Page 58 of The Love Penalty
“Olive, you still with me?” Robbie chuckles on the phone. A blush spreads over my face and he smirks over the video call.Busted.
“Hm? I was just thinking about something.”
“I know exactly what you were thinking of.”
“I doubt it,” I say, looking away to hide my smile.
“You. Me. Bathroom. Am I right?” he smirks and I shake my head and laugh.
“I can’t wait to see you next week!” I say, changing the subject into a more tame subject.
“Me too. I forgot to tell you though, Ash and Elias got invited to the All-Star game, so they had to bail out of the trip up north. So it’s just you, me, Alice, and Jordan.”
“Oh, interesting. Do you think they’ll finally get together?”
“Probably not. He literally acts like he doesn’t know her when I’m around and I don’t understand why.”
“Have you tried talking to him?”
“Yeah, but he shuts me down every time. Or finds something convenient he has to do to avoid me. It’s getting kind of annoying.”
“I’m surprised he hasn’t backed out of the trip then.”
“He tried but I told him he has to be there or else,” he says, voice low.
“Oh, sexy.”
“Yeah? Do I need to start telling you what to do?”
“Only in bed.”
“Fuck, Olivia. You’re killing me here,” he says and scrubs a hand down his face.
I laugh and tell him goodnight before ending the call and going to bed, dreaming of the things Robbie would order me to do.
The next dayI have another game to officiate. The Vermont Vortices are playing the Minnesota Moose and while I’m happy it’s a hometown game, I am dreading facing the Vortices again.
“Hey, Olivia, how are you?” one of the linesmen asks me in the locker room as we’re getting ready.
“I’m good, Ben. How was your trip to the west coast?” I ask him, remembering he was in California recently.
“It was a lot of fun, my wife definitely enjoyed the sunshine. And Disneyland was a blast,” he says and I nod my head and smile. Ben is nice, we’ve ended up officiating a lot of games together this season and I’ve been paying more attention in the locker room to the conversations around me.
Before, I felt like an outsider because I was new and I didn’t know anyone, so I kept to myself and listened to music instead of making conversation with the linesmen and the other referee. But after a few weeks, it started to feel lonely, and I realized I needed to bond with my coworkers to better understand their mentality on the ice. After speaking to my mentor Jack about it, he also suggested I become more engaged off the ice.
“So Olivia, you’re a local here, are there any good restaurants around we can go to after the game?” Jackson, the other referee asks.
“Yeah, plenty. My favorite is probably The Logan. It’s mostly a bar, but they have the most amazing hot dogs and fried pickles.”
“Sounds great, we can all head out after the game then. We’ll wait for you so you can show us the way,” Daniel, the second linesmen says, and for a second I’m stunned. They want to hang out with me?
Usually I take my time to shower after the guys are done, so I can have more privacy. They’re willing to wait for me so we can have dinner together?
“Um, yeah, that would be great,” I say, smiling down at my skates. Look at me, making friends. Robbie would be proud. I quickly send him a text to let him know the game is about to start and that I got invited to dinner afterwards and he immediately replies with a series of celebratory emojis. I love how supportive he is, even when he’s being silly.
The game is pretty intense and it even goes into overtime, so by the time we’re back in the locker room we are all tired and hungry.
“That was a great call on Mitchell, Olivia. I can’t believe some of the shit that guy tries to pull every game. It’s like he has no respect for other players, or the game,” Jackson says and then Ben and Daniel nod along in agreement.
