chest climb up my neck and face. I’m not normally a blusher.
“Yeah, okay.” He doesn’t seem bothered, and I wonder if that’s some kind of red flag. “I don’t look at her that way, so you don’t have to worry about me. You’ve got a pretty girlfriend, but I have this off switch when I know people are taken. I don’t mess with that.”
“I didn’t think you would. But still,” I reply awkwardly. “Like I said, things are weird between us, and I don’t know how to handle it. She’s decided we’re in a rut and should fulfill fantasies.”
Grady scratches his mega-beard. “And she thinks your fantasy is her and… another guy?”
When he says that, a jolt of white hot desire shoots down my spine and makes my balls tingle.
I shift in my seat and reach for the AC button, punching it on even though it’s a balmy seventy-one degrees outside.
“I mean, she thinks that. I guess. Because we talk about everything, and I told her about… Osborne and Pattison once told me about the time when they were rookies and Pattison brought home this girl, and after a few drinks and time in the hot tub, the three of them showered together. Her suggestion. And they like… I don’t need to get into the details, but they ended up all doing it. And they loved it, and she loved it.”
Grady doesn’t look as shocked by this as I think he should when I glance over at a red light before turning right onto Cascade Road, where the practice facility is located.
He cocks his head to me and kind of nods, but I can’t see his eyes because of the sunglasses.
His thick, copperish eyebrows aren’t raised, though.
“Did they tell you they did stuff with each other, not just touching the girl?”
“I mean… I think Osborne mentioned it. He’s a talker when he drinks,” Grady says. “I also know he hooked up with two girls. Best friends, he said, last summer, so I guess he’s all about the group sex.”
“Yeah. He told me that story, too.” I swallow, but my throat feels like it’s coated in dust, so I reach for the smoothie I put in the cup holder and suck hard on the straw.
“I don’t tell the locker room stories. And I don’t have the wild sex…
I mean, Angie and I… we’ve had our moments, but like…
I just… I mean, this feels like a red flag, relationship-wise, at this point.
Shouldn’t we be talking marriage and kids, not three-ways? ”
I don’t know why I’m asking for validation on this.
I know I’m right. At least for me. But I’m still relieved when Grady’s head bobs in agreement.
“Yeah. I mean, you guys have been together a decade, I can see how it’s natural to want to be settling down.
But it’s not mandatory, you know? Some people don’t want kids or marriage.
Some don’t want monogamy but still want a life partner.
There’s no one way to be in a happy relationship. Happy is the key, though.”
I nod. Grady is staring at me like I should say something, but I don’t know what. He gives me a hint. “Are you happy?”
“I’m not unhappy.” Bad answer, I know, but it’s honest. “I think we can be happy again once we find some stability.”
Grady seems to mull that over. He chews the tip of his thumb as his elbow rests on the ledge by the closed passenger window, and then he blurts out, “I haven’t had a threesome since entering the league, and if I ever did it again, it would have to be with people I know well who I could trust. People who are in it for the fun and pleasure and know they won’t regret it afterward. ”
“Yeah. That makes sense.” I can see the practice facility up on the left. A squat gray building with the Riptide logo—an angry-looking wave—on the side. “Wait. What? You… you had a threesome before joining the league? Like when you were a kid?”
Grady, like every Garrison offspring, went straight from high school to the draft when he was eighteen.
When I turn my head to look at him, he’s shoved his sunglasses up into his red hair, and his hazel eyes, which are mostly made up of flecks of green and amber, are staring right at me.
His wide mouth is set in a small, bemused smile.
“The month before I started my first NHL training camp.”
“What… what kind of… I mean… never mind.” Now I’m as invasive as Angela, and I hate myself for it.
I pull into the parking lot and ease the truck into the first empty stall, even though it’s the farthest from the entrance.
“My girlfriend at the time and a friend of hers,” he clarifies, and for some reason, I feel a bit let down. Disappointed? What the hell is wrong with me? When I glance at him again, his smile is broader. “A male friend of hers.”
Grady gets out of the truck and closes the door before I can pick my jaw up off the seat.