Chapter 33
thirty-three
. . .
Mason
“Alright boys, that’s it for today. Let’s bring it in.” I wait for everyone to skate off the ice and head to the locker room. The past few practices I’ve taken the lead on coaching and while at first, it felt like I was pushed into the deep end of a bottomless pool, over time I’ve felt more comfortable. While this job had initially fallen into my lap, the more I coached the more it felt like this had been my calling all along. I thought nothing would ever match the rush of playing, until I got to guide my freshmen into scoring their first goals and helped our senior players set new personal records. Those moments filled my heart with the same amount of joy I felt when it was me scoring goals.
Whether Coach Jameson had noticed my impact on the team thus far was another story. He stops me before I head down the tunnel into the locker rooms. “Any thoughts about the lines for the game against Bolton?”
We are just over a month out from our big rivalry game, and the pressure to win is palpable. Bolton was slowly climbing up the ranks in the Hockey East division, and a win against us would put them right behind UCONN.
“I think we stay with what we’ve been doing the last few games.”
“The lines you picked.” There’s no judgement in his statement. Very matter of fact.
“The boys are getting increasingly comfortable playing in these new pairs, and it’s only benefitted us so far. Also, none of our opposing teams have figured us out yet which is always a good advantage to have.” I shrug as if to say, ‘But if we don’t do that it’s totally fine and don’t blame me if it doesn’t work because you agreed.’ Coach turns me into such a chickenshit sometimes.
All I get is a nod. “Any news on whether Jake will be in the mix? I can’t let him on the ice if his grades have gotten worse.”
“I have a meeting with him and his teaching assistant this afternoon to check in about how things are going with his tutor. I should have an update soon.”
“Well, if he’s been trying half as hard in class as he has been learning these new passing drills, he should be in fine shape.” With the ice cleared we both head to our offices. “Keep me posted on how the meeting goes. Better we start planning now if we need to replace Jake, instead of a week before the Bolton game.”
“Trust me Coach no one wants to beat Bolton as much as I do.”
“I guess that’s the perk of having a Coach who was once a player. No need to fake interest in the rivalry.”
“Is Bolton’s coaching staff still the same?”
“Sure is. ”
“Good. It’ll be nice to remind them who’s in charge on this side of the city.”
He turns away from me as he enters his office. As I head further down the hall, I see a short figure with curly hair leaning against the door frame of my office, deeply immersed in her phone. “You’re here early.”
Violet glances up, jumping at the sound of my voice. “On time or naked, that’s what I always say.”
“I’ll be sure to show up late to our next date then.” I unlock my door and hold it open for her as she walks in. “Practice wrapped up about twenty minutes ago so Jake should be here soon.”
“Sounds good. I told Jake’s tutor, Eliana, to be here at 4 p.m.” Violet settles in one of the chairs across from my desk and I fight the urge to drag her chair around to my side so she’s right next to me.
I lick my lips as I watch her shrug off her winter coat and drape it over the back of the chair. She’s wearing a tight-knit cream sweater that covers more skin than it shows, yet I can’t help but imagine what a late Violet would look like naked in my office. The way she would tug on my hair while I trailed kisses along her neck?—
“Mason?” My name brings me back to reality and the smirk on her face lets me know she caught me daydreaming.
“Sorry, what?”
“Do you have any extra chairs? For our meeting?”
“Right.”
I return to my office, extra chairs in hand, and see Jake standing alongside a brunette who has a stack of assignments in one hand and coffee in another. I set the two chairs down and settle back into my seat. Eliana walks over without a word, taking the chair closest to Violet. From the scowl on Jake’s face, I can assume he’s going to make this meeting as painful as possible. Before I can ask Jake to sit down so we can get this over with, Eliana turns and gives him a menacing look, eyeing the empty chair. He rolls his eyes and takes a seat next to her, a scowl still permanently etched onto his face. I am going to take a wild guess and assume tutoring has not been going well.
“Alright, so why don’t we get started,” Violet offers. “I’d like to first hear from you both about how tutoring has been going, and whether any changes need to be made. Then we can discuss Jake’s eligibility for the rest of the semester.”
Violet hands me Jake’s reports. This fucker’s grade was in the toilet a few months ago. Coach Jameson will be happy to hear it has much improved, but we were still not fully in the clear yet. One missing assignment and he’d be out for the rest of the season. Westchester took their GPA cutoffs very seriously and if his GPA dipped any lower, he’d have to spend the next semester bringing it up from the sidelines.
Eliana is the first to speak. “We had a bit of a rocky start—” Jake snorts, “—but over time, we came up with a mutual agreement on what it would take for us to stay on track. And things have been better since then.”
“ ‘Mutual agreement’ is a very nice way of saying she threatened me several times saying she'd let me flunk if I didn’t do all these assignments on her hellish timeline.”
“Part of my responsibility as your tutor is to make sure that you complete all your assignments in a timely manner. It’s not my fault you have issues with planning and prioritizing your responsibilities.”
“And it’s not my fault they gave me a drill sergeant for a tutor. Seriously, could you be any more uptight? I don’t respond well to authoritarianism.”
“You can get snippy with me all you want Jake, but that doesn’t change the fact that my methods have been working.” She looks smug as she turns her head away from him. “You’re welcome by the way.”
“You are so full of yourself,” He seethes.
“Just giving my student a dose of his own medicine.”
“You know what?” He leans over his chair to bring himself closer to Eliana, who doesn’t cower away. If anything, she looks just as ready to go off as he does. And either I’m completely misreading this situation or there is some…heat behind all this anger.
“Okay,” Violet interjects. “I hear that some things have been effective. Jake, from looking at your assignment grades before you started tutoring to now, you’ve really turned things around.” Eliana beams from her chair while Jake rolls his eyes. “But maybe we can work on being a bit more flexible when it comes to scheduling?” Jake perks up, watching Eliana’s disgruntled face as she gives Violet a small nod. I don’t know how, but Violet has managed to find a tutor whose even more stubborn and hot-headed than Jake is. Maybe that’s why she picked her in the first place.
“So, he can keep playing?” My question seems to frustrate Eliana. I know his education is important and all that shit, but we are here for one specific reason.
Violet looks at the grade book on her laptop for a few seconds before turning her attention back to me. “He can keep playing.”
“Thank fuck, ” Jake exhales.
“But I do recommend he keeps up with his tutoring. At least until the end of the semester. And maybe for next semester too if he plans on taking more psych classes. Pending Eliana being available. She’s our best psychology tutor and tends to be in high demand.” The latter comment is not-so-subtly aimed at Jake, who seems to get the message.
He flashes Eliana an apologetic look. “You are a really good tutor, that acts like a drill sergeant.”
She rolls her eyes before saying, “Thanks.” She turns her attention to Violet. “I have to head over to lab if that’s okay? I’m helping Maya run a scan soon.” Ah, that explains Violet’s protectiveness. I didn’t realize Eliana was also one of her research assistants.
“Yes definitely. We’ll talk more later.” Violet gives her a wave as she heads out of my office .
Once Eliana exits, Jake turns his attention to Violet. “Have you considered giving her a day off or something? She practically lives in that lab.”
Violet looks as caught off guard as I am. “I’m sorry?”
“It wouldn’t kill her to have some fun. All she does is school, tutoring, and research.”
“Research can be fun,” Violet challenges.
“God, no wonder you hired her. You’re like, the same person.” He shakes his head and turns to me. “So, am I good to go?”
“Yeah, you’re all set. I do want to finalize some things with Violet, so just shut the door on your way out.”
I wait until I can no longer hear Jake’s footsteps before I stand up from my desk and lean over to Violet’s chair, pressing a kiss to her temples and then a longer one to her lips.
“What was that for?” She smiles.
“I just missed you from all the way over here.” I kiss her again.
She rolls her eyes before opening her mouth for me, and I groan at the sound of someone knocking on my door.
“Mason,” Coach’s voice rings through. “Are you still in your meeting? Any news on Jake?”
I press one last kiss to Violet’s lips, nipping hard on her bottom lip as a promise of what’s to come later, before opening my door and getting Coach up to speed.