We head out of the bar, with Nils heading to the metro and me to a random bench so I can order a taxi. When I pull out my phone, I catch a bunch of texts that came in from Luke after the game.
LUKE TREMBLAY
Holy shit that game was intense
You were on fire
Wait. Did he watch my game?
Highlights don’t come out this quickly.
Luke watched my game.
Sweet, inconvenient warmth fills me as I tap out a reply, a silly grin tugging at my lips.
You watched??
Yeah man ofc I did
Someone got an SHL+ subscription
You subscribed to SHL+?
Yeah bro ofc. Gotta support my buddies however I can
Man. Bro. Buddy.Sheesh. I guess all it took was some distance for us to finally be just friends.
That sucks.
Scratch that. Luke getting over mehurts, and I hate it. I hate not being able to call Luke and tell him that no, I don’t want to pretend like we’re friends. I want him.
Fuck, I want him so bad.
But he deserves to move on without me getting in the way. It’s only fair.
Thanks for the support btw. Maybe you’ll finally back a team that wins once in a while
Luke laugh-reacts to my message, and I sigh. We can be friends, and I’ll get over this crush, like how Luke is doing right now.
I have to. It’ll just take time.
11
LUKE
NOVEMBER
The second my computer clock flips to 5 p.m., I slam my laptop shut, walk into Stefano’s living room, and slump down on the couch. I’m spending a week visiting him in Montreal, and it’s been a blast, at least outside of working hours.
“Luke, it’s barely gone five,” he says. “Corporate life can’t bethatbad, can it?” He grabs a hard seltzer from the fridge and slides it across the coffee table.
I crack the can open. “Too many people are asking for too many things that aren’t my job.”
“Sounds like my research lab,” he mutters. “Anyway, give me ten minutes because I have to finish a write-up, but I won’t be long.”
At that, I pull out my phone, letting Stefano go back to his grad school work. While neither of us knows exactly what the other does, we’ve reached an understanding that he designs experiments, and I design pretty slides in PowerPoint.
He looks up a while later. “Do you have any plans tonight?” he asks. “I have to go to the lab and check on my cells, but I’ll be back at eight-ish.”
