Page 3 of Game Changer

“Is that a yes?”

“It’s an I’ll think about it.”

“That’s a yes.”

Is that a yes?AJ wondered to himself.Has he tricked me?

AJ had recently broken up with his long-term girlfriend, Ange. As a result, he had become wary of meeting new women. Despite the early warning signs that she was a materialistic and an overall unpleasant woman, he had fallen for her, and he fell hard. He had tried to be everything he thought she needed, but, as it happened, it seemed all she wanted was the street-cred that came from dating the hockey team’s enforcer and, of course, gifts. He’d eventually seen the error of his ways, the reality of her treating him like trash, and they parted. Ange was now dating the captain of another, rival team, while AJ had been left with a broken heart and a lot of skepticism.

“Maybe,” he told Jeremy as they left money on the table for the check. “Give me back my phone, would you? I’ll try and find her on Facebook and get an idea of what she’s like. What’s her name, anyway?”

“Her name is Lisa. Lisa Millar.” Jeremy smiled knowingly. “If she lived in ‘Bama, you could totally marry her. I’m pretty sure she’s your kinda ten – and that’s without even knowing what she looks like.”

“Where do you even get these ideas from? Didn’t you just say you had no idea how she rated?”

“I lied. I gots good instincts,” Jeremy answered proudly.

“Yeah? Then how do you explain that choice of shirt?”

As soon as they left the diner and climbed into Jeremy’s car, AJ made the very deliberate decision to put the Irish girl out of his head. He had no intention of talking to her. Or anyone, for that matter. He had no interest in talking to a new woman any time soon. Ange had broken his heart and distracted him from his studies, and his hockey. He’d resolved to keep his head down and to concentrate on the things that mattered most: getting his degree and playing the game he loved.

Jeremy, though, refused to let it drop.

“I think you’d like her.”

“’Cause you’ve met her?”

“Chels says–”

AJ held up a hand to silence him and turned up the volume on the radio. Despite only having met on the first day in college, AJ hoped that Jeremy had been his best friend for long enough to know not to push the matter any further. AJ leaned his back against the passenger seat to enjoy the moment of peace. Or at least, what he thought would be peace. But Jeremy just got louder.

“Dude, you can’t say she’s not hot. I can see her profile picture on your screen from here.” Jeremy hollered over the music as he drove. “You don’t even need her to be hot to talk to her online – that’s bonus hot. What harm would it do to talk to her? Everyone needs more friends, right? What does she list as her interests?”

AJ sighed, turned the music back down to an acceptable level for conversation and read from Lisa’s profile. “She looks like she has a lot of friends. She likes a bunch of pretty good musicians, couple hockey teams, baking and cooking pages and she’s in college.”

“Oh? What’s she studying?”

“Politics.”

“Interesting. So she’s smart, too? Anything public on her Facebook profile?”

“Life. General stuff. Seems to be mostly recipes, hockey and traveling.”

“So, she reallyisa music-loving hockey girl?” Jeremy asked, the hope returning to his voice.

“It would seem so, yes,” AJ answered scrolling through Lisa’s profile photos. He scrunched up his face.

“What? What’s wrong?”

“She’s an Oilers fan.”

“So is a rather large chunk of Alberta, man.Someone’sgot to support them. It’s kinda sweet of her, really. Charitable, even. She’s clearly a humanitarian.”

AJ laughed. “True story.”

“You know you can’t really comment, right? You’re a Leafs’ fan.”

“Shut up, hoser.” AJ went quiet.

---