“I heard that the earth isn’t actually round. Is that true?” Beck asked. “It looks round in all the pictures.”
I stroked my hand through Beck’s hair. We lay together on his bed, tucked under the covers.
The entire night had been surreal.
I wasn’t proud of it, but I’d been avoiding him for the past few days.
My classes were picking up, but that wasn’t the reason I’d been hiding out in the library.
It was the only safe place left.
Normally, I’d go to Anna’s and hang with her, but she’d want to know why I was avoiding the house, and I couldn’t tell her without outing Beck.
I hated lying to her, and I knew I was hurting her feelings every time I begged off hanging out with her.
The last few days, I’d tried to get over myself and go back to the way things were supposed to be between us.
It wasn’t Beck’s fault I wanted more, and I’d needed some space to get my expectations in line.
Then he’d thrown all that out the window when he’d sent me that text.
Never have I ever had sex with a guy.
Going to his room and not jumping on him had taken herculean strength. Thankfully, my logical brain had taken over, but our talk had left me feeling raw.
Beck wanted more. And he was trying.
I felt like an ass for being so evasive rather than talking to him sooner, but at least now I knew we were on the same page.
I’d lost my virginity tonight.
And not only that, but Beck had wanted me to top.
That had shocked me almost as much as his text. I knew he’d enjoyed the assplay we’d done in the library, but I’d been convinced he’d want me to bottom.
Topping him had been the most incredible and intense experience of my life. I loved that Beck trusted me enough to not only be his first but also to take control of the situation.
He wasn’t a submissive person, but the way he seamlessly switched between roles was the hottest thing I’d ever seen.
I’d always had both sides in me. I loved taking my partner apart piece by piece, but I also loved being the one who let my partner take care of me.
Since most of my experiences had been hookups, I hadn’t had much of a chance to explore either role before Beck. It was hard to let go when I didn’t have that emotional connection.
One of my hookups had pulled out the Dom thing. Calling me a “good boy” and demanding I get on my knees. I would have been fine if he’d stopped at that, but I hadn’t enjoyed his brand of domination. It had been demeaning to have a near stranger calling me names and saying all sorts of degrading shit about how I sucked dick.
I’d tried to bring out my bossy side with the guy I’d hooked up with in public, but he’d shut that down and instead insisted on quick and silent encounters, where the only words we said were what came out when we were close to coming.
Beck was everything I’d ever wanted in a partner.
And the fact that he was trying, that he wanted to be more than just friends who fucked, made what we’d shared that much more special.
He was worth the wait. I just hoped my greedy little heart would be okay with us keeping things secret until he was ready to tell people.
Beck and I had only gotten through the first half of the movie because he’d kept pausing to ask questions. It had been the most fun I’d had in a long time.
Even after all that had happened tonight, this moment meant just as much to me as the sex or our talk.
I’d spent so many nights wondering what it would feel like to sleep next to him. To hold him as we fell asleep. To wake up with him in the morning.
Now I was finally getting to experience it, and I didn’t want it to end.
“It’s true. The earth is twenty-six miles wider at the equator, which makes it an oblate spheroid. But the difference is so tiny that we can’t see it with the naked eye.”
“Why is it bigger at the equator? Is that just how it formed?”
“The centrifugal force from the earth’s rotations force it to bulge.”
“Hmmm.” He rubbed his leg against mine, the wiry hairs tickling my skin. “Does that affect gravity around the equator or the poles?”
“Technically, yes. Gravity is slightly higher at the poles. But it’s not enough to make a noticeable difference. Like, if you weigh one hundred pounds on the North Pole, you’d weigh about five point five ounces less at the equator, using the same scale.”
“What would happen if the earth started spinning faster? Would that just make everything heavier?”
I scratched my nails against his scalp, smiling when he let out a little purr. “Gravity holds us to the earth, but the centrifugal force of the rotations actually pushes us out, so we would be lighter. You know those rides that spin super fast, and you get ‘stuck’ on the walls?”
“I hate those.”
“Me too. But that’s an example of how centrifugal force works. The good thing for us is that earth’s gravity is way stronger than the centrifugal force on it. The earth is actually spinning faster now than ever before, but it’s not enough to close that gap and affect gravity.”
“What would happen if it spun fast enough that the gap did close?”
“That is both fascinating and terrifying. But keep in mind, this isn’t something that could just randomly happen.”
“Okay. Now I’m both intrigued and a little afraid.” He shifted.
I loved sleepy Beck. His eyes were soft, and his cheeks were tinged with pink.
“Wait until I explain The Big Rip to you.” I grinned.
He rubbed his chin against my pecs, his stubble tickling my skin.
“That sounds highly unpleasant.”
“It would be. But back to your question. If the earth suddenly started spinning fast enough we lost gravity, the devastation would be instant. We’d all be flung into space.”
“Terrifying. What would happen if it was the opposite? Like if we stopped spinning?”
“Same thing. Instant and total devastation. Everything would be launched sideways at hundreds of miles per hour. The stop would trigger earthquakes and tsunamis, but since the atmosphere would still be spinning, the wind would flatten everything else.”
“So there would be no hope for survival.”
“None.”
“Would the earth be livable if it had never spun at all? Could we live on a stationary earth?”
“Technically, but it wouldn’t look anything like life now. For one, there would be no more day or night. Half the earth would be dark, and the other would be light. The dark half would freeze, and the light half would be subject to extreme heat. The only part of the planet we could potentially survive on would be that strip between day and night. So we’d be between a forever sunrise and forever sunset.”
“That sounds like the basis for a kick-ass dystopian movie.” He rolled off me and tugged me along so I was the one cuddled up to him.
I snuggled into his shoulder, smiling as he wrapped his arms around me and held me tight.
“Right?”
“What kind of movies do you like?”
“Lots of different kinds.” I ran my hand up and down the planes of his stomach. I loved the little dips and ridges of his hard muscles.
He was in ridiculously good shape. I knew he went to the gym every day and had been a competitive athlete, but it still shocked me that someone who looked like him could want someone like me.
I wasn’t ugly. I was decently attractive, but I was nothing special. My body was average, if not a little thin, and while I liked my actual appearance, I was just one of hundreds of guys who had dark hair and blue eyes.
“I mostly watch comedies. I like laughing.”
“Me too. But I’m a sucker for action flicks.”
“My science brain dissects those, especially when the hero does something completely impossible to save the day. I’m always thinking, ‘that’s not enough explosives to create such a big shockwave.’ Or ‘that’s not a flesh wound. He’d have bled out by now, not be running around shooting everything with perfect accuracy.’”
Beck chuckled and gently brushed my hair back from my face. “What’s your take on mysteries?”
“Same as action flicks. I always dissect the science. They tend to be more accurate, but I get discouraged when I can’t figure things out, then go back and analyze the clues to see if I missed something or if it was lazy writing.”
“I guess going to the movies for our date is off. The only movies out right now are that new action flick, some mystery based on a book I’ve never heard of, and a kids’ movie.”
“Want to know a secret?” I stifled a yawn. The events of the day were catching up to me.
“What’s that?” His words slurred together. He sounded as tired as I felt.
“I like cartoons. They’re fun, and I can shut my brain off and just enjoy them for what they are.”
“I have seven nieces and nephews. I’ve watched so many kids’ movies over the years. My secret is I like them almost as much as they do.”
The warmth of Beck’s embrace soothed away the last of my thoughts, and my eyes fluttered closed.
Everything about the moment was perfect, and as much as I wanted to keep talking to prolong it, my body was shutting down.
I opened my mouth to tell him goodnight, but the words died on my lips, and I gave in to the exhaustion.
Two days later, I walked into the house with an armful of books I’d checked out of the library. My roommates were in the living room, engrossed in another hockey game on the TV.
“Hey.” Beck looked over at me.
“Hi.” I waved awkwardly.
“’Sup?” Alex said, but he kept his eyes on the screen.
“Hi, roomie.” Matt shot me a big smile. “Come watch with us. We just ordered pizza.”
“I don’t really know the game.”
“That’s okay.” Beck patted Alex on the hip. “Shove over.”
Alex shot Beck a look I couldn’t decipher, but he moved to the other side of the loveseat.
Matt sat on the couch with one leg up and his ankle on a stack of pillows.
“You okay?” I asked him. I put my books and backpack on the floor next to the couch and sat down next to Beck.
It was a tight fit with the three of us on there, but being pressed up against Beck wasn’t exactly a hardship.
I just had to remind myself not to lean into him.
“Fine.” He waved dismissively. “I broke it a few years ago, and it acts up every once in a while.”
“That sucks.”
“Life of an athlete.” He shrugged. “We push our bodies hard, and sometimes they push back.”
“So, how much do you know about the game?” Beck asked, his voice low.
“Not much. I know they play on skates and try to get the puck in the net with sticks.”
Alex made a sound that could have been a chuckle but sounded a bit strained. “So basically nothing.”
“I guess not.” My cheeks heated, and embarrassment washed over me. I appreciated Beck’s efforts to include me, but I was so far out over my skis the urge to run was hitting hard.
I’d looked up the rules of hockey on the Internet, but most of what I’d read had sounded like gibberish, since I had no idea what any of the terms meant or had any frames of reference to visualize the explanations.
Beck put his hand on my thigh.
“Each team has six players out during gameplay. A goalie, three forwards, and two defensive players,” he explained.
“The forwards are the ones who do most of the scoring. Defensemen try to prevent the other team from scoring,” Matt said.
“Each team has four lines, and they switch out during play.” Alex didn’t take his eyes off the screen, which was playing a beer commercial full of girls in bikinis running around the beach.
“Why?” I asked.
“Mostly to keep the plays flowing and to give the players a rest. Hockey is one of those sports where you’re constantly moving, so players, especially the big scorers, can get tired if they’re out on the ice for too long.”
The beer commercial ended, and the game came back on.
“Who’s playing?” I whispered to Beck.
The letters in the ticker banner thing meant nothing to me.
“Kraken versus Flames.”
“Kraken? That’s a weird name for a team,” I blurted out.
Alex snorted as Matt let out a loud bark of laughter.
“The Kraken are my team.” Beck bumped me with his shoulder. “Seattle Kraken.”
“Oh, I didn’t mean…”
“It’s fine.” He bumped my shoulder again, but this time, he didn’t move away. “It wasn’t my first choice either.”
Matt and Alex shouted, and the play stopped.
“What happened?”
“Offside.” Beck pointed at the screen. “See those blue lines on the ice?”
I nodded.
“During play, the puck has to cross that line before an offensive player does if he’s not in control of it. What just happened was that the Flames’ right wing crossed the blue line before the pass did. As soon as he touched it, he was offside.”
Every time something happened on the screen, one of the guys would explain the rules.
It was a lot of information to take in, and I still had trouble following the puck as it zipped across the screen, but at least the player’s jerseys were different enough I could tell who played for which team.
The more I learned, the more fun I had. The pizza came, and Alex brought out a six-pack for everyone to share. It was fun, and I felt like one of the guys for the first time in my life.
When the game was over, I had a decent understanding of the rules. But the best part was watching how into it the guys got. They shouted and yelled at the screen like the ref and the players could hear them, and Beck and Alex kept jumping to their feet and throwing their hands up in exasperation when they disagreed with the ref’s call.
The Kraken had won, which put Beck in a good mood, and we made our way up to the third floor together.
“So, what do you think of hockey?” Beck leaned against the wall next to the door, his arms crossed, and gave me his trademark smile-smirk.
“It’s a lot more fun to watch when you understand what’s going on.” I clutched my books to my chest. “You do realize that no one can hear you when you yell at the TV, right?”
He laughed. “I take it no one watches sports in your house?”
“Not in a million years.” I snorted. “We didn’t have TVs growing up. My parents still don’t have one.”
He gaped at me. “How can you not have a TV?”
“They didn’t believe in it.”
“How can you not believe in TV?”
“It’s not a productive way to spend your downtime.” I shrugged. “We had a library in place of a living room. Books and learning were the priority.”
“Sounds stuffy.”
“It’s not like I never saw a TV or watched movies or whatever. I had a phone, a computer, and the Internet. And most of my friends had home theaters, so we were always watching something.”
“Just no sports.”
“My friends weren’t the sporty type. We were more indoor people.”
“Lots of sports are played indoors.”
“Touché.” I shifted my books in my arms. “We were nerds. And not the cool nerds. We were the nerdy nerds. My best friend was the captain of the Academic Decathlon team, and my next closest friend was the captain of the robotics team. Yours truly was a member of both.”
“My first serious girlfriend was a mathlete.” He grinned. “Told you I had a thing for nerds.”
“Not puck bunnies?”
“How the hell do you know about puck bunnies when you didn’t even know what icing is?”
“I may have looked up hockey on the Internet, and puck bunnies were one of the things that kept coming up.”
“Well, to answer your question, no. I didn’t have a thing for puck bunnies.”
“So you never hooked up with one?” I hated the jealous edge in my voice, but I’d been wondering since I’d learned the term.
He shook his head. “They were too busy going after the star players. I was good, but not that good.”
“Do you want to hang out?” he asked.
“I wish, but I have to research a paper.” I shifted the books in my arms. “I’ve been procrastinating for a week.”
“You know online research is a thing.”
“I like books.” I tried to shrug but my arms were too full. “But this is for Con Law, and my professor is a dick who refuses to acknowledge online sources as valid. It’s books or fail.”
“Con Law?”
“Constitutional Law.”
“Sounds boring.”
“Sooooo boring.”
“Well, I’ll let you get to your research.” He pushed off the wall and crossed the hallway.
He pressed a soft kiss to my lips, and I nearly swooned.
It was the first kiss we’d shared in the house that hadn’t been hidden behind a locked door.
“Still good for our date?” he asked huskily, his lips hovering near mine.
“Can’t wait,” I said breathlessly. “But you still haven’t told me what we’re doing.”
“It’s a surprise.” He kissed me again. “Be ready for six.”
“What should I wear?”
“Dress comfortably.”
I wanted to say that didn’t really clear things up for me, but Beck strode toward his door and disappeared into his room.
I stood in the middle of the hall like a statue, trying to figure out a way we could have some sexy times and I could still get my research done.
