Page 21 of Punchline
“Um… ” He stared at my shoulder like it was going to bite him, but eventually got a decent grip. “What now?”
“Now—” I reached down, around, and over, clasping his arm tight against my side so that he was craning backward a bit. “We make things uncomfortable for you.”
Ethan frowned. “I can still punch with this hand, though.” He waggled the fingers of his free hand at me.”
“Okay, do it.” The second he raised his hand, I twisted away. With my grip on his arm giving me leverage over his torso, Ethan couldn’t give me more than a little tap with his fist. He was grinning after a few more attempts.
“Let me try that.”
We worked through basic escapes and grabs, and then I showed him the very first little baby steps when it came to slipping punches. That wasn’t the sort of thing a person could learn in a single day, and it was better for him not to start having delusions of golden-glove grandeur out there inthe ring, but there were some simple ways he could reposition his head that would give him a better chance, especially since hockey players weren’t allowed to knee each other in the face.
Close to the end, I put Ethan on defense and myself on offense, then pushed harder than I had before with him. I swung him around, shook him, gave him some open-handed smacks that were more sound than fury, and he worked hard to keep me off and get his own where he could. I actually had to stop and block one very decent shot to the face, and by the time I had him pressed up against the wall we were both breathing hard.
“It’s bad to be pinned,” I pointed out between heavy breaths as I pinned my forearm across his chest. “Figure a way out, slide to the side, you need to do something.”
“Uh, I don’t think I can?—”
“You have to dosomething.”
“I found your profile on Tinder!” Ethan suddenly shouted.
I… had no idea what to say to that. “Um… ”
“I swear to God, I didn’t mean to invade your privacy,” he went on, the words coming so fast that it was hard to make them all out. “I feel so fucking dumb about this but I’ve been thinking about it ever since I saw your profile, and I wasn’t going to say anything about it to you because I didn’t want to make things awkward, but wow, I did anyway.”
He had, but I found myself more relieved than anything. I let go of him and stepped back so he could regain his composure… and maybe so I could get mine back too. “It’s okay,” I said as nonchalantly as I could. “I put my name and photo out there, so I get what I get.”
“Yeah, but it still felt weird,” Ethan said a little miserably. “Especially since… ” He ran a hand through his hair, then took a deep breath. “Look, you know I’m gay, right?”
“Carson might have mentioned it once or twice.” Or a dozen times.
“And I’m not saying this to make you uncomfortable, I swear, but you arereallymy type.”
I had to laugh. “Guys who don’t realize they’re bi until they’re in their twenties are your type?”
“Please, you must get atonof interest on that site,” Ethan replied.
Well… he wasn’t wrong. “That’s actually why I stopped using it,” I admitted. “I got so many people asking me about hooking up that it was kind of intimidating, especially since some of them were clearly only in it so they could ‘be my first.’” I added the air quotes. “Like having sex with a woman doesn’t count.”
“Like virginity isn’t a weird, fucked-up social construct anyway,” Ethan added.
I pointed at him. “Exactly. Yes.”
He chuckled, then said, “So anyway, yeah. I found your profile and I couldn’t stop thinking about it, but I promise it doesn’t have to get in the way of our lessons. I really appreciate getting the chance to learn from you,” he said, and shit, there was that earnestness that I both admired and was intimidated by. “But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t also want to take you on a date.”
A… date? “You’re interested in dating?”
He frowned. “Yeah. That’s why I was on a dating app.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever gotten an offer for an actualdateon that app,” I pointed out. “It’s been all hookups or one-night-stands.”
“Well yeah, a lot of people suck.” He smirked. “Especially guys. But I’m sure there are lots of people who would like to go on an actual date with you out there.”
Huh, maybe he was right. Maybe I should give it another try. I wasn’t sure what I was ready for—it had been over a year since the last time I’d gone out on a date—but I didn’t want to be a shut-in forever, either.
And Ethan was interested in me. It wasn’t just Carson putting that out there; he’d confirmed it.
I didn’t know if I wanted to date Ethan. I liked him, and he was damn cute, but I didn’t know him all that well outside of our classes. I tended to need to know someone for a while before taking that next step. Why I’d ever thought a dating app was a good idea…
