Page 16 of Wingmen

The New Guard

Nicolas Arsenault is bisexual. The NHL would prefer he wasn’t.

He read it down. It wasn’t all about Arsenault – it was more about how sports in general kind of sucked at letting people come out. As the first player to ever come out in the NHL, NicArsenault was the focus, but there was also an interview with a skier from Norway called Emma Nilsen, andRiley Webb, which was just, like…

He sent the link to Reef.Did you know about this?

The server came back with his refill, and Elliot said, “Thanks,” without looking. He set the phone down and picked up his sandwich.

The phone buzzed and he leaned over to check it. Reef.

yeah. shit’s been all over X for weeks. Crazy. if I’d known he was a fag I woulda hit him harder on the ice lol

Elliot went numb. He stared through the words as some combination of shock and confusion and nausea sank through him.

Reef said things like that. Reef had always said things like that. Elliot felt like he’d never actually heard it before.

He sent back100, and locked the phone. He stared at the sun on the blinding tablecloth for a long time. Then he finished his cocktail.

The phone buzzed.

Elliot kept his eyes shut and swung his hand at the nightstand to find it. He held it in front of his face and cracked one eye open to read the text.

You seen this?And a link to theVanity Fairthing.

It was Bennet. Elliot sighed and lowered the phone. The room was dark – he had the blackouts pulled across. He hadn’t been able to eat the panini at lunch and he regretted it now. He was fucking starving.

He lifted the phone.Yeah. Weird shit.

Three dots.I don’t know how I missed this. I guess I wasfocused on rehab. Or maybe the story’s just getting more traction

Elliot pursed his lips and didn’t know how to respond. Why was Bennet texting him?

A long minute passed and then the phone buzzed again.Thanks for giving me the gym today, said Bennet.Then:You up to anything tonight?

Elliot narrowed his eyes and read this three times before sending,why

Three dots.There’s a bar at the north end that might be more your speed than Pineapple.

Bennet wanted to tohang out?Again, Elliot sent,why

Three dots. Then nothing. Then three dots.Look amigo, I’m trying to be the bigger man here. If you’re really gonna be in my gym all goddamn summer then maybe we need to practice being in the same room

Elliot scoffed. Bigger man?Olderman, maybe. He sat up and went to the window and pulled back the curtains; the afternoon sun hit him like an open-ice check.

Squinting, he looked down at the phone and sent,its two in the afternoon you wanna start drinking now dog?

I said TONIGHT, idiot

Elliot scowled at Bennet’s previous message. He had said that.

fine, he sent back.when

A long moment before Bennet sent back:seven?

The bar Dustinsent a pin to was called Bernie’s, and it was too far from the hotel to walk. Elliot Ubered there and was deposited outside a place with a Budweiser poster in the window, and the door propped open with a cinder block to letvape smoke and a bass line from 2009 drift out onto the sidewalk.

He stepped inside and immediately liked it more than Pineapple: dark as shit, booths on the left, two pool tables in the back. It reminded him of the place in Miami where Uncle Sal used to take him when he visited.