Page 6 of Power Play
She gives me a tight nod and thins her lips. "I'll call you. It'd be nice to catch up." Her response is guarded and wary. But fuck if my heart doesn't feel a sparkle of hope. I stick my tongue in my cheek, trying to hide my smile, and watch her as she walks down the hall with Ward and around the corner.
I throw my fist in the air. The universe doesn’t hand out second chances often, and I’ll be damned if I let this one slip through my fingers. Not again.
Never again.
Chapter five
Lacey
Idon't call Ben.
His number's on the team roster. It'd be easy enough to find. But what the hell would I say over dinner? How are you? I'm still in love with you? Wanna try again?
It's been eight years. He could be a completely different person. Fame and fortune could have gone to his head. Is he a fuckboy now? We grew up in a tiny town in Vermont. Now he's surrounded by gorgeous women every time they go out. I'm sure he's got a dozen women throwing themselves at him every day.
I check in with my gut - something I learned to do early on. I considered if I wanted to go out to dinner with him and catch up. And the answer is emphatically 'no'. Between the interview process, flying to North Carolina, moving everything I own (which, granted, wasn't a lot), the sinus infection I picked up from the airplane and starting a new job? My heart already feels flayed open and vulnerable. If we go out to dinner and he tells me he's married, or if he's changed, or anything I don't want to hear, I'm not sure I could take it.
For right now, I want to hold on to Ben from the past. The thoughtful, sweet, open, caring boy that I loved. Because I'm not sure I'll love Ben the Man, and if Ben the Man turns out to be a douche, I don't want it to change how I loved Ben the Boy.
I know I'll have to work with him. We'll be traveling together, working together. I'll be watching him practice and perform and helping Coach Ward keep him healthy and at the top of his game.
And that will have to be enough. Maybe down the road, when things have settled a little, I'll reconsider that dinner. But my intuition is telling me now isn't the right time.
I'm walking down the long hallway to the gym, ready to start my first full day of work.
"Bestie!!" I hear, and my heart drops into my stomach.
Noooooo. No. No. No. No. No! This can't be happening.After a heartbeat of denial, my body floods with adrenaline and my fight-or-flight response kicks in.
I turn just in time to see my sister, Tracey, throw herself into my arms. Not just my sister, my twin.
I pull her off of me, holding her shoulders so I can look her in the eye. "Tracey? What are you doing here?"
I notice her Titans polo and khakis.No. This can't possibly be happening.
"I work here, silly! Isn't that great?"
No. It's not fucking great. It's a fucking nightmare. The headache from my sinus infection doubles and I grab her roughly by the arm, pulling her into a storage room. Flipping on the light, I turn on her.
"What the fuck do you mean you work here? Doing what?!"
"Social media management," she says with smug confidence. Her smile is sickly sweet. Bile churns in my stomach.
"You don't know anything about social media management!"
"Yeah, but they don't know that." She scoffs like I'm the biggest idiot in the world, and people lie on their resumes every day.
"Did you lie on your resume?"
"I figure if teenagers can do it, I can figure it out."
"Tracey! This is a professional NHL team. You can't just lie on your resume! This shit impacts the entire organization!"
She shrugs off my concern. "It's just TikTok and Instagram. Who cares?"
"Everyone!" I whisper-scream at her.
This is a fucking nightmare. She's going to fuck something up and get me fired. They're going to find out she lied, and it'll reflect on me somehow. They'll think I lied on my resume. My entire schooling, my entire career. She's going to ruin it all. And I'll never get another job with another professional team.
