“I don’t know, man, call me a weirdo if you want, but there’s something about folding your socks and putting them in a drawer to look all nice that’s soothing, okay?”
“No, I actually agree,” Aubrey said, wondering how the hell he’d gotten into a conversation about Marie Kondo with an NHL defenseman. “It must’ve taken me an hour to get folding a T-shirt right, though.”
“Trial and error,” Kaden said, reaching for his mojito. “Hey, you got a picture of your closet?”
They swapped pictures for a few minutes. When Aubrey swiped past a photo of his last trip to the Caymans, Kaden slapped his hand down over Aubrey’s.
“Hey, go back to that.” He tilted his head toward the phone, which let him look up at Aubrey from under long lashes. Aubrey wondered if Kaden knew how flirtatious that seemed.
“What? I thought we were sharing home organization pics. Me at Seven Mile Beach is a lot less interesting.”
“I’ll be the judge of that.” Kaden flashed a little half-smile, head still tilted coquettishly. “Can I see?
Yeah, that’s flirting, consciously or not.
Aubrey pulled up the gallery from the trip and handed his phone to Kaden. Aubrey had gone with two other skaters from Team Canada, so Bianca and Marie-Laure were featured prominently in the pictures. He was curious at what Kaden would have to say about the two beautiful, scantily clad women in the photos.
Turned out, not much.
“Wow, you get really tan!” Kaden stopped and squinted at a photo of a sun-kissed Aubrey in bright yellow swim briefs. “Looks good on you. I mean, not that you look bad without.”
Definitely consciously.That was flattering as well as unexpected. It would be easy to respond in kind. Aubrey liked when handsome guys flirted with him, and he liked flirting back. He also liked when he could sense how easy it would be to whisper,Want to get out of here?and get a smile and a nod in return.
It was almost as if Kaden had a blinking sign over his head that saidI’ll say yes.
For a moment Aubrey considered it. Kaden was hot and willing, and not giving any sign that he was going to get hung up about hooking up with another guy.
Add to that, the only action Aubrey had been getting lately was his own right hand. Or his left, when he wanted to change it up a little. He looked down at said hands.
Kaden passed the phone back, but his smile had changed. He’d noticed Aubrey’s hesitation in flirting back, but he didn’t seem disappointed. “Maybe I’ll head out that way at the All-Star Break. You can give me tips on where to go.”
Where to hook up with other guys, Aubrey heard, and smiled. “Yeah, for sure.”
From there the conversation drifted to the show—how Aubrey had ended up subbing in at the last minute, his charged first meeting with Nate, the ups and downs of it since then. Then the server swung by to ask about the next round and the conversation lulled.
“How’s he doing, anyway?” Kaden asked, and Aubrey belatedly realized he’d been staring at Nate down the table as he and Bones talked. Had to be interesting, whatever it was, to get Nate looking like that, like he was squirming.
Aubrey would like to make him squirm like that.
Aubrey had apparently had enough alcohol tonight. Maybe he should’ve told the server he wanted to pay his tab. “I’m sorry?” he said, trying to get his head back in his conversation with Kaden.
“Nate,” Kaden said. “I remember what it was like when he and Marty first separated. He was like a zombie, man. He seems a lot better now that the paperwork’s all signed, but… you see him every day. What do you think?”
“What do I think?” Aubrey echoed as Kaden’s words reverberated in his seemingly empty skull.
“Yeah. I mean, he looks happier now than he did for a long time even before he and Marty split.”
Before he and Marty split.
Nate was divorced.
Nate wasdivorced?
“Thank fucking God,” Aubrey said. Then he realized he’d said it out loud and glanced sidelong at Kaden. “I mean, it seems like it was a long time coming, but yeah. He’s come a long way in the time I’ve known him.” Totally true. Ohshit, no wonder Nate got so pissed when Aubrey said he needed to get laid—could Aubrey have said something more insensitive?
“I’m glad.” Kaden flicked his gaze down the table, and Aubrey’s stomach tightened uncomfortably. Oh no. “Do you know if he’s seeing anyone?”
Fuck Aubrey’s entire life. “No idea,” he managed. “We don’t really socialize outside of work.” Nate had kept things between them professional most of the time. But he’d slipped on enough occasions that Aubrey wondered, and he’d seen the way Nate looked at him sometimes. Maybe he should push his luck. Sure, he’d more or less just admitted to himself that he wanted something more lasting than a roll in the sheets… but he could put that on hold long enough to satisfy a mutual curiosity.
