Page 60 of The Hat Trick

Chandler: Nothing really to tell. I was naked…wet…soapy…

My phone starts ringing with a video call from him, and I answer laughing. Especially since his smile falls when he sees I’m dressed.

“You said naked,” he narrows his eyes playfully.

“I said Iwas.”

“I just saw naked and wet; the other words didn’t matter.”

I laugh. I appreciate Vince’s shameless flirting with me, but for some reason the thought of how many other girls he must act like this with has my laughter dying off. I try to smother the thought, but I hate that it won’t go away, and he notices.

“What’s wrong?”

I shake my head like it will shake the thoughts straight out of it. “Nothing, I’m good. What are you doing tonight?”

“I think we are going to head out to a bar to celebrate, but I don’t plan on staying long, we leave in the morning.”

I smile as genuinely as I can. “Have fun, I’m going to go to bed then.”

He looks at me skeptically, and I’m realizing I might not be hiding how I feel very well.

“Seriously, what’s wrong?” he asks again.

I sigh in defeat. “It’s stupid.”

“Nothing you say could be stupid.”

I groan, “Stop being nice to me when I’m being stupid.”

He chuckles, “Just tell me.”

I breathe in before speaking fast, like if I can make all the words run together, he can’t understand me, or it will make it better. “I know that it’s dumb considering the situation we are in, but I don’t know if you’re wanting to sleep with other people and if you do that’s cool, but also, I don’t know how I feel about it.I would rather you be honest about it, and that goes for all of you. Or just you and Brent. Or none of you. I don’t even know what I’m saying or what I want so I’m going to hang up and jump off my balcony.”

He's quiet for a moment and I’m about to hang up. Then block all three of them and forget about this little experimental blip in my life. As I’m about to press the end call button Vince lets out a little laugh.

“Do you want to ask me if I’ve slept with anyone since I met you?” he asks, the humor evident in his voice.

My mouth twists. “Not really.”

“Ask me.”

“No, I take it all back.”

“I have not touched another woman since the day we met.”

I don’t exactly know what to say. “Oh, okay, yeah, great. Um. Do you…um…fuck.”

“Do I, what? Do Iwantto touch other women?”

I cover my face, mortified at this situation. I’m such a hypocrite, what the fuck is wrong with me?

“No, I don’t. You might think it’s weird, but I don’t mind that you’re sleeping with my teammates. If it were behind my back, or with random guys I didn’t know I might feel differently. But seeing you get off makes sharing worth it. And I have no desire to be with anyone else.”

My cheeks are on fire, I don’t think I can continue this conversation because it’s feeling like it goes past the “casual” territory, and I still think I’m being ridiculous.

Because I have to deflect serious conversations with a joke, that’s exactly what I do. “God, stop saying things like that or I’ll start to think you’re into me or something.”

He laughs, the deep, silky chuckle makes my shoulders relax slightly. “Well, we can’t have that,” he jokes back.

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