Blind Date (A Why Choose Romance)

I nodded in agreement. “I had this conversation with Tyler.”

“We had an inkling something was going on between the two of you and her.” Jake sat down, straddling a bench.

“Whatever.” Tyler waved it all off.

I chose to be more directly diplomatic. “I talked with Tyler about how we feel about her if she wanted to see each of us without committing to only one of us.”

“And?” Jake nodded.

“And I might be good with it.”

“If she’s happy fucking you guys, I’m happy.” Lewis’s gaze drifted up to the ceiling. “I don’t want to get all lovey-dovey, but like, you’re my family. You’re like brothers. And something tells me that if you make this girl happy, there’s plenty of her to go around. I don’t see a problem.”

“And,” Jake echoed.

“And, we need to find out what she wants,” I said, and finding a place to use a word I happened to learn three days ago, I decided to educate the guys. “Have you heard of the word polycule? It means a group of people in an open relationship.”

Tyler frowned.

“And that all sounds a bit casual. I had in mind something more committed between Kay and me if she’s into me.”

“As I understand it, she could be into all of us and in a committed relationship with all of us. And you and I could be in a relationship too.” I blew a kiss at Jake before adding, “But you’re not my type.”

And that seemed to break the serious tone of our discussion.

Tyler raised an eyebrow. “I’m fine with me fucking the same woman you’re fucking Ethan, but I sure as hell don’t want to fuck your dumb ass.” He chuckled.

“Not my type, either.” Jake smirked. “I’d avoid Captain America-looking motherfuckers, even if I were into dudes.”

“Yeah, well, you’re fucking repulsive, too. Good to know we’ve all established we don’t want to do things to one another. Might not be a polycule, but whatever it is, it’s ours, and it’s like, not the whole one man, one woman thing.”

“So, the point of all this is, we’re willing to share her.” Tyler tapped on the wood as he spoke, as if to make this all more assertive. “We’re willing to make her our own. No jealousy, no holding back. Just us, our rules, us deciding what goes and what doesn’t, to hell with what society expects of us.”

Jake nodded again. “I can get behind saying to hell with society’s expectations.”

“I agree,” Lewis said. “But I’m agreeing because it’s a good idea and not because society expects me to agree with my twin.”

“Fuckin’ dork.” Jake punched Lewis in the shoulder, the fire and faith in all of this coming alive.

“Ethan?” Tyler said, a smile covering his face and looking my way.

“I’m not going to start being a dick about it now. No, I’m in. We’re going to make this happen with her.”

At that, the lively locker room came to an abrupt halt by the slamming of a door and the sound of shouting in the corridor outside.

A crowd of guys made toward the door to find out the cause of the fuss, but before they got to it, the door flung open, and Hank stormed in.

One look at his gray face told us he’d never been so mad as he was right then. He pushed past everyone and made his way to his locker without a word. Most of the guys resumed what they had been previously doing, wisely sensing Hank needed his space.

I wasn’t so wise, so I followed him over to his little corner and took a few seconds to watch him stare into his locker. Just stare and do nothing. What the hell was racing through his mind?

Loud chatter continued somewhere outside the room, but clearly, whoever was out there wasn’t about to barge in on us. We all hated having the press in the locker room, and I’d bet my last buck that the press weren’t far away, but someone was keeping them at a distance.

I stepped closer, right up to Hank, and in a calm, low voice as if talking to a wild animal, I said, “What’s happening, dude? Why do you look like you’ve already played a game?”

“Some tabloid,” Hank began as he caught his breath. “They published photos of me, and uh... uh...” He took a deep breath.

The room seemed quieter than usual as every player hung on his words, and a few stepped closer to hear.

“Karl. They have Karl and me, and they’re publishing them.”

I didn’t need to look to know that half our fellows would have reached for their phones to find out about the incriminating photos.

Not every man on the team knew Hank was gay, but about half of us did, and most of us had met Karl as well, beck when they were an item.