[Roommate] and I are chatting, after work, and I say I want to go to the Dixie Chicks concert next week. She says she could probably help me buy a ticket, if I wanted. I say no, because I don’t really want to go alone, and I was hoping that my friend who had tickets would end up with an extra. And then things got interesting.

R: I wonder if NSG still has his tickets. ... He’s in Houston right now, you know.

M: Oh.

R: He e-mailed me yesterday. He’s been hanging out with K.

M: Ohhh...

R: Yeah.

M: What’s he been doing with K?

R: I don’t know. It’s interesting, though, because she doesn’t usually leave real early, and especially this week, with the All-Star stuff going on, but, yeah, 6:00 and she’s out the door. ... He’s probably hanging out with [his nieces], too. [Ticket office guy]'s pissed because NSG never e-mailed him back. 

M: Yeah, what’s going on with him? I mean, I don’t see why he can’t just send an e-mail or something, and I mean, I thought we were pretty good friends, and... 

R: Did you ever e-mail him? Did he respond? 

M: I sent him one, and he wrote back, very general, very generic, and then a couple weeks later, I sent him another one saying, you know, I’d like to e-mail you once in a while, but not if it’ll bother you, and he didn’t respond, so I guess that’s my answer. 

R: Heh. I think K’s the only one who knows what the deal is. 

M: You know what? I don’t even need that. If he wants to tell us, well, great, but I just need a mass e-mail, or something, that just says, "Hey, here’s what’s going on..." 

R: Yeah, I don’t really get it, either, why he can’t talk to us. 

M: What would you do if I told you something you didn’t want to hear? 

R: Uh... Like what? I don’t know. Would it make me nervous? 

M: No, not nervous...it shouldn’t make you nervous...it might make you question my moral character. 

R: <nervous laugh> You have to tell me, now. Now I want to know. 

M: But I don’t know how you’ll react. ... I haven’t told you for a year.

R: But you told me a year ago?

M: No, it happened a year ago.

R: ... Is it about NSG? 

M: Yes... 

R: It’s about NSG, and it might make me question your moral character? ... Did you sleep at his house? Kiss him? 

M: Um, well, yes...and yes. 

R: Oh. Was there more? 

M: Yes. 

R: Did it only happen once? 

M: Well, no. 

R: When was it? Was it when I was on the road? 

M: No, it was...do you remember that night, last June, that I didn’t come home? 

R: I think so. That seems so long ago. Did anything else happen since then? 

M: No. We just had several awkward and uncomfortable conversations. 

R: So that’s why it bothers you so much [that he won’t talk to you]. 

M: Heh. Yeah. 

R: Well, I mean, it didn’t mean anything, right? Was there anything meaningful? 

M: It meant more to me than it did to him, but we knew that. ... And you know how I can’t get over things, and he would never say, you know, that he didn’t want anything. He would just say that he wasn’t ready for a relationship, or that he didn’t know what was going to happen. At first, I didn’t really want to tell you, because I didn’t know how you’d react, and he said, "Don’t tell [Roommate]"— 

R: Well, YEAH. 

M: But then later, I did kind of want to tell you, like when I got really upset when he started dating every single woman in Houston except me. Then he asked me if I’d told you, and I said no, and then I asked him why he hadn’t told you, since you were best friends and all. He said it was a work thing, and he didn’t want to tell you because he had to work with you, but since we were roommates, then I should tell you. 

R: He said you should tell me? 

M: Not exactly. Just that it was the sort of thing that roommates should tell each other. 

R: You could’ve told me earlier this year, when he and I weren’t so close anymore. Because he got closer to [Friend], and then you would go chat with him, and I wondered why he could have close, personal conversations with you. 

M: <shrugs> Well... I just figured that I could tell you now, since you don’t work together anymore. 

R: And I might never see him again.  

M: That’s also why I don’t really like hearing everybody talk about him and K. 

R: I don’t think they’re like that. I’ve never thought that. 

M: Well, I didn’t think so, either, but everybody else does, and I don’t trust myself in that regard. But, I mean, I didn’t think there was anything between them from the beginning. When we all went out, after the 2001 season, someone asked NSG if he and K had hooked up, and I was just shocked, because it had never occurred to me. 

R: What did he say? Did he say they’d done it? 

M: No. ... It always seemed to me like they were better suited to be best friends, but like I said, I don’t trust myself. 

R: No, that’s what I think, too. And the two of them, they’re both too independent or something. I don’t know. ... So...did he make all the advances, or was it you, too? 

M: Do you really think I would make an advance? 

R: Well, I didn’t know, I mean, if you just went along with it... 

M: It all started that night that Miami played for the national championship, and you were in Orlando. And we were drinking, and [Friend's GF] said, "NSG’s drunk, and he can’t drive home," so then... 

R: The night he slept here?? 

M: Yeah. We got home, and I was like, "You can sleep on the couch," and he said, "Come up here with me," so I did, and then we went back to my bed. Then we went to lunch and talked about it, because I was freaking out, and he said, "You know, I’ve been attracted to you since [ex] and I broke up." 

R: Oh, wow. 

M: But then he was upset, and he thought it was weird, because he was older, and I used to work for him. That bothered him. And then we talked about it, and we kind of got back to where we were, and it was okay, and it wasn’t awkward, but then Kristen came, in May, and she knew, and he said some things, and then, yeah. 

R: But it never went all the way, right? 

M: ... 

R: Oh. Ohh! <claps her hand over her mouth> It wasn’t on my couch, was it? 

M: No. <giggles> I knew you’d ask that. It wasn’t. 

R: I’d be like, "Eww." <makes a face> So, Kristen, and Lynsey, and me [know]. And NSG. 

M: Oh, and he told B. 

R: I always wondered about that. 

M: About what? 

R: How he acted with B. Because she kissed him, too. 

M: Yeah...he said that didn’t mean anything. 

R: Well, thanks for telling me. 

M: Yeah. I can’t look at you now. 

R: We’ll watch a movie.