Page 91 of Off The Ice

She looked up as if surprised I was still there and even more shocked that I was talking to her.

“Of course.” She laughed. “My family always had season tickets. I’ve been going to games before I could even talk.”

I didn’t doubt it. It’s how it was for a lot of Boston families. Something about New Englanders made their loyalty to sports teams run thicker than blood.

“Do you happen to know anything about the fight Liam got into the other night?”

She snorted. “I doubt it happened at all. Liam Brynn hasneverbeen the type to start a fight on the ice, never mindoffof the ice, with a fan of all people.”

“It was a fan he fought?”

“I just told you, I doubt it even happened,” she responded, shooting me a scathing look. “I can’t possibly think of any reason why he would’ve punched some guy after winning a game. It’s just not like him.”

The way she spoke about him rubbed me the wrong way. As if she knew him. A feeling twisted in my gut. Oh my God, was itjealousy? It shouldn’t be. He wasn’t mine. What did I care if she had some weird parasocial obsession with him?

“Maybe it was over his new girlfriend,” the girl next to her, Kendra, chirped.

I felt like I was in an elevator that just dropped ten floors without warning.

“His—” I stuttered, blinking. “His girlfriend?”

Marissa frowned. “Well, that wasn’t confirmed yet, either.”

Was Maggie wrong? Did he actually have more interest in women than he let on?

“I mean, there was a picture of them on Twitter,” Kendra responded. “Isn’t that enough?”

Maybe it was someone he met at an away game. Maybe he was just super private about his dating life. After hearing the way my coworkers were discussing him, I would be too if I were him.

“It’s not like they were making out in the picture!” Marissa retorted, irritated. “Besides, it was so blurry you couldn’t even see anything. It might’ve been some random waitress he was having a conversation with.”

“There aren’t any waitresses inThe Trap,” Kendra pointed out, and the realization hit me like a truck.

The Trap. The redhead sitting with him at the booth. Was that his girlfriend?

“What was the picture of?” I asked, voice airy as I felt the oddest, most unreasonable pang of sadness.

“It was actually really cute,” Kendra said, “He was leaning into her, bending down to hear what she was saying. He looked way taller than her, which is super hot.”

Marissa frowned into her yogurt.

“Well, I doubt it’ll last,” she said, mostly to Kendra. “He’s an NHL player. I doubt he’ll be content to settle down with the first girl he’s been photographed with.”

“You’re just jealous becauseyouwant him.” Kendra laughed.

“So what if I do? I have a better chance than most people after him.Iactually like hockey, and I go to games all the time, so it’s not super unrealistic that I might bump into him.”

“You’d be the cutest NHL wife,” Kendra gushed in agreement.

I snorted, thinking that Marissa seemed like the last person in the world to be Liam’s type.

Or was that just this bitter jealousy talking, fueling with me an anger that I couldn’t suppress?

Why didn’t hetellme he had a girlfriend? Was it because he felt bad about kicking me out of the apartment since he knew I’d leave if I knew?

Feeling flustered and sick of the conversation happening around me, I walked out of the breakroom.

I walked a few steps, then paused to lean against the wall, waiting to regain control of my emotions before setting off to teach a group of five-year-olds.

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