Chapter Six January #4
Brady gave him a once over, and then a smile. A real one. “Yeah, there sure is,” he said as he stood up. He offered an ungloved hand to Nick. “Now let’s fucking show Mags he needs to shut his damn mouth, giving us shit like he’s any better than we are.”
The tension drained out of Nick. He should’ve known Brady hadn’t meant anything. How was he supposed to know that was a sore spot for Nick?
He accepted Brady’s hand and let him pull him up. “He is a better skater than me,” Nick pointed out.
“True, but he’s got no hockey sense. He tries to push in when he shouldn’t.
He’s got the perfect skill set for a stay-at-home defenseman, but he gets all these ideas that he can be the hero or whatever, so we get burned by a breakaway goal the other way.
You’ve got him beat with actual understanding of the game, hands down. ”
Nick muttered thanks and got onto the ice to warm up. He was suddenly very determined to make sure Brady’s compliment was proven true.
He did next to nothing in the first period, though as a plus he wasn’t out for the lone goal the other team scored. He was out for the opening faceoff for the second, and he heard Mags behind him.
“Drinking before games. Can barely score as it is.”
Oh fuck that.
Technically, Nick jumped before the puck dropped.
It left the ref’s hand, fell where GG’s stick waited, and a few inches above the ice, Nick made a break for it.
GG won it clean to Lexi, or so Nick assumed.
He didn’t see what happened, but when he turned to check on the play, there was a pass coming his way.
He caught it midstride, entered the zone, stopped hard to avoid the D scrambling to come back, and—
“GOALLLLL!”
The bench went wild, the goalie threw his stick on the ice and screamed at his team, and Young Greg nearly tackled him.
“Look at that snipe, boys! Top shelf!”
Nick was practically carried back to the bench, where he was met with another chorus of cheers, only to remember he’d only had a 10-second shift and needed to get back for the next face-off.
As he rushed back to center ice, he caught Mags’s eye.
“I changed my mind,” Mags said with a stern look that was undercut by the admiration in his eyes. “You should drink before every game.”
“Thanks?” Nick said.
Was it good to have a reputation as playing better when he was drunk? He wasn’t even drunk, so probably not.
His play didn’t amount to much, not after that goal.
The other team took Nick for a ringer and wouldn’t let him go for so much as a line change without a stick lift.
Even after Young Greg scored from center ice, they seemed to credit the goal to Nick because he’d passed it to him.
Crazy, considering they’d played this team a million times before and they should’ve had a better idea of what Nick’s skill level was.
Nick certainly wasn’t a ringer; more often than not, he wasn’t even a game-changer.
Still… it felt good that they thought so, if only for the night.
*
Curtis Bennet: Great job this season! I know we were really hoping for the win, but making it to the semi-finals is still a great improvement from the last playoffs! I like how we’ve been playing lately and I think we can definitely make a grab for that trophy next season!
Gregory Smegory: There are only eight teams in the league… Half of us make semi-finals…
Guy Prince: We should focus on the positive, no?
Guy Prince: Sure half the teams make the semi-finals, but last season that did not include us
Curtis Bennet: Thank you, Guy! That’s exactly right, we had an obvious improvement in the standings and that was a very close game.
With that in mind, I wanted to present the team with an opportunity for some competitive hockey, but outside of our usual groups of teams. It might give us better insight into areas that we’re doing well and ones that we need to improve.
Gregg Cox: What does this mean??
Brady Derek Jensen: tournament?
Gregory Smegory: Tourney??? Sick yesss pls and thank you
Curtis Bennet: Yes! There’s a tournament in Pittsburgh in a few weeks.
The league is sponsoring the tournament fees for the first two teams who sign up.
I went ahead and signed us up, though we can supplement our roster with other players in the league if necessary.
It’s a weekend tournament, so we would arrive early on Saturday the 24th for seeding and then the playoffs are on Sunday and should be done by four or five.
Curtis Bennet: We would need to book hotel rooms and the tournament has recommended some places that are nearby. We could also try to figure out some carpooling.
Brady Derek Jensen: where is it?
Curtis Bennet: Pittsburgh
Brady Derek Jensen: I can literally think of exactly two hockey rinks inside the city of Pittsburgh and it’s PPG or Schenley park
Brady Derek Jensen: and that’s a friggin outdoor rink
Brady Derek Jensen: so do you have a more detailed geographic location
Curtis Bennet: Oh. I will check.
Lexi Warner: I am in this sounds awesome!!
Donnie Owen: Agreed. Away tournament for an adult hockey league?? Sign me the fuck up
Nick J. Porter: right?? it’s like super legit that we’re traveling for it
Gregory Smegory: Does anyone else think it’s weird that Jensie knew rinks in Pittsburgh off the top of his head???
Curtis Bennet: The tournament is at Rostraver Ice Garden in Belle Vernon, PA.
Nick J. Porter: gee that’s a good question young greg
Nick J. Porter: jensie, why *do* you know so much about pittsburgh?
Brady Derek Jensen: that’s like a 40 minute drive from the city wtf
Gregory Smegory: Nicki you’re scaring me
Gregory Smegory: What deep dark Pittsburghian secret is Jensie hiding?
Brady Derek Jensen: I’m from Pittsburgh
Gregory Smegory: !!!!!!!!!
Gregg Cox: Somehow this makes a lot of sense
Gregory Smegory: We’ve had a sleeper cell in our midst this whole time
Gail King: Jens as my defensive partner I feel betrayed that I didn’t know this information already
Brady Derek Jensen: yinz act like you’ve never met someone from pittsburgh
Marc Garcia: I was going to let this go but yinz???? Wtf is yinz?
Gregory Smegory: Like I said, sleeper cell
Gregory Smegory: All this time he’s been oozing Pittsburgh-ness secretly without us knowing
Nick J. Porter: is there a difference between “secretly” and “without us knowing”?
Gail King: Maybe it’s a double secret
Gregory Smegory: Jensie you a pens fan??? I don’t know how we can be friends after this
Brady Derek Jensen: when have I ever rubbed our five cups in your face?
Brady Derek Jensen: if I can listen to you go on and on about Ovechkin you can quietly endure my silent appreciation for the better team
Nick J. Porter: shots fired
Curtis Bennet: Please let me know if you are able to attend. I will forward everyone the relevant info about dates, hotel accommodations, and the rule book. I will also read through the rules to look for any obvious differences to how we’re used to playing.
Gregg Cox: Saved by the captain there Jensie
*
Nick liked to hide in the copy room that had the shitty copier that always jammed.
Most people ignored it, except for the interns who were often forced to use the lesser equipment during peak office hours.
Nick didn’t mind the bad copier because the room had a nice view of the city and was usually abandoned.
Even when an intern did wander that way, they’d see Nick—an actual employee with salary, benefits, and his own office—and sigh before moving on.
Dilutions were the absolute worst—huge-ass lists detailing all of a customer’s deductions.
When those came up, he could take over a copier closer to his office, but then he’d have to talk to people.
Never mind the hassle of having to fight for one of the better machines, it was the endless small talk that killed him.
Why bother, when he could hide out here instead?
And today, he might have decided to do this particular task earlier than necessary once he got a very surprising message. In this out-of-the-way corner, no one cared if he checked his phone as he waited for another fifty-page report to print.
Jensie from Hockey (11:18 a.m.)
hey you’re going to the tournament right?
call me when you get a chance today?
I’ve got lunch from 12-1 but I could probably answer after that
They normally communicated via text or in person, and Nick was so damn curious what Brady would think warranted an actual telephone call that he couldn’t fathom putting it off until later.
His pretense loaded into the copier, the first few pages coming out all right. Nick leaned against the windowsill and hit the “Call” button next to Brady’s name for the first time ever.
“Hello?”
“Hey, it’s Nicki—”
“Oh, hey, what’s up?” There was rustling on the other end; voices hushed until they grew so quiet that Nick imagined Brady excusing himself from a conversation.
“Uh, you said to call…?” Was the message for someone else? Damn, he should’ve known better.
“Right right. So you got a room for the tournament yet? I thought maybe you’d like to, uh… split a room?”
Nick stood there, the cacophony of the decade-old copier the only sound besides his heart pounding in his chest.
“I know that like, uh… Mags and GG are sharing a room. And I think Lexi and Young Greg are? And I thought… I thought, maybe… If you already have a room or would prefer not to—” Brady said in a rush, and Nick’s brain finally kicked back into gear.
“No! I mean, yes! Yes, that would be great! I… I hadn’t booked a room yet.”
“Grea—! Uh, cool. I’m booking stuff after work so I can, um… get you the address and all that later today.”
“Cool,” Nick agreed. He hadn’t heard Brady so nervous before. Or so childishly pleased at an answer. He licked his suddenly dry lips. “Never thought to ask you about it. Figured you might be staying at your family’s place or something.”
“Maybe if it were in Mt. Lebanon, it’d be worth it. We’ll be too tired and too far for me to want to drive into the city after a day of seeding games, then wake up at the ass crack of dawn to drive back for the actual tournament.”
“Mt. Lebanon?” he repeated, baffled.
“I have to know Mt. Vernon, but you don’t have to know Mt. Lebanon?”
“You live here!”
“Ugh, fine. So I’ll book the room. I won’t be able to get up there before Saturday morning; do you need the room Friday night?”
“Actually, yeah. I’m not used to a drive like that, I’d rather already be settled in.”
“Gotcha. Text you later. See ya then if not sooner.”
“Bye.”
Nick hung up. The copier beeped angrily at him, and he gratefully used the task of refilling the paper tray to do a little thinking (read: obsessing).
He replayed the past few times they’d interacted, compared them to how things were when they first met.
Had they been flirting with each other this whole time? Was this a new thing? Was this even flirting? What was going on?
Nick knew he’d been trying lately, but he usually didn’t dare hope that Brady had been flirting back. This was something else entirely. Sharing a room, sure, friends did that, but the way Brady was acting didn’t add up to “Bros saving a buck by going Dutch.”
So what did two guys plus one hotel room equal in this equation?
Excited, Nick couldn’t wait for this tournament for a whole new set of reasons.
Because in close quarters, if nothing else, he should have an idea if this attraction was one-sided or not.
And maybe get a chance to act on it.