The redheaded player pushed past Cole and walked straight up to me. “June, I’ve had a headache for the past hour. Do you think I’ve been poisoned? The internet says headaches are a sign of poisoning. And the waiter at dinner was looking at me funny.”
“Funny how?” I asked.
“I don’t know. Justfunny. Ineverget headaches,” he insisted. “Except when I’m hungover. Which I’m not. What should I do?”
I would have laughed at him, but the fear on his face was genuine. I let go of Rhett and made a show of examiningO’Malley, lifting his eyelids and asking him to stick out his tongue.
After a few seconds of pretending like I was deep in thought, I said, “Nope. You haven’t been poisoned. My recommendation: take an Advil and drink at least three glasses of water. It might be dehydration.”
He sighed with relief. “Thanks, June! You’re the best.”
When he was gone, I smirked at Rhett. “He said I’m the best, and I didn’t even have to fuck him.”
“We all have different benchmarks,” Cole said.
I was afraid of making the walk of shame when I left, but the hallway was thankfully empty. I nodded to the guard in the elevator lobby and took the stairs down.
Halfway to my floor, I ran into someone walking up.
“Elias?”
He froze two steps below me, which meant we were at the same eye-level. When he saw it was me, he grinned widely.
“June.” My name was a deep rumble that came from deep within his chest.
“I thought curfew started an hour ago.”
Elias shrugged his broad shoulders. “Casey is too afraid to say no to me.” He let out a chuckle that might have been a giggle if it came from anyone else.
I frowned at him. His accent was more pronounced than normal tonight, and he was actuallysmiling. Either he had switched bodies with someone else, or…
“Are youdrunk?”
He shook his head. “No! Never drunk!” Then he stroked his beard with his fingers. “Well. Sometimes drunk. But not now. I am onlyhappy.”
“You smell like beer.”
“Yes. Beer makes me happy!” He let out another giggle-like chuckle.
“Oh my God.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “I won’t tell Jay. But if you get caught on the way back to your room, that’s on you.”
“Thank you!” It was soweirdto see his face light up with a smile. “For this. And for helping me. With my oblique.” He raised his shirt to reveal the ripples of muscle along his side.
“Of course.”
He put his finger to his lips. “Our secret! Yes?”
“Our secret.” I stepped to the side so he could pass. “See you tomorrow, Elias. Get some sleep.”
But instead of passing me, he wrapped me in a big bear hug. His body was warm and hard with muscle, and I allowed myself to enjoy it for a moment. He squeezed me tightly, holding the hug for a few heartbeats longer than I expected.
When he pulled back, he touched my cheek with his fingertips. His hand was so big he could have palmed my entire head like a basketball. Underneath the smell of beer was his scent, heady and intoxicating. For a brief moment I thought he was going to kiss me, and I realized that if he did, I wouldn’t pull away…
Then he patted me lightly on the cheek and continued climbing the stairs, humming a tune I didn’t recognize.
I thought about him while trying to sleep that night. Elias shouldn’t have been getting drunk the night before a game. Itmust have taken an entire keg of beer for someone his size to get drunk.
His drunkenness aside, the interaction filled me with happiness. He’d said more words to me in the stairwell than he had all season. Cole once told me that he’d never heard Elias say more than a single sentence at a time, and he’d been teammates with the goalie for years!
