“Right,” he says dryly. “Justhooking up.”
“That’s all it is,” I insist as the hockey stream countdown finally ends, and the feed switches to players doing their warm-ups.
“Mmmhmm,” he hums, his eyes on the screen. “Because bringing food to the class you have with your hookup to make sure they’re eating is a totally normal thing.”
“We were working on a project together,” I remind him. “He was making sure I wasn’t dead weight.”
“But your project was over weeks ago,” he points out.
“He’s Italian.” I shrug. “He told me that feeding people is what his family does. Besides, he has other reasons for making sure I have energy,” I quip, hoping that will make Damon drop this ridiculousness.
“You’re exclusive,” he says, obviously not dropping it.
“You can be exclusive and still be casual.”
He laughs. “No you can’t. Being exclusive is the opposite of casual.”
“Not when it’s for safety reasons,” I point out. “This way we don’t have to worry about protection.”
“You literally told me he said he doesn’t share when he told you he wanted you to be exclusive.”
“He’s an only child,” I say, like that explains everything.
“And the sleepovers?”
“Convenience,” I say dismissively. “Especially when he comes over after his games. It’s really late by the time we’re done.”
“Uh huh.” He tilts his head to get a better angle of the players doing their hip openers. “And the whole role-play mask thing?”
“What about it?” I shoot him a quick look. “Are we doing a kink-off, because I’m pretty sure you’re still way kinkier than me.”
“Probably.” He tosses me a grin. “But no kink-off. I’m just saying that as someone who does that kind of intense role-play with someone, you can’t do that without trust. Even if you know it’s him under the mask, and you know how and when he’s going to sneak into your room, you still need to trust him to submit to him.”
“You’re not wrong,” I admit. “But we’re friends. I trust him as Anthony, so I trust him as Mr. X.”
“How long has this been going on?” he asks. The camera pauses on Anthony and the twins while they stretch and chat and look way too damn hot for their own good.
“The Mr. X thing?”
“We really need to come up with a new name for his alter ego because all I see when you call him that is a cartoon Anthony in leather pants and a mask with a giant X on his chest standing in a superhero pose.”
I snicker at the visual. “I mean, I’d watch six seasons and a movie of whatever he’s in.”
“Same,” Damon agrees with a chuckle. “And I mean this with all the respect in the world, but Jesus Christ, Anthony’s hips should come with a warning label.” He tilts his head to the side and leans closer. “Bravo to you, because damn.”
“Do I need to tell Xave you’re drooling over my situationship?”
“Ah, I see he’s graduated from fuck buddy to situationship.” He smirks.
“You made some good points,” I admit. “We’re friends, but this thing has a timeline, so I’d say that qualifies as a situationship.”
“What about when he dragged you into that empty classroom before your presentation?” he asks, his eyes fixed on Anthony and the twins as the camera zooms in on them and gives us an even better view of their stretches.
“What about it?”
“That doesn’t seem like something a situationship would do.”
“He wanted to calm me down so I didn’t fuck up our presentation.”
