Delayed Penalty by Shey Stahl
11. Chirp
To talk trash to another player.
Evan
Leo and I meet in the lobby the next morning. I just left Ami in my condo for morning practice before the game. His first question: “Did you fuck her?”
I want to punch him in the face for asking. “Fuck, man. No, I didn’t fuck her.” I shove him away from me, staring at the numbers on the elevator as we pass by each floor. “Stop being so nasty.”
“Being nasty would be me saying I bagged Granny B last night,” he informed me. “That would be nasty. Now...” His expression takes on a contemplative side he doesn’t have. “You fucking a girl you’ve been hung up on for months, there’s nothing wrong with that.”
“Leo...” I sigh. “She was raped. Do you honestly think me fucking her is a good idea?”
Leo shrugs one shoulder. “I never said it was a good idea. I was just looking for details to see if you fucked her.”
I roll my eyes. “You’re disgusting.”
“And you’re a liar. You don’t have a cat.”
With a quick snap of my hand, I grab him by the jacket and yank him toward me. “Stop fucking texting her, asshole.”
He grins and holds up his phone. “Too late. I asked her how she slept.”
I slap his phone out of his hand. “Knock it off.”
“That was so rude.” Leaning down, he picks up his phone off the ground and scowls. “You broke my screen again.”
“I don’t care.”
“Dude...” Leo looks back at a girl who passes us as we’re exiting the elevator. She glares at him. “What the fuck is with that chick? She always gives me this look over her glasses that blatantly shows her aversion to the fact that I’m even allowed in the building.”
“I wonder why they let you in here every single day.”
“I’m being serious.”
I keep walking. “So am I.”
Leo thinks everyone likes him. He catches up with me. “Why wouldn’t she like me?”
“Probably because she’s that girl you let blow you in the elevator a few months back, and you never called her again, that I recall.”
His brows dip as he opens the door to the parking garage. “What’s her name?”
“Ask your dick.” I shrug. “Maybe he knows.”
“I never called her again?”
“I’m sure her glare gives the answer to that question.”
“Well shit,” he sighs, scratching his mop of curls. “An attitude like that I’m glad I didn’t call her. So rude.”
When we get inside Leo’s car, I look over at him. He groans. “Don’t look at me like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like I’m a douche for not calling that chick.”
I laugh. “It’s not a look, man. It’s a realization.”
The second we get in the locker room, the guys are giving me shit over Ami. One chirp after the next about her staying with me and my intentions.
“She’s coming to the game tonight.” Leo nudges Dave and Remy. “I’m taking bets on how shitty he’s gonna play.”
“Oh, I’m in on that one for sure.”
I don’t look up. If I do, I’m going to take one of them out. Stupid fuckers. I don’t do this shit to them when their girls come to the games. Oh, right, they don’t, because believe it or not, a lot of us separate our personal lives and our time on the ice.
“You trying to light the lamp already?”
I groan and lean my head back against my cubby. This question is coming from Dave and though Dave usually never asks shit like this from me, it seems everyone is fascinated with what’s going on in my life. And they’re betting on it now.
Remy leans into the cubby beside me. “I’m impressed you went from bachelor of the Blackhawks to a girlfriend and her living with you in less than a month.”
It didn’t happen that way and I really don’t appreciate his matter-of-fact tone. I scrub my hands over my face. “Go away.”
Leo sits next to me. “He told her he had a cat he needed her to take care of.”
Remy grins. “More like he’s going to be taking care of her cat.”
I take my stick I’d been taping and nail Remy right in the dick. He crumbles to the ground instantly. “You motherfucker,” he whines, holding his junk.
I push off the bench and into the player’s lounge, needing to distance myself from these guys. I’m nervous enough about having Ami here that I don’t need this shit too. Hockey’s aggressive and fucking gnarly at times. Can she handle that? What will she think of the fighting? What will she think of my aggression? It’s one thing to watch it on TV, but it’s entirely different when you see it live.
Am I going to be able to play? Is she going to be a distraction? She’s already been a huge distraction in my life, but the idea of not being around her isn’t an option.
