Page 100 of Wingmen

“Shut up!” Elliot kicked him.

“You know what’s actually hilarious? I’m pretty sureyourInstagram turned me bi.”

Elliot narrowed his eyes. “So you’re saying we’re tied.”

Dustin laughed. “Probably don’t need to turn that into a competition – who can thirst trap the most hockey players and turn them queer next season.”

“Why not? Because you’re gonna lose, Abuelo?”

Dustin pinched his toe. “Alright,easy, Amigo.”

Elliot’s chest squeezed. He closed his eyes and felt the warmth of the sun on his face, and for the first time since July, he thought,This. This is how it’s supposed to be.

Then, suddenly, Dustin sat up.

“Ohshit!”

Elliot opened his eyes. “What?”

“Shit shit!” He threw Elliot’s feet out of his lap and jumped off the couch.

“What?”

Dustin shoved his hands into his hair and looked at him. “We’re supposed to be driving Jordan to the airport!”

They madeit to the airport in the literal nick of time. Jordan said a hurried goodbye and told Elliot to call him if he needed anything, and Dustin told Jordan that Elliot wasn’t in charge. Jordan hugged both of them, and although he didn’t say anything, Elliot wassurehe knew exactly what was going on. Weirdly, he wasn’t worried about it – weirdly, it was nice.

His phone buzzed as they pulled onto the highway. He tapped it open to a call from Reef. His stomach turned over as he remembered the text, and he put the phone to his ear.

“Hey Reef.”

“Brooo.”

“How’s it going?”

“Training. Crushing. When you coming back to Tampa?”

Elliot sighed and looked out the window. He hadn’t even thought about it. “Couple weeks.”

“Cool, cool. Miss you dog. Ready to get back on the ice.”

“Yeah. Same.”

“You see about this queer thing?”

Elliot’s heart jolted. He looked over at Dustin. “What?”

“They’re making us all do fag training because of Arsenault – same thing we had to do rookie year, except now we have to do it every year, or six months or some shit. Because we’re all supposed to be holding hands in the locker room and sucking each other’s dicks, I guess.”

Elliot sat with the phone to his ear, staring at Dustin.

“Fucking unbelievable,” said Reef.

Dustin, frowning at him, mouthed,What?Elliot couldn’t speak. Reef had knocked the wind out of him, and all he could think about was the day he’d said that word to Dustin in the locker room, and the look on Dustin’s face when he did.

Dustin checked the road and looked back, and held out his hand. Elliot frowned at it.

“Give me the phone,” said Dustin. Numbly, Elliot handed it over, and Dustin put it to his ear. “Reef? Yeah, Dustin Bennet. What’s going on?”