Page 21 of Puck Me Twice

“This is legitimate?” she asks.

My stomach twists as I nod again.

“How long?”

“Long enough.”

She sighs. “Van, he’s a player.”

“I know.”

“I mean, if management finds out…”

They’ll protect his job, she’s saying. They won’t do the same for mine.

“They’ll find out sooner or later. We’re not hiding it.” I nod to the official paperwork. “It’s all above-board. We’re legitimate now. Dating.”

It’s not supposed to be a big deal.

So why is my stomach fluttering?

“You’re sure you want to do this?” Jacky asks. Concern is sketched on her face.

“I like him,” I say simply. “The front office may not like it, but they didn’t say it couldn’t happen.”

Nobody has to ever know that it’s not real.

Right?

eight

. . .

Vanessa

A groan fills the bar. I scoff, and Bex rolls her eyes.

“Get with the program, babe,” she teases. “It’s Saturday. It’s time to watch college football.”

We’re at a Michigan bar in Charlestown, and even though it’s nice to be surrounded by the maize and blue, I’m not really feeling it.

“Yeah, well, there’s a hockey game on.” I turn my attention back to the game on my phone. It’s much more interesting, especially because my college football team is out of the playoff picture. After winning the national championship twice in five years (including my senior season), the guys have played particularly poorly the last few years.

“Okay, bitch. Please. We need to talk,” Elsy cuts in. “I love hockey. You know I do. But you can’t seriously be watching your boy-toy play rather than hanging out here with us and enjoying the evening.”

“I am enjoying the evening,” I mutter.

“I love Mitch with my whole heart. I do,” she says. “But if it came down to watching him play, or living my life? I’d live my damn life, every fucking time. Because I’m worth more than living vicariously through him. He doesn’t define my life. I’m worth living for me.”

“That’s different. Mitch is your best friend. Sven is…”

“He’s not the only person in the world,” Bex says gently. “I don’t care if you’re dating or whatever, he doesn’t own you. We still get part of you, too.”

“I work for the team. It’s not just watching my ‘boy-toy’ as you call him. It’s keeping up with my job.”

It’s been two weeks since Sven and I “started dating,” as I phrased it to my friends. Not much has changed. I go to work, I do my job, I come home. We don’t talk at the training facility. He’s busy with his own stuff.

It almost feels anti-climactic. Like… this is it? I just go back to my regular life?