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Kindle Notes & Highlights
its peeling paint, its smell like the alley behind a bar. Kind of punk rock.
He’s handsome for a straight guy and about as threatening as a glass of skim milk.
“Did you bring me a cheese Danish?” Alex asks. “I wasn’t sure what else to do.”
And he’s long gone when Alex realizes that he’s the first person to say his name right all day.
A cooler sits over by the sidelines. Jake grabs two waxed paper cups from a stack, then dispenses water into them. He extends ones to Alex. A peace offering. A placation. For a second, Alex looks like he’s contemplating dumping the cup over Jake’s head. Joke’s on him. Jake’s been told he looks great wet.
Later, Alex falls asleep and dreams only of chasing harried farmers who all look strangely like Jake.
Because there’s what he desires and what his body is capable of. The story of being Jake Fischer.
“Jake”—Alex’s voice is rough, his eyes a soft brown in the hallway light when Jake finally turns his head—“I’ve waited ten years. I can wait a few more minutes.”
Jake: I appreciate you being respectful of my boundaries or whatever But come disrespect me
he’s saved from saying something like I wanted you to come choke me, romantically, when Alex shoves his fingers in Jake’s mouth.
Alex generally prefers East Coast bluntness—there’s no mistaking how people feel about you or what they want—but
“You were going. I would’ve followed you anywhere.”
Jake backs himself against one, taking off his ball cap. Without it, he could be anyone, anonymous, except for how Alex can’t bring himself to look at anything else.
That Alex has loved him for so long that he’s forgotten what not loving him is like.
Jake smiles, adjusting their palms together. “I missed you for ten years. I don’t want to do it again.”
“I love you,” Alex says, low enough that it’s almost inaudible. “I didn’t want to tell you like this.” Jake tightens his grip. “Tell me again, later. As many times as you want.”
“Did you want to go out?” Alex says, with the skepticism of someone over thirty being asked if they want to do shots.
And Jake kind of wants to be alone right now. But alone is always better with Alex there.
“You know what you look like.” Said breathlessly, without his usual sarcastic edge. “Like I’m yours?” Jake asks. Because he is, right at that second, and for the last ten years.
Just how gay is this fucking team? Alex thinks, slightly hysterically.
Alex officially retired, an event for which the Elephants put out a press release and Evie hand-painted him a mug that says I Fucking Quit.
