Page 23 of Conner

She was not in the mood for a back and forth with Conner. They had been getting along lately and she couldn't deal with this right now.

“I’m sorry, Conner. I can't do this right now.”

“I thought you weren't going to treat hockey players like a piece of meat.”

“What are you talking about?” she asked as she tried to text Hillary.

“Was the player auction your idea?”

She sent the text to Hillary and then looked at Conner trying to figure out what he was so mad about.

“Yeah, it was.”

Her phone buzzed.

Hillary - I did! I thought our fans needed to see the face of our new social media manager that was changing things up.

Sasha felt like her head was about to explode. She didn't want to disappoint Hilary, but she couldn't be a public face. She needed to deal with this diplomatically. But then Conner was next to her glaring at her for some reason and she couldn't figure out why.

“And you think auctioning us off to the highest bidder isn't treating us like a piece of meat? I refused to do it in college, and I refuse to do it now.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You're turning the gala into an auction.”

“Conner. Will you please stop thinking I'm trying to exploit all of you? It's really getting old.”

“Well, stop doing it.”

“Did you even read the email? Yes, it is an auction. But you are not on the block. You are the bidder. You’ll all be bidding on a charity that you will spend the day with. They’ll get the money and the publicity. We get publicity and community involvement. If you don't want to be a part of it then don't, I don't care what you do. I have some work to do. Can you just leave me alone?” she snapped.

He sat there looking at her. She didn't know if she wanted to punch him or kiss him, but she kind of wanted both.

She turned back to her phone and privated the post with her face on it and then went looking for it in other places. She was back on the website homepage. This was not good.

“I’m sorry, Sasha. I should have read it more carefully and not jumped to conclusions.”

“Yes. You should have. Can you leave? I have to deal with this?”

She emailed Hillary.

Hi Hillary,

The post is great, but I'm not comfortable being that public for personal reasons. I put the post on private if that's okay with you. I’m going to have Bill take it off the site too if that’s okay.

Sasha Maloof.

She set her phone down and closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Conner was still there beside her, studying her.

“Why are you still here?” she said with a glare.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes, Conner. I'm fine. I'm just dealing with a post.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, I have work to do, if you don't mind.”

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