Page 108 of Wrong Pucking Jersey

“Are you dating Harvey, Mikayla?”

The way I almost choke on the piece of BBQ pulled pork in my throat has Dimitri reaching out to pat my back rigorously.

“Okay. Maybe that was the wrong time to ask that.”

“Unless you’re trying to kill me,” I gasp and reach out to drink some of my milk. Almost died trying to finish my lunch because of such a random question.

“Wh-Why would you get that impression?” I finally ask when I’ve recovered from almost perishing on Strattonville’s best BBQ pulled pork in all of Canada.

Trust me. I made it my mission when I was fourteen that we had to travel to every province and try the top five restaurants that serve pulled pork. Even wrote a lengthy essay revolving around my adventures that got published.

That’s one of the privileges you get growing up as a miniature celebrity kid because your dad coaches the best hockey team in Canada.

Then it all twinkled away…

“Uh,” Dimitri looks around to confirm we’re alone in the staff lounge. “So you two kissing in the hall two weeks ago wasn’t anything serious?”

Shit!

“Y-You saw that?” I question in surprise. “Was that the day I had to go to the nurse’s office?”

“Yeah,” he replies and looks rather calm in comparison to me, who’s freaking out. I knew it was a risky move for Ace, but I didn’t expect him to do that at all. There was no crazy build-up to lead to him kissing me, yet in one blink, I’m staring up at Vipers’ 6’3” defensemen—who should be a forward instead—and the next, he’s kissing me.

Like I’ve always been his.

“I didn’t want to bring it up since you seemed rather stressed all last week,” he admits his findings after observing me since we started this internship and were introduced. “It’s obviously not my business, but I was just confused because all the gossip reports are saying you’re in a love triangle with Maddox and Jayce.”

I sigh at that obnoxious news.

One of the guys, or maybe it was a random staff member, took a video of the race between Ace and Jayce, creating a narrative that made it seem as though Jayce was competing for my heart and affection but got injured during the race, which is why he lost.

Then it further sugarcoats the interaction with the clip moving to the point where Maddox is on the ice and making his “claim” for me in front of Coach Johnson.

Or the exaggerated narrative proclaiming his love for me before my dad.

The social media influencer ends it with a poll asking everyone who they think I’ll fall for. The options even include Ace and Maddox, claiming an alliance to take me away from Jayce.

Absolutely ridiculous, but it’s getting both teams some sort of publicity.

While I’m getting emails and phone call requests for me to be hired in various healthcare organizations and privatized clinics.

Marvelous, only I don’t want to go into hospital or privatized healthcare.

“All the gossip is just fabricated lies done for clicks,” I groan. “If you’re hearing about this, I’m sure the whole town knows of the love triangle between Winchester, O’Riley, and me.”

“Yeah,” Dimitri admits. “I think the whole town already knows, but now they’re curious about Ace with how he performed against Jayce to get your praise.”

“Praise? They’re making me like some kind of drama character. No. This has to be a BookTok trend where they romanticize your life in hopes the stars will align with multiple people wishing for an outcome, and it’ll come true,” I complain. “That’s how Selena and Justin Bieber got into their relationship, only for it to spiral into oblivion. The only thing different is TikTok wasn’t invented back then, so everyone used Tumblr and MySpace to make mood boards and collages from magazine cutouts.”

“That sounds like a lot of work in comparison to a TikTok video with cuts of footage,” Dimitri admits.

“Yup.” I bob my head. “Anyway, that kiss was spur of the moment. I’m sure Ace was worried because I have a history of panic attacks. I don’t need a puffer or anything, but if I’m distracted quickly enough, I can avoid spiraling down completely. Maddox kissed me to get me to calm down. Ace was just applying the same technique.”

“Were you panicking because of the confrontation with Jayce regarding you stopping him from further injuring his leg?”

“Sort of.” I’m just going to go along with it. “Despite Jayce’s good boy looks, he’s a bit intimidating and has anger issues,” I point out. “I was worried he was going to sock me in the face.”

“He has done that in the past,” Dimitri admits. “Though hitting a nurse who’s trying to help you would be borderline insane. He’d become a bad guy to the world far too fast.”

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