Page 40 of Shifting Gears

Eleanor starts socializing more regularlyafter the potluck, despite her initial reservations.

She goes to trivia nights and get-togethers. She takes to stopping by the bar on most days, even if she has no intention of drinking, and even when Dani isn’t there, she often stays for an hour or two anyway.

She also starts to occupy Dani’s lunch hours. The picnic bench where they first had ice cream together becomes their regular haunt. They order their way through the menu at the town’s only restaurant, eating from cardboard containers in the sun and enjoying each other’s company.

This level of comfort is something Eleanor has never experienced before in a friendship, and she treasures it while her survey and proposal again fall by the wayside. Eleanor starts to go days without even glancing at it, spending longer and longer stretches in idle unproductivity, and with each day, this fact bothers her slightly less.

On one such day, after they’ve finished their lunch and have started the short walk back to the shop, Dani drops another opportunity for quality time.

“Is everyone going to the River Run tonight?” Eleanor asks. To her surprise, Dani shakes her head.

“Nah, we have a pickup game going at six.” Dani kicks idly at a pebble on the sidewalk with her boot, and Eleanor frowns.

“Pickup game? For what?”

“Hockey!”

Eleanor’s confusion only increases. “It’s summertime.”

“Ball hockey,” Dani says, sticking her hands into her pockets before stopping dead on the sidewalk and turning toward Eleanor with a gasp. “Hey, you should come play!”

Eleanor snorts. The idea of her playing a sport is ludicrous, let alone hockey, but at Dani’s confused and slightly wounded look, she quickly amends. “Dani, I’ve never touched a hockey stick in my life.”

The look on Dani’s face is comical. It’s as if Eleanor has just declared a plan for world domination. It’s like she thinks never having played ball hockey is absolutely unthinkable.

“Not even in school?”

“My father paid to let me skip gym class for advanced math tutoring. He didn’t want me wasting my time.”

“Sports aren’t a waste of time! Come on, you have to play at least once,” Dani insists, but Eleanor shakes her head as they approach the shop door.

“Believe me when I say there’s nothing I’d rather do less.”

“Do you want to come and watch? Maybe you’ll be inspired,” Dani suggests.

Eleanor really should say no. The last thing she needs is to turn into the airheaded idiot she becomes whenever she sees Dani in a state of exertion. Especially in public. “I’ll think about it,” she says.

So Eleanor thinks about it.

She thinks about it on the way home. She thinks about it as she listlessly types and retypes the same sentence of her unfinished survey report. She thinks about it as she’s driving to the game only a few hours later.

Dani’s hockey game is not at the well-maintained indoor rink in town—it’s instead at a small outdoor one at the edge of the woods, which amounts to a wooden fence encircling a large rectangle of cement. Eleanor finds Dani in the packed-dirt parking lot wearing nothing but basketball shorts, her blue ballcap, and a grey sports bra.

Faced with the full breadth of Dani’s muscular back, the elastic waist of her shorts digging into the soft parts of her hips, Eleanor considers leaving before anyone sees her. It’s tempting to hide away in the sweet darkness of her room and fantasize vigorously instead of experiencing whatever is going to happen here.

She’s spotted before she can bolt.

“Nora, over here!”

Sarah—who is wearing an actual shirt (thank you very much; goddamn Danielle Cooper and her decision to play sportsnaked)—waves Eleanor over to where the group is scattered around some makeshift benches. Owen is there doing some light stretches, and Mila is wrapping black tape around the handle of her extra wide hockey stick. Eleanor even recognizes a few people on the opposing team: Jenny the bartender is leaning against the fence, her blue-streaked hair now featuring strands of pink, and so is Matthew. He’s sporting a bruised face and a much better attitude.

“Surprised to see you here,” Sarah says as Eleanor sits gingerly on a splintery bench.

Eleanor purses her lips. “I’ve never seen a hockey game before.”

Ryan laughs, but when Eleanor arches a brow, he looks just as disbelieving as Dani did.

“Wait…you mean a live game, right?” Ryan says.

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