Page 113 of Bad Teammate
“I want Sasha to learn English, though,” she said uncertainly. “I don’t want to translate for him forever.”
“Help him learn English, then,” Mr. Bowfield said. “You can quit once he’s fluent, if you want. Or maybe we’ll have a different Russian kid by then, and you can translate for him. Who knows? It’s up to you. This isn’t a traditional nine-to-five job. It’s hockey. It’s a strange business. You deal with meatheads like us, and there’s a lot of travel—but hey, the benefits are great, and if you’re interested, you can name your own price.” He raised his eyebrow at her. “So? What’s your price?”
“Wow,” she said again. “Um … is sixty too much to ask for?”
Mr. Bowfield chuckled. He went back to his desk, grabbed a pen and a sticky note and jotted something down.
“I’ll pretend you asked for this much,” he said as he passed her the note.
She looked at it and her jaw dropped.“Wow.Are you sure?”
“As long as you want it.”
“I do—Idefinitelydo.”
“Then we’ll see you back here in thirty days, when Niko gets out of rehab. Make sure you get your work permit situation figured out, too.”
“Thank you, Mr. Bowfield. I will,” she said.
Katerina, Niko, and I made for the exit. Before I could follow them out the door, Mr. Bowfield grabbed me and pulled me back into the office for a quick one-on-one chat.
“Beautiful girl,” he said. “And she’s got some brains, too, doesn’t she?”
“She does. Way more than me.” We laughed. “Thanks for offering her a job, though. That’s huge. It’ll ease her transition to America, big time.”
“No problem. I didn’t do it just for Niko, you know.” He pounded me on the shoulder. “I did it for you, too.”
I smiled. “Thank you. I appreciate that.”
“She’s a keeper, Reavo.” He grabbed me by the elbow and pulled me near, his voice serious and low. “Don’t fuck this one up. I had a good one when I was about your age. But I was stupid—I fucked it up, Reavo. See, for guys like us, it’s easy to think you’re always gonna be famous, that you’re always gonna pull nines and tens for the rest of your life, so why should you commit to justone? But that’s a trap, and it’s a trap that too many guys in our situation walk right into. Be good to her and be loyal.”
“Thank you, sir. I will.”
“Okay, Reavo.” He clapped me on the back.“Now I’ve gotta get back to work.After all that trade talk, I’ve got a hankering to make a deal.”
My jaw fell. “Wait—what? After all that, you’restillgoing to make a trade?”
“Don’t worry. I won’t break up the team. I believe in you guys. But in trying to trade Niko, I learned there’s a few guys around the league that I’d love to bring into the fold, as long as the price is right.”
“You know what?” I waved my hands in surrender. “I don’t even want to know. This GM shit is so stressful it makes my head hurt. I don’t know how you guys do it.”
“Neither do we.” He laughed and showed me to the door. “Now make sure that Russian gets to rehab, will ya? And then spend some quality time with your girl.”
Can’t wait,I thought.
40
Katerina
Thankfully, the drive back to Derek’s condo wasn’t anywherenearas breakneck or death-defying as our race to the arena had been.
“Ahh.” I breathed a sigh of relief, watching out my window. “This is nice. I don’t have to fear for my life. I can actually keep my eyes open while you drive!”
Derek laughed. “You know I don’t drive like that all the time, right?”
“I’ll admit, you had me a little worried,” I said. “Thatwasthe first time I’ve ever been in your car, after all.”
“What if Ididdrive everywhere like that?” he asked playfully.
