“What you don’t leave on the ice you make up for off the ice,” I say.
“Bitch,” she teases. “But tell me, Tay.”
“About what?”
“Anything, everything? I feel like I didn’t get to know you well during college, and now we’re on opposite sides of the ice.”
“And the country,” I say.
“Exactly, and the country,” Kenz points at her with her fork. “Tell me something I don’t know.”
“My therapist thinks I have ADHD,” she says.
Now, that doesn’t seem like a shock to me. “This is the first time you’re finding out?” Kenz asks and Taylor nods.
“Next session we’re doing a test, but she thinks it's ADHD because of how I deal with change and how I would go for walks in high school instead of staying in class, despite getting decent grades.“
“It makes sense,” I say. “Blake got diagnosed because he couldn’t sit still, right?”
Kenz nods.
“I didn’t, but that’s because I’m the better twin,” she says. “He’d argue that his ADHD makes him a better skater, but that’s just bullshit; he keeps pushing me down in our races.”
I try to steer the conversation back to Taylor, who seems fascinated at the thought. “That’s good though; it’s always better to know.”
“Yeah, and it’s already put some things in perspective.”
“Like the coffee thing?” I ask, and her jaw drops. She looks like the world has shifted underneath her.
“Is that an ADHD thing?”
I shrug. “Sometimes.”
Kenz nods. “If Blake has coffee, he’s out like a light. Something about the way his dopamine receptors interact with caffeine. It’s really fun when you don’t want to talk to him.”
“That’s mean,” I smack her thigh.
She rolls her eyes, sighing. “It was more fun when we were in high school.”
“So, the ADHD thing makes sense?” Taylor interrupts, looking like her world has been taken out from beneath her feet.
I shrug, “Not to be stereotypical, but you’re a pro hockey player in your late twenties and you drink coffee at night to calm down. It’s plausible.”
She leans back in the booth, and I can practically see the steam coming out of her ears from her brain working overtime. “Oh.”
Kenz shrugs. “I can’t wait for any more discoveries we’ll have tonight.”
She turns to me, and my cheeks burn under her gaze. I do want to get drunk enough to feel free and make out with a person. We’re still pretty obscure for the most part. If we’re not wearing our jerseys, then people don’t notice us.
“Wonderful,” Taylor mutters, but there’s a small smile on her face. She wants to go out as much as both of us. Brynn’s mentioned how they love dancing together from time to time. She catches my eye, and I try not to get lost in the green pools. She smiles, hesitantly, as if afraid to let it grow and show us that she enjoys being around us.
“It’ll be fun!” Kenz says. “It’s one of the hottest bars around, trust me!”
Twenty
Eloise
“You said trust me?” Taylor asks Kenz incredulously as we stand at the bar, trying to avoid getting stepped on by the burlesque dancer who was shaking her ass in front of us. Or above us. I have to make sure that my jaw doesn’t drop when she glides around us, slowly showing us more and more of herself behind the feathered fan. I stop myself from swallowing my tongue.
