“You wanna tell me about him?”
Blake’s face quickly returns to the default, his smile gone. “I can’t. He’s… I can’t, really.”
Fellow player, then.
Elliot nods, because he gets it. He shouldn’t have asked in the first place.
#
Blake’s summer begins the way it’s begun for the past couple of years, with a playoff loss.
He sticks around for a while, because he doesn’t have anywhere to go back to, other than the house in Norwalk that’s technically Evan’s now. He meets Elliot in the city a few times, but it doesn’t quite chase away the emptiness in the pit of his stomach.
It’s about to get worse, because the day after the Mariners have cleaned out their lockers after a third round loss, Noah calls him and asks him if they can talk. Blake says yes, offers to come over, but Noah insists that, no, he’ll come to Blake’s. Probably so Blake won’t have to drive home after Noah breaks things off with him.
Because that’s definitely where this is headed. No one asks to talk to you in person for any other reason.
Blake’s suspicion is pretty much confirmed when Noah shows up with a bag from Blake’s favorite bakery.
“Noah,” Blake says when Noah gives him a hug before he shuffles into Blake’s apartment.
“Yeah?”
“You don’t have to pretend that I don’t already know what this is about.”
“What gave it away?” Noah asks.
“Mostly that you asked if we could talk.”
Noah sighs. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. This doesn’t work for you anymore. I get it, honestly. Don’t even… Don’t worry about it.” Blake gives him a nudge. “We had a good time.”
Noah grins at him. “We sure did.” He puts down the bag with the baked goods on Blake’s coffee table and sits down next to Angus. “Sup, dude.”
Angus eyes him with suspicion.
“I should explain,” Noah says.
“You don’t have to.”
“I’ll feel better if I do, though? I know this isn’t really about me feeling better, but can I?”
Blake nods, sits down next to him.
“I know we said that we’d keep feelings out of this and that you and I were gonna be strictly professional or whatever, but maybe I had a few feelings along the way and… Anyway. I was sad, but that’s beside the point. So I met this guy. He’s… a piece of work, but I really like him. And, like, we were never exclusive, but I can’t do this with you and like him at the same time. It wouldn’t seem fair to anyone.”
“You never said–”
“Blake, let me stop you right there,” Noah says, hand on Blake’s knee. “If I’d told you about whatever feelings I was having, what do you think you would have done? Asked me to be your boyfriend? I think the fuck not. Because you’re still hung up on Elliot Cowell, and that’s okay, I knew that from the start, so we’re all good here.”
“I’m not hung up on Elliot.”
“Really? When you think of him, don’t you get all warm and fuzzy inside?”
“I…” Blake thinks about Elliot, about seeing him the other week, about Elliot dragging him to the Empire State Building like they’re tourists, not even letting Blake pay for the ticket, and what he’s feeling is not warm and fuzzy. Maybe warm. Definitely not fuzzy.
“Yeah,” Noah says. “So you see why I never said anything. I’m not him.”
Blake remains silent. He’s not in love with Elliot. It’s been six years. He wasn’t in love with him six years ago either. He was eighteen, for fuck’s sake. He didn’t know what love even is. He still doesn’t.
“We’ll still be friends, yeah?” Blake eventually asks.
“Dude, you’re never getting rid of me,” Noah says.
Noah definitely means that.
He still texts him afterwards, the exact same amount of silly shit that Blake is used to receiving from him.
Blake eventually goes back to Norwalk to help Evan sort through what’s left at the house and donate some of the things they won’t need anymore. They meet with way too many lawyers to sort out who owns what, at the end of which he isn’t in the mood to deal with his contract negotiations, even though his agent will do most of the work.
If he doesn’t re-sign with the Knights, he’ll be a free agent in July, except he’d rather stay in Newark for the rest of his career, although a part of him, the smallest, tiniest part, wonders if the Cardinals might be interested. If he could play in Connecticut, the way he always wanted to.
He doesn’t even tell his agent about it.
He inks a contract with the Knights in the end. Five years, five and a half million AAV. They work in a no-trade clause and he gets to hand in a list of teams that he wouldn’t mind getting traded to. He puts the Cardinals on the list.
He goes on vacation with Evan. Warm and sunny, lots of days at the beach, cocktails, not a lot of talking. Just for a week, otherwise they’d kill each other.
He returns to Newark with Angus and Squid and his apartment is the same it was before. He agrees to put in a few appearances at the Little Knights camp while he’s in town. He makes an Instagram account for Angus and Squid when he doesn’t know what to do with himself. He watches Elliot win the Lady Byng trophy on TV, two cats judging him as he shoves chips into his mouth and drinks too much beer.
Since he has nothing better to do, he keeps an eye on the Draft and on the free agency madness that follows. It’s more entertaining when you’re not involved.
Charlie Trainor, previously a D-man for the LA Lions, ends up signing with the Knights. It’s a big one. Trainor was one of the
