Page 25 of Heart of Ice

“I know you said you didn’t care when Joel left, but you’d been with him a year. There’s no way it didn’t hurt, and you know nothing about this guy. He could do the same shit and hurt you worse. Who’s to say he won’t be moving on next week?” Jason ranted.

“I’m not leaving, actually I’m very happy working with the Titans and don’t see that changing anytime soon,” Ruben said. “And as for what’s going on between Max and I, that’s really none of your business. As long as it doesn’t cause issues with the team then there’s no reason for you to be involved.”

“He’s my friend, and I’m not going to stand back this time and let him get hurt,” Jason said, and stood toe to toe with Ruben.

“Jason, what the fuck are you doing?” I finally managed to say. “None of this makes any sense. You’ve never cared about anyone I’ve been with before and I don’t judge any of your choices. Why does it matter now?” I gripped his arm and pulled him back from Ruben because he was so worked up, I wasn’t sure what he’d do.

“That motherfucker called me last week to check on you. He told me that he’d made a mistake and wanted to find out if I thought you’d still be interested in him,” Jason blurted.

“Who? Joel?” I asked.

“Yes, he wants you back.”

It all made sense then. Jason did not like being in the middle of relationships, but he and Joel were somewhat friendly even if he wasn’t upset to see him move. Apparently while he hadn’t called me, he’d called Jason and dumped his emotional bullshit on him. “What did you tell him?”

“That you were happy and working hard, but then he asked if you were seeing someone, and it was literally right before you told me you were hot for Doc.” He dragged his hand down his face as the fight drained out of him. “Look, I’m sorry. He kept pressuring me to talk to you and he wouldn’t back off. I guess I just snapped.”

“He made his choices without considering my feelings or what I wanted. As far as I’m concerned, we had nothing, and we won’t have anything in the future. I really like Ruben, and I want to see where things can go, but we’re still getting to know each other. He’s nothing like Joel,” I said, not holding back and not caring who else heard what I said.

“I have no clue who you’re talking about,” Ruben finally said.

“My ex.”

“His ex,” both of us said at the exact same time.

“So, does this mean you’re not going to kill me after all?” Ruben said to Jason.

“Only if you keep calling me Griffin,” he said.

Ruben rolled his eyes before stepping to the door. “You two work this out, I’ll give you some privacy,” he said before walking out and closing the door behind him.

“What the fuck, Jason?”

“Dude, I’m so sorry. Joel has been hammering me nonstop about who you’re seeing and if it’s serious or not. When you told me this morning you were seeing Doc, I guess I really did lose my shit. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to tell you I’d been talking to Joel, or pressure Doc to stay away. God, I’m such an idiot.”

“You’re not an idiot. You were trying to be a good friend. I mean you did it in a stupid way, but I get what your intention was. When did Joel call you?” This sounded exactly like him. He never dealt with anything head-on. It was always planting that seed of suspicion and letting someone else run with it. He was a master manipulator and good at gaslighting. But I hadn’t realized that until he was gone.

“Two days after he moved. At first, he sent me texts. I thought he was just wondering how you were doing but then he acted like he felt really bad about how things ended and that he wanted to get back together with you, and he knew you’d feel the same way. But he needed time to figure out how to talk to you. It stressed me the fuck out because I knew he hurt you when he left.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of Joel.” I wasn’t sure how I’d do that, but I did know I needed to speak to Coach and tell him what happened, so he didn’t think Ruben had anything to do with this. It was all because of Joel, and as soon as I was done here, I’d be calling him to tell him I knew what he was doing and that he was done using Jason to do his dirty work.

Twenty-Three

Ruben

“What the fuck wasthat?” I mumbled to myself as I walked into the exam room where one of the players was waiting for his ice bath. “Brian, can you get him settled?” He nodded while I stepped into the bathroom and threw water on my face. I stood at the sink staring at myself in the mirror and wondered how this shit had even happened.

Max had never mentioned an ex and it didn’t sound like they were that serious, but maybe I was wrong. Or maybe what Maxsaid was the truth, that the asshole had been using his friend to try to get him back. There was a knock at the door before Max walked inside. The bathroom wasn’t large and with his gear on he took up a lot of room even without all his pads. “We need to talk.”

“What was that?” I asked.

“I’m not completely sure. Look, I know I never mentioned Joel, but it wasn’t that I was trying to keep it from you. It’s just that it was over, and he moved to Seattle. I never expected to hear from him again.”

“Did things end badly?”

“No, it just ended. We went out one night and he told me he’d gotten his dream job and was moving to Seattle. He had never mentioned in the year we were together that he was trying to get a job out of town, and he didn’t really care what I thought about him leaving. So, I got over it.”

I hadn’t known Max for long, but I knew he wasn’t a liar, and he wasn’t afraid to admit if he’d done something. So, when he told me how things had ended for them, I had no reason to doubt him and every reason to think his ex was a dick. “I’m going to speak to Coach and tell him there was a misunderstanding that we worked out. He doesn’t need all the details. But you might want to reach out to Joel and tell him I’m not a child and I won’t tolerate his games. If he’s got something to say to me, he needs to speak directly to me. Although I have no clue why he’d even feel the need to do what he did. Why didn’t he just reach out to you?”

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