Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 57866 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 289(@200wpm)___ 231(@250wpm)___ 193(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 57866 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 289(@200wpm)___ 231(@250wpm)___ 193(@300wpm)
I’d offended her by telling her to relax the other day. I didn’t mean it the way she took it, but that didn’t matter. When we had dinner, I would need to tread more carefully. Show her I was someone she could relax around and be comfortable with.
“I call Jason Nestor,” Colby said. “That prick is so easy to start shit with.”
“No one gets to call anyone,” I said. “We’re all supposed to start as much shit with as many people as we can.”
“It’s going to be so obvious,” my teammate Locke said. “I’ll feel like a wrestler, faking fights and shit.”
“It’s only fake if both people know it,” Colby said. “I’m not faking when the other guy is throwing real punches. Fuck that.”
“I did hear our season ticket sales went way down this season,” another teammate, Owen, said.
“Yeah?” I gave him an amused look. “Did you hear that from the chick in the front office you’re banging?”
“You heard about that?”
“Everyone heard about it. You’re ballsy for fucking her in her office, man.”
Owen balked. “I didn’t, man. I swear. We’ve only hooked up at her place, my place, and there was one time in my car. Who said we fucked in her office?”
“Jeremy from the Sales Department,” Colby said. “He’s the one who told me.”
“That’s bullshit. He’s just trying to get her fired because he’s an asshole.”
“You should talk to someone in HR if you’re dating her,” I said. “If Mila finds out and she’s in a mood, you never know what she’ll do.”
“Eh.” Owen shrugged. “We’re not really dating, just hooking up.”
My dad had told us horror stories about seemingly innocuous decisions like banging a coworker going wrong. His life lessons were often about steering clear of legal trouble.
“It’ll be your ass if she loses her job over it,” I said.
“You think?”
“It could be. You’re not likely to get canned. It’d be her. And she could sue. Just be careful, man.”
Owen’s expression sobered. The appetizers I’d ordered arrived and everyone passed plates around. I hadn’t meant to bring the mood down by telling Owen to tuck his dick back into his pants, but it needed to be said.
“I still can’t believe Sergei’s out,” Colby said as he heaped cheese fries onto his plate. “He said the doctors are giving him a fifty percent chance of ever playing again.”
“Holy shit,” Seth said. “He’s not even thirty yet.”
“Fucking sucks,” I agreed. “He doesn’t deserve that shit.”
“Anyone else see the irony in our owner telling us to start more fights on the same day we found out we lost our top guy to an injury?” Locke looked around the table.
Of course we saw it, but it was stupid to badmouth our owner in a public place. Instead of responding, I raised my glass.
“To Sergei. If anyone’s badass enough to come back from that injury, it’s him.”
My teammates nodded and we toasted to our teammate. We were all quiet after that, eating and lost in our own thoughts.
Mila was right to shake things up, even if I wasn’t sure she was doing it in the right way. Losing Sergei was going to change everything. He was a rock, in the locker room and on the ice.
The rest of us had to step up and try to fill a hole that couldn’t possibly be filled.
CHAPTER NINE
Shelby
“Did I mention it’s just dinner and I won’t actually be working a pole tonight?” I asked Marlowe as I looked my reflection while wearing the shirt she’d passed me from her closet.
She laughed. “Stop being so Victorian. It hardly even shows any cleavage.”
“It’s tight, though.” I pulled at the side of the shirt, missing the baggy sweatshirt I’d been wearing when I arrived at her apartment.
“It’s not tight; it fits you perfectly. And this is a classic. All black, three-quarter sleeve. You can do dark jeans and heels, flats, or booties.”
“Flats.”
“What colors do you have? Red would be fun.”
I turned from the mirror and met her gaze. “I have black and dark gray.”
“Of course you do.” She rolled her eyes. “What’s your shoe size?”
“Eight.”
“Damn, I’m a six or I’d loan you shoes, too.”
I gave her a pointed look. “You’re smaller than me, which is why the shirt doesn’t fit, either.”
“Cut the shit. It looks perfect. That top is too big for me anyways. Just keep it after you peel it off Beau’s bedroom floor in the morning.”
I laughed hard at that. “This is just a friendly dinner.”
“Oh, young Padawan. There are no friendly dinners. He wants to pet the kitty.”
I gave my friend a skeptical look. “Beau Fox has a wide variety of kitties to choose from. And he knows I want to keep our arrangement all business.”
“Uh huh.” She walked into the bathroom, still talking. “Why are you fighting it, Shelby? There are worse men to have a fling with. He’s hot and you know he’s experienced in bed.”