Page 55 of Jaded

Holy Moses.

I know who they are. Whoheis.

“Nat?” I come to a dead standstill, because how the Moses is this guy always everywhere I’m trying to be? I go get a salad at a bar—boom. I start a new job—thar he be. I go party my socks off—whadda you know.

And now—

“Olli?” Nat’s brows lift towards the backwards brim of his hat, his green eyes rounded with surprise. My name escapes the O of his lips on a white-cloud puff of breath. “How . . . don’t you have practice today?”

“Not tillafternoon.” I shrug, resume my pace towards the doors. It’s cold out here. “Hey, Syd. Avery. Dude, how are you up this early? You were puking like five hours ago.”

“I was puking like twenty minutes ago.” He grins. “But I’m not missing hockey.”

“Me neither,” Syd agrees.

“Good man.” I tilt two fingers against my forehead in a salute. Nat slides ahead to pull open the door, and I wave Syd and Avery in ahead of me. “After you.”

Syd takes the lead, Avery behind. Which gives me a brief window of opportunity to lean in close to Nat.

“Wait, do you skate things that aren’t”—I drop my voice to a stage whisper—“the Ice Out?”

“Sometimes.” He waves me through the door ahead of him—aww what a gentleman! “I think my being here is less weird than you being here.”

“Well . . . okay.” I slide past him into the rink. “Probably. But still. It’s five in the damn morning.”

“So? You’re here.”

“I have ADHD. And anxiety. Sleep is a pipe dream. Why are you here?” I let my gaze trail ahead towards where Syd and Avery are already halfway down the hall. “With the entourage, no less.”

He rolls his eyes. “I’m as surprised as you that they actually made it. Normally, my kid would be asleep until noon on a Saturday.”

“Which is why you’d be here.”

“Yep. Only chance I get to skate.” He ticks off items on his fingers. “It’s Saturday, so my kid will be asleep until noon . . . Dingoes don’t have morning practice, so no work . . . and I don’t have any active repo jobs.”

We pause beside the notification board on the wall opposite the door to check locker room assignments.

“Wow, they actually listed the ladies’ locker room!” Syd jabs a finger at the board. “You know how exciting that is?”

“Gotta be Bobby,” Nat says. “I’ve yelled at him enough for not having a girls’ room for you.”

“Bobby’s terrified of you.” Syd laughs, and she and Avery scurry off down the hall. Nat and I follow, a few feet behind.

And naturally, I talk. “Repo, like repossession, right? Like . . . picking up cars after people stop making payments?”

“Yeah.” He winces, then turns down the locker room hall. “I don’t love it, trust me. But I’ve been doing it since just after high school, so my buddy and I are trying to get our own business going.”

“Oh. Nice.” Another surprising thing to add to Nat’s repertoire of things I wouldn’t have expected from the backwards-hat guy at the bar. “You know, I think the knuckle tats and scabs would make for a great repo guy.”

He huffs out a light laugh. “Yeah, I guess so. I’m not usually trying to intimidate people, though.”

He pushes into the locker room, and the conversation dies off as we slide into the warmth. There’s already a small crowd gathered, most of them older guys. One or two seem to be in the thirty-something range, and there’s a surprising two that might even be younger.

Avery, however, is definitely the youngest. He sits a little ways off, by himself, his bag opened to spill its innards across the rubber flooring.

“Yo, Taylor!” someone calls, setting off a chorus of greetings. Clearly, everyone’s in favor of Nat’s presence.

I lift a hand as I follow Nat into the back, where Avery’s seated. “I’m Olli. New guy in town, just looking for a place to skate.”

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