Chapter 5 #2
Before that moment, it hadn’t occurred to Daisy that the activities she led could be responsible for the Connors’ success or failure on the ice. She’d been focusing on getting through the interaction without mauling Connor Greene. The realization had her little hockey heart in a full panic spiral.
“Oh my God!” Daisy chewed her thumbnail, searching every corner of her mind for a solution to this gargantuan problem.
“Fuck. We might as well abandon hope for the playoffs right now. Or pray they somehow find a way to connect outside of the classroom. Rob has no clue the new clients are hockey players. He never reads the questionnaires we have new clients fill out. He said I have to stick to his plan. It’s fucking horrible. ”
“Daisy. I’m not being dramatic when I say this. I’m being very serious.” Roxie’s eyes widened, and she gave Daisy an exaggerated nod as she grabbed her arm and squeezed. “You have to fix this.”
Her voice came out as a squeak. “How do I fix it? I don’t control the lesson plans.”
“No, you don’t. But surely someone owes you a favor. Maybe your boss?”
“I don’t think I’ve earned any favors! And if Rob thinks it will cost him any extra money, he won’t consider changes.”
Roxie looked dejected, her eyebrows drawn down and bottom lip stuck out in a pout.
“Fine,” she said. “We can spend the next two months reporting on bad hockey instead of celebrating our team winning.”
“Roxie! You can’t put that on me! I’m not a miracle worker! Those three have nothing in common except hockey.”
“Before Rob took over, wasn’t your entire job creating specialized team-building plans designed to help people form connections when they have nothing in common?
I’m ninety-nine percent sure that’s what you’ve been describing to me these past five years.
But I guess if you don’t think you can do it, fine.
They’re not going to get any worse.” Roxie shrugged her shoulders and sipped her drink.
They could absolutely get worse. It could always get worse. A million ideas started swirling in Daisy’s head. Could she tailor a plan for them? Anything would be better than what Rob put together. But could she actually have an impact on her team? On her second favorite hockey player?
Maybe she could help get them to the playoffs. Maybe she could help Connor Greene get renewed with the Freeze so she didn’t have to learn a whole new team and plan which games she attended around his visits. It would be dumb not to try, right?
She gathered her notebook and tablet and shoved them into her bag. “I have to go. I have to do something. I don’t know what. But something.” Daisy hustled to her apartment, determined to at least put a plan together for the Connors.
Daisy knocked on Rob’s office door the next morning.
The first step was to ask. He yelled for her to come in, and she straightened her shoulders, readying herself for an argument.
Rob wasn’t the worst boss she could ask for, but then again, she always did her job, stayed late when necessary, and never ever asked for favors.
Despite being a model employee with the intent of asking for more work, her stomach roiled with nerves.
To her surprise, Rob greeted her with a friendly smile.
It was a stark difference from his normal, bored expression.
This expression though, was his ‘I’m going to ask you to do something unpleasant’ face.
Daisy had never been happy to see it before.
Her heart soared with hope. Maybe whatever horrific thing he asked her to do would give her leverage.
“Daisy! Just the person I needed. You’re in early. I was going to track you down later.”
Daisy sat in the chair across from Rob’s desk and crossed her legs. “Oh? Is there something I can help with?”
Rob drummed a pencil against his desk. “Yes. I need you to take on a few more interns.”
She had no desire to entertain any of those little brats again. But for the Freeze, she’d do it. “Ah. Which ones?”
Rob glanced at his laptop screen. “All of them.”
The breath escaped her lungs. Fuck her, that sucked. But at least this wouldn’t be a fight. She’d be doing him a favor; he could do one for her too.
“I’d be happy to have them each shadow me, but I need a favor in return.”
Rob closed his laptop and leaned forward in his chair, steepling his fingers in front of his face. “A trade deal. I like it. What are you proposing?”
Daisy took a deep breath and forced herself to phrase her request as a demand. “I need you to let me do a custom plan for the Freeze.”
Rob’s expression remained blank. “The Freeze?”
Daisy’s eyebrows furrowed. “Uh, the new client you gave me? They’re hockey players for the Freeze.”
Understanding dawned in Rob’s eyes. “How did you know they’re hockey players? That wasn’t in the intake information.”
It absolutely was in the onboarding information, but Rob never read it. To be fair, Daisy hadn’t bothered to read it before their first session either. “I follow the team.”
“You recognized random hockey players by sight alone? They weren’t in uniform.”
Because of course a woman wouldn’t recognize a professional athlete when she saw one. Daisy went on the defensive.
“Yes, I’m a fan. I could rattle off their numbers and positions real quick too.”
Rob grimaced. “Oh God, this isn’t a weird sex thing, is it? Did you learn the team to impress some boy? Or are you one of them bunnykin things? The sport groupies?”
Daisy forced herself to stay seated and not leap up to strangle her boss.
“No. I’m not a puck bunny. And I didn’t learn the team to impress a man.
“ It shouldn’t matter that Patrick had forced the knowledge upon her as a kid, or that there happened to be one specific player she would like to do all sorts of weird sex things with.
“I enjoy hockey. That’s allowed. Women can watch sports because they enjoy them. That was an inappropriate comment for the workplace.”
Rob held up his hands in mock surrender. “Okay, I get it. You enjoy sports. That’s not going to be a problem, right? You’re not going to fall all over yourself if you meet them?”
Daisy balled her hands into fists and swallowed her rage. “I’m a professional. I already had one session with them. The plan you laid out will not help them.”
He looked unconvinced. “If you can do it without raising the budget, you can do a custom plan. They have four sessions planned and paid for.”
She pressed her luck, but she had to ask, “Can we at least rearrange the budget? They need proper events. Trust falls and walks in the park will not cut it.”
Rob’s face went red and splotchy in anger. “I said no raising the budget. If you can’t work within the restraints given to you, maybe you aren’t cut out for making custom plans.”
Daisy wouldn’t push too far; she’d gotten what she wanted. A quick stop by accounting gave her a ballpark of what she could spend. She’d have to get creative. With no clients scheduled for the day, she holed up in her office to figure out how she could trick the Connors into becoming friends.