“Drought, as in you haven’t gotten laid?” he asks, not quite believing what he is hearing.
“Yes, we mere mortals don’t have people throwing themselves at us at all times of the day.”
“But you’re a hot woman,” he declares. “Shit, do you think your brothers heard me say that?”
I giggle. “Wouldn’t put it past them to have hacked my phone.”
“Okay, back this train up. You haven’t gotten laid in months since arriving.”
“Don’t you dare pity me, I have a great vibrator that does the trick.”
“I feel so bad for you,” he declares.
“Fuck you. I don’t want your pity. Now that I’m not living with my overbearing brothers, I can get laid,” I tell him.
“So why didn’t you take Alton home then?” he asks.
“Because he’s a Mavericks fan.”
“Oh,” he says.
“Yeah. It wouldn’t have been the first time a guy has slept with me to get close to my brothers or the team.”
“What the hell?” Fish says angrily. “What kind of low-life scum would do that to a woman?”
“It’s no different than a puck bunny sleeping with you for clout.”
Silence falls down the phone line for a couple of moments. “Yeah, but I know they are sleeping with me for clout, there’s a difference.”
“Don’t you get sick of sleeping with women who want the superficial things about you, and not the real you,” I ask him.
“I do.”
I still. I wasn’t expecting him to answer like that, I thought I was going to get some stupid answer. “Then why do you do it?”
“It’s stupid,” he says, suddenly not sounding like the cock sure hockey player he is.
“I’m sure it’s not, but if it’s personal, you don’t have to tell me,” I say.
He lets out a heavy sigh. “CliffsNotes version. My high school girlfriend cheated on me in college. I thought I was going to marry her. She married someone else.”
“Oh, Fish, I’m sorry.”
“Don’t pity me.”
“I’m not pitying you. I get it. My high school boyfriend did the same thing to me. I chose to be faithful to him in college, he did not.”
“He’s an idiot,” Fish adds.
“So is she,” I tell him. “But fuck them.” This makes Fish laugh. “Look at my brothers. Both had their hearts destroyed, and both found their person. Maybe there’s hope for us idiots, too.”
“Maybe,” he says quietly.
“I guess it’s just made me realize that I’ve been closing myself off because I don’t ever want to feel that hurt again,” I confess as tears well in my eyes. “Shit, I can’t believe I just told you all that.”
“No. I needed to hear it. I feel the same way,” he says. “Evan’s been psychoanalyzing me for years. He’s always said I choose bunnies because I know they won’t hurt me, and maybe he’s right,” he confesses. “I’d never tell him that he is, that’s between you and me.”
I laugh. “Secret’s safe.”