Page 48 of A Little Too Forward

“No. I think I was already gone by this point. It’s the last day, but this definitely wasn’t outlined in any of my notes.”

Max starts talking again, and we both go silent.

“Sabrina Sutton was my neighbour and friend growing up. We were two grades apart, but that never stopped us from trying to one-up each other. Even then, she was fierce. And opinionated.” He laughs at the apt description of me. “Still is. But she was also the only person who would tell me the absolute truth.”

“What do you mean by that?” a voice asks, one I don’t recognize.

“I was seventeen and heading to the Junior League. I’d had a good year but was lucky to have made it to the team. Everyone was building me up, telling me I was destined for great things. How this was a sign of the things to come. And fifteen-year-old Sabrina comes marching up to me and tells me I suck. She said, ‘If you think this is as great as you’re gonna get, then you’re never gonna make it. You gotta keep aiming higher. Trying your very best each day.’”

He shrugs, a huge smile spreading across his face at the memory. “And she was right. I’m a better man for having been humbled by her.”

“I can’t believe he remembers that. Do you remember that?” My sister asks, not looking away from the screen.

“I remember calling him an idiot a lot back then, but no, not that.”

“Do you think you and Sabrina are closer now, having done this documentary together?” the unknown interviewer asks.

The look on his face has me clutching my chest. It’s a mischievous smile, a knowing one.

“Don’t you dare,” I say to the screen, praying that he won’t say anything inappropriate.

“Yes. Sharing this experience with her has been amazing. I thought I loved her before this all began, but that feeling was nothing compared to what I feel now. She’ll probably kill me for saying that I love her in this documentary, but there it is. The whole point of this was for people to get to know the man off the ice. It’s only fair they learn about the woman I love and want to spend the rest of my life with.”

“Shut the fuck up.” My arms shoot out to my sister, grabbing her with a bruising hold. “Did he just say that? No, he did not just say that.”

“He definitely, a thousand percent just said that. Oh my God. Sabrina!”

Jumping up from the sofa, I begin to pace. My hands get caught in my tangled hair when I try to drag them through. I want to be mad at the public revelation, I really do. How dare he tell the public he loves me before telling me—to my actual face!

But I’m feeling relieved more than anything. He loves me too! He took a chance by admitting it on his documentary, but he’d been brave and took his shot.

Now, it’s time for me to be brave too.

“I gotta go,” I tell my sister as I’m running to the door and grabbing my winter jacket. “Let yourself out. Don’t touch my chocolate pretzels. I’m saving those for—ah!”

I yank open the door and scream. There’s someone at my door, fist held up to knock.

“What the fuck are you doing here?”

It’s Max.

“Damn, I thought I timed it right. Are you watching the pre-screening?”

Suzanne comes running from the other side of the apartment, thinking I’m in trouble. When she sees Max, she also screams, but her scream is more excitement than fear.

“Oh my God! He’s here! He’s here, Sabrina!” She grabs my arm so tight I wince, but I never take my eyes off Max. Then, she suddenly stops. “He’s here. So I should go.”

“Yes, you should.”

My attention goes back to Max, and I gaze at him as my sister frantically grabs her things, then runs past us to my building’s elevators. Pulling him into the apartment, I keep my hands twisted in his jacket.

“You’re an idiot,” I tell him, a hint of a smile giving away how I really feel.

“So you did see the pre-screening.”

“I did. You were a little too forward in my opinion.”

“Well, it is my favourite position on the ice. I thought I should give it a try on solid ground.”

---