Page 62 of The Girlfriend Card
The fact these girls even showed up today is pretty remarkable, considering these scrimmages aren’t sanctioned by the team—per Union rules, the teamcan’trun any sort of practice or training in the off-season. Now, us playerscan get together and have a practice or scrimmage all we want, but it has to be totally optional, and the team can’t run it or observe it in any kind of official capacity.
My point is, because of the optional nature of these skates, very few people even know we’re having them. Only the most die-hard fans hear about them and bother showing up to our practice facility.
The banging on the glass got Brett’s attention. He turned around, shooting a glance at the chicks behind us.
“Dude, what’s with your fan club?” Brett asked. He was a little more tanned than the last time I saw him; he and McKayla, avid hikers, had just gotten back from the mountains for one of their summer excursions.
“Dunno.” I shrugged, my attention on the action on the ice instead. “Been like that all summer.”
“Dakooooota! Hey!”The girls continued to cheer.“We love you!!!!”
“Do you wanna give them your number or anything?” Brett asked curiously. “’Cause damn. Those girls are pretty fine.”
I shook my head. “Nope.”
“No?” His eyes widened with shock. “Whynot?”
“I promised I wouldn’t,” I snarled. “So I’m not going to.”
“Jeez. Okay,” he said with a shrug.
I blew out a heavy breath. I felt bad for acting like a dick, but … I couldn’t tell Showtime the truth, or he’d never let me hear the end of it.
But the truth was …?
I dunno.
I guess I was still a little bent out of shape.
Andno,I don’t wanna say why.
…
Ugh, fine.
Yeah,because of Ottavia, okay.
Obviously, we couldn’t have any kind of future because of who her dad was. But I still couldn’t believe she lied to me about having a boyfriend. I didn’t know why it stung so bad—it’d never stopped me before. And I’d only known Ottavia for a day, really. But I dunno. I guess I thought things were going well—like we were actually getting to know each other pretty quick? Because normally, when I’m with a girl, we’ll flirt and stuff, but we’renever actuallylearningabout each other. With Ottavia, it felt so easy and fun—it just sort of happened naturally, without either of us forcing it. And something inside me started to click, like,oh, this is how it’s supposed to be.
I had so much fun just being around her and talking to her. Obviously, I’m not saying I wanted to marry her or anything—way too soon for that, heh—but she was the kind of sweet, wholesome girl that can make any guy, even a guy like me, start to think:Man, maybe I could actually settle down someday?
Until her boyfriend burst through the door, that is. And all that went up in a puff of smoke.
Chicks, man. They’re really all the same.
I tutted, rolling my eyes with disgust.
Brett and I had gone silent, our heads turning left and right as we tracked the action on the ice.
During a break in the action, I cleared my throat and asked, trying to sound casual, “So, now that you’re back from vacation, how’s BarDown Brewery doing?”
“Good, man. Got a few new beers out, and sales have been through the fucking roof. Honestly, my only regret is that I didn’t do this a long time ago.” He flashed a coy grin at me. “Why? You thinking about starting a biz?”
“Hell no.” I shook my head. “Just curious, is all.”
We went quiet again as play resumed.
What Ireallywanted to know was if Ottavia ever showed up to work as a hostess. I was pretty confident the answer would be no. Although I’d introduced Brett and Ottavia, they never got to exchange information, and neither one had said a word about it to me since. Sure, Brett was living in a cabin in the Rocky Mountains until a few days ago, but he would’ve saidsomethingif she’d showed up, right? And Ottavia was a billionaire heiress. There’sno wayshe actually wanted to work a peasant job. Sheprobably liked the idea of it, sure—but to actually go through with it? Nah.
