Page 9 of You Had Me at Hockey

“It’s good to be here.”

I sense the lack of sincerity in his words. Hmmm.

“Come on back.” Oliver leads the way to the soundproof studio where we’ll record the podcast. It’s small but comfortable, with a round table, two chairs, and microphones set up on the table. At one end of the room is the sound equipment, which I know nothing about, where Oliver will sit while we record.

Josh and I take seats. “Get comfortable,” I tell him, pulling out my iPad. “We’ll get started in a few minutes.”

He doesn’t look comfortable. He looks like he’d rather shoot pucks at me than talk to me right now.

Oliver moves around turning things on, then does a sound check, and we’re ready to go.

I’ve got notes on my iPad, and I start with a shout-out to the sponsor of this podcast. “Random Acts of Sara is brought to you by TicketTalk. TicketTalk is the Web’s largest event ticket search engine. Discover events you love, search all ticket sites, see seat locations, and get the best deals on tickets. It’s the only ticket app you need, and you can get it in the App Store or on Google Play. I love TicketTalk because you can get tickets to anything—Broadway plays, concerts, sporting events. Aaaaand…speaking of sporting events, my guest today is NHL player Josh Heller. Josh was recently traded from the Dallas Stars to the New York Bears, so he’s ours now, and ladies, let me tell you, we arehappyto have him here in NYC.”

A hint of red spreads across Josh’s cheeks. Adorable.

“Yes, I’m sitting right here with him in the studio, live and in person. Welcome to the podcast, Josh.”

He’s obviously experienced at speaking into microphones. His voice is deep and modulated. “Thanks for having me, Sara.”

He said my name. I like that.

Focus.

He looks uncomfortable, but he comes across as casual and at ease.

“This is my first professional athlete podcast interview, so I’m pretty amped about this. I have to admit I don’t know a lot about hockey, or any other sport for that matter, although I’ve been to a lot of Super Bowl parties.”

Josh smiles reluctantly.

Score! I got a smile out of him!

“Why don’t they have Stanley Cup parties?” I wonder aloud.

“Well, I guess it would be because the Super Bowl always falls on the same day, but the Stanley Cup playoffs happen over weeks and nobody knows when the last game will be until the end. But I think people do party during the Stanley Cup playoffs, especially if their team is in the playoffs.”

“Good point. We all know when the Super Bowl is going to be a year ahead of time. So you’ve just moved to New York. What’s the first thing you did when you got here?”

“I went and bought a warmer jacket.”

I laugh. “Yeah, January in New York calls for warm outerwear. What are some things you want to check out now you’re living here?”

He rubs his jaw. “Geez, I don’t know. My schedule’s pretty busy. But at some point I’d like to visit the 9/11 Memorial and also One World Trade Center.”

I nod. “Well, I did not expect that.”

“Why?”

“Hey, I’m the interviewer here.” I give him a sly smile. “I ask the questions.”

“Uh…”

“I’m kidding! We’re having a conversation. I’m just surprised because you’re an athlete and I thought you’d want to do something more…athletic.”

“Well, I’d also like to go to a New York Yankees game.”

I smile. “That’s more what I expected to hear.”

He smiles back. Some kind of vibrating connection stretches between us. Damn, even though he doesn’t show it much, he has a nice smile. And teeth.

---