Page 34 of Forbidden Puck
“Gross!” she squealed. “You hockey players are all such huge sleazes.”
“You got that right.”
“And you're proud of it, too?” She let out a delightfully high laugh. “Awful, you're justawful, Ryan.”
We reached MacAllister's. I held the door open for Ella, and the hustle and bustle of a rowdy Saturday night dinner crowd hit us like running face-first into a wall. The two of us were totally over-dressed for a joint like this, of course, but that was half the fun.
Chapter 11
Dinner
Radar
The duo of young hostesses lit up when they saw me enter.
“Radar!” the first one mewled.
“Welcome back, Radar!” her partner gushed.
“Girls, I want you to meet Ella Couture. She's Lance's sister, and she's visiting from out of town.”
The hostesses looked at Ella. They hadn't noticed her standing right next to me. They gave Ella polite but disinterested smiles, and then immediately stared at me again.
I looked at the crowd that was crammed into the waiting area. “So what's the wait like tonight?” I asked.
The second girl gave a heavy glance to the first one. The first girl muttered, “well, er, let's see what we have …”
She tapped away at her monitor and then, quietly added, “oh, look at that! I just found a booth.” She whisked us past the waiting crowd and delivered us to an over-sized booth that could easily fit ten people. “Enjoy your dinner!”
I smiled at Ella. “Not bad, eh? I love the service here.”
But she looked appalled. “I can't believe they just did that! We just cut in front of that huge line, and I couldfeeleveryone staring at us!”
“The fruits of being a pro athlete,” I said with a cocky grin. “They treat us like royalty in Boston.”
Ella wasn't impressed. “You hockey guys really are all the same.” Although she was joking, I could swear she sounded a little disappointed for real. “Anyway.”
And although I showed her my confident smirk, deep down, I felt a little strange. Naked, almost. Normally, girls absolutely ate up the special treatment I received around town … but not Ella. I guess I felt vulnerable.
Huh.
Our server swung by the table. We ordered a couple of drinks. I went with a steak and fries, and Ella ordered a grilled chicken salad.
“So, Mr. Royalty, how'd you meet this Kara girl?”
“Through an app.”
“A dating app?”
“Yeah.” I could've left it at that, but Ella's honesty policy had me in the mood to, well, be honest. “Actually, it's more of a hook-up app.”
“Wait, that's different than a dating app?”
“Well, sure. Some people use dating apps just to hook up. But a hook-up app is like, strictly for hooking up. Less drama, I guess.”
She didn't look too impressed at that, either. “I never knew that was a thing …”
“Really? You've never used Tinder or anything like that?”
