Page 3 of Finn

After I give them their beers, I walk down to where Old John is still seated.

I’d much rather engage in conversation with him than deal with Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, the two new names I just came up with for these clowns.

Unfortunately, though, Old John is on his way out.

“My ride is here,” he shares as he stands and pushes his bar stool back in. “Seems like they got here a little quicker than they were supposed to. Anyway…” He sighs. “I’ll see ya later, okay?”

“Okay.” I give him a sad smile. “Have a good rest of your night.”

He walks away, waving. “Thanks, Sammie.”

And then he’s gone, leaving me with the Tweedle boys and over half an hour to go before I can kick their butts out.

Great.

Finn

It’s Thursday night, and I just left the theater, where I watched a movie…alone.

Yeah, that kind of sucked.

Sadly for me, there was no one I could find to go with. My Atlanta Thunder teammates, at least the ones who are close friends of mine, are either out of town or at home with their significant others.

I don’t have one of those.

So the choice tonight was to go see a movie alone or stay home.

My house, though aesthetically beautiful thanks to the work of a slew of professional decorators I hired not all that long ago, is just too damn huge and too fucking quiet.

That’s why the movie option won out.

Too bad the flick I picked wasn’t very good.

But still, I can’t complain.

It was something to do.

Now I need another activity to occupy my time. I’m not anywhere near tired. That’s probably because there are no games or practices this week to wear my ass out.

Unfortunately, that’ll be the case until next Tuesday, when our NHL All-Star break comes to an end.

Thank God.

I tap my fingers on the leather steering wheel of my graphite-gray Cadillac Escalade as I drive through a small stretch of businesses that are about a mile from my house.

I pass by a strip mall, a fast-food restaurant…

Oh, and there’s Boots.

I always smile when I cruise by that place. It makes me think of Sammie Monroe. She works there.

I guess you could say I have a little bit of a crush on her. She’s a friend and coworker of Ellie Troy, who dates my best friend and teammate, Nils Sten.

I actually met Sammie through Ellie, though.

It was after one of our games the two of them had attended, when Ellie brought Sammie down to the locker room.

I was immediately attracted to Sammie and made a point to chat her up a bunch. Right away, I liked that she’s kind of mellow and laid-back like me.

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