Send Me Love

A transfer student with social anxiety An NHL prospect with hidden insecurities One spicy pre-game ritual

Transferring to Northern U and losing a year of credits is the last thing I expected. Then again, developing social anxiety halfway through high school wasn’t exactly on my bingo card either.

Since then, I’ve become more shadow than person, slipping through life unnoticed. My therapist tells me to use this as a fresh start. Make friends. Join a social circle. Maybe try flirting. Yeah.

Okay, I’ll get right on that. Hey, maybe I’ll start with the hot hockey captain! Tell him all the things I want him to do to me after the game. Give me a break.

But when I hear about a campus-wideapp where fans send love to the team, I’m instantly intrigued. And it’s anonymous? Say less. Zero risk and I cross “socializing” off my list.

Until the team captain heart’s my message. And every single one I send after.

When I don’t “send love” at a game they happen to have lost, Kane shows up at my tutoring table at the library with a proposition of his own.

Keep sending him love—since it’s clearly his good luck charm—and he’ll teach me to flirt *and other things* instead of hiding behind my phone.

And so begins…our pre-game ritual.