Page 102 of Interference

He caught my eye, and he was instantly blushing. We both looked away.

“Sorry,” he muttered. “I’m… Just trying out a new app, and…”

I forced a laugh. “You don’t have to explain yourself.”

“I should probably mute the notification sounds, though.” He made a face. “I don’t need this thing going off in the locker room.” He furrowed his brow at the screen. “How the fuck do I do that, anyway?”

“Go into Settings. The icon should be in the…” I thought about it. “Upper right, I think? You can turn it to vibrate or silent.”

Anthony peered at his phone and tapped the screen. “Ah. Okay. Here.” He tapped a couple more times. “There.” With a self-conscious laugh, he added, “Now my teammates won’t hear me being a clueless dumbass.”

I cocked a brow. The game had started in the background, but neither of us was paying any attention to what was on the screen. “Clueless?”

Scowling, he nodded. “I feel like my grandpa trying to figure out how to open a PDF.” He squinted his eyes and said in an old man voice, “These darn kids and their newfangled hand computers. Get off my lawn.”

I laughed, but I felt for him. While those apps weren’t difficult to navigate from a technical standpoint once you found all the buttons and functions, they were a pain in the dick to use. So many expectations, so much subtext, so many unwritten rules and cheat codes everyone was supposed to intuit. I’d hated using them, even if they had been a reasonably efficient way to get laid in my old life.

Anthony had been off the market for longer than I’d been out of the game. Dipping his toes in and learning all the new norms had to be intimidating.

Maybe I could…

No. That would just be torturing myself. On the other hand, I’d been desperate for a way to reciprocate everything he’d been doing for me. This would be a tiny, tiny thing, but maybe it would soothe my conscience a little even while it drove my libido insane.

I cleared my throat. “It’s been a while since I’ve used one of the apps.” I gestured at his phone. “But… I could help you set up your profile?”

He met my gaze. “Yeah?”

“Sure. I don’t think there’s really much of a science to it, but sometimes getting an outside opinion…” I wasn’t sure how to finish that. I wasn’t exactly a shining example of hookup app success, so what the fuck did I know?

To my surprise, though, Anthony said, “I’ll take all the help I can get.” He made a frustrated gesture with his phone. “I have no idea what the hell I’m doing.”

I couldn’t put my finger on exactly what emotions were running through me as I slid closer to Anthony on the couch. Dread? Excitement? A mix of frustration and arousal over the impossible fantasy of him directing his horniness at me?

I ignored them all, though, and I gestured for him to show me his screen. “What have you got so far?”

He hesitated, chewing his lip. “I’m thinking I should just delete it and start over.”

“Why’s that?”

He blushed even redder and shook his head. “I’m just… I am so bad at this.” With a self-conscious laugh, he tilted his head back against the couch. “Would you believe I’ve never used a hookup app?”

“You haven’t?”

“Nope. I met my girlfriend in high school, and after her, I hooked up with some people I met in clubs.” He lowered his gaze to the now-darkened phone in his hand. “About the time I was going to make a profile, I met Simon.”

“Oh. Okay, so this is a whole new world for you.”

Anthony nodded.

I nudged him with my elbow. “Hey. It’s nothing to be embarrassed about. You never had the opportunity to use an app.”

“I know. I just… I feel completely clueless.”

“You and everyone else out there.” I tapped his phone. “If you don’t like what you wrote, go ahead and delete it. We can start from scratch.”

He met my gaze, uncertainty written all over his expression. Goddamn, he really was cute, and it was almost funny, seeing this badass hockey player turning shy and nervous about putting himself out there.

Skip the apps, some voice wanted me to suggest. Hook up with me.

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