Page 6 of Replay

Josh

I was still thinking about Katie when I opened the door to my condo. She was here, in the same city as me, and now I knew where she lived. That gave me ideas. She’d blocked me back in high school, on her phone and social media, so I’d had no way to get in touch with her. Now I could find where she lived again… But the way she’d looked at me?

I’d never seen that expression on her face before. After we broke up—no, after I broke up with her—she’d moved to stay with her grandmother and attend another school. I’d been glad I didn’t have to see her again, because it hurt too much, but I’d missed her. If I hadn’t had hockey to focus on, I don’t know what I’d have done.

If she’d stayed around, I wouldn’t have been able to resist trying to make up with her.

Damn it, I’d messed up so bad.

There were lights on in my place, which worried me for a moment till I remembered my new roommate. Fitch sat at the kitchen island, drinking a beer and scrolling through his phone.

He turned and raised a brow. “That was quick, Ducky.”

I frowned, working through my conversation with Katie. “What are you talking about?”

“The redhead you left the bar with. I thought you’d be gone for a couple of hours.”

“What? No, I mean…what?” I’d been so focused on Katie I’d forgotten about…what was her name again?

Fitch got up and opened the fridge. “We should talk—I’ll get you a beer. The way to make a woman happy takes more than ten minutes.”

I stared at him. “I know that. Well, unless it’s a quickie. But I know how to get someone off. And make sure it’s good. Tonight was different. Things happened.”

He passed me a bottle. “It happens to everyone, is that what I’m supposed to say? I wouldn’t know myself, but?—”

I swallowed a mouthful of beer, ignoring my roommate and his chirping. I needed to figure out how badly I’d screwed things up with Katie and how to fix it. Back in high school, I’d done what everyone said was the right thing. But she was still super pissed, and maybe she was right.

“Ducky?”

I blinked at Fitch, who was smirking. What had he been talking about? Right, sex. But that hadn’t been a problem. It never had, unless you counted tonight, but that wasn’t a performance thing. “I have no problem with my sex life. It’s just, when we got to her place, her roommate was there.”

He kept his mouth straight, but I could tell he was having fun because his eyes were smiling. “Don’t tell me you said no to a threesome.”

For a moment, that idea bored into my brain. The roommate was hot, obviously, since I’d gone home with her, but it was thinking of Katie that got my dick perking up. “I didn’t say no. I didn’t say anything but hi to Katie.”

Fitch took the beer away from me. “I’ve lost the story here. Tell me what happened.”

I grabbed for my beer, but he kept it out of reach. No problem. I swiped his instead and took a long swallow.

He rolled his eyes. “You’ve heard of germs?”

I shrugged. “I’m thirsty. And I’m trying to figure out what happened.”

Fitch sat down again and set his chin on his hands. “Okay, tell Dr. Daniel the problem.”

Who? Oh, right. Daniel was his real first name. I wanted to tell him there wasn’t a problem, but I needed to get someone else’s take on what had gone down. I was good at hockey, but I’d never done well in school or other things that smart people did. And tonight? I’d never had a hookup go sideways like that. The last time I ran into a roommate when I went home with someone, we’d gone the threesome route. It had been a lot of fun. But that wasn’t what I wanted with Katie.

“So, the redhead and I got to her place, and we were making out. Like, kissing, and I was getting my hand under her shirt, and she was rubbing my dick. But her roommate was there, and she said she’d go to her room and leave us and that’s when I realized she was Katie.”

Fitch held up his hand. “Let’s see if I’ve got this straight. The redhead’s roommate was Katie, and you know her? Previous hookup? Did things not go well with her? That would be awkward.”

I shook my head. “Katie wasn’t a hookup. She’s my ex.”

He stared at me like that was a hard concept to understand. Not sure why, because he’d said he was getting divorced so he now had an ex, if he hadn’t before. I shrugged and tried to remember anything my mother might have said to show she didn’t like Katie and that I’d missed. Why hadn’t I known?

Fitch snapped his fingers in front of my face.

“What?”

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