“Hi,” Casey greets, smiling. “I know you,” he says, nodding his head toward me. “Nice to meet you, Laurent.”
Lo takes his proffered hand. “Lo,” he corrects. “But I’ll answer to Laurent, I suppose.”
Casey grins. “Come on in. We’re out back.”
We follow him inside, shutting the door behind us. The entryway towers three stories over our heads with a massivechandelier that I don’t want to stand under for long. That thing would kill me if it came down.
“This place is huge,” Lo comments.
Casey snorts. “Much bigger than eight guys need, but here we are.”
Lo and I exchange a look.Eight guys? he mouths. My eyes widen and I shrug.
The backyard is equally massive with an enormous pool, complete with a waterfall and a grotto. A lazy river winds around the entire backyard that sprawls so far into the distance, I can’t see it. There’s even an island in the middle of the pool!
There’s also an in-ground trampoline, a huge bounce house obstacle course that looks like it runs for miles. I hear engines coming from somewhere that sound like go-karts or something. Then there are the more adult things like an outdoor kitchen the size of our new house and a hot tub big enough for everyone here.
And there area lotof people.
“Wow,” I say.
“Overboard?” Casey asked, amused.
“Maybe a little.”
He chuckles. “That’s Denali with the bright pink hair. Trying to drown him is Marcus. They are the nonathletes that live here. Otherwise, it’s me, Devon Hampshire, Nathan Ames, Yuri Andreev, Hudson Tremblay, and Austin Lavoie. Everyone else and their families don’t live here, but they’re teammates.”
“I’d ask if the co-housing is to save on money, but I think this place probably costs more than eight houses,” Lo comments.
Casey laughs. “Nah. Actually it started with me, Denali, and Marcus. We’re childhood friends. Grew up right down the road. We always wanted big, expensive toys, but on a single income—even mine—it was unreasonable. So we decided to pool our incomes. Over the years, we’ve upgraded as more guysliked what we were doing and here we are—ultimate bachelor funhouse.”
“And here we are, having just bought a tiny, 900 square foot house,” I muse.
Casey looks at me horrified. “Why? Please tell me they pay you more than that in Buffalo. And fuck if Toronto low-balled you, man.”
“No,” Lo and I answer together, laughing.
“We bought a tiny house in Niagara to split the commute. It’s a second house for both of us and we’re hesitant to invest in something bigger when we don’t know if we can handle the longer commute,” Lo explains.
“Ah,” Casey says. He looks between us for a minute, then his eyes drop to where we’re holding hands. “I’m impressed you hid this for as long as you did. Media are vultures. You have no idea the amount of supposed ‘blackmail’ we get threatening to expose our dick-lust cult if we don’t pay them just because we live under the same roof.”
He made air quotes for ‘blackmail,’ and I have to wonder what in the world they could be trying to threaten.
“Everyone wants a piece of you,” Lo says.
Casey looks at me again. “Indeed.”
The girl claiming I knocked her up in a nightclub disappeared eventually. Her accounts are deleted, and I haven’t created any new ones for myself. Personally, I’m enjoying the peace of not having social media to worry about. Sometimes Lo and I will lay in bed and scroll for a while together on his, but usually, it’s nothing I think about at all.
Sometimes I wonder about this lookalike in Philly. This girl wasconvincedthat he’d been me. Hell, after seeing the picture, I was partially convinced I’d sleep walked and managed to fuck a girl. He was that convincing. Even in the low-lighting and at the angle he’d been in.
Maybe it was him. Did he ever come forward to claim the child? I’m not sure if I hope he did or not. On the one hand, it’s not the child’s fault that they were created under these circumstances. But on the other, I can only imagine a life dealing with that woman.
Casey brings us around, introducing us to everyone, and I do mean everyone. All the wives and girlfriends and kids. The entire team.
This is the first time being in a new group has given me a different kind of trepidation than I’m used to. Usually I have to give myself a pep talk, much like right before a game, but to remind myself not to look at other guys too long. To not give anyone any kind of indication that I’m anything other than straight.
Now it’s a little different. I’m out, and while that’s a relief on some level, I find myself worried about whether people are going to treat me differently. Will there be some discourse or nasty remarks? Sneers? Will I be made uncomfortable?
