Page 116 of The Understatement of the Year

My heart gave a little kick just to hear him say that. “We’ll start now.”

“Okay.” Graham leaned toward me then, cupping my chin in his hands. Then he kissed me, just like that. In front of God and everybody.

“Ahem.”

I pulled away from Graham to look up into the face of the pimply young man in the Wendy’s window. “Sorry,” I said automatically.

“You could let me join in,” the guy said. “Or order your food. One or the other.”

I just blinked up at him, too surprised to go on. Graham leapt in, ordering his salad, and then I pulled it together, adding my order.

As soon as I pulled ahead to wait for the food, Graham began to laugh. “The look on yourface,” he chuckled. “I thought I was the prude.”

“He just took me by surprise, that’s all.”

Graham stretched as best he could in the passenger seat. “Jesus. What a rough couple of days.”

“I could use one or two with no drama.”

“You know what I want? Forty-eight hours in bed. You. Me. Maybe a couple of movies. Sleeping. Sex. Food, because eventually we’d get hungry. But no interruptions.”

“Sounds great. But instead, you’re going to get midterms. And spring training.”

He sighed. “I know. But eventually we’ll be off this treadmill, right? You promised me a camping trip in Vermont. I want to pick apples and have sex in a tent.”

At that, I cracked up. “Youheardthat?”

“Of course I did.” Graham tried to give me money for lunch, but I waved him off. The lady from the next window handed down our bag, and I moved the car to face a grassy slope at the back of the restaurant.

Graham passed me my sandwich, but he said something that made me forget to eat it. “Hey, Rik? I’ve decided not to play hockey next year.”

“What?”

Calmly, he stirred his salad together while he talked. “There are a whole lot of reasons. And some of them you’re not going to like. But just listen, okay?”

“Okay.” Although I doubted that I could ever agree with this.

“For one, I don’t want to risk another concussion. Supposedly, if I got another one, it would take twice as long to heal.”

Oh. “Ouch.”

“No kidding. But also — I need to make some changes. I want to stop hiding. But I have to do it on my own time. And I don’t want us to be the gay couple on the team. I don’t want to be in the news. So I’m not going to play.”

“Jesus, Graham! You…”

He held up a hand. “You’re still listening right now, please. Originally, I played hockey because of you. It was your pick.”

“…But you’regoodat it.”

Graham shrugged. “Not as good as you. But that’s not the point. Just shut it for a minute, okay? There are other things I want to do instead. Do you know Dan Armitage?”

I shook my head.

“He’s going to edit theDaily Newsnext year.” That was our college paper. “He needs a sports editor, and I’ve always kind of wanted that job.”

“Really?”

“Really. I want to write about lacrosse and football. A couple of guys have gotten jobs at ESPN from working that beat.”