It wasn’t until most of an hour had passed, and the two men were finishing up a dresser, that Wyatt asked, “Do you have a boyfriend?”
There wasn’t a trace of scorn in the question, but Ryan flushed anyway. “No,” he said quietly.
“Has there ever been one?”
Ryan smoothed a hand over the top of the dresser, and followed its path with his eyes. “Not for a while now, but yeah. A couple.” He glanced up to meet Wyatt’s eyes. “Why? You have someone in mind?”
Wyatt’s face split into a huge grin. “Is thatflirting? Are youflirtingwith me, Pricey?”
“No! Jeez! It was just a joke, and I didn’t mean—”
Wyatt punched Ryan’s arm. “I know. I was kidding. And I’m sure you’ll do just fine here in Toronto. Guy like you,” he stood back to eye Ryan critically, “tall, huge arms, got the whole rugged Viking thing going on. Plus the hockey butt. And the NHL salary. And...” He waved his hand around at Ryan’s living room. “The luxury apartment in the middle of the Gay Village. Do you have a Grindr account?”
“Oh my god,” Ryan grumbled, bending to open the next furniture box, not even looking to see what it was.
“You must, right? I mean, there’s gotta be a billion guys here looking to score with you!”
Ryan slid the contents of the box onto the floor. It appeared to be a bookshelf. “I doubt it.”
“Fuck that. You’re a giant, orange teddy bear with deep pockets! And, I couldn’t help but notice, you’re hung like a—”
“All right. Enough,” Ryan mumbled. “Let’s build this thing.”
Chapter Nine
It turned out that Fabian’s music was available online. Ryan had discovered this on the Thursday after Fabian’s show, and he’d immediately purchased and downloaded everything he could find. He’d spent most of that day listening to all of it. When he’d decided, late in the afternoon, that he really needed to get some groceries for dinner, he brought his earbuds so he could continue to listen as he walked to the store.
He focused on the intricacies of Fabian’s music, which was providing a nice soundtrack for the beautiful autumn day in Toronto. Since the end of the game he’d played last night, Ryan had been slipping pretty steadily into preflight panic mode. The flight to Ottawa would barely be anything—they would be landing almost as soon as they hit cruising altitude—but it still involved a takeoff, a landing, and way too much space between the plane and the ground. Which was exactly the sort of thing he shouldnotbe thinking about. He tried to appreciate the cheerful rainbow flags that decorated almost every business on this section of Church Street, and the attractive men who were justeverywherearound him. Men who were openly and fearlessly holding hands and, yes, this was a good place. Ryan felt at least a little bit at ease here.
Of course, the idea of actuallytalkingto one of the many attractive men—or god help him,flirtingwith them—made Ryan want to curl into a ball. Except that ball would still be enormous and, no doubt, noticeable on the busy sidewalk.
Good things. Focus on good things.
Tea was a good thing. An iced chai latte was an even better thing, so Ryan decided to stop into the fancy-looking coffee shop that he’d almost passed by.
There were two people in line in front of him, so Ryan stared up at the menu, confirming that they had iced chai lattes. He mentally rehearsed placing his order. Ordering food was always one of his most embarrassing problem areas; he tended to stammer, and sometimes ordered the wrong thing, or the first thing he saw. If a server suggested something to him, he would order it even if he didn’t want it. But surely evenhecould order a fucking latte.
When he got to the counter, the cute barista smiled at him. “Hello. How are you today?”
“Chai—I mean, good. I’m good.”Come on, Ryan.
“What can I get you?”
“Uh. The, um, chai latte. But with ice.”
“An iced chai latte? What size?”
“Oh.” Ryan glanced back up at the board, where there were two prices listed next to iced chai latte but no actual sizes. “The, um...”
The barista helpfully held up two different sized plastic cups. “Regular and large.”
Ryan pointed to the larger one. “Large. Thanks.”
He paid by tapping his bank card because helovedthe tap feature. He loved anything that ended a transaction faster. He selected the highest suggested tip amount, as usual.
“You can wait at the end of the counter there. It will just be a minute. Thank you!”
Ryan was grateful for the instruction. He hated not knowing where to stand. He found a spot where he wouldn’t betooin the way and waited.
