Page 7 of Zero Pucks Given
Mason stripped off his shirt and pads. All hockey players were muscular, but this kid wasshreddedin the way only someone straight out of college could be. “Trading a little bit of your time for millions in sponsorship dollars? Yeah, that soundsterrible.”
“Wait until you’re doing them twice a week. They’ll exhaust you.”
“As long as I’m making eight figures?” he replied. “I won’t mind being exhausted. I’ll buy a really nice mattress and hire my own masseuse to massage my shoulders while I sleep.”
“I’m not getting paid extra for this,” I pointed out. “It’s a requirement in my contract.”
“That just means youalreadygot paid for it!” Mason said cheerfully. “You got that big contract two years ago, right? You’re swimming in cash. Now all you have to do is… what? Make an appearance at a car dealership or something?”
“It’s a date,” I gritted out. Even saying it out loud annoyed me. “That big contest they’ve been running.”
Mason’s eyes widened. “Oh, yeah! Shit, what are you complaining about? That’s way more fun than the stuff they make all the other players do.”
“Going on a date against my will isn’t my idea of fun.”
“What if she’s hot?”
“The attractiveness of my date isn’t what I’m worried about,” I said.
He continued like I hadn’t said anything. “This woman might be a total smokeshow and you’re sitting here moping about it. And if it ends up being a shitty date, so what? Think about it, dude. People all around the country go on shitty datesall the time. You’re the only one basically getting paid for it. And yes, youareindirectly being paid since it’s part of that massive contract.”
Mason made a good point, but I wasn’t in the mood to be agreeable. “I don’t need help with my love life.”
He laughed and pointed at me with his stick of deodorant. “Buddy, you never know when fate might deal you a good hand. And if not,you’ve still got youractualhand to fall back on.”
I grunted.
“Get it?” Mason asked, showing me his palm. “I’m talking about jacking off.”
“Thanks for spelling it out for me, kid.”
He grinned. “Any time, Captain!”
Bob from Marketing returned a moment later, an annoyed look on his face. “I’m having a day, so I’m going to make this as clear as possible for you, Grayson. In your contract, you agreed to attend ten marketing events per NHL season, at our discretion. This is one of those events. You were given more than thirty days notice, as required by the San Antonio Surge. My assistant is going to send you all the details for the date this weekend.” He stepped closer to me. “If you fail to attend, you will be violating your contract. I don’t want to get our legal team involved, but honestly, I’m at the point where I don’t want to argue with you anymore, so Ireallyhope you stop fighting us on this.”
Every impulse in my body was screaming at me to defy him. To say no and tell him to fuckallthe way off. Nothing would feel better to me at that exact moment.
But I could tell Bob was out of patience. He was serious. And as much as I hated to go on this insane date, I would hate to get our lawyers involved more.
“Fine,” I said, turning away from the man. “I’ll go on your stupid date. But you can’t make me have a good time.”
5
Josie
“You’re going to havesucha good time!” Sharon insisted from the bedroom.
I was standing in my walk-in closet, trying on clothes for the date. Nothing looked good on me tonight. It didn’t help that I wanted to put on sweatpants and fall asleep on the couch rather than go on this dumb date.
“No matter how often you say that, it doesn’t make it any more true,” I called to her.
“It’s called the power of positive thinking. If you tell yourself you’re going to have a good time, you will!”
“Not everyone is so easily swayed,” I muttered while glancing at my phone. My latest TikTok video had gone live ten minutes ago, and I was anxiously awaiting the number of views and clicks to update. The first hour of a video was the most crucial in terms of getting the algorithm to notice you.
“I don’t understand why you’re so resistant to this,” Sharon said.
“Because I have to fake smile for my job,” I complained. “I don’t want to have to do it in my personal time, too.”
