Page 7 of Branded
The first three I liked about her—and really, who wouldn’t? Plus, I was a fan of women in general—tall, short, curvy, slender, tits, ass, hair long or short, I liked it all. Unfortunately, it was the last, and the rest of her—a little snotty, a lot smirky, even more looking down her nose at me—that I didn’t like as much. But my friend was happy and in fairness, I knew I was a lot. Plus, Hazel had recently been pregnant, too. I’d seen what a big change it was, and paired with the random queasiness, fatigue, and vomiting, I knew that probably made it less than fun.
Unfortunately, Monica was just…
She was a bit of a snob, okay? And she had been that way from the first time I’d met her.
So, no, I wasn’t a fan.
But, though the guys thought I had a big mouth—and yeah, I did—I was also good at keeping shit inside it.
Like an opinion about the chick my teammate was dating.
Especially one who was carrying said teammate’s baby.
“Yeah,” I’d said, “makes sense. It’s going to be hard on her when we travel, huh?”
The lines around Raph’s mouth deepened. “Yeah, she’s not happy about that.”
See?
Here was one of the times I was able to keep shit inside my mouth.
I didn’t say what I was thinking—which was: what the fuck did Monica expect, considering she was dating and had gotten knocked up by a professional hockey player?
“It can be hard on the families,” was all I said.
Well, all I said before exchanging goodbyes because Raph’s cell buzzed and I knew it was Monica because the man jumped and did it high, speeding through the rest of getting dressed, gathering his shit together, before hauling ass out of the locker room without a glance back.
Before, he’d sit and shoot the shit.
We’d talk about nothing and about plans for the next game, how to do better, things to try since we played on the same side of the ice.
Raph right wing.
I was right D.
Separate halves of the team, and yet it was imperative we work together.
So, we talked and planned and rehashed and thought ahead to who we were playing against, and since I liked to talk—about anything really—but also especially about hockey, I missed having that with Raph.
But he had a girl at home, a kid on the way.
Things were going to change.
So I had better get used to it.
Nothing stayed the same.
Before I could ruminate on that, wonder why that was bothering me so much, Theo, one of the younger guys on the team and currently getting his degree in Zoology, said something about the mating habits of camels that required me to not keep my mouth shut.
And then there were more groans and sock balls being thrown and shit being given and a group of us getting ready to go out to get udon.
And I stopped thinking about the disquiet that had been sitting heavily on my chest ever since?—
A sock ball beaned me right in the face, and I couldn’t even be mad.
I was relieved to not think about that source of disquiet.
Still, I snagged it and yeeted it back at my current D partner, Cas. He was a good friend, a pain in the ass, and there was no way in hell that I was going to let the indignity of a sock ball to the face stand.
