“Last night. I wanted to tell someone.”
All right. Shane didn’t know that this had been weighing on Ilya, and that made him feel like a shitty boyfriend. But he could worry about that later. “Why him?”
For a moment, there was silence. Then Ilya said, “You can’t tell anyone this.”
“Tell anyone what?”
“Promise me.”
“Fine. I promise. What?”
“He came out to me first,” Ilya said.
Shane blinked. “I’m sorry.What?”
“He told me he is gay. I don’t think he has told many people. Maybe no one. So it felt like I should, you know. Share back.”
“Troy Barrett isgay?” Given the fact that Troy had always seemed like a homophobic douchebag to Shane, this was a lot to process.
“Yes. But that is a secret.”
Shane closed his eyes. Okay. Troy Barrett was gay, and also he was friends with Ilya now. Weird. “Of course I won’t tell anyone.”
“I know.”
“Why did he tell you?” It suddenly occurred to Shane that the reason Troy had come out to Ilya was because he wasinterestedin Ilya.
“I took him out last night. To the Kingfisher. Was his first gay bar, he said.” Then Ilya laughed. “You’d like him. You are both very bad at being gay.”
“Hilarious,” Shane said flatly. “So what happened at the bar?”
“We had a nice talk with the queer New York hockey players.”
“Scott and Eric were there?”
“Yes. They own the bar.”
“I know, but—” Shane sighed. “Okay. So you had a queer NHL player meeting.”
“You feel left out?”
“I mean, yeah. Kind of. What were you guys doing there?”
“Just talking. Drinking beer. Having a fun time. You would have hated it.”
“Did Troy come out to everyone there?”
“No. Just me. Was after. We were walking to the hotel.”
“Sounds romantic,” Shane grumbled.
“Shane. He is in love with Harris. Not me.” There was a beat of silence, then Ilya added, “That is also a secret. Though not a good one because Troy is very obvious about this crush.”
“Just to recap,” Shane said. “Your new friend Troy Barrett is gay and in love with your team’s social media manager?”
“Yes.”
“Were you surprised when he told you? Because I’m pretty fucking surprised.”
