Page 55 of Two for Roughing

“The Sea Lions would never all party together. Maybe, like, four of us hit the clubs together every couple months, but the whole team? Or even most of it? Nope.”

“Can’t picture Tom Crowler dancing,” Damir agreed.

Kilian barked out a laugh. “No, Tom’s, uh…not into going out. More of a homebody.”

“But you had a bunch of young guys, didn’t you? Bet Mazetti cleans up. What girl isn’t going home with him?” Ketchup said it in tones of jealousy, as if he hadn’t described his own extensive hookup history mere minutes ago.

“Luca does well for himself.” Kilian scoffed, looking out the window. “But he doesn’t need a nightclub. He could meet a girl at the airport and take her home. I think he got sick of it though. He hasn’t been doing much tail-chasing this year.”

“Sick of hooking up?” Ketchup’s tone indicated this was an unimaginable fate.

“It only takes one venereal disease to put a man off it forever,” Damir intoned, though he wasn’t sure that was true. Rocky had had two so far, and it hadn’t slowed him down any.

Ketchup twisted in the passenger seat to look at Damir, pushing his seatbelt down so far as to be useless. “Is that what happened to you?”

Kilian laughed instantly and loudly.

Ketchup contorted himself further to look at the back seat. “What?”

“Look at him. He could get whoever he wanted with or without an STD.”

Damir’s eyebrows shot up before he could school his facial expression into neutrality. He drew to a halt at a red light and peeked into the mirror again. Kilian had gone blotchy red all up his neck and into his cheeks, too cute for his own good. Damir should probably work up some consternation at how bad Kilian was at pretending to be straight, especially given it implicated him as well. But after Kilian’s summary rejection of continuing their…whatever, now they were on the same team, hearing his continued attraction soothed Damir’s bruised ego.

Heedless of what Kilian had admitted, Ketchup guffawed. “Hear that, bro? Howie thinks you can score even with your diseased dick.”

“It’s not diseased,” Damir muttered, knowing it was futile as he said it.

“I’m picturing boils. Big, pus-filled boils. Think you can get a girl to suck the pus right out—”

“Gross.” Kilian wrinkled his nose. “Please stop.”

“Bet she’d be like, oh, Denny, I want your pus, give it to me—”

The light turned green. Damir stalled out and cursed as the driver behind him honked loudly while he restarted the motor.

Ketchup laughed.

“I won’t cook you dinner if you keep going.”

That shut him right up.

“I forgot you cook,” Kilian said.

Damir grunted instead of reminding Kilian he had once watched as Damir prepped an entire meal while edging him at the same time. Ketchup might be as oblivious as they came, but he’d notice something if Damir reminded Kilian of that incident.

“What’s on the menu tonight?” Ketchup asked. “And can it be something with pasta?”

“You want the first meal I cook for Kilian to be the thing you can eat literally every day at the practice rink?” Damir scoffed. The week had been too crowded with practice and games to show off his cooking skills. A small part of him was insulted enough by Kilian’s sex embargo that he’d avoided cooking on Friday, claiming his need to go to the mosque as an excuse. Damir could admit he was being childish, and since today’s game had been a matinee, he had plenty of time and no excuses. Also, he owed Kilian for canceling a fun night out using reason and logic. “Absolutely not. We’re having chebureki.”

“Chebu what now?”

“Dough with meat in it.” The descriptor covered a good 70 percent of Damir’s favorite Tatar foods. He rarely made them because, while delicious, they were not on the meal plan. Today was a special occasion.

He’d never cooked for a lover before.

Not that Kilian was his lover.

But he’d wanted to cook for him last time, after their tryst in Kilian’s apartment. He’d been cookblocked by Kilian’s utter lack of supplies. This was a remedial meal. Or a welcome to Chicago. Or something. Damir could cook whatever he wanted for whomever he wanted, and they could all shut up and be thankful for it.