39. You Never Read The Comments
39
YOU NEVER READ THE COMMENTS
SETH
It’s the New Year’s Eve home game, a long held tradition in Calgary, and after the week off, it feels good to be back on the ice. Kylie seems to be avoiding me a little, or maybe I’m just being paranoid. We’d originally planned to spend most of the week doing things together with Will, but in the end, I only saw her a few nights and they spent three days snowboarding with Adele. I can’t help but feel like she’s pulling away, constantly avoiding questions from everyone about whether she’s going to stay. Questions from everyone but me.
So being on the ice now is a great distraction, and a chance for me to channel my frustration into something else. We’re fifteen minutes into the third period and tied with Boston two all. We are determined to give the fans what we all want - a win to see in the new year. And hopefully the end of the losing streak we are on since we lost the last home game.
Anders makes his way back to the bench along with the rest of the third line, and Linc and I jump over the boards, hitting the ice at flying speed to steal the puck back. Linc scrambles behind Dean’s net, digging the puck out of the grasp of Wilson Rogers, Boston’s captain and one of our former college teammates. Coming around the net, Linc flicks the puck towards me and I take off towards the offensive zone. I duck past their beast of a defenceman to pass the puck to Linc before moving into position near the net and waiting for an opening. Linc takes a shot, and it rebounds off the goalie’s pad after a quick reflex save. I manage to get the puck at the side of the net before Wilson can intercept it and I take another shot. It bounces off the skate of Popov, the Boston goalie, and I lose sight of it for a fraction of a second. Then the goal light turns red and I throw my hands in the air, cheering while Linc and Riley plough into me from both sides, closely followed by Pieter and Oliver. Skating back to the bench to celebrate with the rest of the team, I raise my stick up before pretending to sheath it like a sword, and the crowd cheers.
I search the crowd behind the bench, looking for Kylie. When I spot her sitting in her grandparents’ seats with Will, I point at her, and she grins, blowing me a kiss. Will points up at the jumbotron, and I look up to see them both on the screen, before it flashes back to me.
It’s the first time I’ve ever drawn attention to her like this, and I worry for a moment about how she feels about the extra eyes on her, but she continues to smile at me and seems to be okay with it.
We run down the clock, and once the final buzzer goes off, my teammates flood the ice to celebrate. The Boston players hit the locker room with a defeated air about them. Both teams had been hoping to end losing streaks tonight, and I’m relieved it’s us who broke it.
“First round’s on me!” I yell, and the others cheer.
We’re heading out straight from the game to celebrate the New Year. The management team has booked out one of the cowboy bars for a night of fun, and some of the guys are looking forward to getting into the spirit and were wearing cowboy hats and boots when they arrived before the game.
Management arranged for transport to the venue, so after I’ve showered, I head out to meet Kylie and Will. I find them hanging out back with the other family members in the common area. Will is looking around at everyone with interest, but Kylie seems a little guarded, and I follow her gaze to see Victoria and her entourage chatting to Anders’ wife, Bethany. They seem to be glancing her way while talking, and I can feel my protective instincts kicking in. I stride to her side and wrap my arms around her.
She sinks into the embrace and grips my face, smiling up at me. “Congratulations, Captain.” She kisses me, and I feel some of the tension in my gut uncoil a little.
“I like it when you call me that,” I say quietly against her lips.
She throws her head back and laughs. “Oh I know, Captain.” She gives me a flirty wink.
Will shakes his head. “Hello, brother, standing right here.”
She teases, “Oh shut up, you can handle hearing me confirm that Seth really is the captain in every aspect of his life, considering the amount of times I was subjected to your stuff over the years.”
Will clamps his hands over his ears. “La la la, nope, not hearing that.”
“Stop teasing your brother,” I say, nipping her bottom lip before stepping back.
“Spoilsport,” she replies with a grin.
We head out to the team buses that are waiting to ferry us all to the bar, and Will somehow ends up seated next to one of Victoria’s entourage. I’m not even sure how they ended up included in the festivities, but once she realises he’s not one of the players, she ignores him entirely. He gives me a bewildered look over the back of his seat.
I shrug. “Don’t worry, it’s only a short drive.” I’ll fill him in on the professional husband chasers later, but he’s definitely dodged a bullet.
Once we arrive at the bar, Coach leads the way inside, and they have gone all out to give us the full Calgary cowboy experience. Banners hang from every available space declaring Happy New Year, and they have decked out all the tables with black and red cowboy hats featuring the team logo on the front next to each place setting.
Kylie immediately puts one on her head and strikes a pose, lifting her leg and flashing me a peace sign while blowing me a kiss.
I laugh. “You make a very cute cowgirl,” I tell her, pulling her close.
She grabs the one from the next seat and plonks it onto my head. “And you’re the hottest cowboy in here, partner,” she drawls, putting on the worst accent.
“I’m going to grab us some drinks. Are you sticking with lemonade tonight?”
She nods. “Yes please.”
After checking if Will wants a beer, I head for the bar, stopping along the way when I’m pulled into various conversations with my teammates. Once I reach the bar, I lean with my elbows on the top and wait for them to serve several others, content just to people watch for the time-being.
A woman appears beside me, placing her hand on my arm. “Hey. Buy me a drink?” she asks, flicking her long blonde hair back over her shoulder with a smile, her eyelashes fluttering.
Where’s Dean when I need him?
“It’s an open bar,” I reply, straightening up to allow her hand to slide off.
“Oh, that’s cool. We can order together.”
She’s persistent, I’ll give her that. “I’m okay. I’m getting drinks for my girlfriend and her brother.” I nod towards Kylie and Will, who are both watching the exchange.
The woman looks over her shoulder, then turns back, a confused look on her face. “That’s your girlfriend? Really?”
Any thoughts about keeping the conversation polite swiftly leave my mind. “Yeah. Is there a problem?” I don’t even bother trying to hide the anger in my tone.
“Just thought you could do better, that’s all. She doesn’t seem like the type who knows how to handle a player.”
Fuck me, this woman is awful.
“Who are you here with?” I’m ready to go off now, angry that the women I actively avoid have somehow infiltrated what is meant to be an event for the players and their families.
“Bethany.” She shrugs.
I flex my hands at my sides. “Of course you are. Let me be clear. I am not a player. That is my girlfriend, and you need to step back right now.” I am usually polite but firm during these uncomfortable interactions, but the way that she looked at Kylie has me seeing red.
“Everything okay?” Linc slides in beside me.
“Yep, we’re good,” I reply, my words clipped.
“You sure?” He raises an eyebrow.
“She was just leaving.” I nod towards the blonde, who shakes her head and wanders off. “Fucking hell, I’m going to kill Bethany for letting those witches in.”
“Yeah, I’ve already spoken to the events team. They’re keeping an eye on them, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they get booted after seeing that interaction. What’d she say to you? I’ve never seen you react like that with them before.” He leans forward to rest his elbows on the bar, similar to how relaxed I’d been minutes ago.
“She was being a bitch about Kylie.”
“What? How?” Linc looks surprised, glancing over to where Kylie and Will are talking, still watching us.
“She implied Kylie wasn’t good enough to be with an NHL player.”
Linc whistles and shakes his head. “Oh boy.”
“Yep.”
The bartender finally heads our way, and I order our drinks, carrying them back to the others with Linc in tow .
“What was that all about?” Kylie asks, taking her drink from my hand.
“Nothing. Just a misunderstanding,” I reply, putting my arm around her while I take a mouthful of beer.
She looks up at me, and I can tell she doesn’t believe me, but she doesn’t push it any further.
After they serve dinner, they turn up the music and clear away the tables to make more room on the dance floor. The events team has arranged for a line dancing instructor to come in for a bit of fun, and Kylie forces me to take part, declaring she needs the full cowboy bar experience. After making absolute fools of ourselves, Linc, Will and I throw in the towel and leave her to it, watching her laugh along with Clara and Sarah while they try to keep up.
“You’re heading home in a couple of days, right?” Linc asks Will, who nods in response.
“Yeah. I made the trip as long as I could, but I gotta get back to my business.” He reaches into his pocket, pulling out his phone, which has lit up. He unlocks it, and after a few moments, his eyebrows raise before he looks over at Kylie, then back down at his phone. “Um… What the fuck?”
“What’s wrong?” I ask, my senses on high alert when he keeps looking from his phone to Kylie.
“Look at this.” He hands me the phone, and I see it’s some social media app.
I look at the video that’s playing, a bunch of photos of women with ratings on them and comments.
I look back at Will. “What is this?”
“Watch from the beginning.”
I drag my thumb along the line at the bottom, taking it back to the beginning, and watch in horror when the words “let’s rate the partners of the hottest NHL players”. I can feel my heart rate pick up when photos of women going about their every day lives flash up. They have started from one star ratings, and I swallow hard when a photo of Kylie and I kissing appears, at the ice skating rink where we had our first date. A single star keeps flashing and the words “clearly he needs his eyes checked” appear, before it moves on to the next woman.
“What the fuck?!” Linc yells, watching it over my shoulder.
“Shut up.” I smack him and nod towards Kylie before looking back at Will. “I don’t want her to see this. How did you get this?”
“Adele sent it to me. She’s pissed. So am I.”
“Believe me, so am I. We can’t show her this.” I hand him back his phone.
Seconds later, Kylie pulls her phone out of her pocket and I suck in a breath, realising we probably should have told Adele that. I move towards Kylie, but she’s already watching the video, and I can tell the second she sees herself, the smile on her face disappearing while she stares at the phone.
“Don’t look at it.” I reach her side, and she turns to look up at me.
“You’ve seen this?” she asks, her eyes looking a little glassy with unshed tears.
“Adele just sent it to Will.”
“Who would do something so horrible? Look at this, it’s got over a million views already! And the comments!”
I take the phone from her hand and slide it into my pocket. “Hey. You never read the comments. I may be out of loop on social media, but I know that much.”
She wraps her arms around herself, turning away from the dance floor. “I’d like to go home now.”
“Babe, you can’t let this ruin your night,” I say, trying to give her a hug, but she turns away.
Clara has joined us. “Is everything okay?”
“No.” Kylie plucks her phone from my pocket and shows Clara the video.
“Oh, I’ve seen this account before. I’ve tried to report it. Kylie, this is just internet trolls. They rated me a one as well, a few months ago. ”
Kylie shakes her head. “It’s disgusting.”
“It is, but it’s just someone who is jealous as hell, so they try to make everyone else miserable to make themselves feel better.” She takes Kylie’s hand. “Seth’s right. You can’t let this ruin your night. You were just having so much fun.”
Kylie shakes her head. “I just need a minute.” She moves off through the group.
I go to follow her, but Clara puts her hand on my arm. “I’ll go. She’ll be okay. It’s all part of this life.”
“It damn well shouldn’t be. No one has the right to make anyone feel this way.”
“I agree. Just like you guys don’t sign up to have your butts plastered all over the internet when you’re stretching, the partners didn’t ask for this shit either. But unfortunately, while the internet allows these assholes to remain anonymous, there’s not a lot we can do. I’ll go talk to her.” She heads towards the door Kylie went through, and I swallow hard, before going back to the guys.
“Is she okay?” Will asks right away.
“Not really. I wish Adele hadn’t sent it to her. It blindsided her.”
Will puts his beer down. “I’m gonna go check on her.” He follows Clara.
I don’t think I’ve ever felt so angry and useless in my life. This is exactly what I’d been afraid of happening. That somehow, my unwanted fame would affect her on a personal level.
Now the woman that I love, the most vibrant person I’ve ever met, has been hurt and I can’t do anything to stop it.