“Yeah?” Theo smacks my ass. “Where would you take me?”
“Where haven’t you been?” I roll to the side to look at him, but he puts me back on top of him. “This is your favorite sleeping position, for real.” I fold my hands on his chest to rest my chin on so our eyes meet.
“You’re not wrong.” He glances around my bedroom. “How come you don’t have a bigger bed? The room is big enough.”
I kiss his pec. “Old house and old heat registers. There’s no place to position a queen bed that doesn’t cover the heating vent. I said I didn’t care, but my mom made me sleep a few winter nights with this bed over the register. It gets ka-ka-old.”
“I’ll keep you warm now.” Theo pulls the comforter up to my shoulders.
“You’re like my personal furnace.” My voice is dreamy, as if giving him the highest compliment. I guess deep down, I do like cuddling with him. “Should we talk now or later?”
Theo tenses under me. “What’s there to talk about?”
“Hmmm, maybe that my biological father, your stepdad, outed us and sold our picture to the media. You know, the usual betrayal.” I don’t mention him saying he’s broken. One thing at a time.
“I’ll need food for that conversation.”
Three hours later, after sex, a shower, a huge breakfast, and phone calls, we’re on the couch. Tyrone and Jada video called me, I texted with Nevaeh, and Theo caught up with Sarah. Socials are a cesspool, and we delete our social media apps. We decide that anything on live TV with current news is too risky to watch, so we choose a replay of a hockey game.
This time I’m on the bottom and Theo’s laid out on top of me. “Maybe this is the best sleeping position.” He flashes me a grin.
“You let me know.” I run my fingers through his silky hair. We watch the end of the game, and another starts right after it. I’m content to do nothing with him. My anxiety comes outta nowhere, trying to take my peace. I accept the overwhelming fear of the unknown but ground myself with Theo. He’s my personal weighted blanket, so I stay present in the moment.
“Can we boycott the real world?”
“Depends on how long.” I hug him around the waist.
“A single perfect day of being with you,” he says wistfully.
“There’s no such thing as perfect in the moment. Only when you look back do you realize it was perfect. If you had the choice to do anything in the world today, what would you do?” I lean up and kiss his forehead.
We stop talking to watch the game, and I’ve forgotten I asked him a question until he answers.
“I get twenty-four hours, and we don’t have to worry about sleep.” He props his head on his hand. “We wake up in bed in our own place with no calls or texts. We’d flip-fuck for hours until we need food that’s delivered to our door. This is stupid, but I’d love to be on the ice with you. Just us, a couple of sticks, a puck, and goals. We rarely get to play together for more than a minute or two at a time. We could have hours. Hockey rinks have always been a safe space for me.”
I don’t want him to see how much that hurts my heart. Theo’s desires are so simple, yet he believes they are out of his reach. His picture would be in the dictionary next to lonely, rich kid. “What else?” I encourage him.
“Dinner at this place in Boston where they have the absolute best lobster. We could go to dinner together, and no one would care.” His chest heaves.
“It sounds amazing.” If I could protect this man from theworld, I would.
“Your turn,” he whispers.
He’s put his heart out for me, and I need to step up. “You’ve changed my idea of a perfect day,” I say, and his green eyes cloud with uncertainty. “I would’ve said winning The Cup or MVP or getting named to the All-Star team. But those things don’t matter if you can’t share them with anyone.” My dark finger runs across his pink bottom lip.
“Before you, I never thought anyone would choose me,” I whisper.
Theo huffs, about to interrupt me, but I continue. “Not like I’m a bad person, but who in their right mind would choose the scrutiny and hate from strangers?”
He nods with understanding. “I get that.”
“But we found each other, and all the things I wanted for myself, I want for you. A perfect day would be like this. Just us in our little bubble with no outside interference.” It’s a truth I hadn’t even thought about until now.
Theo’s eyes shining down on me is my reward. “Some of those things we can do together, like winning The Cup and being All-Stars, but there’s only one MVP, and you would deserve it more.”
I wind my body around his. “That’s not how that works.”
Theo playfully rolls his eyes. “It’s as much a popularity contest as skill. It’s fine. I would rather people respect me than like me.”
