Page 24 of Offside

Chapter 10

Sam

My knuckles ached from knocking on Ash’s door so violently, but I was freaking out. I couldn’t tell Knight that, or I could, but then he’d want to talk about it, and I didn’t have answers.

None of it made sense–I wasn’t attracted to men.

I’d never looked at a dudes body and gotten excited for it…though I’d also never really gotten excited by a woman's body either. The last person I remembered being actually physically attracted to was my brother's friend, Sarah, in high school.

She was nice and quiet–very pretty. Very much the center of my fantasies at that age, but I was too me to actually do anything about those feelings.

And I’d never really felt them since.

Well, until today.

“Yes?” a very frustrated Thayer asked, barely cracking the door open enough for his head to poke out.

“I’m really sorry,” I sighed, my face scrunching up and my muscles getting stiff suddenly. “I know it’s Ash’s day off, and you guys are probably busy, probably doing the same thing I was–kind of–but I need Ash. Can I please see Ash? He wasn’t answering his phone–”

“Whoa, calm down,” Thayer breathed, eyes wide at me. “Ash is, uh…he’s not available. Is everything okay? Is it something I can help with?”

Probably.

Actually, no.

Even if he could, I wasn’t really friends with Thayer like that. I could tell Ash, but Thayer?

“I really need Ash,” I said softly, tilting my head at him.

Thayer let out a sigh, shaking his head before slowly opening the door for me, gesturing for me to come in. “Stay here,” he ordered, pointing at the couch for me to sit. “It might take a minute, but I’ll send Ash down.”

It was only while he was jogging up the stairs that I realized he was only half dressed, and it was haphazardly thrown on. I assumed they were probably having sex–they pretty much always were since they got engaged last week–but it was weird to have a visual confirmation that I interrupted something.

Something I would have to apologize for later.

It was so quiet in the house that when Ash let out a very loud whine and a heavy stomp, it echoed. There was a loud snapping sound, and I couldn’t make out what he was saying, but Thayer was saying something to him in that slow voice he used when Ash had an attitude forming in public.

Part of being friends with Ash was knowing all about his weird relationship, so coming to him now felt almost fair. It was finally my turn to make him a little uncomfortable with too much information.

A few minutes later, Ash came stomping down the stairs with Thayer in tow. He had a scowl on his face and had only bothered with pajama pants, no shirt, like he was planning on getting back to what they were doing when this was over.

He was hoping this was quick.

“You better have one damn good reason for this, Sammy,” he groaned.

“Well,” I huffed, bobbing my head around for a second while he grabbed a drink. “I think I just basically had phone sex with a guy, so does that count?”

Ash perked up instantly, snapping his head over to look at me with a wide grin. He dropped his bottle of water on the counter, racing over to me on the couch with new excitement.

“Juries out, but you’ve intrigued me, Sammy. What do you mean by basically? Surely you either did or didn’t.”

“I mean,” I trailed off, shrugging a little bit. “It was just over messages, not an actual call, so I don’t know if that still qualifies–”

“So you were sexting a guy–interesting,” he said under his breath, nodding along with me. “Keep going. You guys do it together, or you just helped him out–who even was the guy?”

“I don’t know,” I said slowly, my eyes darting between Ash and Thayer as he sat down, handing Ash the water he’d abandoned. “I just…Okay,” I sighed, closing my eyes because that had to make this easier. “A while ago, I downloaded that app–Mixr–I don’t even know why I did it, but I did, and then didn’t even make an account until uh…until we were in Toronto–”

“I thought you left a little too easily–”