He’d come to me when he first started getting brave enough to date, and how many times he’d taken women out and they got weird with him, liketrying to feed him and holding his arm like he was a hundred and four with bad knees and talking in loud voices like blind meant deaf.
“Anyway, after that one dickhead punched me, I backed off dating internet strangers for a while. But then I got a message from this guy. Hunter.” It was hard to say his name right now. “He seemed really nice.”
“They always do.”
I swallowed heavily. “It was a bad date from start to finish. I left right after dinner, but he convinced me to give it another shot. I was…I don’t know, lonely, I guess. Bodie, and Tucker, and Ford were all falling in love, and it was making me feel like some kind of loser.”
Jonah laughed. “Yeah. I know that feeling too.”
I managed a smile, though I didn’t really feel like smiling. “I knew it was a bad idea. He was weird the second he picked me up. He was nice through dinner, and he invited me to his place. I thought maybe he really was having a bad night that first time. But then he got pushy, and I got freaked-out and kind of…froze? I started panic-explaining why I couldn’t get it up and somehow babbled the truth, and at first, I thought he was listening…”
“But he wasn’t,” Jonah offered darkly.
Swallowing heavily, I fought back a tense laugh. “No. He was hiding a laugh. I felt like a freak all over again, and I tried to leave, but he pinned me down and wouldn’t let me go.”
“Jesus, fuck. I am going to kill him,” Jonah spat.
This time, I snorted. “Yeah. You’ll have to get in line because you’re not the only one who wants that.” I leaned back on my hands. “He didn’t actually manage to hurt me though. Once I was able to collect myself, I got dressed, told him to fuck off and never talk to me again.”
“Not to be a dick,” Jonah said carefully, “but how did all that lead to all this? I mean, you didn’t go out with him again, did you?”
Biting my lip, I took a cleansing breath, then said, “Fuck no. And for a few months, I thought he was willing to respect me. But it didn’t last. He started stalking me right around the time that Mom left.”
Jonah shifted. “Sorry,what? He wasstalkingyou?”
I passed a hand down my face. “Yeah. It was silly bullshit at first. Accidentally running into me at the market, texting me and pretending like he was trying to message someone else, then trying to start a conversation. When I blocked his number, he got a burner, and it kept going.” I dug my fingers into the grass until I felt dirt. “Then the threats started. He said he had a video of me when I was naked and crying about my limp dick. He kept saying that if I didn’t give him what he wanted, he’d release it to the public.”
“Oh, what the fuck,” Jonah breathed.
I grimaced. “I didn’t give in, obviously, but he got more…persistent. I thought maybe if I waited it out, he’d get bored and stop texting, but then he, ah…he showed up at the club the boys and I were at after our last game in New York.”
Jonah sucked in a breath. “Are you serious? Did he hurt you?”
“Mm, no. It freaked me out. Badly. But Vanya was there with me. The Glaciers had a game that night too, and he ran Hunter off.”
“Thank fuck. But obviously, it didn’t stop.”
“No,” I whispered. “It got worse. He pretended to be an Uber driver to try and pick me up after a game. Twice. Vanya was there for those too.”
“Holy shit. I can’t believe Vanya didn’t tell Alexio about that shit!”
“I asked him not to,” I confessed. “I thought if I kept ignoring it, he’d go away.”
“Oh my god. You are smarter than that, Micah! You know guys like him don’t?—”
“I know,” I snapped, more harshly than he deserved because he was right. I did know better. I softened. “I know. But I was freaked-out, and I knew if he released the video, I wouldn’t be able to handle it. I can barely handle life right now as it is. I didn’t know how to fix it without ruining everything.”
Jonah was quiet for a while. I heard him shift a few times, heard a few bits of grass being pulled from the ground. Then he took a breath. “Why didn’t you tellme? Not just about this guy, but about the other stuff too? Every time I made jokes about you…every time I told people you were, well, not the way you are, why didn’t you correct me?”
I bit my lip hard enough that it stung, and then I let it go. “It was easier to let everyone think that.”
“Even me?” He was hurt, and I felt even worse now.
“If I told you the truth,” I answered softly, “you’d want to punch anyone and everyone in the face who called me a slut. You wouldn’t have been able to keep any of it a secret.”
“I…yes. Okay.” Jonah let out the smallest laugh. “You’re probably right.”
“Not probably. You would have fought for my honor, then everyone would have to know that I was some guy who’d only fucked like two people, who couldn’t get hard?—”
