Page 80 of Good Boy

Together, we make a giant lasagna and then eat it in front of the big-screen TV.

“This is going to be a tough game,” he says when it’s hockey time. “Chicago is a great team, and their best player is all healed up from his injury last year.” He rubs his hands together as they set up for the first face-off. Wes is starting, but Blake is on the second line tonight.

I find myself looking for his face whenever the camera pans the bench. He’s easy to spot—those broad shoulders are unmistakable. And each time his long legs kick over the wall to take the ice, I sit up a little straighter.

The speed of the game is breathtaking. But I wish I was in the arena so I could see him better. The cameraman keeps teasing me with glimpses and then taking Blake away again.

He grabs the puck on a breakaway, and the camera zooms in.

“Come on, dude!” Jamie yells.

I hear myself squeal as he charges the net. Chicago’s d-men get their acts together and try to block his path, but all that muscle on a fast course toward the goal cannot be stopped. The goalie butterflies himself in an attempt to block the shot. But Blake puts the puck right over the guy’s shoulder and into the corner of the net.

“Oh God!” I shriek. “Blakey!”

It’s almost as if he can hear me. He does his signature celly: riding his stick like a pony. Except then he looks up at the camera and blows a kiss.

Jamie and I are jumping up and down on the couch. “A goal in the first five minutes! We’ve got all the momentum,” my brother crows. “Seems like Blake is back!”

My phone is burning a hole in my pocket. I want to text him, to tell him how exciting that was. But he can’t read it for hours anyway.

I can hardly sit still for the rest of the game. Jamie and I drink a six-pack while waiting to find out if Chicago can answer our early lead.

They can’t.

Blake gets an assist, and then Wes gets a goal. I make sure to shriek twice as loud for Wes.

By the time the final buzzer rings, it’s 3–1. Toronto has won. I’m drenched with sweat and tipsy too.

And there’s something I need to admit to myself: I’m now a hopeless hockey fan. But who wouldn’t be? It’s a really exciting game. My sudden interest has absolutely nothing to do with the extra-large-size forward wearing jersey number 17.

When I emerge from the subway near my dorm a half hour later, my phone chirps with a text.

Blake: I blew my girlfriend a kiss. I hope she was watching.

Oh, she was. Great game! I write, stepping right around the issue of the kiss. J and I had a lot of fun watching you guys mow down Chicago.

My phone is silent after that, and I assume the conversation is closed. But twenty minutes later, I’m shutting off my light when the phone chirps again. When I check the screen, the only message is a three-second video of Blake’s hands unzipping his suit trousers. He’s looped it, so those big hands unzip the pants and then unzip them again…

Yikes. I’ve watched it seven times before I even blink.

What to do? My natural impulse is to tease him back. I like Blake, and he’s so sexy I’m practically licking my phone right now. But who is he to insist we’re a couple? Who does that? It’s maddening. He drives me insane.

I wish he were here right now.

With a loud groan, I roll over, face-down on the bed. My ass is in the air, clad in nothing but little cotton panties that happen to say It’s Not Going to Spank Itself. They were a joke from Dyson last Christmas, and since I haven’t done laundry since exams started, they made their way out of the back of the drawer today.

I angle my camera around to my backside and stab at the phone’s screen until I hear the camera shutter sound.

The resulting picture is a bit off-center, so I crop it a little. And while I’m in the photo editor, I try a couple of filters until I find the one that best accentuates my boo-tay.

It’s not that I’m trying to impress Blake. It’s just that I’m artsy.

I hit Send, and the reply is almost immediate.

Blake: OMFG. If you need me, I’ll be in my bunk with my hand on my junk.

This lights me up inside and then almost as quickly fills me with guilt. Damn it. Do I want to date Blake? Sure I do. But it’s a terrible idea. Because…

---