Page 53 of Delay of Game
“This was a stupid idea,” Nate mumbled. He could feel the tips of his ears burning.
“Um, I don’t know if it is stupid so much as unexpected?”
“Just forget I said anything, please.”
“Unfortunately, I cannot. Ever.”
Nate looked down at the beer and wondered why the earth could not swallow him whole.
Bee glanced sideways at him, and her usually stoic face flickered with something that might have been pity. “You areserious.”
“I just, I never really, uh, dated anyone besides Rachel, and...”
“I think...as long as you are happy, any amount of times is normal?” She paused. “Unless you are asking specifically how often Sakari and I...”
“No!” Nate exclaimed hastily. “No, I definitely don’t want to, oh, this is coming out all wrong.”
“Okay. Just as long as we are clear.” Bee’s mouth tilted up in a wry smile. “It is not like you to be tangled in a knot about someone, though.”
“It’s, uh...been a weird year.”
“I guess all I have to say is that when things are good and right, you do not get tired of them. Of that person.” She patted him on the shoulder. “But think about it. I have to go back inside.”
He probably should have just dropped it there, but the problem that Nate had sometimes, when he got a thought in his head, was that he worried it over and over like a dog at a bone. It felt like he was physically incapable of letting it go sometimes. So even though he should have dropped it there, he asked a few of the other guys.
The rest of his research was almost as disastrous. Netty was less poetic than Bee had been. First he howled with laughter and slapped Nate on the back untilhechoked on his drink. Then, he said, “About time you fuck around, Cap!”
“I, uh—it’s not like Ihaven’t—”
“Yeah, yeah,” Netty said, waving his hand dismissively. “How much isnormal? Like, you not doing it enough?”
“Uh...not exactly...” Nate said, thinking of all of the times he had thought,okay, we probably shouldn’t do it tonight, and completely lost control of himself anyway.
“Too much?”Netty stared at him. “Cap, youokay?”
“I’m fine, I just...”
“No such thing astoo much, bro. I mean, you been wasting all this time, no wonder you’re so horny.”
Nate choked on a drink for the second time that night, and once Netty had pounded him on the back so hard that Nate was fairly sure he’d left a bruise, said, “I’mnothorny, Netty.”
“It’s okay,” Netty said, aiming his gap-toothed grin at Nate. This must have been what small prey animals felt like, staring down the maw of a wolf. “Your secret safe with me.”
Before the game, he and Sally sat next to each other on the benches, watching the rest of the team warm up by playing elimination soccer. Nate’s head hadn’t been in it at all, and he’d been knocked out far earlier than he normally would have been. Sally’s face was, as always, a bit like a statute carved out of marble, imperious and just as expressionless.
“With regard to your question,” Sally said, breaking the silence, and Nate winced.
“I regret ever asking, Sally,” Nate said, pleading without pleading to avoid taking the conversation any further.
“I think I have a different perspective than most of the boys, so you may take or leave my thoughts as you will.”
Nate glanced sideways at Sally, but there was no sign of mockery on his face. He was equanimous as always, as calm as an iced-over lake. “I always appreciate your words of wisdom.”
“In my view, sex is immaterial.”
“I’m sorry, what?”
“Hear me out, please,” Sally said, holding up one hand. “I don’t know if you know, but Kaisa and I were an... arranged marriage, of sorts.”