Page 47 of Unlovable Player

“Hey.”

I get up and yawn, wondering whether he’s watching me. How much he’s regretting last night.

“You wanna take a shower?”

“I’ll just shower at the rink, thanks.”

This awkward politeness… I almost miss him telling me to fuck off. At least that was real.

“I’ll just take a quick one.” I need to give him a chance to get dressed without worrying about me looking at him.Fuck this is weird.Weirder than fucking my professor? Not quite that weird.

When I come back in with a towel wrapped around my waist, Austin’s dressed and sitting on a freshly-made bed, scrolling through his phone. He glances up, registering my nakedness before looking at his phone again.

Thank fuck hockey is here to distract us from the awkwardness, though maybe a little space from each other would have been even better?

At least we don’t have any classes until Tuesday. That gives us time to regroup. Focus on the game on Monday.

I think Austin is going to ask me to travel separately to the rink, but he climbs in the passenger seat instead and doesn’t say a word as he hooks his phone up to my stereo and puts one of his country playlists on.

“I sent you this, by the way.”

“Thanks.”

He nods and keeps his eyes trained on his phone as I drive.

Some of the guys are hanging around outside the rink and see us pull up together. If Austin has something to be embarrassed about, he doesn’t show it. He slaps hands and backs and Gray and Jordan mumble greetings to me before launching into a dissection of the game last night. The tips of Austin’s ears are pink when Gray asks if he managed to see the game after leaving the bar, but save this little detail surely only I noticed, he doesn’t give anything away. Could the boy scout be a master liar after all?

When Smith shows up with a few of his freshman buddies, they say hi to everyone but me. I can see Austin’s wheels turning, weighing up how to handle the situation. Smith and his buddies go into the arena before he can decide on an action and I try to ignore the way my heart sinks.

As soon as we walk into the arena, Coach comes out of his office and calls me in. Everyone’s eyes flicker away like when a kid was being told off in class.

“Don’t worry Huntington, you’re not in trouble.”

“Course not Coach, I’ve been behaving myself.” I treat him - or subject him? - to one of my most charming smiles and he laughs awkwardly before clearing his throat to cover it up.

I close the door and take a seat. His desk looks slightly messier than usual and you can tell we’re getting deeper into the season now.

“I wanted to ask if you’d had a chance to look at the notice board recently?”

I vaguely remember someone mentioning a notice board on my first day, but I have no idea where it is.

“Um, no, sorry Coach, should I have?”

“It’s fine.” He takes a flyer from a stack of papers on the desk and slides it over to me. I note the Canuck’s logo in the corner, the title talking about internships. “I thought you might be interested in this.”

My heart speeds up a little before I even know what it is. Obviously he’s not suggesting Iplayfor the Canucks, but even the thought of working any job involving hockey is a pipe dream, knowing my future is already planned out for me.

“I don’t know how serious you are about playing next year, and if that’s your goal, we can talk about options on that front, but I know you major in business with minors in finance and media, and your grades are good, that’s exactly the kind of student they’re looking for, along with an interest in hockey of course.”

“I’d love to play hockey professionally, but I don’t think that’s on the cards.”

I want him to tell me I’m wrong, but at the same time, I don’t want him to get my hopes up.

He sits back and folds his hands over his lean stomach. “We could probably get you a try-out with a minor league team, if that’s what you really wanted.”

Hope fizzles before quickly dying again. Is that what I really want? And a try-out isn’t a long-term contract. If the guys here think I’m spoilt and obnoxious, what are minor league hockey players going to think of me?

“Or if you were interested in staying on at college for a grad degree, I’d be happy to keep you on the team. You’d have a lot of younger players to compete with of course, some top prospects straight out of high-school we’ve got our eye on, but you’d be a welcome addition.”

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