Chapter 11 #2
“I’m excited we won the game. I’m not allowed to smile?” Alex dug socks out of his bag and slipped them on.
“Sure you can.” Yager checked his teeth in a handheld mirror. “But that smile wasn’t a ‘we-won’ smile. It was a lovesick smile.”
“Uh-huh.” Alex finished dressing and pocketed his phone. “I don’t think you know what that word means.”
“I don’t think you know what that word means. You meet a girl in Vermont while you were there?”
“Hardly.”
“What, no girls in Vermont?”
“There’s plenty of girls.” Alex shouldered his bag and walked out of the locker room, certain Yager was only steps behind him. Sure enough, Yager fell in next to him and they took the maze of hallways toward the exit closest to the parking garage.
“But you weren’t ‘interested’ in any of them?” Yager used actual air quotes around interested. Alex was sort of notorious on the team for being the only one who’d never had a girlfriend in the past two years. “People are going to start thinking you’re gay.”
Alex shrugged. “So?”
“What do you mean so?” Yager turned incredulous eyes on him. “You want people thinking you’re gay?”
“Being gay’s not a bad thing, so why should I care if someone thinks I am?” Alex reached the exit doors and turned to say something to Yager, only to find the man several feet away, where he’d apparently stopped in the middle of the hallway.
“That’s a very enlightened way of looking at it,” Yager said.
“I guess?” Alex pushed the door open. “Come on, I want to go home and eat.”
They made their way to the parking garage and up to their level in silence. The temperature had cooled enough for Alex to be grateful for his suit jacket.
“So…” Yager said when they exited the staircase on level four. “Are you gay?”
Alex’s personal life was off limits to most people, the media included, but to teammates he considered actual friends, he might make an exception.
Explaining himself to Yager, however, was about as appealing as pulling on a skate over a broken foot.
Alex leaned against his SUV and crossed his arms. “I’m demisexual.”
“Okay?” Yager scratched his head. “What does liking short people have to do with being gay?”
Choking on a laugh, Alex rubbed his hands over his face. “Jesus, Yager, no. Demisexual means I don’t get sexually attracted to another person until I’ve formed a deep emotional connection with them.”
“Oh.” Yager dragged the word out to about seven syllables. “Okay. So that means a person’s gender doesn’t matter, huh?”
“Depends on the person, I guess?” Alex shrugged. “I don’t like to generalize. I’ve always been more attracted to men, so I guess that means I’m gay?”
“Huh. That’s why we never see you with anyone,” Yager mused. “Not much time to get to know someone when you’re constantly on the road.” His eyes went big. “Does that mean you could theoretically become sexually attracted to me?” The prospect seemed to delight him, for some reason.
Alex mentally visualized Mitch’s unruly curly hair, his brown eyes, his lean build that was more swimmer than hockey player, his penchant for flannel shirts, and addiction to smoothies.
He patted Yager on the shoulder. “You’re not my type.”
“You did meet someone in Vermont. I knew it! Who is she? He?”
“I’m…” Alex blew out a breath, then loaded his bag into the trunk.
His mind had drifted to Mitch more than once during tonight’s game, when normally Alex was a master at the art of compartmentalization, of forcing everything else aside, personal or otherwise, in order to focus on the game.
“I’m still trying to figure things out there, so, uh…
” Did the fact that he missed Mitch, badly, mean anything?
Did Alex miss Mitch because Mitch was a friend, or because he was a friend Alex wanted more with?
Months ago, when he’d first met Mitch, the thought of kissing him had been abhorrent.
Not because Mitch was ugly or anything, but because the thought of kissing anybody made him want to run away and hide.
When he was younger and the other kids in his class had wanted to play seven minutes in heaven or spin the bottle, Alex had always found an excuse to bow out.
Who wanted to kiss someone they didn’t have feelings for? Not him. Just no.
The thought of kissing Mitch now? Goosebumps broke out over his neck and his stomach fluttered.
Well, shit. Alex wanted to kiss Mitch and it’d taken Yager for him to realize it. There was something seriously fucked up with that scenario.
“I get it.” Yager held his hands up. “No pushing.” He tilted his head and appeared to think about something. “Do you think being demisexual would make that person more unlikely to cheat?”
Alex’s heart clenched in sympathy. Yager had divorced his wife three years ago, after she’d cheated on him.
“I don’t know, man,” Alex said. “I mean, maybe. It’s certainly true for me, but I imagine everyone’s different.”
Yager grunted. “Where can I find myself one of these demisexuals?”
“Jesus, Yager.” Alex pulled his keys out of his pocket and rounded his car. “I’ll see you at the party tomorrow.”
“Will you have an answer for me then?”
“Bye, Yager.”
“It’s a valid question.”
From inside his car, Alex waved at a scowling Yager, and went home.