“Best friends!”
Alexei is having none of that.
“Is not true!Iam Ethan’s best friend. You are only his boyfriend. No upgrades allowed.”
Jamie starts laughing so hard I worry he’ll fall off his chair, while Sutter and Matthews are stunned. Mac, meanwhile, is still quietly eating hummus at the end of the table. Looking at them, Alexei seems to realize his error.
“Sorry. That is, uh, not true? Definitely a joke?”
He cringes.
That’s enough for the rest of us to join in Jamie’s laughter.
Mac looks at Jamie.
“I guess you didn’t need me to talk to Cap after all?”
I’m not sure I understand what he’s getting at, but Jamie’s blush suggests he does.
“At the time? I probably did. But we worked things out pretty quickly after that.”
Matty is intrigued by this.
“So how long has this been going on?”
Sutter's forehead wrinkles in thought.
“I mean, definitelynotduring preseason. Right?”
Matty jumps in.
“Butabsolutelyby New Year’s.”
Sutter looks like he wants to argue.
“But then what about February?”
The two stop arguing with each other and then turn at the same time, staring at us.
“I guess…November?” Jamie starts, although he has a good point – given the casual start of our relationship, it’s hard to pinpoint an exact date.
“And by Christmas, it was…serious.” He looks at me as I say this, a small smile curving the side of his mouth.
“Yeah, it was. Maybe, uh,tooserious, given how little we’d talked about it.”
“Which is why it kind of fell apart for a bit.”
Deciding this is a safe place to take a risk, I reach over and grab hold of Jamie’s hand. Sutter’s eyes widen at this, but I notice Mac looks…concerned.
“What if it happens again?”
I wish I could pretend I don’t know what he’s asking, but I do.What if it falls apart again?
The fact is, it might. We’re still talking through things, making sure we’re on stable ground. And we’re still not telling everyone – when we do, that will bring its own problems. But right now, I know we’re fighting on the same side, and I hope we can keep that up.
“Well, hopefully we’ll have good friends to talk it over with and help us not bring it onto the ice.”
He nods thoughtfully.
