Page 98 of Puck You Very Much
“Hey, I’m a competitor, and winning means a lot to me too, but I’m not about to turn into a complete idiot over the smallest thing.”
I threw my hands up. I honestly worried my boyfriend would never listen to reason.
“I’m just saying that we’ve got to have an understanding about all this, especially before the big game.”
“Why?” he said. “I already told you that the Riptides are gonna mop the floor with you guys.”
I drew a deep breath but didn’t sigh. That would tell him he’d gotten under my skin, even if I didn’t strike back. No good would’ve come from retaliation.
“If we don’t figure something out, we might not make it through this game,” I said.
In truth, if we don’t figure something out then we wouldn’t make ittothe championship game. I didn’t dare say that. You must know by now how much of a pain in the ass Zane was.
“Look, why don’t we just do what we did before and not talk about hockey… or anything else that’ll get our backs up?” he asked.
Instead of sayingfineor anything else that served as an exclamation point, I rested my fork and continued eating in silence.
Like I’ve said, my boyfriend had regressed back to the guy I punched out at the bar. Oh, who am I kidding? He’d reverted to freaking childhood, for crying out loud.
I knew what I wanted, though. I wanted Zane Hirst, the same Zane that I’d fallen in love with. On the other hand, I wanted to win the championship. I wanted to enjoy the glory that came with it. Most of all, I wanted to position myself for NHL stardom.
Was having it all really asking that much?
39
ZANE
Iknow Jakob and I have had our ups and downs. I also know that we must’ve had the weirdest relationship in history. With everything that’d happened since our teams advanced to the championship game, I knew something would have to give.
The question was, what would be that fabled straw that broke the camel’s back?
I’m the kind of guy that needs to let go of things. Maybe you don’t think so, but I figure no good can come from belaboring a point. I’d told Jakob that we shouldn’t talk about hockey. I meant it. The best things we could do for ourselves as well as our teams was to pretend like this was any other game—at least as far as our relationship was concerned.
But could Jakob handle that? Fuck no. Could he listen to reason? Give me a break. I’ll tell you how everything went down. In other words, when the shit really hit the fan. Just be assured that everything was his fault, okay?
When we snuggled up on his couch, I’ll admit to feeling tense. I might not have talked about things, but that didn’t mean the whole thing hadn’t fucked my nerves over. Remember, this was my first shot at real greatness. It was Jakob’s too, but Iwasn’t concerned about that. Looking out for number one might not be a crowd-pleaser, but every one of us does it sometime.
Anyway, we were snuggled up on the couch, and things were great. I honestly thought the tension between us would settle a little. That’s what Ithought. Not to be confused with the ridiculous reality that Jakob often brought. I didn’t even care if we had sex, which is enormous for me. I only cared about a little peace and relaxation.
But do you think Mr. Jakob Martin would let me have it?
Fuck no.
He had to lift his head from my chest and look into my eyes. Then he paused. When he did shit like that, I knew I wouldn’t like whatever would come out of his mouth.
“Zane?” he said.
“Yeah?”
“About the game this Saturday?—”
“I don’t want to talk about the game.”
“But I really think we should.”
“I told you I don’t want to talk about it.”
“But—”
