Page 55 of Unrivaled

He groaned. “You’re not even going to take pity on me after I got suspended?”

“Your own dumb temper got you suspended. Pay the piper and prove you’re holding up your end of the deal.”

Grady could’ve made up dating horror stories, but he wasn’t that creative, and it had been a while since he filled her in. He’d been doing all his venting to Max instead.

He had just finished regaling her with the story of Byron—his actual wallet name; Grady made him prove it—whose most fervent ambition was to be a sugar baby, when Jess asked an apparently burning question.

“So, okay, wait, did you sleep withanyof these guys? Have you been shelling out money to hang with losers without even getting laid for your trouble? You didn’t meet even one guy worth testing the mattress springs with?”

That made him sound pathetic. “There wasoneguy,” he said before he could think better of it.

“Uh-huh, all right, I’ll bite. And what did you do on your date?”

Fuck. Grady closed his eyes. “American Ninja Warriorgym.”

“What?” She sounded aghast. “Grady Armstrong! How could you keep this from me? That sounds amazing!”

“It wasn’tthatgreat.”

“Why?” Jess asked astutely. “Did he beat you?”

Fuck.Technically, he kind of had. “Uh—”

“Oh my God!”

“He cheated.”

Jess laughed so hard Grady thought she might choke. Finally her chuckles tapered off and she gasped, “This is incredible. Oh man. Okay. What did you say this guy’s name was?”

“Shithead.”

She howled. “All right, we’re coming back to that. But this is the guy you slept with?” She paused. “I guess that makes sense.”

Grady was pretty sure he was going to regret asking, but he did anyway. “How do you figure?”

“I know you. He outperformed you in an athletic setting? You wanted to put him in his place. Uh.” Now she sounded like she wanted to eat her words. “Not in, like, an abusive creepy way, just in a maladaptive competitive man way.”

He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Thanks.”

“So anyway, you slept with Shithead. It was hot, right?”

Well, it wasn’t like he was going to tell her Shithead’s real name. “Jess. It wasinsane.”

“Knew it!” She laughed. “So what’s the problem?”

Grady blinked. “Excuse me?”

“Why’d you bother with those other guys? Is he ugly or something?”

“No.” Actually, with the nice shampoo Grady had so selflessly provided, Max was alarmingly… presentable. He always looked kind of smug, but Grady had been conditioned into finding that attractive. “He’s just an asshole.”

“Sounds perfect for you.”

“Oh, fuck off. Come on, I told you mine. Distract me, for the love of God and hockey.”

With a long-suffering sigh, Jess relented. “Fine. First things first, though—you’re so lucky gay guys don’t bring up IVF on the first date.”

Grady whistled. “Wow. And I thought the U-Haul joke was an exaggeration.”

---