That's not really my department. But I did get to watch the X-ray. It was in his esophagus, very shiny, very stupid.
Bernard
I once swallowed a piece of a mouth guard during a game and didn't tell anyone for three days.
Me
Bernard.
Bernard
It came out on its own!
Me
I'm choosing not to respond to that.
It shifts again.
Bernard
I've been thinking about the next lesson.
And that halts me right the hell in my tracks, nipples hard in the living room, grateful for the curtains.
Me
Oh?
Bernard
Yeah. I have a day off when I get back… If you want.
How could I want anything more than kisses with him again? Those sweet touches and shivers… Except I shouldn’t want that at all, and he’s just doing me a favor to prepare me for the ultimate goal: my own man. Separate from the world of hockey. And yet…
Me
I want.
A pause. Dots appearing, disappearing.
Bernard
Good.
That single word sits on my screen and heats me from the inside. I press the phone against my chest and stare at the curtains, think about Bernard’s hands on my collarbone and his mouth on mine, and worry that I don’t just want to have sex with “a” man to savor that experience.
I’m worried, I want to have sex with that man. Specifically.
Not good.
Aarthi catches me smiling at my phone during a lull and hip-checks me against the nurses' station.
"Who is he?"
"Nobody."
"Nobody is making you grin like a concussed person in a dark hallway? Spill."
