Page 39 of Zero Pucks Given
Josie
It was a strange feeling, getting exactly what you wanted.
The team honored their end of the contract, depositing ten grand into my bank account. I paid off my car loan and put the rest into a savings account for a rainy day.
My TikTok channel wasthriving. I was getting forty thousand views on every video, no matter when I posted them. It actually felt like each video was worthwhile, rather than me shouting into the cavernous void that was the internet. Between my paychecks from my day job, and revenue from affiliate makeup sales, I actually felt like I had acomfortableamount of income.
And I didn’t have to go out with Grayson anymore.
Literally every aspect of my life was going great.
So why was I so unhappy?
It had been a month since the Surge confirmed that my contract was complete, yet I couldn’t get Grayson out of my head. It didn’t help that he was one of the biggest celebrities in town. His face was on no fewer thanthreebillboards between my house and the Frost Bank Center. He starred in a deodorant commercial that played at least once during every hockey or basketball game. When I went to the DMV torenew my driver’s license, there were two guys in line in front of me wearing #11 Steele jerseys.
Even now, while I was sipping wine at a restaurant, the game was on a television behind the bar to my left. Every time they zoomed in on him, Grayson’s chiseled face appeared in my periphery.
“Hey,” the guy across from me said. “You there, Josie?”
I gave myself a shake. “Sorry, I got distracted. You were talking about the new models coming out this year?”
My date flashed a too-easy smile. A car salesman’s smile. “Oh yeah, they’re going to be killer. I’m telling you, Honda is doing some really cool stuff in the mid-size range. For example…”
I’d met this guy on Hinge. He was tall, handsome, and had a stable job that paid well. He ticked all the boxes I looked for when deciding whether to take a date back to my place after dinner. He was, hands down, the best Hinge partner I’d had in a very long time.
But he wasboring. Everything he said rubbed me the wrong way. It was like he was too nice, too agreeable, if there even was such a thing. And the cherry on top: we didn’t have any sort of sexual connection.
I smiled and finished my wine, grateful that we had only agreed to sharing a drink rather than a full meal. We said goodbye outside, shared an awkward hug, then parted ways.
I didn’t feel like going straight home, so I stopped at a sports bar two blocks from my apartment. The hockey game was playing on a projector on the wall—they featured all the games here, and most of the customers filling the dark room were wearing Surge jerseys.
After grabbing a seat at the bar and ordering a beer, I turned my eyes toward the game. There was a nervous energy in the bar because the Surge were going into overtime. The camera zoomed in on Grayson, who stood at center ice with a determined look on his face while they waited for the overtime period to begin.
Why the hell was this guy sticking to the inside of my mind like a bad smell? Wehatedeach other. Sure, we’d shared a hot kiss on oursecond date, but it wasn’t real. It was an act to make our date look convincing for the fans.
It didn’tfeelfake. That was the problem.
And like a sore spot in my mouth that wouldn’t heal, I kept prodding the memory with my tongue. Seeing if it still stung.
Suddenly, the bar noise rose dramatically. “Steele takes the puck, shaking off one defender. Now two. He’s on a breakaway, nothing but ice between him and the goaltender, he shoots… GOAL!”
The bar erupted with cheers and shouts of victory, everyone throwing their hands in the air and high-fiving in celebration. The victory put a smile on my face, and I told myself it was because the bartender was giving everyone a free round.
By the time my free beer arrived, Grayson was being interviewed on the ice after the game.
“There’s been a lot of talk lately about the Surge’s performance leading up to the playoffs, including your own individual stats,” the interviewer asked. “But you looked sharp out on the ice tonight, finishing with two assists and the game-winning goal. What was different tonight that led to this important victory?”
A tingling sensation filled my core when Grayson’s face appeared on the screen, larger than life. “This is a streaky game, so there’s going to be stretches where we struggle. I just try to put my head down and focus on the things we can control. I’ve had a lot on my mind for the past month, but tonight I was finally able to shut it out and devote all of my energy into winning hockey games.”
As he stared at the camera with those impossibly-green eyes, it felt like he was looking directly into my soul. Speaking to me and nobody else.
And this time, his confidence didn’t seem annoyingly cocky. I actually found myselfsmilingat him along with everyone else in the bar.
“So it feels good to end the road trip on a high note?” theinterviewer asked.
“It sure does. Looking forward to flying back to Texas, and finishing the season in front of our home fans before the playoffs begin.”
Then he did something that simultaneously infuriated me and made my core tingle with warmth.
