Page 38 of Grumpy Puck

“Clear it withhim,” Dante and Coach say in unison, looking at me.

“Especially if you’re planning them for the Yetis game,” Coach adds.

She sighs.“Okay.I was planning on attacking you with a giant foam finger after you score.”

“You have furry paws,” Dante says.“How are you going to hold onto a giant foam finger?”

“That’s my burden tobear,” she says.

I grit my teeth.“Fine.You can use the finger.”But only because the plan takes it for granted that Iwillscore.

She chuckles.“I’ll call this bit ‘Michael gets fingered.’”

Coach and Dante laugh uproariously, and my only non-violent option becomes to turn on my heel and leave.

When I walk out of the locker room, Calliope is waiting for me, and she looks extra delectable now that the bulky mascot suit isn’t hiding her curves.

“Hey,” she says.“Are you mad?”

“Mad as in insane?”

I did, after all, agree to pretend to date this woman.

“Mad as in angry,” she says with a slight eyeroll.“You were being unnaturally agreeable when you said yes to—let’s call it Project Foam Finger—and I made a joke at your expense instead of saying thanks.”

“Unnaturally agreeable?”I arch an eyebrow.“You might just be worse at apologies than I am.”

“Sorry.Now, can we go?”

“Sure.”As if possessed, I take her elbow right then—without any journalists in sight.If she minds, she doesn’t show it, so we walk like that all the way to her car.

“So…” She nods at the idiots with cameras and bites her lower lip.“Shall we?”

Oh, yes.I kiss her once more, the taste of cotton candy as intoxicating as it is arousing.The world around us seems to fade away, at least until she gently steps back from me—at which point I hear the clicks of cameras over the hammering of my heartbeat.

“See you tomorrow,” she says shyly.

The best I can do as far as replies go is a grunt.But hey, it could have been worse.

I could have growled.

The next few days blur together.I practice like my life depends on winning, and then I kiss Calliope for the cameras with a similar fervor and without a care for how blue my balls get.After that, I jerk off, work on fundraising, look at the hawks, and sleep, then rinse and repeat.

“So…” Calliope says after we grudgingly disconnect from the kiss on the day of our flight.“I’ll see you on the plane, right?”

“Correct.”I doubt it was necessary, but I’ve already warned my teammates that I’m sitting next to her, and that they’d better stay away on the pain of… a lot of pain.“Why do you ask?Did you want to watch a movie together?”

Her eyes light up.“Could we?”

“Sure.What kind of movies do you like?”

She darts a glance at Wolfgang.“Ratatouilleis my favorite, but I also likeEncanto—because of Bruno’s friends.”

Thanks to my secret project, I’m actually familiar with the movies in question, so I ask, “Are we allowed to talk about Bruno?”

Her eyes widen.“You’re right.We don’t talk about Bruno.No.No.No.”

I resist the urge to kiss her again.“So… do the movies you like always have rats?”

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