Page 52 of Pucking Strong

“Teach you?”

“Teach me their names. I want to know.”

“What, now? Like, right now?”

I lean back against the cushions with a groan. “No. I’ve had too many beers to try to remember anyone’s name besides my own tonight.”

He joins me on the couch. “Good. Because I think I forgot them all anyway. Man, jet lag is a bitch, huh? Can you believe we started this day in Sweden?” He glances around the apartment. “Hey, can I ask you something?”

I hum my assent.

“Where’s all your stuff?”

“What do you mean?”

He sits forward, gesturing around at the simple furnishings of the living room. “I mean, if I hadn’t seen your secret loft in Stockholm, I wouldn’t know this apartment belonged to the same person. There’s nothing here, Henrik. No books, no camera stuff, no art. Where’s all your stuff?”

I just shrug. “I don’t live here.”

He laughs.

“What?”

“Hen, that makes no fucking sense. You spend more time living here than you do in Sweden.”

“Iworkhere,” I correct. “My life is in Sweden. It will always be in Sweden.”

“Wow.”

“What?”

“Oh, nothing.”

I sit forward with another tired groan. “A noise from you is always something. What does the ‘wow’ mean?”

He dares to roll his eyes at me. “Okay, it means, ‘Wow, I had no idea you were a fourth-degree black belt in compartmentalization.’ I suspected it, obviously. But this is off the freaking charts, even for you.”

“What?”

“Henrik, you’ve put literallivingin a box. And apparently that box stays in Sweden. So, this place is … what? Where you just power down like a robot? Rest and refuel between games?”

“Pretty much.”

He snorts another laugh. “Let me guess, you’re a Virgo. No wait—” He holds up a hand. “Oh god, don’t tell me you’re a Capricorn.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve said that to him over the last two weeks.

“When’s your birthday, Henrik?”

“January ninth. Why?”

“Yep.” He slaps both his thighs as he slowly bends forward and stands. “That explains it.”

“Explains what?”

“I’m fake married to a Capricorn. It’s my own fault, really. I made this bed of thorns, and now I’m gonna lie in it.”

Virgos and Capricorns? I understand now. In my tired state, it took me a moment to translate it in my head. “You believe in the zodiac?”

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