Page 25 of Cheap Shot

And fine … maybe ithadbeen a bad idea to send the message to Crawford in the first place, but at the time, it hadn’t seemed that crazy. After all, they’d managed to act totally normal during last night’s game.

And well, they’d both complained about what a pain the apps could be …

Sebastian had thought maybe Crawford would be up for it one of those mutually advantageous situations where they hooked up occasionally. It would take way less effort than finding someone new every time.

But no. The asshole had read the message and ignored it.

Which wasnota great feeling. Not because Sebastian was heartbroken, he didn’t even fuckinglikethe guy.

But it was a prick to his ego, annoying, and, frankly,rude.

Sebastian really shouldn’t have been surprised though. After all, heknewwhat a dick Crawford could be. He shouldn’t take it personally.

So by the time he slowed to a jog and left the park, he’d decided two things.

One, he wasn’t going to worry about Crawford again. He’d just focus on finding someone else to get off with. Maybe it wouldn’t beashot as the hate sex he’d had with Crawford but at least he wouldn’t have to deal with his obnoxiousness anymore. There weresomeupsides to his plan.

Two, he was going to see if maybe he was doing something wrong with his job postings.

Maybe what had worked in New York didn’t work in Boston.

Time to try something different, right?

The following night, the Harriers played Arizona. As Sebastian settled into his seat, he was looking forward to the game. He was going to act exactly the way he had before the first hookup. He was going to pretend he didn’t know what it was like to choke on Crawford’s dick.

It was a tight game, with Arizona retaliating after every Harriers goal and the teams were tied 4–4 when Crawford took a double minor penalty for slashing in the second period.

Unlike last time, Crawford didn’t evenlookat Sebastian as he went into the penalty box and took a seat.

It was fine. Sebastian was unbothered. Moisturized. Happy. In His Lane. Focused. Flourishing. Just like that meme.

He could pretend like Crawford didn’t even exist …

And yet, as Crawford stripped off his gloves and pushed up the sleeves of his jersey, revealing some of his tattoos, a stupid little curl of lust bloomed low in Sebastian’s belly.

From where he sat, he could see the sweat trickling down the back of Crawford’s neck and meandering over the thick silver chain he wore before disappearing under his jersey.

Sebastian swallowed, his mouth dry at the thought of licking across his skin.

It would be weird if he didn’t chirp him now, right? People were used to it. It had become kind of athingon social media and the other season ticket holders around him were super into it, often rating his chirps.

“Hey, Crawford,” Sebastian called out. “You’re so ugly your tattoo artist did humanity a service by covering all that up. Shame he couldn’t do a thing about your face.”

It wasn’t one of Sebastian’s best and it felt like alittlebit of a low blow to drag a guy’s appearance, but he still saw Crawford’s glove tighten on his stick.

Sebastian smiled.Bingo. It was always nice to have a chirp land right and apparently the person next to him agreed, because they laughed and high-fived him.

And okay, maybe Sebastian wasn’t as unbothered as he had hoped to be. Damn it, itstillsmarted that Crawford had ignored his earlier message. And okay, maybe it was a bit sad and pathetic to let someone he didn’t even like impact his mood that way, but he’d thought they’d hadfunthat first night.

It honestly hadn’t seemedthatunhinged to give it another shot.

Sebastian glanced over at Crawford to see him looking grimly ahead. Sometimes he responded to the chirps and sometimes he didn’t. Didn’t look like it was going to happen with this one.

He looked pissed right now, his jaw set under his short beard, his eyes narrowed.

Sebastian idly wondered if his chirp had hit the mark a littletoohard when Crawford rose to his feet with a roar of frustration. The crowd roared too, and Sebastian realized Arizona had scored a goal to pull ahead.

Sebastian rose to his feet, clapping and whistling and got a few dirty looks from Harriers fans around him. Okay, not everyone in this section was a huge fan of him, but whatever.