“Huh?”
“You meant something by that. What are you saying?”
“Dude, there’s nothing… Okay, if you really want to know, it feels like the two of you have been a couple, like for real, at least for a little while. Now you’ve broken up, and it shows.”
“Why’s that?”
My hands trembled a little. Was he not joking anymore? Had heeverbeen joking? I mean, I remembered how stupid he’d behaved that night at Tully’s. I’d taken that as stupid joking.
“Well, I know spending a shit load of time together isn’t supposed to mean anything, but you guys did spend a lot of time together.”
“Yep, that says it all.”
He shooed me, forcing me up from the bench. When I got up, he slipped underneath the barbell, curling his fingers around it.
“And then there’s the way you two interact,” he said.
“What do you mean?”
“Just the way you guys act towards each other. It’s not like friends or teammates.”
“Come on.”
“I’m waiting for you to tell Erik ‘honey, would you bring me my purse?’”
“Dude, you’re lucky I don’t drop this barbell on you.”
“That’s not all, though. You guys have had this weird love-hate thing going from the start.” And he began his repetitions. “For the first little while, no one really knew what to think. And then it was like everything was great for a really long time. Then all of a sudden…”
“Back to hate again.”
“Hate is just a figure of speech.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“But it honestly seems like you guys are going through some kind of weird breakup. That’s my honest opinion. I can’t lie.”
Instead of shaking, I tensed up. He had me. Even though we’d broken up for real and no matter how hard I’d denied everything, he still had me dead to rights. Part of me figured I should just fess up to him so I wouldn’t have to worry about this shit ever again.
But would that solve my problems or make matters worse?
“We didn’t break up,” I said finally.
“I didn’t say you did.”
“But you implied it.”
Now my teammate gave me one of those looks that said I was the weirdest person he’d ever met.
“I’m not saying that,” he said. “I’m just saying it’slikethat.”
But it honestly didn’t seem any better to me.
He sat up, rolled off the bench, and stood up.
“Are you weirded out by that or something?” I asked.
He gave me a tiny shrug, like he hadn’t thought about itthatmuch. But I understood what was probably going on. I’d played hockey since I’d been old enough to put on a pair of skates. Erik and I had almost definitely been the butt of locker room jokes, all of which would’ve surrounded the idea that we were a couple. I’m surprised no one had sketched a lewd drawing of us.
