It was on the tip of my tongue to apologize for bursting into his apartment like this, practically demanding that he service me. Call me selfish, but I wasn’t going to. I didn’t regret last night, and I didn’t want to know if he regretted it.
We’d showered last night, but we also spent the night having sex. I didn’t know how many more hints he could drop that I needed to get off my ass and out of his apartment, but I wasn’t taking the bait.
“I’m sorry,” I said instead.
I didn’t elaborate. I didn’t even know what I was sorry for. How things ended maybe? Sorry that my career was in the way of our happiness. Sorry, but I didn’t know how we could fix it, how we could get around it. I would let him think that I was sorry for showing up.
“It’s fine,” he said. “I double-checked my schedule, and I’m actually not assigned to any of your games for the rest of the season. They kind of started me and the crew off slower. So next year I’ll probably have more.”
“That would make sense.” The longer he was in the league, the more I would see him as an official for my games. This year he wouldn’t be chosen for the playoffs in a few weeks, even though he was more than ready for it. But eventually he would be on the crew that did the post-season. He was that good. I had no doubt he would climb the ranks within the organization.
“Are you getting along with your new crew?” I asked.
“Yeah. They’re great.”
“Great.”
We were quiet for a moment. Silas didn’t move and neither did I. The real world was out there, waiting to disrupt the cocoon we found ourselves in. We were stuck in a moment where the outside pressure didn’t exist and we could just be together. Inhere, there was no rule book telling us that we couldn’t be together.
The chime of my cell phone broke the spell, blasting through the veil we had around us.
I got out of bed. I forced myself out and into the shower. Eventually I dressed. I didn’t have much in the way of clothes. It looked like Silas had found some of my random clothes I had left here. I would at least look put together enough to go out in public so I could return to my place and get my clothes.
When I went into the kitchen, it was like nothing had changed. The place looked exactly as I had left it, except where my regular mug usually sat was a generic one. Silas still used his zebra mug that I had bought him for Christmas years ago.
Zebra jokes were easy when your partner was an official. Couldn’t get enough of them, even though Silas thought the jokes were lazy.
“I can’t believe you called tripping on me last night.”
He snorted. “Honestly, I’m surprised you didn’t bring that up sooner.”
“How’d you even see that anyways? It’s not like I did it on purpose.”
“Oh, you absolutely did it on purpose. I didn’t even have to review the tape to see that.”
“Why were you looking at me? You were on the other side of the ice.”
“Why did you know where I was? You should have been focused on the puck.”
I didn’t have an answer for that. He wasn’t wrong. I shouldn’t even care where the officials were, except to avoid hitting them. Yet at any point last night, I would have been able to find Silas.
Luckily, he took pity on me and didn’t make me admit that.
“You know I love to watch you play. You’re magnetic out there. You always have been. That pass from Evan in the second period… That was amazing. I didn’t think you were going to get it, but you did and you scored.”
“Well, I almost missed it. That was a lucky shot. I was half a second off. Any other goalie worth a grain of salt would have stopped it.”
Silas shrugged. “Pohl has his moments. He’s still a rookie, but he’s skilled. How do you feel about playoffs this year?”
“It’s crazy. I think we’ve really got a shot.” The conversation flowed easily for us. Like old times when we would discuss my games, review them, or watch the other games together.
Silas took a sip of his water. He didn’t comment either way. He had to know we were going to the playoffs. We were unstoppable.
“I should get going. I’m sure you’ve got work to do or something. And I’ve got a plane to catch. I’m sor—”
“Don’t fucking apologize, Elliot. Please.”
“I just—”
