Arush smiles and I find I really enjoy it. “No. Full disclosure. I made a bit of a mess, but I cleaned it up.”
I laugh. “That’s okay. How about if we find an Indian restaurant tonight for dinner and you can take a look at the menu? We can go from there as to what kinds of foods you’d like.”
“I don’t want to replace the foods you like.”
“We won’t. We’ll trade off meals and both experience the foods of the other’s culture.”
He smiles at me again, this time meeting my eyes. “I like that.”
I do too. This feels like we’re getting on the right track. All over the stew that is dirty, smelly, sweaty hockey gear in a tub of warm water.
Is this going to set the tone for our relationship? What does that say about it?
CHAPTER 6
ARUSH
The whistle blowsand the screen cuts to the referee. “New York. Icing.”
“Icing,” I parrot and click the screen of my phone on to do a quick search. “Icing is when a player shoots the puck over the red line and into the opposing team’s zone without scoring. It’s seen as a delay of game, by sending the puck to the other side of the rink. The offending team takes a faceoff in their zone.”
“Wait,” Alok says. “I thought the point of the game was to get the puck to the other side so youcanscore. But they’re penalized for sending it to the other side?”
“That seems like a stupid rule,” Jash agrees.
“That’s what the internet says.” I shrug.
I’m sitting on the couch with my laptop, pointing at the television. My friends are on a video call and watching Julian’s game with me as we learn hockey together. It’s not as good as them being here, but it’s still kind of cool that we can do things like this together, even 8,000 miles apart.
However, every time I look up at the television, there’s something else going on that I don’t understand and it takes me away from watching the game so I can look it up. I still have no idea what’s going on, no matter how many terms I look up.
“Which one is he again?” Anil asks.
“Number sixty-four on the blue team. Julian White.”
I did an internet search for Julian White when I received the notification from MOS that he wanted to match with me. There arethousandsof people with that name, among them are rugby players, photographers, actors, authors, and tons of different athletes with the same name. I didn’t come across the hockey player, though.
To be fair, he messaged as soon as I hit the button that I was open to a connection and that distracted me from searching. I hadn’t actually done a thorough search, nor did I even click on any links. I simply scrolled down the results to see what I could find.
I wonder if I’d have realized that maybe he made a mistake in choosing me had I followed through with looking him up. Would I have realized he was straight?
No. I wouldn’t have. The night I got here, and he showed me to the guest room, I looked him up for real. I found his profile on ShareIt and Spectrum and on some hockey sites, including the official site of the team he plays for and I wouldn’t have guessed at all.
He’s notoriously never with a date.
“You’ve been cagey,” Anil accuses. “How’s it going out there? Are you living the dream?”
He’s not wrong. I’ve avoided answering the question every time they’ve asked. “It’s good,” I tell them. “It’s freaking cold here. I don’t know why I didn’t expect that.”
“The picture you sent from the windows is really amazing,” Jash says. “That’s an impressive view and a really beautiful city.”
I nod, though they can’t see me since the camera is facing the TV. “It is,” I agree. “He lives in a condo on a hill. Two sides of the living area are practically all windows, floor-to-ceiling. There’s abalcony, too, but it’s been too cold to go out there. The wind! I’ve never felt anything like it.”
“Isn’t Chicago called the Windy City?” Alok asks.
I grin as I glance at the game again. “Yeah.”
The puck goes back and forth. Someone is shoved into the wall and then the game moves on. I don’t see Julian on the ice at the moment. The whistle blows, but I don’t hear anything called verbally. Just some hand signals and the group head for one of the red circles on the side.
