Page 84 of Off-Limits as Puck

“When she was around. When you had something worth playing for beyond just not getting sent down.” His voice gets serious. “And you know when you’ve been at your worst?”

I don’t answer because we both know.

“Since you’ve been trying to stay away from her. Since you’ve been fighting what you actually want instead of fighting for it.”

“It doesn’t matter what I want. She’s destroying her career for—”

“For what? For you? Or for the possibility of something real in a world full of fake bullshit?”

“She lost her job, Dez. Her father won’t speak to her. She’s getting death threats from hockey fans who think she’s a home-wrecker.”

“And you’re getting blacklisted from the only career you’ve ever known. So what? You’re both adults who made choices.”

“Bad choices.”

“Says who? Your coach? The media? Random assholes in bars?” He stands, pacing to my window. “You know what I think? I think you’re both so scared of disappointing people who don’t actually matter that you’re willing to disappoint yourselves.”

“It’s not that simple.”

“It is that simple. You love her. She loves you. Everything else is just noise.”

“You don’t know that she—”

“Dude. Everyone knows. The way she looked when they talked about transferring you. The way you’ve been playing since she’s been gone. Whatever it is, it’s real. The question is whether you’re going to fight for it or let it die because other people think it’s inconvenient.”

He heads for the door, leaving me with thoughts I’m not ready to process.

“For what it’s worth,” he says at the threshold, “I’d rather have a teammate who fights too hard for something real than one who doesn’t fight at all for anything.”

After he leaves, I sit in my destroyed apartment and stare at my phone. Still no messages from Chelsea. Still radio silence from the one person whose opinion actually matters.

But Dez’s words echo in the quiet:You’re better when she’s around. You’re worse when you’re not.

Can’t argue with that.

The question is whether being better together is worth the chaos we create apart.

Whether love really can survive when the whole world wants it to fail.

Whether fighting for her is worth losing everything else.

My reflection in the dark window doesn’t have answers. Just split knuckles and the taste of tequila and regret.

But for the first time since this started, I’m not thinking about what I’m losing.

I’m thinking about what I’m willing to fight for.

32

Legal documents arrive at seven AM like hangover cure—unwanted but effective at forcing you back to reality.

I’m still in yesterday’s clothes, surrounded by empty wine glasses and the debris of my pathetic life, when the courier buzzes my apartment. The envelope bears the logo of Chicago’s most expensive law firm, the kind that charges more per hour than most people make in a month.

CEASE AND DESIST ORDER

The letterhead alone makes my hands shake. Eighteen pages of legal jargon that boil down to one simple message: shut up or we’ll destroy what’s left of you.

...engaging in conduct detrimental to the Chicago Outlaws organization...

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