“N-not that you don’t always look good,” he said, stumbling through his words. “I mean, you actually make everyone else look bad. Not that you don’t make them look good. You’re so…” Chase glanced at Riley, but he looked as lost as Chase.
Cole shifted the focus to himself, one of his strengths, putting an arm around both Chase and Tobias. He was either going to make this better or much worse.
“Tobes, heard you were gonna play in the Philly alumni game,” Cole said, loudly enough for everyone left in the gym to hear. “Did you know Chase is a trained goalie? For soccer, but same idea. You should totally train together. Get Chase to help you shake off all the rust.”
Josh piped up from his spot next to Riley and threw a grenade into their conversation. “It’s so cool how you guys can still be friends even though you dated for so long. None of my exes ever wanted to stick around.”
Even with Cole between them, Chase could sense thetension emanating from Tobias.
“Who dated?” Tobias asked.
“Cole and Chase, in, like, high school,” Josh said, and Tobias paled. “They were cute together, too.”
“Ah. Gotcha.” Tobias glanced at the crowd around him and excused himself. “Go ahead and enter your scores, everyone. See ya tomorrow.”
Without another glance, he walked away toward his office.
“Did I say something wrong?” Josh asked as everyone inputted their scores.
Chase stepped away from the group and quietly made his way toward the office without saying another word.
Tobias’ office door was closed, but he opened it without knocking and entered, shutting the door behind him.
The man was sitting at his desk, pulling his knitting out of a drawer.
Chase quietly sat down in the chair on the other side of the desk, waiting for Tobias to break the silence.
It was taking all his energy not to get his hopes up about Tobias’ reaction.
Was he upset because he was jealous?
Or was it because Cole drove Tobias up the wall, and now Tobias didn’t trust Chase for dating someone like him?
One of those options had him freaking out internallybecause it possibly meant Tobias was attracted to Chase. But the other could doom them before anything even happened.
After a couple minutes of silence followed by everyone outside the office leaving, Chase couldn’t take it anymore.
“Everything okay, boss?”
The clicking of the needles paused, and Tobias stared at them for a long moment, then he continued knitting and said, “Of course everything is okay. Why wouldn’t it be?”
Tobias still wasn’t making eye contact, so Chase leaned forward and folded his arms on the desk.
“You kinda ran out of there pretty quick after hearing I used to date Cole.”
The man continued knitting, focusing on the yarn moving through his needles. Chase was mesmerized watching him, and an image of them cozying up in bed together, Chase with a book and Tobias with his yarn, popped into Chase’s mind.
No. Focus.
Tobias muttered, “I just remembered I had things to do.”
“Yes, I can see thesethingsare quite the priority. You in a rush to finish the blanket?”
Tobias grunted as the needles moved deftly in his hands.
Chase figured he’d give honesty a try.
“Cole and I met at a goalkeeper training camp when both of us were hiding our sexualities. We were each other’s firsts for a lot of things, and we kind of used each other to figure out what we liked and what we didn’t like.”
