“Not yet. He’s got me working as his slave right now.”
“Holy shit, dude, Ilovethat. I’ve been trying to get my boyfriend, Quinn, to get into the whips and chains and dungeons and all that shit. He just isn’t having it.”
“Not sexual slavery, you idiot. He’s got me doing every little chore for him like he’s helpless.”
“You spoon feeding him?”
“No.”
“What about sponge baths?”
“No, he still takes care of that stuff on his own.”
“Damn, if I were in your shoes, that would make it all worthwhile.”
I sighed.
“My problem is that I’ve been spending time at his place, catering to his every need, and he still hasn’t forgiven me.”
“Do you really expect him to?”
“OfcourseI do. I apologized, didn’t I?”
“Sometimes sorry isn’t enough, bro.”
God, I can’t tell you how weird it was to have a Larkin Lion—the riffraff of the NCAA hockey world—calling mebro. It made me feel sort of dirty inside.
“But it’s got to be enough in our case,” I said. “It would just be crazy if it wasn’t.”
“How do you figure?”
“We love each other. I know that sounds wild, given the rivalry between our teams, but I would’ve thought the loss in the championship game would’ve humbled him.”
“Humbledhim? Bro, it’ll only make him hungrier. He’ll come out even stronger now. You wait and see.”
“Fine. I just thought that after such an awful hit, he would’ve seen what was important.”
“Or it gave him one hell of a wakeup call.”
I paused, knowing what he meant and hoping he wouldn’t elaborate.
“Think about it, bro. He must’ve thought you guys had something special. Hockey aside, he might’ve thought you were a great catch. Sure, he was probably confused. So was I when it happened to me. He gave you his trust, and what did you do? You fractured his neck.”
Any other time, I would’ve struck back, and pronounced Levi Dunn full of shit, but I couldn’t. He was one hundred percent right. I’d sought Levi out not just because he could understand my position, but because he might know something about Jakob that I didn’t. Teammates can be like that.
I combed my fingers through my hair and said, “Okay, I know I was an asshole?—”
“I was going to say you were a piece of shit.”
“Yes, thank you, Levi. I was a piece of shit. I just thought?—”
“You thought Jakob would forgive you no matter what you did?”
“Yeah…”
I sighed. Levi Dunn had made his point, likely without knowing it. If he wasn’t aware, I wouldn’t tell him. I didn’t need that meathead thinking he deserved credit for anything smart.
In my own way, I really had expected Jakob to just forgive me. The breakup seemed ridiculous the moment he got hurt. I didn’t go to see him because I figured he would be mad at me. When he cooled down, he would be ready to forgive, and we would go back to how things were between us.
