Page 93 of Grumpy Puck

The sound is coming from a person wearing some other team’s mascot suit—or at least I think that’s what it is.Then again, which team has a yellow bird for a mascot?It’s got a giant head, enormous eyes, and clownish orange feet.

But wait.

On the shoulder of the bird… is that a rat?

“Calliope?”I exclaim.

The reply from the bird person is muffled, so I can’t be sure it’s her, but I step forward anyway.

The yellow bird lifts its arms and pulls off the giant head, revealing Calliope’s beautiful face.

I gape at her.Is this a dream?“I was just calling you.”I display my phone to her, like a moron.

“I saw,” she says, beaming.“But I didn’t want to spoil this.”She proudly displays the mascot’s head.

“Thisbeing what?”I manage to ask—even though what I really want is to sweep her into my arms and kiss the crap out of her.

Calliope frowns.“Isn’t it obvious?”

“No?”I look at Wolfgang, hoping he can help me out, but all I get back in reply is a ratty chirp.

“I’m a canary,” she says.“As in,a bird.”

“Right…” I think I even recognize this particular bird now.It was in a cartoon, and there was a cat that wanted to?—

“I’m your little bird,” she says gruffly.“And you like birds.So, as my grand gesture, I used my old theme park connections to dress up like Tweety, who is the quintessential ‘little bird.’”

Oh.“This is a grand gesture?”My heartbeat picks up.“As in… you want me back?”

She nods solemnly.“If you want me.If you forgive me.”She takes a deep breath.“I’m so sorry about the way I left.I was so sure you had run from my family when you left that dinner, and even after I found out you hadn’t, I just couldn’t shift gears fast enough.All my exes had dumped me after meeting my family, and I was so sure you’d do the same that I couldn’t entirely believe the truth when you told me.”

“Calliope, I loved your fam?—”

“No, listen.”She sucks in another breath.“I realized that it’s not really my family I was afraid you’d find too weird.Just like how, now that I think about it, my exes didn’t dump me because of them.I mean, Voldemort petting her snake during dinner might’ve been the last straw, but the reality is, they dumped me because ofme.Because I’m the weird one.I’m probably the Klaunbut-ist Klaunbut of us all, with my rats and my hair and?—"

I capture her hand in mine.“I love your rats.And your hair.And all your wonderfully weird relatives.”I mean, what the fuck is she smoking?She and her entire clan are awesome.Gruffly, I say, “And I’m the one who’s sorry.I shouldn’t have left that very important dinner with your family as abruptly as I did.If?—”

“Stop.”She squeezes my hand.“You don’t need to say more.”

“In that case…” I stop talking and kiss her fiercely, desperate to make up for all the time we were apart.

There are annoying cat calls in the distance, and even clapping.

Fuck.I forgot about my asshole teammates.

Calliope pulls away, glances at the ice, and blushes.

“Leave us!”I roar.“Or suffer the consequences.”

To my shock, theydoleave, but they laugh among themselves as they go, probably at our expense.

“Sorry about them,” I say sheepishly.“Where were we?”

She moistens her pink, kiss-swollen lips.“I think we’re the ones who should’ve left, not them… so we can go find a bed.”

And just like that, I’m harder than I’ve ever been in my life.But… “There’s something I need to tell you.Something I should have said that night.Something that might mess things up again, but if?—”

“What is it?”She drops Tweety’s head onto the floor.

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