I balled my hands into fists and squeezed. He would drive me crazy before we had the chance to hoist a championship trophy.
“This is killing you, isn’t it?” he said.
“Damn right, it is. You’re lucky you’ve got the best ass in the universe.”
“It really shouldn’t be a problem,” he said. “By now, we should be able to be open about our feelings. And we should at least be about to tell others we’re together, just so they know. Forget the media. We don’t have to shout it from the rooftops.”
“You’re forgetting about the complications. For every action, there’s a reaction. There’s no telling what that reaction will be.”
“I’m comfortable with that.”
Shit!
I felt myself hulking up, like I would soon bounce Erik De Ruiter off the walls. I drew a deep breath to calm myself. Speaking as confidently as he had made matters worse for me. I could hit him with a comeback, sure, but he would wallop me with another of his own—and so on. Worse, it would support Erik’s ridiculous point, no matter how off-base he was.
“I know I said there would be a distraction before,” I said. “I wasn’t bullshitting you. And you don’t know how the guys are going to react.”
“Again, we’ve got to be willing to take that risk.”
“I’m hearing you, but we’ve got a championship to win.”
Even though Erik stared at me blankly, I knew what he was thinking. He might as well have said, “So the fuck what?”He would seriously put our relationship above winning a championship.
When I stopped to think about it, I felt like an asshole. No, wait, that isn’t right. Sure, I would’ve put our relationship above winning. If I’d told my boyfriend that, he would’ve scoffed because he’s trying to make me look like an unfeeling dog turd.
“Look,” I said, “I’d like to think we can have it both ways.”
“Maybe you think you can, but I’m telling you, we’ve got to get this figured out fast.”
I could tell from Erik’s hard expression that he wasn’t kidding. Look, this wasn’t normal for me. Yeah, I’ve been harped at by girlfriends before, but none had ever tried to take charge like he had. If Erik thought he was going to be in charge of this relationship, he had another thing coming.
“You can lose that look now,” I said.
“What look? This one?”
He didn’t speak through gritted teeth like I had earlier, but he didn’t sound thrilled.
“Look, I understand why you’re unhappy,” I said. “I do. But you can’t push me that hard.”
“Can’t I?”
Now Erik was starting to sound more like the kid who’d stolen my locker from me at the start of the season and less like the one I’d performed mattress gymnastics with for months now. I might not have squashed that kid’s spirit, but I totally could have had I wanted to.
He didn’t want to tempt me.
“No, you can’t,” I said.
“Yes, I can. You want to know why?”
“Tell me.”
“Because I have the best ass in the universe. You said so yourself.”
“I know I did, but?—”
He bent over, showing me his whole ass, and wiggled it. Then his backside swayed pendulum-like from side to side.
I tried not to laugh but wouldn’t give myself away by covering my mouth.
