I sigh and close my eyes. “Let’s not focus on this. Okay? Yes, maybe we both have a touch of shittiness in us. But Tomy isn’t upset, and that matters.”
He’s not entirely convinced. I can tell by his silence. So, I change the subject instead. “How long have you been on Kala?”
“Four years tomorrow,” he says, and I open my eyes. “I moved here halfway through college and haven’t looked back.”
“That great here, huh?”
“I feel entirely removed from the ugliness of the world. The people who live here are great. I’m surrounded by new people every day. I get to do what I love. There’s entertainment, a sense of community, and I never have to think about my safety when I walk down the road holding a man’s hand. I can hang a queer flag out on my front lawn and not have to worry about attracting hate.” He shrugs. “I can’t think of any place better than this.”
“Sounds amazing,” I agree.
“What about you? Where do you live?”
“Currently, I’m in Detroit with the Purple Fins. It’s my second team. Home—the place I grew up—is Vermont.”
“Wow. You have to move a lot for hockey.”
“Not a lot. I travel a lot, yes, but I don’t actually move all that often. That being said, my contract is up in eighteen months, so there’s a chance I’ll be traded and have to move.”
Dylan shakes his head. “How do you live in peace without any kind of assurance?”
“I do have assurance. The contract I signed last June was for two years, no trade, for a specific amount of money. That’s all kinds of guarantee. Generally speaking, my agent gets a heads-up if my team is looking to trade me, so I’m prepared. And if I’m traded, that means another team wants me; not necessarily that my current team doesn’t. In a way, this is like chess. Everyone is shifting players, all looking for the best moves. Hockey players are pawns. We’re shifted around and around until eventually, we’re taken off the ice. Usually by retirement, but sometimes because of injury.”
“That still sounds scary. Like you could wake up one day and everything you know has shifted overnight.”
“No different from anywhere else, though. There’s no loyalty in companies anymore. Everyone is disposable.”
Dylan frowns. “Huh. I guess so.”
I squeeze his ass with both hands, gently grinding our cocks together. He grins.
“Family?” he asks.
“Mhm. I have five older sisters.”
Dylan’s eyes widen. “Wow.”
“Yep. Pretty sure my parents continued procreating until they had a boy.”
He grins.
“You?”
“No, not biologically. I have two foster brothers and now a foster sister.”
“Yeah? That’s cool.”
Dylan smiles. “My mom is the best. I’m glad she fosters, especially since I moved away. I think she’s made to be a mother, you know? Some people are. And there are a lot of kids in the world in need of a good mom.”
“That’s really great.”
“Mhm.”
A singular firework lights the sky. Dylan looks up. “Okay, five-minute warning. I have something I want to do.”
“What’s that?”
He climbs off me and arranges my arms so they’re above my head. One hand under my head with the other arm stretched out. He keeps my legs mostly the same way—one bent but dropped to the side and the other stretched out.
