Page 11 of Rewind It Back

Before I can decide if I should stay or leave, the lights drop low and the music hums. The in-arena announcer riles up the crowd while everyone finds their seats just as the team flies out of the locker room and onto the ice, red jerseys zooming past our seats.

I don’t dare look for him. I keep my eyes down on my lap.

It’s been so long.

He’s got a game to play. His focus will be on the ice. It’s not like he’s going to come out here and scan the crowd. Plus, my hair is so much shorter than it used to be, so even if he did take the time to look, there’s no chance he’d recognize me.

He’ll never know I’m here.

This is fine.

“Thank you for inviting me,” I say to Brian. “Sorry if I’m a little off. It’s been a while since I’ve dated.”

“Don’t worry about it. It’s been a while for me too.” His smile is kind before he nods towards the ice. “So, hockey is made up of three periods. Offense is split into four lines. You’ll see them swap out by the bench and it’ll look like chaos.”

He continues on about the rules and I turn to face him, nodding along as if I don’t already know these things from attending a certain player’s games too many times to count.

Brian’s phone dings in his pocket, but he ignores it and resumes. “Zanders is their captain now. Number eleven. He’s a defenseman. Cocky son of a bitch, but insanely good. His blue-line mate is DeLuca. He’s—”

“Water!” someone yells right next to my ear. “Ice-cold water!”

The concessions guy continues to shout, and it thankfully drowns out everything Brian was saying about the player I know more about than any random stat line he could spit out.

After the anthem and customary puck drop, the game starts, but I barely watch. I keep my attention on my lap, on the crowd, on literally anything other than the ice in front of me.

The first period drags on for too long. I hear his name cheered too many times. I know he’s on this end of the rink, and all I can do is pray for the second period, so he’ll finally switch sides.

Would it be rude if I cut out after two periods? Maybe I can convince Brian that I’m not feeling well, and we should reschedule.

His phone pings again, but he ignores it.

“I can’t believe you haven’t watched a second of this!” he shouts from next to me.

“I’m not feeling great.”

That’s it. Lay the groundwork.

He doesn’t hear me, just like he doesn’t hear his phone that won’t stop going off with back-to-back text messages.

The Raptors are on defense, causing the crowd around me to ramp up their cheers.

It’s loud, but I still hear Brian’s phone go off again.

“Your phone is blowing up right now.” I raise my voice this time so he can hear me.

He keeps his eyes on the game, the action happening right in front of us, as he pulls out his phone to mute it, but that’s when I see the screen. There are endless texts from the same person. I don’t know what they say, but whoever it is, their contact name is only an emoji. The diamond ring emoji.

Brian glances down at the screen and immediately tries to hide the phone away in his pocket, but it’s too late.

I saw it.

“I thought you said you haven’t dated in a while.” My tone is accusatory.

He won’t look at me. “I haven’t.”

“Are you married?”

He does that annoying thing again where he doesn’t answer me, and now I realize that shy, nervous energy from earlier was because he was out here going on a date with someone who isn’t his wife.

---