Chapter 11
THEO
There were some places Theo had always hated playing, and Winnipeg was at the top of the list. He was sure the people were fine, but the city was cold and flat, travel was obnoxious, the Winnipeg Wheat were frustrating to play against, and something random always went wrong.
His night had been going too well. They won. He’d woken up that day feeling well-rested. He got hibachi for lunch with a few of the guys, and Rowan had declined the invitation. He was waiting for the other shoe to drop.
He didn’t have to wait for long.
There was a knock on his door right after he’d put his night mouth guard in, pimple patches lightly scattered over the acne constellation on his jaw, eye mask on his forehead, ready to block out the world. He was wearing his boxers and socks, because he never went barefoot in a hotel.
He half expected it to be someone telling him the building was on fire and the alarms weren’t working. Instead, he opened the door and found Rowan.
“Fucking Winnipeg,” Theo grumbled.
“What?”
“Never mind. What do you want?”
Rowan rubbed the back of his neck. “I know you’re not going to want to say yes, but you’re my literal last option. Vic must already be sound asleep. Please say yes.”
When they were teenagers, he loved when Rowan was nervous around him. It was sweet. Now, he felt halfway between annoyance and pity. “Just ask.”
“My fucking toilet backed up in my room—no, it wasn’t my fault.
Apparently they have had a lot of issues with it over the last couple weeks.
I heard all about it. The hotel is sold out for the night.
Believe me, I just spent forty minutes downstairs trying to figure out a solution.
My room smells fucking awful, and staying there anyway isn’t an option because they won’t let me.
I’m just…I’m fucking tired. Can I just sleep on your couch or something? I won’t even look at you.”
The defeat Rowan delivered all that information with cracked Theo’s shell a bit.
He could choose to be a huge asshole and get chewed out by their coach for leaving their star player out in the (metaphorical) cold, or he could just not make a big deal out of it.
Plus, holding this anger with Rowan was exhausting.
Maybe it was time to at least try being nicer to Rowan.
For both of their sakes. And for Vic, who had made it abundantly clear that Theo had been pissing him off lately.
He hated feeling like Vic was disappointed in him, both because he was his captain, and also because he was Theo’s closest friend in San Jose.
Even if he had been fairly absent this season.
“Fine,” Theo said, opening the door enough for Rowan to slip in. He had his things with him, and he hung up his garment bag and dug out his toiletries.
“You don’t have a couch,” Rowan noticed.
Theo shrugged. “King bed, it’s fine. Don’t touch me.”
“Yeah, no. Okay. I’m going to just—” He gestured to the bathroom.
Theo gave him a half-assed thumbs-up and headed toward bed.
He plugged his phone in, grabbed one of the pillows from Rowan’s side of the bed, and shoved it between his knees.
He set his alarm, pulled his eye mask over his eyes, and tried to pretend this wasn’t happening.
A few minutes later, he heard Rowan pad toward the bed, turning lights off as he went.
The bed shifted with his weight, and Theo was hit with the memory of what it was like to share a bed when they were kids.
Theo would have scooted over to pull Rowan into his arms, and he would have felt settled and safe.
Sometimes he imagined what their lives would have been like if they had been drafted to the same team.
They used to joke about it before the draft, but Theo had never been joking.
Even if he’d had the same slow start to his career, knowing that, when he finally made the show, he would be with Rowan would have been easier than knowing that there was no way they would have a future together.
If they had been drafted to the same team, would they have stayed together?
Were they even together in the first place? They had tried to be careful about their feelings, pretending like never being official would make it easier when they eventually had to play on different teams. All it did was make it impossible to find closure.
He listened to Rowan’s breathing, and how it never evened out. He was lying there next to Theo, just as wide awake as he was. It was strange to share a comforter with someone you felt so goddamn far away from.