Page 32 of Behind the Bench

Ellie shakes her head before leaning back in her chair tomirror my pose. “Nothing. I’m just wondering who spear-headed this whole thing and went to HR.” She quirks her eyebrow up and makes a slight “hmm” sound.

“Your guess is as good as mine,” I say before I tip my head back and close my eyes.

Ellie hums again and that’s the end of the conversation.

Last night, Hunter and I ended up discussing the Grayson situation more in depth than I’d like. It turns out, Hunter has heard Grayson say some pretty nasty shit about not only Ellie, but also Sloane, our female trainer, and Lucy, the head of PR. We both decided that enough was enough and we made a plan to inform HR.

We spent the night reaching out to the players and were surprised that eight of them had heard Grayson make derogatory comments to females on staff. We asked them to shoot us an email with details of when and where the comments were made so we could form a paper trail.

It turns out two of our male trainers and one of our play by play game announcers had their own stories to tell as well. One of the male trainers even contacted one of Grayson’s targets on staff, and she shot us an email detailing multiple encounters with him.

We were lucky to get in touch with everyone last night, thank god everyone was awake, even though it had been late when we contacted them. It felt too important to wait until morning. We drafted an email at the bar and shot it off to Becky, the head of HR. My phone rang less than ten minutes later. She was absolutely appalled, and told us she would be in touch with Jerry as soon as possible. That was at almost midnight. I never imagined it would happen so fast. When I got Jerry’s email this morning, Grayson never even crossed my mind. Becky works fast. I like it.

I’m glad Grayson won’t be around to torment our female staff members any longer. I also fully intend to make good on my promise to him that I’ll make his life a living hell now.There’s no way the local news and gossip sites don’t catch wind of this story. And I’ll make damn sure every single one of my contacts within the NHL reads the news articles. Grayson Sanders will never coach another day in the NHL if I have anything to do with it.

Lincoln is slumped back in his chair with his arms behind his head, biceps bulging, looking like a damn snack in that charcoal suit.

“Your guess is as good as mine,” he says before closing his eyes, ending the conversation.

I shake my head and laugh quietly. I hum to myself before picking up my phone to text Sadie the shocking, but also amazing, news. She had way less to drink than me last night, so she should be up by now. Probably meditating on my balcony, if I had to guess.

Well, Grayson got fired.

Sadie

SHUT THE FRONT DOOR! About damn time.

*Selfie of Sadie on my balcony silently screaming with her hand in the air*

Did I interruptyour meditation?

Sadie

I was just about done. My ears started ringing and the universe told me something was about to happen so I ended my session. Not 10 seconds later did you text me with that amazing news.

I can’t help it. I snort. This girl is too damn much.

I look up to see Lincoln glaring at me. “I’m sorry. Did I interrupt your nap over there, Coach?”

He proceeds to shut his eyes but doesn’t say a word. Well, alrighty then.

I think Lincoln knows who went to HR about Grayson but he says he has no idea.

Sadie

I’d bet my left tit that it was him or Hunter.

Just the left one?

I see the three dots letting me know Sadie is typing but as I’m waiting for her response, Jerry makes his way back into the conference room.

That was a quick phone call.

My phone buzzes in my hand as I flip it over onto the table at the same time Lincoln sits up, pretending he wasn’t taking a little cat nap.

He really should sleep instead of sending me emails all night.

“Well, Becky is fully on board with promoting Hunter to assistant coach.”

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