"Can I get you anything?"
"No, I'm good."
His friend turns around. "Hi Rhys, Felix Fornier."
"Hello." I shake his hand.
"Glad Pay Day could convince you to join us."
"Pay Day?" I ask, turning to Duncan.
"There are a lot of nicknames in hockey, and mine is Pay Day."
"But he bestowed it on himself which you're not supposed to do." Another friend says. "I'm Emmett, or E.T.," Felix and Duncan point their fingers out in front of them like that creepy-as-fuck-but-sort-of-cute-alien from the 1980s. "Yeah yeah, phone home." Emmett says with a laugh and an eye roll. He looks at me . "Thatnevergets old."
"I bet."
"Has Duncan given you a nickname yet?" Felix asks as the other guys sort of break off and head across the room to talk to their dates.
I try not to shift on my feet or, for fucks sake, blush, but hearing Duncan's rough voice calling me Charming is the only sound in my head. "Umm."
"I think I need to spend more time with my new friend before I give him a nickname." Duncan says.
"But you gave Aiden one on his first day in the locker room?" Emmett challenges.
"Well, yeah, but Cap here was insistent on getting him involved with the team." Duncan throwsa thumb and Felix.
"We have a rookie this year, Paulie. But he might get sent back down to the minors next month." Felix tells me like I understand what they're talking about.
"I see." But really I don't.
"We're boring you with hockey talk." Felix says before he turns to me. "How have you been enjoying D.C. so far? Do you head home to Nashville often?"
"Not too much lately. D.C. has been great. I haven't gone out and done much because work at Elliston keeps me busy but it's beautiful. Historic in a way Nashville isn't."
"Are you into history?" Emmett asks.
"He grew up in this ancient castle, you should see the place." Duncan chimes in and starts gesturing wildly with his hands. "A gigantic marble staircase and like multiple kitchens and rooms just for eating."
Glaring at Duncan, I try to cut off his words but I’m too late. I can see questions forming in Felix’s eyes.
"How interesting." Felix says to me but he keeps his eyes on Duncan. "Is your home still a home or has it been turned into an event space?"
"It's still a home, my parents live there." I turn back to Emmett, "And, yeah, I am into history. But mostly in a way that proves everything has happened before in a different time period."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, like all of today's great movies and shows could all be derived from Shakespeare or Jane Austen. I mean, maybe not all of them, but a lot of them. We're at a point in history where everything is a retelling."
The boys are quiet for a minute and the flush of embarrassment returns except instead of letting conversation fall flat because I don't know how to open up to people I have opened way too far up and they're freaked out.
Shit.
"That is fascinating." Emmett says. "My grandmother,"
"G.T. for Grandma Turner," Duncan tacks on.
"Yes, G.T., well she's a former MIT physics professor and she was involved in some new discoveries but she always harped on the foundational discoveries. She has all these old textbooks from when she was in high school and they're her most trusted references."
