Page 79 of Wingmen

“You’ll pay me back. When your lesbian clam show gets picked up by HBO you’re gonna be making bank.”

She laughed.

“And you could get a tutor. Right?” He searched her face. “I can pay for that. To learn the…whatever it is. Fish stuff.”

She pinched her face into her hand and sat there, rubbing it. “I don’t know.”

Elliot put his hand on her knee. It was the first time he’d ever done that to a person, and it felt weirdly powerful. Not powerful, maybe, just…adult? “I only know one other person in the world who loves hockey as much as me,” he said. “And I think you might love clams as much as he loves hockey. Which is alot. So if you didn’t get to do that anymore, it would be really fucking sad.”

Fuck. Now he was thinking about Dustin again.

Drew laughed tiredly, and laced her hand through his. She studied his face, anxiously, for a long time. “Are you sure?”

“Yes. Very. I’m so tired of feeling like an asshole in this expensive hotel room.”

“Alright,” she sighed. “Alright. Fine. Give me your money.”

He smiled and squeezed her hand.

“Thank you.” She let go, and he could feel her watching his face as he stared at the floor. He was trying to stay in the room but suddenly all he could think about was Dustin. What was he doing? Was he okay?

Drew brushed the hair off his forehead. “Maybe you should call him.”

“Ay…” Elliot sighed. “Okay.”

As she got up, he watched her and said, “You know I thought you were, like, The One.” She laughed. “It’s not crazy though, right? We had a nice time.”

“Yeah.” She sighed. “I guess I’m pretty bummed about it, honestly. You’re sohot.”

“I thought we were…” Ay, embarrassing. “I thought I was in love.”

She was at the door, and tilted her head like that made her sad. “That’s sweet. I’m really sorry you weren’t.”

“So what was it?”

“I think…” She considered. “I think what happened is you made a friend, bud. And maybe it was just a different kind of friend than you’re used to.”

“So are we friends?”

“I think so. Give me some time to get over how hot you are, but…yeah.If–” She put up one finger and fixed him with a firm look. “If you stop saying dumb shit like all women are the same and all they do is tell you you’re wrong. Because, come on. You know that’s not okay.” He sighed, and she added, “Right?”

“Sí. Okay. I won’t say that stuff.”

“To me oranyone,” she said. “Because if that’s the shit you’ll say in front of me, I can’t imagine what you’re saying in the fucking locker room.”

“Yeah, okay. You’re right, it’s…much worse in there.” He braced his elbows on his knees, turning over his hands in his lap. “So we can go bowling?”

She laughed again. “Yeah, let me know next time you feel like getting your ass kicked, bro.”

“Bro?I don’t know if I’m gonna be calling you that.”

“Why not? I actually always thought it might be kind of fun if someone called me bro. But no one ever does.”

Elliot almost laughed. But she hadn’t laughed at him when he’d said the hardest thing he’d ever said in his life. So he said, “Alright …bro.”

She winced. “Ugh, it’s weird.”

“It is weird.” He nodded. “But so was getting a dick in the ass the first time, and I’ll probably do that again.”