Page 114 of What If I Knew You

“I gave you a first?”

“You’ve given me several firsts, Bodhi Roche.”

You were my first virgin.

You were my first student.

You’re the first man I’ve envisioned a future with.

The first man I’ve ever truly loved.

My phone dingsas I’m placing Christmas cookies on a tray to take to work tomorrow. Layken and I have been busting ass all day baking every cookie known to man. I’m pretty sure we baked no less than twenty-five dozen cookies from sun up to sun down. I’m exhausted but it smells delightful in my apartment so I’m in no way in a sour mood. Plus, we’ve had wine. Copious amounts of wine.

“I bet it’s just Bodhi. Will you check that for me?” I ask her as I step to the sink to wash my hands.

“Yep. Oh, not Bodhi. It’s Ella.”

“Ella Blackstone?”

“Yeah.”

I’m reaching for the soap when she squeals. “OH, MY GOD! WHAT AM I LOOKING AT?”

“What?”

“Corri!” She bursts out laughing. “Are these? Oh fuck, what is this?”

“I don’t know. What is it?” I ask, rinsing my hands and grabbing for a towel. I glance to my left where Layken is standing with my phone, her eyes narrowed and her head cocked to the side. She’s studying way too hard. “Oh Lord, this has to be good if you’re speechless.”

“I think it’s…”

She hands me the phone and I glance at the picture that reads DECK THE BALLS NUMBER 1 in a red bold font above a square picture of a set of glittery balls topped with an animated bow.

“Holy shit. What did they do?”

Layken snickers and points to the pictures behind this one. “Look! There are more of them!”

“Oh my God! What is this?”

“Wait, wait,” Layken says, moving her finger over the screen. “Scroll up. Maybe I missed an explanation.”

Sure enough, a text from Ella was sent before she sent the group of seven pictures. The text chat is between three of us, but I’m not sure who the other number belongs to.

Glad it’s clearly not my dad!

Ella

Corrigan, welcome to the Anaheim WAGs (I learned about WAGs from the Chicago Red Tails wives and girlfriends…also, we totally need jackets). As one of the newest of the WAGs, Scarlett and I thought you deserved to be a judge with us for the first, hopefully annual, DECK THE BALLS team competition (please don’t be grossed out or offended and pretty please don’t tell your dad! This is just silly fun and all started with Bodhi…I’ll tell ya later)! YOU are about to receive a set of seven anonymous pictures. Each one a set of balls belonging to our gloriously sexy Anaheim players creatively decorated in holiday glitter. It is your job to assess each picture and respond with your top three winners. Happy Holidays! (And we should totally hang when the team gets back!)

Scarlett

OMG why do I feel like this is going to be epic?

Ella

LOL because it is! Here you go!

Layken giggles. “Oh my God! We’re actually looking at the balls of some of the country’s biggest hockey stars!”

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