12. Josh
JOSH
This was the absolute last thing I imagined when I agreed to go to dinner. Sitting across from Victoria, watching her laugh and interact with my teammates, had me feeling like my entire world was slightly off-kilter.
She was so at ease. Teasing Derek and Erik, while asking Amelia questions about herself.
It was impossible to wrap my head around this reality.
I’d had an idea of who she was, the kind of person who cut others down and only cared about herself, for years.
Suddenly accepting that I was wrong was a mental hurdle I was struggling to get over, but the longer I sat observing, the easier it became.
“That’s not even the most embarrassing part,” she pointed at Erik. “I had to sit there and pretend I understood without speaking a single word of Japanese.”
She finished a story about accidentally interviewing the wrong player at a baseball game.
“Did you pull it off?” Hartman asked.
“A smile and nod will get you further than you’d think,” she laughed.
“It likely had to do more with who was doing the smiling and nodding,” Amelia taunted. “He probably thought you were cute and didn’t even notice that you didn’t ask him more questions.”
“Oh, no.” She waved that off like it was impossible, and not the most likely explanation.
“Some people get chatty when they’re nervous,” Derek added. “He was probably talking to cover it up.”
“I wouldn’t know.” She shrugged. “I had no idea what he was saying.”
“Did you ever get the right guy?” Erik asked.
She sighed. “No, that was the worst part. By the time I made it into the clubhouse to hunt him down, I was told he’d already left.”
“Then what did you do? The article was due in the morning,” Amelia leaned forward.
“I got his number from one of his teammates and called him. Apologized for invading his privacy, asked him my three questions, and promised he’d never hear from me again.”
I laughed with Erik, but Hartman narrowed his eyes. “His teammate handed out his number to a reporter?”
“Yes?” Victoria grimaced. “It wasn’t my finest moment, but I begged.”
“And what did he want in return?” Amelia asked.
She closed her eyes. “A date.”
“Knew it,” Amelia clapped her hands. “It’s easy to get what you want when you’re this pretty.”
“Speaking from experience?” I teased, and she beamed.
“Yes.”
Victoria was blushing. “I swear I’m professional ninety-nine percent of the time. It’s hard enough being a woman in this industry. The last thing I want is to build a bad reputation, but there have been just a few times I’ve charmed people into getting my way.”
“No one will fault you for that.” Amelia glanced around the table, challenging us to disagree.
“You have to fight twice as hard for the same things as your male colleagues. You don’t need to explain using what you have to your advantage.
If it weren’t for the connections I had, I never would have gotten to this point in my career. ”
“Yeah, you nepo baby.” Erik teased.
“Excuse me,” she shot him a glare, “I’m a nepo sibling.”
We all laughed, but Victoria waited.
“My sister is married to Nikolai Koslov. After I graduated, she got me linked with Madi.” She looked to Erik. “His wife. I interned with her until I got a spot on the training team for Salt Lake’s basketball team. After a couple of years with them, I got hired by the Utah’s NHL team.”
“And now you’re married to a player,” Victoria grinned. “How scandalous.”
“A retired player,” Derek corrected. “She came on after I left.”
“Oh yeah, there’s no blurred lines with our team,” Hartman quipped. “Very serious about keeping things professional and separate.”
We laughed again, and Victoria waited with an expectant smile.
“My sister was head of marketing,” Erik started.
“She was head of everything,” Derek laughed. “She ran the team behind the scenes.”
“And she married Reese Murray,” Hartman added. “Madi’s the daughter of our previous head coach,” he shot a look at Erik. “Which was one of the boldest––”
“Or stupidest,” I added.
Hartman smirked, “—ideas he’s ever had.”
Erik leaned back with his arm draped over Hartman’s chair. “It worked out.”
“Somehow,” Derek shook his head. “You had to play for your father-in-law, and I had to play with my brother-in-law, who frequently threatened my life in Russian when he thought no one else was around.”
Hartman nodded with a grin. “Good times.”
She watched us with a light in her eyes I’d never seen before. “Your team is much more of a family than most. I’ve always admired that.”
“It’s definitely a blessing,” Hartman admitted. “We work hard to maintain a culture we all enjoy.”
“It can be a curse, though,” Erik cracked a smile. “You can’t make a single move without everyone and their wives knowing.”
“That can make certain things difficult,” Derek shook his head. “Like trying to pull off a surprise.”
“Or planning something with only a few people,” Hartman agreed.
“True,” Amelia giggled. “We're an all-or-nothing group these days.”
“Unless you're one of the only single guys left,” I muttered.
“Aw, poor, lonely Josh,” Erik teased. “You’re so neglected.”
I glared at him. “I didn’t say that.”
“But it’s true,” Amelia frowned. “You can get lost in the shuffle and people assume someone else spoke to you or invited you.”
“I get that,” Victoria said, and we all went quiet, something that didn’t often happen when we were together. Talking over each other was more our thing.
“Yeah?” I asked.
“A lot of my coworkers are in relationships, and most of my friends are spread around the states because of jobs.” She paused before looking up at me. “It’s easy to get overlooked or forgotten when you’re not a part of a couple and it feels like everyone else is.”
“So you’re single?” Erik pressed with a growing smile. “How interesting.”
“Is it?” Victoria asked.
“Well, just that the two of you are both here, now, single in the city of love.”
“DC is not the city of love,” Amelia laughed.
“Fine, the city of…”
“Laws?”
“Democracy?”
“Politics?”
“Museums?”
They shouted their guesses over one another.
“Relationships,” Erik announced. “All kinds. Diplomatic, professional, friendly, romantic.” He wagged his brows.
“That doesn’t seem right,” Hartman frowned. “That’s not at all what anyone thinks of when they think of the Capitol.”
“Says you,” he shot back.
“As much as I’m enjoying this awkward discussion, unfortunately, it’s frowned upon to fraternize with athletes as a sports journalist.”
Erik sulked. “Why?’
“Professionalism?” she replied.
“Boo,” he waved her off. “If any of us listened to that, none of us would be married.”
“I think that says more about our team than her job,” Amelia smiled. “Fortunately, the coaches and front office don’t get involved as long as it doesn't affect their performance.”
“Then they do get very involved," Erik muttered.
“So you’ve never dated an athlete?” Derek prodded, and I pretended like I wasn’t anxiously waiting for her answer.
It didn’t matter.
Her romantic history was none of my business and didn’t affect me in the least.
So why did I care?
“Not since college,” she admitted. “And even then, I tended to stay away from hockey players.”
“Why?” Hartman sounded wounded. “What’s wrong with us?”
“I played,” she explained. “On––”
“You did?” I asked before she could continue.
She nodded. “Yeah, center.”
“That’s how you know the women's teams so well,” Erik connected before I could.
She grinned. "Yeah, women's hockey is a small world. I either played with or against most of them for years.”
“Why didn’t you continue to play?” he prodded.
She glanced down at the table, and I knew the answer before she spoke. “Injury.”
Derek blew out a breath. “It’s a terrible way to go out.”
“Says the man who benefited from it,” Erik smirked, earning a glare.
“I would have gladly played backup to Olli for another decade if it meant he was healthy.”
I nodded. I didn’t know anyone selfish enough to want a starting position if it cost a teammate their career.
“I agree, it should be an athlete’s decision to retire, but not everyone is that lucky,” Victoria tried to smile.
“Did you always want to go into sports journalism?” Amelia asked as I found myself wishing we were alone so I could ask her these questions myself.
Wait.
A few days ago I loathed Victoria. Now I was wishing we were, what…on a date?
I ran my hand over my face as she answered.
“Sort of. I wanted to be a color commentator or a play analyst, but those positions are far and few between, especially for women. This was a path that allowed me to stay close to the sport and help promote it.”
Derek grinned. “That’s a great attitude to have. Some people run away once their career is over.”
“And some never leave,” Hartman teased.
“I’m sure that’s how they feel,” she laughed. “Like they can’t get rid of me.”
“Except this time,” Erik leaned forward. “How did you end up with us if your focus is on the women?”
Her face immediately dropped. “That would be due to a terrible judgement call by my bosses. Once they heard about the additional network coverage of the women’s games, they decided to throw in a more recognizable face. As if the viewers care about Joe Banks.”
I didn’t realize that had happened. She’d been around a lot, but I assumed she was hanging around the area all day to interview all the teams.
“That sucks,” I blurted.
“It does,” her eyes locked with mine.
A waiter stepped forward, pulling my attention from her. The food I hadn’t realized we’d ordered began to come out. It was family style so I assumed Hartman or Derek took the lead.
“This looks wonderful,” she smiled at the waiter, who set a steaming pile of pasta in front of her.
“Enjoy,” he replied with a quick grin.
Something hot coiled in my stomach, and it took me a moment to recognize it as jealousy.
What was going on with me?
I barely knew her, had only been able to share the same space as her for a few days now, yet I was jealous of the waiter?
I needed to pull myself together.
“Victoria, where do you live?” Amelia asked as we passed plates.
“New Jersey,” she said with a slight grimace.
“Oh is that where Sports Now is based?”
“No, well, the office is in New York, but rent’s astronomical and with how much I travel, it didn’t make sense for me to spend so much on an apartment I might not even spend a full week in each month.”
“But you need to be based there?” Erik asked.
“Not necessarily. I may go into the office once a month, and that’s only if I happen to be home for a few days in a row. Most of my meetings are online. The only real requirement I had is to be close to an airport.”
Hartman and Erik nodded as if her answer pleased them.
I watched them with narrowed eyes. They were being suspicious.
“So you could live in Phoenix, Los Angeles, or say, Salt Lake?” Erik asked with a completely straight face.
She nodded and cut a piece of chicken. “Yeah, actually, most of my colleagues live out west these days.”
“Interesting,” Hartman said mildly. “Would you ever consider moving?”
“Maybe,” she answered before taking a bite.
“Anything, or anyone, tying you to New Jersey?" Erik asked.
She dabbed the corner of her mouth with her napkin. “Not really. My roommate is nice, but we didn’t know each other before. Most of my friends are in the same industry, so we’re all scattered most of the time.”
“What about your family?”
“My parents live in Michigan now. My sister and her family are in South Dakota near her husband's family.”
“You know, Salt Lake––” Hartman started, but Amelia interrupted.
“Let her eat in peace,” she shook her head with a small smile. “You don’t need to try to recruit her.”
Hartman shrugged. “I was just going to talk about how nice the weather is.”
“And the nature,” Erik added.
“Yeah, great place to live,” Derek joined in.
“I’ve been, remember?” Victoria was grinning. “It’s a very nice place.”
“You should come back,” Hartman encouraged. “Visit the rest of the team.”
She cocked her head. “I’ll try to squeeze that in with everything else I have to do.”
“Yeah, you––”
“What was your goal song?” I cut Erik off to hopefully distract them and give her a chance to escape their weird pressure.
She laughed. “All I Do is Win.”
I froze, “That’s mine.”
“You’re a goalie, why do you have a song?”
“Just in case,” I defended. “I have scored two goals, by the way.”
Erik laughed. “And each of them was pretty epic.”
“Really? Empty netters?’
“One,” I grinned. “The other was pure magic.”
“I’m sure I can find the clip,” Hartman pulled out his phone.
We fell into sharing stories about our favorite goals and impossible passes, eating and laughing rather than focusing too much on any one of us. She fit right in, joking and teasing. I liked seeing her here; it felt as though she belonged.