Chapter 5
Daisy
Daisy didn’t wait to get home before she texted Patrick. As soon as all her coworkers had cleared out of the office, she tapped out a message.
So... I met Connor Greene today.
Less than a minute later, her phone rang. A smile tugged at her lips. He would never answer with a text. Patrick would deny it if asked, but he loved any sort of drama. Drama surrounding his rival was his favorite kind.
“Tell me everything,” he demanded.
Daisy laughed. “Wow, not even a hello? A ‘how are you?’ Nothin’?”
Patrick’s grumble pulled a giggle from her. “Yes, yes. Hi, how are you? I miss you, yadda-yadda. Now. Tell. Me. Everything.”
She leaned back in her chair, unsure where to start. She had spent the last few hours dissecting the interaction.
When she didn’t answer straight away, Patrick whined. “Daaiissy, tell me. I can hear you thinking over there. Tell me you do not still have the hots for him.”
Daisy couldn’t lie. “Oh, I definitely still have the hots for him. That’s for sure. I want to sit on his face. It’s a real problem, since now I have to work with him. Also, he seemed nice.”
Patrick’s frustrated yell had Daisy cringing and pulling the phone away from her ear. “Dammit Patrick. We’ve talked about this. You can’t scream into the phone like that!”
He laughed and ignored her comment. “Wait, what do you mean you have to work with him? Did you land a job with the Freeze? And how is that a problem? For a decade I’ve been hearing, ‘look at Connor, he’s so dreamy’.
” Patrick’s impression of Daisy was pretty spot on.
“And now you have the opportunity to woo him and you’re saying it’s a problem.
One interaction and you’re giving up. I can’t wait to tell Sophia about this. She’s going to be so mad at you.”
Daisy giggled again and relaxed at Patrick’s familiar teasing. Her shoulders pulled away from her ears. Her chronically clenched jaw came loose, and she let out a sigh, releasing tension in her shoulders.
“Patrick, don’t bring your wife into this. She’ll bully me until I seduce him. I can’t answer your questions if you keep talking. Do you want to know what happened or not?”
“Yes! I said tell me everything!”
“Ugh, I’m never getting the opportunity to woo him. I already showed my whole ass today. Well. Whole tits I guess. But that’s a whole other thing.”
“Oh my God! You already showed him your tits? Daisy!” Patrick’s laugh infected Daisy.
“Not on purpose! My dress got wet and turned see-through!”
“How’d your dress get wet?”
“You’re asking too many questions. Let me tell you the story.”
“Okay, okay. Go.”
“I don’t have a job with the Freeze. The Connors showed up at my work today out of the blue. They’re my new clients.”
“Daisy, I’m all for self-expression, but I’m failing to see why your tits would be out at work.”
“They weren’t out! You’re too focused on the tits of it all.
I had a horrible group of teenagers before the Connors came in.
They left a massive mess I had to rush to clean, and one of their disgusting lunch concoctions sloshed onto me.
It got on my face and in my hair and drenched my dress.
And then, of course, who shows up as my new client before I can fix it?
The man I’ve been obsessing over forever.
So I ran away and left them waiting while I got presentable. ”
“Well, it could have been worse, I guess.”
“That wasn’t the bad part.” Daisy trailed off on a dramatic pause, loving how much Patrick supported her and cared about her stories.
“What are you waiting for?” he whined. “Don’t make me beg for the juicy parts.”
“Well. My dress was ruined. There was ketchup and mustard and soda all over it. You could see my bra. I had to change. Luckily, I had my gym bag. But I only had one outfit.”
Patrick, knowing Daisy owned three gym outfits, all of which featured the Freeze, shouted, “No!”
“Yeah. And the worst part, it had Connor’s name on it.”
Patrick exploded with laughter.
“I tried to hide it. I said my ex was into hockey. Which is technically true.”
When Patrick calmed down, he said, “Oh no. That made it worse. You could have owned it.”
“I did. Eventually. It was incredibly awkward. And now he knows I’m a fan, and we have to work together, and I cannot think straight when I look at him. It’s like my panties melt right off. He doesn’t even have to do anything.”
Patrick snorted, and Daisy could picture his exact expression. His nose would scrunch, hand covering his mouth, his shoulder-length blonde hair hanging over one eye. God, she missed him.
“You should date him. You know so much about him already; it could be easy.”
Daisy twirled a pen between her fingers. “That’s yucky to me. I’d feel like a predator.”
“Why?”
“Because I know him. My choices and feelings have affected his life. I’m in too deep with the parasocial creepiness.”
“It doesn’t have to be parasocial. He could know you too.”
“But what if he doesn’t like me?”
Daisy could almost hear Patrick’s eye roll. “Then he is exactly the dumbass I’ve been telling you about. He’d be stupid not to like you.”
“But then what if he does like me?”
“Then you fuck his brains out and get married and adopt seven dogs, like you’ve always planned.”
Daisy didn’t have a comeback. It sounded pretty great. Unlikely, but great.
She let the silence drag on between them, and Patrick filled it. “What are you scared of?”
She drummed her fingers on her desk and sighed.
“What if meeting the players is scary? What if I’m doing this podcast or I get hired by the team and I get to meet them, and they’re jerks to me if I say the wrong thing, or come across weird?
What if they ruin the team I’ve been rooting for since you introduced me to hockey? ”
Patrick didn’t beat around the bush. “Yeah, what if? But also, what if they aren’t? You’ve met a lot of hockey players. Maybe not NHL players, but hockey players nonetheless. Some were jerks. Some were nice. And through it all, you loved hockey. Nobody can take that from you.”
Daisy remained unconvinced. “But it’s not just hockey. It’s this specific team. I feel like I know these guys. Hell, I’ve been following Connor Greene since high school. I’m best friends with his ex-girlfriend. I’m his biggest rival’s ex.”
“What would you tell a fan who thought they knew me?”
Daisy hated how Patrick got to the root of a problem so quickly. She let out a dramatic sigh. “I’d tell them one minute of your time isn’t indicative of who you are as a person, and the information they can find about you on the internet doesn’t do you justice.”
“Bingo. I’m surprised we had to have this conversation. But do you feel better?”
“No, but none of my issues are hockey related now, so I guess that’s a win. I have to go. I still have to finalize my work plans for tomorrow.”
“Gee, you’re welcome, happy to help.”
Daisy smiled at the teasing lilt in Patrick’s voice. “Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Thank you. I love you!”
“Love you, bye.”
“Bye.”
Daisy hung up. Talking things out with Patrick always helped. The mood boost the call gave her persisted through the end of the day.
Unfortunately, after her hellish day, a relaxing evening spent cozying up with a Ben and Jerry’s wasn’t in the cards.
She’d agreed to meet Roxie for dinner to talk about how the first few episodes of the podcast were performing.
So she sat in her favorite diner with her second plate of french fries listening to Roxie talk about new recording equipment they should test, and how many five-star reviews they had accumulated in their first few weeks.
Under normal circumstances, it would be fascinating.
Right then, however, she couldn’t bring herself to care.
She had a bigger worry at the front of her mind.
Daisy couldn’t stand it anymore. Interrupting Roxie, she blurted out, “I met Connor Greene today.”
Considering Roxie had spent years of her life dating the man, she should be more composed, but Roxie squealed. “Where?”
Her questions came at such a rapid pace, Daisy couldn’t keep track. The confidentiality agreement she signed meant she couldn’t share the details. Patrick was one thing; he was in the NHL. Roxie aspired to be press. But Daisy had already brought it up. She had to give Roxie something.
“Um, actually. I saw... all the Connors.” She twisted a strand of hair between her fingers.
“What!?” Roxie demanded, slamming her hands on the table and leaning into Daisy’s personal space. Her excitement about the other Connors was more understandable.
Daisy cleared her throat and glanced around the diner, giving polite, apologetic smiles to anyone who seemed annoyed at her friend’s outburst. “Shh. Be quiet. I can’t tell you the story if you keep yelling after everything I say.”
Patrick took most of the credit for Daisy’s hockey obsession, but Roxie could also take some blame.
Her friend clasped her hands tight together and leaned back in her seat.
She gathered her thoughts and then nodded in a way that was supposed to be serious but was contradicted by the eager grin Roxie couldn’t quite get under control.
“Okay. I’m good. Cool as a cucumber. Tell me the story.”
“I met them at work.”
Roxie gasped and whisper-shouted, “What were they doing at your work!?”
“My work does team-building. They were there for team-building.”
“Did you talk to them?”
“I did.”
“What did you say?”
“I embarrassed myself by wearing a Greene shirt and led them through an ice breaker designed for middle schoolers.”
“Wait, you’re telling me the success of our hockey team, the well-being of the players we adore, is dependent on Collaborative Craft’s ability to shape them into a strong team? Don’t you constantly complain that they reuse basic corporate bullshit exercises?”