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“He’s a dick,” said Jason. “You know that, right?”

“Who?”

“The Russian. Whatever he did.”

“He didn’t do anything.”

“You’ve said that eleven times.”

“Are you counting again?”

“I’m a defenseman, I count things.” He was sprawled across his cot with a slice of pizza, watching me pace the tiny space between the beds. “Lex. You stormed out of that lobby like somebody stole your dog. You haven’t eaten. You’ve cracked your knuckles ten times. And you keep looking at your phone like it owes you money.”

“It’s not about him.”

“Is it about a girl?”

“No.”

“A guy?”

I stopped.

Jason held very still. He’d said it lightly, jokingly, but I saw his eyes go careful, the way they do when he’s afraid of spooking a horse. “Just asking,” he said. “I don’t have a stance. I just want you to know that if there was a guy, you could tell me. I’d be cool. I’d be so cool. I’d be the coolest guy. I’d probably make you a playlist.”

I opened my mouth to lie.

My phone buzzed.

ICE PRINCE: Lex. I am sorry about today. Will you speak to me?

ICE PRINCE: I did not know how to leave her without being rude. I had been instructed by my captain to give her ten minutes. I counted the minutes. It was eleven.

ICE PRINCE: I would prefer to have been standing next to you.

I looked at the screen for a long, long time. My throat did something strange.

LEX: dont worry about it

ICE PRINCE: Are you angry?

LEX: no

LEX: were fuck buddies. u can do what u want

I hit send. I looked at what I’d written. I felt sick.

The dots appeared and stopped and appeared again, and for almost a full minute the little gray bubble pulsed on the screen while I watched it like a man watching a bomb.

ICE PRINCE: I see.

That was all.

I put the phone face down on the blanket. My hands were shaking. Jason was staring at me across the room, chewing his pizza very slowly, the way you do when you’ve just seen something you weren’t supposed to.

“So,” he said, after a while. “Definitely a guy.”

“Shut up.”