9. Meredith
CHAPTER 9
Meredith
“ W hat about this?” I spun in a circle, in my black wide leg jeans with holes mid-thigh and at the knees. Up top, I was wearing a recently purchased Avengers sweatshirt. I’d cut it and washed so it was cropped at the waist and loose around the neck, hanging off one shoulder. The royal blue of their logo wasn’t a color I typically mixed with my red hair, but it’d work for the first game I was going to.
“You look great,” Hailey said. “Just like you did in every other outfit you’ve tried on tonight.”
From the couch of our poor-kid college apartment, Darrick snorted. “It’s not like he’ll see you.”
“Stop pouting because you don’t get to go.”
His jaw pushed forward. It was only because I loved Hailey that I didn’t fire back with what I really wanted to say. Ever since Darrick learned I met Tuevo, he’d suddenly become the greatest ever Avengers fan even though we all knew he hadn’t paid attention to a single game before then. Now, he acted like Tuevo was his best friend even though we’d only gone on one date with Hailey and him.
That night ended with Tuevo agreeing with me.
“Darrick is a loser, and she can do so much better,” he’d told me, curled up in his hotel room’s bed where I spent most nights now when he was in town. “Why does she stay?”
“Because she’s na?ve and loves him. Because as rude as he can be, he always finds a way to make it up to her.”
“He sucks.”
Fortunately for me, he wasn’t snowed over with the smarmy charm Darrick won a lot of people with. I think it made Tuevo even greater in my eyes.
“He does.”
“And I don’t even have to have your magic gift to know he’s a piece of shit.”
I’d poked him in the ribs until he grabbed my hand, settled it low on his abs, and then pushed my hand lower, where he was already getting hard again even after a vivacious first round of sex.
That was last week.
Tonight, Darrick was still pouting, and frankly, I would have kicked his ass to the curb the first time a grown man pouted like a toddler.
He ignored me, since he knew I wouldn’t put up with his shit, and refocused his a-hole energy on Hailey. “Why are you even going? You don’t like hockey and you won’t understand what’s going on.”
Hailey’s cheeks paled. When I told her about the tickets to Tuevo’s game, she’d said the same thing. She didn’t pay attention to sports, but Darrick didn’t need to be condescending about it.
“That doesn’t mean I won’t have fun with my friend. And didn’t you make plans for tonight?”
“Only because you don’t want to spend time with me.”
My irritation spiked. God. The constant manipulation she fell for was frustrating.
“I just don’t get why you didn’t want Misty or Sloane to go with you,” Darrick said to me. “You’d have more fun with them anyway.”
“I’ll have the most fun with my best friend. And are you insinuating Hailey’s not a fun person to be around?”
“Meredith,” Hailey groaned under her breath. “Stop.”
His jaw clenched again, along with his fist this time before that smarmy smile appeared. “Of course I think she’s fun to be around. That’s why I miss her so much when I’m not with her.”
“Whatever.” I rolled my eyes and went back to my bathroom. My apartment I shared with Hailey was close to campus and was fantastic because we each had our own private bathroom.
Good thing, too, because if I had to share any more space with Darrick than necessary, I’d probably strangle him with my hair dryer’s electric cord.
The day she and Darrick broke up was the day I’d buy my first bottle of Dom Perignon in celebration. Student loans be damned.
“Wow.” Hailey sighed next to me. “Those goalies are flexible .”
She didn’t lie. The way those men stretched their knees out to the side and sank their backsides down in the middle. The way they wiggled. I tossed a handful of popcorn into my mouth and sighed. “I’m a hockey fan for life.”
Not that I hadn’t already been one due to Caleb, but I was always more likely to turn on football over hockey. But those goalies…
Tuevo’s seats were on the second level of the arena, third row, and we were facing the home team’s bench. It had to be impossible for him to see me, like dumbity-dumb Darrick had pointed out, but I had a perfect view of him on the ice.
Since Tuevo joined the team two weeks ago, the team had gone undefeated. It wasn’t all due to him, of course, but I’d watched his first game on television and when he’d scored a goal four minutes into his first NHL game, I’d jumped off the couch and screamed so loud my glass of white wine had sloshed over the rim. Hailey had stared at me like I was nuts because I’d pulled her attention from her book, and Sloane and Misty had given a half-hearted “yay!” as their cheer.
Since then, Tuevo had scored in almost every game and more than once he scored multiple times. He’d definitely helped give the team a spark of energy and confidence heading into the new year and the final stretch of the regular season.
The teams cleared the ice after their warmups and I ran up to the concessions to get Hailey and myself some drinks. We were settled back in our chairs for the face-off, and soon, both of us were on the edge of our seats. The crowd around us went ballistic for their Avengers and I could never understand how anyone couldn’t get into sports or athletic events after watching them live. Even Hailey was right there with me, gripping my forearm and leaning forward every time the team had control of the puck.
“Oh. He has it!” She pointed to the ice where Tuevo grabbed a pass from the center. He was shoved into the board and fought for the puck before he kicked it back out and Braeden Gloss snagged it. “Oh shoot!”
I laughed as her brows furrowed.
“Everything moves so fast. How do they even see the puck when they’re all huddled together like that?”
“Watch the screen.” I pointed to the big screen hanging above center ice. “It tends to zoom in.”
“But then I miss all the fun on the ice.”
Gloss passed it back to the center, who skated around behind New York’s net. He dribbled it, and once Tuevo got free, he passed it to him.
Tuevo turned and slapped the puck.
“Yes! Oh no.” The puck hit the upright and bounced off, straight to New York’s defenseman’s stick.
He took off, passing the puck back to the other end of the ice.
The game went back and forth, a strong defense showing on both teams and no goals scored by the end of the first period.
As the teams skated off the ice, Hailey fell back into her chair. “My heart is racing. How do people think this is fun?”
I chuckled and sipped my beer. “Because sitting at home on your couch with Darrick would be so much more entertaining?”
“We do more than that,” she muttered, but she dropped it.
To her credit, it wasn’t until the second intermission and the Avengers were finally up by one, thanks to a goal by the center Markos Skullen, that Hailey finally checked her phone.
Unsurprisingly, she had over half a dozen texts from Darrick.
“I know you love him,” I said gently because I’d always promised to keep my mouth shut, but he was getting worse. More controlling but also more evasive when she asked him if he had plans. My warning signals were flaring. “But do you really think he loves you as much?”
Hailey chewed on her bottom lip. For a second, I thought I was breaking through. Until she grinned up at me. “He told me he’s going to propose after this school year is done.”
“Oh. That’s great.”
Her shoulder hit mine. “I know you don’t like him. But he’s good to me. And we have the same values.”
Personally, I thought Darrick’s agreement with Hailey for them to both abstain from sex was less about morals and more about him wanting to conquer the virgin, keep her pure until their wedding night. The first time Hailey told me that I gagged. Not because that wasn’t virtuous or something to be respected but because it hadn’t been Hailey’s morals until Darrick brought up the idea, and I knew for a fact he was no pious, virgin Christian.
“All I want is for you to be happy.”
“And I am with Darrick.”
“Good.”
The second intermission ended. Tuevo jumped over the boards, taking his time on the ice. The guy was impressive, and while I’d seen both him and Caleb play in recorded games, seeing him in person was phenomenal. He skated across the ice like he was floating on air and his precision with the puck was unparalleled.
I had no doubt, as I watched the game wind down without a goal from Tuevo but with the Avengers winning, that someday in the very near future, Tuevo would no longer worry about being sent back down to the AHL.
He’d be one of the Nashville Avengers team captains.