Page 75 of Hockey Bois
“What!?”
“How dare—?”
“They might be up for a threesome, though,” Brady said.
Both Lexi and Donno’s jaws dropped.
“I, uh—I mean—”
“Not that I—I—”
“Awww, you broke them.” She polished off the beer in one long swig. “C’mon, boys. Let’s go talk in private.”
She walked off with all the confidence of a woman used to being followed. Lexi and Donno did a comic double-take: they stared after her longingly, looked to each other, then back toward her.
It was Lexi who broke first as he raced after her. “Wait up!”
“Me too!” Donno said, not far behind.
“How is it I’ve been your D partner for nearly two years,” Gail said, “and you have never set me up with any hot friends?”
“I don’t have any hot friends.”
Gail glared at Brady.
“Except you?” he offered.
Young Greg continued staring after Lexi and Donno, brow furrowed in confused admiration. “What’s the team policy on hooking up with teammates, anyway?” he asked. “And what’s the etiquette on asking them for deets about that tomorrow?”
Mags made a face. “Never come up before, I don’t think. Too many guys on the team for it to matter.”
“What doesthathave to do with anything?!” Young Greg asked incredulously.
“Who we supposed to hook up with?”
“Bro, that’s super heteronormative of you. Like, everyone on the team is fuckable, and if you’re saying otherwise, you’re blind AF.”
“You’re both idiots,” Gail said, thankfully de-escalating the ridiculous argument. “For very different reasons, but yeah. Jensie, as Alternate Captain, you got any team bylines to bring up?”
Brady looked uncomfortable as he fidgeted in his seat and wouldn’t meet anyone’s eye. “No policy,” he mumbled. “Probably a bad idea?”
“Oh, for sure that’s a bad idea.” Young Greg laughed. He pointed after where Donno and Lexi had disappeared with Aimes. “Thatis a disaster waiting to happen. Like, at least they don’t play on the same line or something, but they’re not gonna be able to look each other in the eye tomorrow.”
“You speaking from your vast experience?” GG asked.
“I mean, like, notpersonalexperience—”
“All right, kids,” Gail said. She got up and stretched before pulling her hood over her hair. “I hate to dip out on an ongoing party, but I’m exhausted and would rather win tomorrow than drink more today.”
“Gail’s right. Benns will kill us if he finds out we stayed out past ten,” Mags said.
“Kill us?” Guy asked. “You mean send a strongly worded message talking about how disappointed he is in us, then spin it into a positive we can rally around?”
“Yeah, that’s what I said.”
Everyone slowly prepared to leave. Brady and Nick lingered behind, and Nick waited until after the goodbyes.
“You all right?” he asked when they were alone.
