Page 63 of Replay

I hadn’t seen Josh for a week and I was second-guessing myself. I’d been pissed at my parents and wanted to prove to them that I could see Josh and not get sidelined. But they had a valid point. Getting involved with him again, even if we kept it to the friend zone, was complicated. And friend zone was all I could do. I was still thinking about my conversations with Nora and my parents and not completely settled in my program at school, thanks to my misogynistic maybe something less taxing advisor. I did not need more complications.

I’d dithered over whether I’d done the right thing asking to see Josh again, and then whether I should actually see him again. I’d worried that the kiss might have made him think I wanted to date again. Turned out, I didn’t need to worry. When we were finally able to find a time we were both free, he’d suggested an escape room at Casa Loma, which was fun and not too intense for two people who were walking a line between friends and more. Unless he thought we’d be going back to his place or mine after. I got to fret about that until he picked me up with Daniel and JJ and Jess in the back seat. We were definitely staying on the friend side of that line. Good. Very good.

So why the hell did I feel…disappointed?

The only free seat was the front, so I let myself in without debating it. Twisting my head around I said. “Hi, Jess. Nice to see you again.”

She smiled at me. “Couldn’t let this be too hockey player heavy. Did you officially meet my brother, Justin?”

“I don’t think so.”

He nodded his head. “Nice to meet you officially, Katie.”

“Shouldn’t I be in the back seat? I mean, I’m not that big.” The guys didn’t look comfortable back there. They shook their heads, so I scooched my seat up as far as it would go.

I checked the three hockey players. The Blaze had lost two more games on the road, so they had to be feeling bad about the start to their season. But they seemed okay, heckling Josh about his driving and joking around about how quickly they could do this escape room, since they had Jess and I as secret weapons. That was healthy, right? They could put hockey aside for a night out.

When we got there, the place was certainly impressive enough, lit up against the night sky. I’d looked it up when Josh suggested we do this. Casa Loma was the self-indulgent and massive castle built by Canada’s version of a robber baron. It had stone turrets and chimneys and included an underground tunnel to the stables as well as secret passageways, according to the internet. It looked like an interesting place, and was open to the public, but we were just going to a small part of it to participate in an escape room. They had a few.

Josh paid for parking, and we piled out of the car and headed around the side to where the escape rooms were. Tonight wasn’t the time, but I’d definitely be interested in coming back and seeing the rest of the place. Who could resist a secret passage?

Almost immediately, we were joined by more of the hockey team. Cooper, of underwear fame, was with the same redheaded woman Josh had introduced as Callie the other night, the woman he’d kissed on the arena kiss cam. That clip had been played over and over. Based on how he stayed beside her, holding her hand, and the looks he was giving her? Yeah, he was taken.

There was one other woman in the group, Jayna. She was dating Mitch, the backup goalie. Since Josh didn’t immediately share her math qualifications, I assumed she was not a numbers person. The rest of the guys were introduced by nicknames, of which I only remembered a couple. Crash and Bongo, because, well, those were unusual. There were three other guys, one a dark and broody Russian who I think they called Pete.

“Are we ready?” Cooper asked.

The group seemed a little unsure. “Are we going to look stupid here?” someone asked, maybe Bongo?

“Don’t worry about it. We have our secret weapons.” Josh wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “Katie is getting her master’s in math, remember?”

Had he talked about me?

“And Callie is a tax attorney. So let’s go beat this thing.” Josh sounded totally confident. Were they expecting tax or legal questions?

The hockey players had booked the whole room for themselves. A group was normally ten to fifteen people. Based on how many other escapers wanted to talk to the players while we were waiting, even though they’d signed up for the other rooms, having the place to ourselves would give the guys the chance to do this without fans interrupting.

So this was not a date, but a team bonding thing. I was here to solve math problems and that was good. No disappointment, not at all.

It was eye-opening to see how people reacted to the hockey players, and not just in a fan hangout like the Top Shelf. I had mostly avoided hockey after Josh and I split up. And when I saw the players reacting like regular people with Josh, they seemed normal because he was just a normal person to me.

But they weren’t, not in this city. My concern that maybe Josh wanted to be more than friends? Was just a delusion.

He came back from the check-in and grabbed my hand. “They’re ready for us.”

Daniel rounded up the others and we headed into the room for the first puzzle, Josh still holding me. But that wasn’t something I did with my friends. Now I wondered if that idea of him wanting more was really a delusion. I was so confused.

We did not escape in time. This was a challenging task, and honestly, the guys weren’t much help. They were stupidly competitive, and they might work together on the ice, but here they tried to do too much individually. Callie was focused, and she and Cooper solved some of the puzzles, but the group had been split into sections for the different problems, and Royster, Crash and one of the other guys spent more time dishing on the others than trying to solve anything.

Jess and I worked on puzzles together, with JJ and Josh hanging around us but mostly letting us do the work. I liked Jess. She was friendly, and like me, was with the players but not with a player. We hadn’t been able to meet up yet, since she had a regular nine-to-five job and my hours were all over the place, but I had to make that happen. I needed friends in this city.

After not escaping from the room, to groans and catcalls, all within our group, we were released and everyone headed to the parking lot. By some kind of mutual agreement, we went out for a meal after. Cooper and Callie took off on their own, but the rest of us had burgers and beers at a high-end burger place.

Despite failing the escape room, I had a good time. I sat between Jess and Josh. Unlike the guys, I wasn’t a competitive person, so I didn’t really care if we solved the room or not—I was having fun. Daniel frowned at his teammates when they did something stupid, but maybe they needed some time to not worry about hockey. We hardly mentioned the subject at dinner either, though people did come up to the table to ask for selfies, autographs and answers to questions.

When we piled into the car again, I got shotgun without calling it. JJ and Jess shared a condo not far from the building Josh and Daniel were in, but Josh dropped Daniel and the twins off first.

“Do we have something else planned?” I asked.

---