Out on the Ice (Out in College 5)

The hot Latino offered his hand and gave me a funny look. “I’m Max and this is my boyfriend, Phoenix.”

Max.

The ex.

Fuck. He was hot. Really hot. I might have been new to owning my bi side, but anyone would look twice at the guy. Even me. His boyfriend was good-looking too…in a totally different way. Max was tall, dark, and hot while Phoenix was lean and almost pretty. He had pink lips, twinkling eyes, and a mischievous air about him. And he was staring at me with a knowing smile, like he was putting everything together and wondering how this would go down.

“So nice to meet you,” Phoenix gushed with a wide grin.

I shook his hand, then hooked my thumb in my belt loop like some kind of geeky urban cowboy. “Yeah, um…you too.”

“Max and Sky play baseball together,” Phoenix continued when an uncomfortable silence threatened.

“Oh. Cool. Are you on the team too?” I asked. Of course, I knew the answer. I just couldn’t think of anything else to say.

Phoenix threw his head back and guffawed. “Now that’s funny. I don’t think they’d even let me be bat boy.”

Max grinned. “Sure, we would, babe.”

Sky’s smile didn’t quite reach his eyes when he stepped aside. “We’re gonna order. Later.”

“Right. It’s all good, Sky. No weirdness,” Max said before addressing me. “Good to meet you, Colby.”

I moved to the end of the line and studied the menu, then glanced at Sky. “What do you want?”

“An iced coffee, double pump, and room for milk,” he replied, handing me a ten-dollar bill. “And an extra cup of ice on the side.”

“I’m buying. Keep the money and text me that order. I’ll never fuckin’ remember all that,” I groused playfully. “Go get us a table.”

This time Sky’s smile lit his eyes, my heart did that funny flip, and everything felt okay again. Like my weird conversation with Kendra and running into a hot ex and his new man was no big deal at all.

“Do you have time? I thought you had to get back to Long Beach.”

“I have time. There’s a table in the corner. Grab that one. The sun is rough out here. I shoulda taken my chances on the Velcro. Maybe no one would notice I was bustin’ outta my shorts. Or your shorts. And what are you laughin’ at?”

“You. You get chatty when you’re flustered.” He chuckled. “I’m going. I’m going.”

I pulled my cell from my pocket to avoid staring at his ass. I scrolled through a few emails before casting my gaze from where Sky was sitting to Max and Phoenix, who were waiting to pick up their drinks at the counter. They knew Sky was gay. They might even suspect there was something between Sky and me. But there was an unspoken code in place not to acknowledge “us” unless we did first. I wasn’t sure what to think of that.

Ten minutes later, I set Sky’s drink on the table and slid into the empty chair across from him. I inclined my head when he thanked me and in a very “not so cool or calm” tone asked, “So, that’s the ex?”

Sky met my gaze and squinted like he was trying to read my mind. He popped the lid off his iced coffee and stirred it lazily with a straw. “You were supposed to ask how my class went.”

“Oh. How was class?”

“Good. I like the professor. Should be interesting,” he said, refastening the lid and poking the straw through the plastic top. “And yeah…that was Max.”

“Was he bugging you? He seemed friendly enough.”

“Max is very friendly.”

“Hmph. What did he say? I heard something about not being dramatic. Is he afraid you’re jealous of his new boyfriend?” I whisper-hissed.

Sky shushed me before casting a wary look around us. “No.”

“Well, then what did he want?” When he didn’t reply, I switched tactics. “Do you want me to kick his ass? ’Cause I will. It won’t be easy, but—”

“Relax, Colby.” Sky snort laughed. “Thank you for defending my honor. That’s cute. The funny thing is, that’s what Max is doing.”

“What do you mean?”

“He wants to make sure I don’t mess with his man. I haven’t seen them all summer, but he knows I’m a loose cannon,” he huffed. “Hey, I told you I have a reputation. You keep forgetting that.”

I sipped my iced latte and studied him thoughtfully. “I didn’t forget. But why would he think you’d mess with his boyfriend? Are you jealous? ’Cause if you’re jealous, I’m gonna be jealous.”

Sky chuckled. “Don’t be. I wouldn’t mess with Phoenix, and I’m not jealous at all. But I was.”

“Oh.”

“It’s not that I wanted Max back. I was the one who broke things off. And I wasn’t nice about it. I was reeling from things that had nothing to do with him, and I hated that he didn’t understand. That he couldn’t be what I needed…or what I thought I needed. I made him miserable. Hell, I made us both miserable.” He sipped his drink and sighed. “When I dropped out of school last year for a semester, I didn’t plan on returning at all. But Coach wouldn’t take no for an answer. He came to see me play on the junior college team I’d joined and badgered me every day. When I explained my money situation, he cut a deal with the athletic department to give me a partial scholarship to cover all last semester’s tuition and half of my last year. He made it hard to refuse.”