Delayed Penalty by Shey Stahl

5. Defensive Zone

The zone or area nearest a team’s goal.

Evan

Sex. I keep getting in situations where I’m presented with the opportunity to have it.

Hockey players aren’t like your average athletes. Some are, but most of us are different. If you compare us to football players, you’ll see the differences right away.

We’re aggressive. Some girls call us secretive, and others call us whores. They don’t usually say that after a night in the sheets with us, though. They’re usually begging for more. They like us because we have some of the best endurance. Aside from soccer players maybe.

Not many guys can take hits like we can or get off their asses and continue their shift while sweating, skating, taking bone-crushing hits against glass, getting their teeth knocked out, having the shit beat out of them by hits to the face with pucks, sticks, elbows, and then score a goal.

In between the physically demanding prowess of the game, there’s a skillful presence and the crafty strategies of the sport we love.

With all that comes the endurance, a stamina most women can’t keep up with.

I’m twenty years old and have pussy whenever I want it. I have one regular, Callie, but it’s not like we’re dating. We’ve never had that kind of relationship.

There are plenty of times throughout the season and off-season I get my dick wet with the willing puck bunnies who press against the glass, but I never make a habit out of it. There’s no connection in that. No real chemistry found.

Callie, on the other hand, she’s a friend. Not a girlfriend by any means, but I’ve taken her out a few times and tangled in the sheets more times than I can count.

I’ll tell you something else. She’s a goddamn freak in bed too. I sometimes show up at practice with a swollen lip, and it wasn’t from the game.

Callie is also a regular with a few other guys, too, so it’s not like she’s looking to settle down. I dig that about her because I’m at that point in my life too.

I hadn’t talked to Callie since the incident with Ami but something about shoving guys into the boards all night and roughing them up leaves me amped at times. And that’s how the guys and I find ourselves unwinding at a club downtown. Though I’m not twenty-one, it’s never questioned at any bar or club I’ve ever been in.

Liquor flows and I welcome the distraction and soon find myself with a girl on my lap and then my mouth all over her, trying to forget everything else I have going on in my life. I don’t want to think about Ami, what happened to her, none of it. I want one night where it doesn’t control me.

And maybe this time I can finish. You never know.

Back at my condo, yep, my condo, with her head in my lap, I still can’t get off. I’m hard, but I can’t fucking come and it’s frustrating as hell. And get this. She walks out on me. I can’t say I blame her. I would have too.

Still horny, I try calling Callie, thinking if anyone can get me to relax it’s her.

It doesn’t work. We go at it for something like forty-five minutes, try everything, and I still can’t get off. My mind keeps going back to Ami and that night, or just Ami in general. I need that little gadget in those Men in Black movies where they erase your memory. I really need that little device.

“You want me to try sucking your dick?” Callie asks, smiling.

I laugh, my movements stopping. She’s always so crass. “That’s okay. I’m good.”

Callie rolls to the side and then completely off me. “You kind of suck right now.”

I scrub my hands over my face. “Sorry.”

Callie grabs her phone beside my bed and sends someone a text when I leave for the bathroom. I come back, put on a pair of sweatpants, and notice Callie is on my couch now, smiling, phone in hand, and it dawns on me. Her big chocolate brown eyes always give her away. “You tell Leo and I will kick your ass, Cal.”

Callie smiles and I know she’s already dished the dirt on me to him. “Sorry.”

“You little fucking brat.” Taking a seat next to her, I reach for the remote to the television, wondering how much he already knows.

“I’m sorry. He asked, and Leo is kind of sneaky when it comes to getting things out of people.”

“Why do you tell him everything?” I look at her out of the corner of my eye. “Why would he ask that?”

“He’s my best friend. I tell him everything.” She shrugs as though I shouldn’t care and snuggles into my side. “Let’s order Chinese.”

“It’s 5:00 a.m. What place is open and serving Chinese food?”

“Good point. Breakfast then?”

We end up using UberEats to order food and that’s when she asks what my problem is. “Okay, so give it to me straight. Are we over?”

I laugh around a bite of noodles. “What?”

“You couldn’t get it up. What’s up?”

Like how she words that one? I don’t. Sighing, I think about the reasons I can’t get it up, as she puts it. I can’t tell Leo all this—though I know damn well he will know everything after this—but I cave and tell her I haven’t been able to get off in almost a fucking month. “It’s like I’m going to explode. And nothing fucking works.”

She laughs in my fucking face.

I smack her arm. “You should be talking me through this shit as my friend. Not making fun of me.”

“Hey, I never claimed to be that kind of friend.” Callie rolls her eyes, tucking her legs up on the couch. Getting comfortable, she chews suggestively on a piece of sausage. “We fuck. That’s usually all we do. Since when do you want advice from me? Especially when fucking me doesn’t even work. That’s not exactly great for my ego, you know?”

Giving a shrug, I place my scrambled eggs on the coffee table. “It’s not you, it’s me.”

She gasps, eyes wide. “Jesus Christ, that sounds worse.”

“It’s not you.” Leaning forward, I kiss her forehead. “I promise.”

“Oh, okay.” Callie gives me a look and picks her food back up, a contemplative look coming over her. “It’s your supposed girlfriend, isn’t it?”

Of course she knows about that. “You mean Ami....” Just saying her name does things to me, and fuck if I’m not annoyed by that. I glance at my food on the coffee table. See? I can’t even eat. “She’s really fucking me up.”

Callie raises an eyebrow. “And this Ami, does she know you’ve got a thing for her?”

“I don’t know. Probably not. She just came out of the coma. I spent the other night with her at the hospital and I can’t stop thinking about her, and then I think about what happened and that it’s wrong I even have feelings for her, you know?”

Callie gives me the same glazed-over look Leo does at times but surprises me when she asks, “What happened to her? I mean, I heard she was raped, but do they know anything else?”

“It was brutal. I found her in the alley. The night before Christmas Eve when we got back into town after playing the Red Wings...” I look to Callie to see if she’s following me. She nods, picking at a pancake, her legs propped on my thighs. “Well, I was walking home and found her nearly dead in the alley, so I took her to the hospital. She’d been raped and beaten to shit. Fractured skull and broken bones... it was awful.”

Callie blinks. Her expression holds an emotion I can’t register, almost like sympathy. “And that’s why they said she was your girlfriend?”

“Yeah, it was all over the news the next day but I lied and said she was my girlfriend so I could see her.”

“Where’s her family?”

“Her parents were killed in a plane crash last year so I guess she has no one else.”

Callie looks as if she might cry but she blinks away the expression. “Is she okay now? Did she recover?”

“Sorta... she’s coming out of it and is finally awake, but she doesn’t remember anything surrounding the accident and can’t really give us any clues.”

“So they haven’t caught the guy?”

“No...” The thought that he’s still out there makes me sick, as it always does.

Callie wraps her arm around my shoulder. “I’m sorry you had to go through that.”

“Don’t be. I’m sorry she did. I don’t even know what to say to her. It was easier when she was in the coma, but now I feel like I’m walking on eggshells.”

“I bet. But coming from a girl, just being there for her now probably means the world to her. Even if you did lie about being her boyfriend.”

I smile. “Thanks.”

“Now…” She pauses and points to the egg rolls. “Can you get up and hand me one of those.”

“Asshole,” I mumble, tossing an egg roll at her head.

Callie stays for a little while longer and then goes home.

That’s when Leo texts me.

Leo: Hey, man, can you come over and get my jersey off the floor for me?

His question should have been a red flag. Lesson one: Leo never says anything without taking it in a direction you’ll never expect. My girl problems don’t matter to him. If anything, that’s ammo. I’m not dumb either. I know where he’s taking this and still fall for it.

Me: No. Get off your ass and get it.

Leo: I can’t seem to get up. Can you help?

Me: FUCK YOU and Callie!

Leo: You tried, remember? Couldn’t. You know there’s medication for that.

I turn my phone off. He won’t stop.

Lesson two: he never quits.

Later that night, I go back to the hospital to see Ami.

Are you surprised?

Didn’t think so.

She looks better than she did yesterday but I notice things I hadn’t before. Like the freckles on her nose and the way she crinkles her nose in the cutest way when the smelly neurologist comes in to do her neuro check. I’ll tell you something else. The dude seriously needs to wear some deodorant.

What I don’t appreciate is how flirty he is with her. He’s like fucking fifty and could be her dad. I know, she’s not mine but still, I’m not going to put up with this dude flirting with her in front of me. She’s too young for him so I voice my opinion to him outside her room.

“Hey,” I begin, looking down on him in more ways than one. “Why don’t you keep your hands to yourself and treat her like your patient.”

Too much? Overstepping? I don’t know. I have no claim on this girl either, but this sort of thing leaves me a little bent. Something rubs me the wrong way with this guy too. Maybe it’s that I’m constantly looking at every guy like they’re a suspect. I want them to be because I want the guy who did this to her to fucking pay for it.

The doctor, with his smelly body and overly large eyebrows, glares. It’s meant to level me, but I’m a hockey player and see this shit daily. He’s gotta work a lot harder to scare me. “You know, Mr. Masen, I let it slide that you have been in Ami’s room at all hours of the night, but visiting hours end at eight. I suggest you get back in there. You have ten minutes.”

I don’t like this doctor. Not one bit. I don’t like the look in his eyes when he examined Ami, and I certainly don’t like the way he talked to her. Most of all, I don’t like the way he’s talking to me. He’s trying to intimidate me, and that’s my game, not his.

“I’ll leave when I want to leave, Dr. Dagger. I’m the only friend she has.”

Friend? Is that what I am now? Part of me wants to be more already.

Dumbass.

This isn’t the first time I told someone to basically stay away from her either. Remember my conversation with the dance instructor?

Precisely. I’ve got problems. I’m controlling and not good for her.

I’ve always been good at this protection thing, but for some reason I have this defense zone around this girl, and damn it if I’m not going to play good defense. I never want to see something like this happen again to her.

When I get back into her room, Ami smiles. “That guy is super weird. Is he always like that?”

Laughing, I take a seat next to her. “You have no idea.”

Ami is in the bed, slouched to one side with the remote in her hand, looking for something to watch. She’s turns it to baseball, which was kind of weird to me since it was on in the middle of January.

Ami frowns. “My brother was a baseball player.”

“Brother?” Confusion colors that one word. They said her parents were gone. Where is this brother at?

“Yeah... he...” Ami’s eyes drop from mine and she swallows. “My parents... he was just about to sign with the Angels. Baseball was his life and had been since he was old enough to hold the bat. My parents and Taylor, his girlfriend, were with him on a private plane... it crashed on his way to California.”

Well fuck. As if this girl’s life can’t get any worse. I don’t say anything. What can I say?

The sadness in her voice makes me want to hug the shit out of her. I’m not sure what it is about the girl, but she’s turned me into a pussy, and I’m constantly looking for ways to make anything I can easier for her.

That fucking douche of a doctor comes back at eight on the dot, him and his smell. “It’s time to go... Mase.”

Mase? He really is trying to get under my skin. Only family, friends and my teammates call me that. I once told a reporter he had to earn the right to call me that. And this guy certainly hadn’t earned that right yet.

Ami glares at the doctor and rolls her eyes. “I let you guys prod at me all day long. The least you can do is let my boyfriend stay.”

Fuck yeah. I knew I liked this chick.

The doctor, even though he’s a doctor, is hardly mature and rolls his eyes. “Another hour and he needs to leave,” he snaps before closing the door behind him.

“Why did he call you Mase? I thought your name was Evan.”

“Oh, well my friends and family call me Mase.” I shrug, leaning back in the chair as I twirl my cell phone around in my palm, watching her again. “My dad started calling me it when I was a kid and it stuck.”

Ami nods and glances back at the television.

“Why did you come to Chicago?” I ask.

“Needed a new life I guess.” There’s an emptiness behind every word. Somehow I manage to stop staring and look out the window. Squinting, I notice the glow in the streetlamps below and the flakes falling wildly in the wind. “And my brother loved the Cubs, so I thought hey, that city looks promising. Nobody will know me.”

Ami looks over, too, but stares at the wall as she speaks. “After my family was killed, there was nothing left for me in Oregon. My boyfriend moved away and went to college without me, and I came here hoping for a new start. Apparently...” She shifts, adjusting her blanket, and smiles, looking up in amusement. “I’m off to a great start.”

“And a new haircut.” I wink, smiling at her and trying to bring some humor into the conversation.

A giggle escapes her lips, the sound echoing throughout the room. “I look pretty good with a buzz cut, don’t I?”

“Prettiest baldy I’ve ever seen.” I smile too, loving that I made her laugh but curious about this boyfriend. What an idiot for leaving her. “Why’d your boyfriend leave?”

Instant mood change, on her part, and I regret the question immediately. But she surprises me and answers. “His sister was my brother’s girlfriend, the one who was on the plane. I guess it was too much for him.”

Jesus Christ. That had to have been horrible. We sit in silence. I’m not sure I should say anything else in fear I’ll say the wrong thing. And to my surprise, I notice tears rolling down her cheeks. Despite my conscience telling me to leave her alone, I move to console her and into the bed beside her.

I knew then, with my arms wrapped around her, there’s no way I can continue to be around her with the way she’s consuming my every thought. There also isn’t a goddamn thing I’m willing to do about it. “I’m sorry,” I whisper into her hair.

“Why?” She brings her eyes to meet mine, our faces inches apart. I could kiss her, if I wanted to, but I don’t. My eyes move from hers to her lips and then back again. “You have no reason to be sorry. You saved me.”

“There are a lot of shitty people out there, Ami,” I mumble, hoping I’m not about to reveal too much. “But there are good ones too.”

Like me.

“Funny, my brother used to say things like that to me.” Brushing her tears away, she takes a deep breath. “Andrew was always looking for the good side, the sunny side. Which is funny because he was this hot-shot baseball player, pitcher, number five.”

Listening to the sound of her voice, her laugh, it’s so surreal hearing her talk. For so long I wondered if I’d ever hear her voice.

And now she is and so different than expected. So… I don’t know. Normal? Easygoing? Someone I want to get to know more.

Ami goes on to explain that Andrew, her brother, was just starting out in his career and skipped out on college, much like me, and was just about to sign for his pro career. And then the plane crash happened. A chance of a lifetime never fulfilled.

Why do I get to live my dream and Andrew doesn’t?

Why does shit like this happen?

Why them?