Page 76 of See You at the Finish Line

“Weeks later, when my mom had calmed down, I told her I wanted to quit for good.”

“It took her weeks to calm down?”

“If you bring it up, she’ll still get all huffy about it.” I smile at the memory, and when Paige smiles back, there’s something sad about it, her eyes glassy.

“What did she say?” Paige asks. I want to reach out to her, but I’m still not sure if she wants that.

“First, she told me that refs are part of the game—good refs, bad refs, biased refs, and fair refs. Sometimes they’ll be on our side and we won’t complain, but we have to remember what it feels like to have a biased set of refs, to give grace to the team that loses because of it. Then she said that she was sorry, she overreacted after the game and that probably didn’t help me understand how to process my feelings. She told me not to give two refs, two teenagers, so much power over me that I let it influence the rest of my life.”

“That’s very smart. Your mom sounds like my therapist,” Paige jokes.

“She probably talked to her therapist about how to talk to me. I’m glad she did because I needed to hear it. She also told me that as much as we want everything to be fair, to be in control, it’s an impossible feat. Just like we can’t control the other team, if they do something against the rules, whether they get a penalty or not.

"And when we’re met with challenges in our lives, it’s okay to be upset about how unfair it is. It’s okay to feel hurt and not immediately try to find a silver lining. As long as we don’t let that hurt, that anger, whatever strong emotion we’re feeling take control and make decisions for us.”

She’s staring at me, and I wonder how I’m holding up under scrutiny. I feel like it’s the first time she’s really looked at me since she got here.

“So you didn’t quit,” she sums up. I don’t know what I was expecting her to say, but it wasn’t that. The haunted look in her eyes doesn’t match the simple words.

“No, I didn’t. Mom ended her loving talk with a kick in the ass, telling me to get up and get ready for practice because she paid way too much money and spent too many hours freezing her butt off at the rink for me to quit.”

Paige laughs, and I see her subtly try to clear the overflowing tears.

“Paige—” I begin but stop short when her eyes flick behind me, her entire body tensing.

“Oh shit,” she says as she spots Maxim coming over to us. I place myself behind her and cross my arms, my spine straightening as I prepare to defend her against whatever slimeball remark is about to come out of his mouth.

“Easy there, muscles,” she whispers, and I can’t help but laugh, the movement bringing me close enough that I can feel the heat coming off her body.

“Paige,” Maxim says as he reaches us. He eyes me up and down, standing far enough back so neither of us can reach him. “You’re fired.”

I see Adam’s jawdrop out of the corner of my eye, but I don’t give Maxim the satisfaction of a reaction.

“No.” I shake my head. “I’m not.”

It’s Maxim’s turn to be surprised.

“You assaulted a player on the team you work for.”

“He assaulted me first. Does that mean he’s getting fired too?”

“What? No, of course not, and that’s not my concern or responsibility. You are my employee, and you’re fired.”

I step forward, closing the ridiculous gap he’s left between us. I feel Adam move with me, a silent, sturdy presence at my back. I’ve never felt safer.

“No, Maxim, I’m not fired. Legally, you can’t, and if you pursue this route, HR will have a hell of a lot more to clean up than just this ‘incident.’” I put that last word in air quotations. Maxim looks like he bit into a mushy grape.

“You signed a contract that—”

I put a hand up. “Let me stop you right there. I read every word of that contract and nothing in it said I could not defend myself.That’s what happened, and if you try to fire me again without cause, I’ll have your job.”

Damn. I can’t believe that came out of my mouth. I stand a little taller, feeling a little of the old me seeping back in as I hold my ground.

Maxim looks as stunned as I feel. A big dog with no bite. But that’s an insult to big dogs everywhere, and Q deserves better than to be compared to a man like this.

He sputters like a fish out of water.

“If that’s all, the race is about to start and I have a rivalry to win.” I turn on my heel and walk away, Adam following a step behind me.

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