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Will doesn’t stay the night.
Jamie tells himself that he doesn’t know the guy, not really, so seeing him leave shouldn’t make Jamie sad , and also, his bed wasn’t really made for two guys sharing, so it’s for the best anyway.
“Can I see you again?” he asks from where he’s sitting on the edge of his bed, Will doing the “do I have everything”-pocket-pat down. At Jamie’s question, he looks up sharply.
“You want to?” he asks and Jamie stares at him for a second. Why wouldn’t he?
“Well, yes,” he says, and swallows the “duh”, but only just so. Will ducks his head, but Jamie sees his pleased grin anyway.
And then Will’s looking up again and he’s smirking and oh dears. “You know where to find me?”
It’s more a question than a statement, but sure. If Will wants to play, Jamie’ll play. “Yeah, I do.”
He gets right on it the next morning. Sure, he’s going to play this game, if that’s what Will wants, but he’s not about to drag it out.
He starts with stalking the SMH team website, which gives him Will’s full name (William Poindexter), his jersey number (#24) and generally more information than Jamie deems strictly necessary to be on the internet. (Will’s 6’2”, weighs in at 200, plays Defense and shoots right. He’s a sophomore, majoring in computer science and his hometown is Tremont, Maine, which turns out to be more of a village when Jamie googles it.)
His next step is to call up, well, text up, Jon.
Me : Yo Jon, ur a good canadienne boy, right?
Jon: *eyeroll emoji*
Jon: what do you want?
Me: how well do u now hockey?
Jon: reasonably, y?
Me: bestow some knowledge on me & take me to a game?
Jon: ????
Jon: who are you and what have you done to jamie???
Me: school team, #24
Jon: that would do it
Jon: annies, tomorrow after class?
Me: sure
***
Will doesn’t really expect Jamie do follow up, because while he’s hoping that Jamie’s going to, well, find him, Will hadn’t given him his phone number for a reason – namely that even if he’d given it away in the past, the guys rarely bothered to follow up, so Will stopped bothering, too.
Still. He can’t quite get Jamie out of his head, the whole following week, is reminded of it every damn time he turns around.
He drops by church on Sunday, just because he hadn’t been in a while, and as he kneels in front of the statue of the Virgin Mary and makes the sign of the cross, he has a vivid memory of Jamie doing the same thing the night before. He rolls his eyes at himself, because talk about a time and a place, and apologizes before beginning his prayers, and if the Mary seems to smirk at him when he leaves, well, he’s always had an active imagination.
On Tuesday, Bitty nearly drops his bowl when he goes to make a pie and follows it up with a “Sacrament!” because clearly he’s spent too much time around Jack already. With his accent, it sounds less like the French version though, and more like the English word, and Will blushes, hunches a little deeper over his computer and hopes no one notices.
Thursday, he’s on a coffee run with Nursey and Chowder when he catches sight of a dark haired guy hunched over some books, and for a second he swears it’s Jamie, but then their coffee is ready and they have a team meeting to get to and Dex is left with the memory of Jamie’s grin and the feeling of his hair between Dex’s fingers.
They have a game on Saturday afternoon and, in the second row, there’s Jamie, wearing an SMH sweater, talking to a bored looking guy and a girl with bright blue hair.
Jamie catches him staring and waves, and really, what else can Will do but wave back?
***
Even with Jon’s and Leah’s running commentary during the game, Jamie has little to no idea what’s going on, but it’s nonetheless fascinating and kind of … sexy. It really shouldn’t be, but there’s something about it. He decides he could probably stand coming back some time. If Will wants him to.
Will, who is completely concentrated on his game, but still lifts his hand a little, as if to greet Jamie, when he checks some guy into the boards right in front of Jamie. ”Show off,” Jon says, and yeah, even Jamie could see that hit maybe hadn’t been entirely necessary. He grins, but Will’s already gone again and Jon rolls his eyes at Leah, as if the two of them were any better.
After the game, Jon drags Jamie along and introduces him to an Asian girl from his art class. Her name is Lardo and Jamie isn’t entirely sure why he needed to meet her at this exact moment, when he could be on his way to look for Will, until she looks at him with a sharp gaze and says: “So you’re the Poindexter fan I got the sweater for?” which also explains how Jon got his hands on merch.
Lardo deposits him in a corridor and tells him not to move, before leaving again. It doesn’t smell all that great, and Jamie wonders what exactly Lardo meant when she told him not to move, when a door opens a little ways up the corridor. Jamie can hear excited voices, and laughter, and then two guys who Jamie vaguely recognizes from the ice walk out. They’re wearing suits and ties and their hair is still wet and they stop when they catch sight of Jamie.
“Waiting for someone?” the one with the glasses asks and Jamie nods.
“Poindexter,” he says and the other guy turns around and sticks his head back through the door. Even Jamie can hear him telling “Dex” that there’s someone here waiting for him, and then they leave him alone again. Next, there’s a group of three guys walking past him without so much as a second glance, and then the door opens again and someone calls “Go get some, Dex!” and there’s Will, top button of his dress shirt undone, tie askew and not really tightened up, suit jacket over one arm and he lights up when he sees Jamie and Jamie absolutely does not get weak knees.
***
Jamie insists on taking Will out for “winner’s milkshakes” and Will doesn’t really have it in him to argue. It’s only late afternoon, so the milkshake place is still open and they don’t have to resort to McDonalds. Jamie gets a chocolate one, which is what he got the last time as well. He tells Will that really, chocolate is the only way to go, which starts a playful argument about valid flavors and milkshakes versus frappes, that sees them halfway through their drinks.
Afterwards, they walk back towards the dorms along the pond and Will kisses Jamie, just because he can. Jamie kind of melts into the kiss and when they finally manage to continue their walk, Jamie asks if he wants to watch some Arrow. Really just watching, Jamie clarifies, which is how they end up cuddling on Jamie’s bed – the laptop in Jamie’s lap, Jamie leaning against Will’s chest, Will’s chin resting on Jamie’s head. (His hair smells fruity.)
They’d gone by Will’s room first, so he could change into sweats and a t-shirt, so when Jamie gets heavier and heavier in his arms, he has no problem just taking the laptop away from Jamie, arranging them somewhat comfortably and falling asleep.
***
Jamie only wakes up a little when Will is climbing out if his bed, and he makes his unhappiness known with a grumble. Will presses a soft kiss to his forehead and says something about a team breakfast and Jamie is back asleep before the door falls closed after Will.
When he gets up later, there’s a post-it on the door, with a phone number. It doesn’t have a name, just says domine non sum dignus in an untidy scrawl, and Jamie smiles.