to be thinking she has anything to do with my performance on the ice tonight, right? But why risk it?
I shove the card into my bag and hit the showers. My career is everything and I need to protect it. I have to keep this up, no matter the cost.
Chapter Two
Saige
“Good morning,” I say to my assistant, Tedi.
She glances up and blows a strand of her dark hair away from her face. “There’s nothing good about the morning.”
I drop a pastry bag on her desk and her eyes light up. “Unless there’s a chocolate croissant in there.” I smile at her before walking past her desk, and I hear her open up the bag to discover that there is, in fact, a chocolate croissant for her. “Oh, I love you.”
Our office is small, but we tried to work out of my apartment, and I kept finding her on the couch, watching reality television and saying she’s a great multi-tasker. Not that all the blame is on her—she’d suck me in and then I’d start doing my client’s social media from the couch in my pajamas.
She takes the croissant out of the bag and stares at it as if it’s a naked Chippendale dancer. “Come to mama!” She takes a huge bite.
I giggle and set my coffee on the desk before shrugging out of my jacket. Although we’re in Florida, it’s winter. There may not be snow, but it’s freezing outside. You’d never guess I’m originally an Idaho girl.
“How was your night?” I ask.
“Good. How was your date with Joran on New Year’s Eve?”
I sit down in my chair and pick up a pen, teetering it back and forth.
Tedi groans. “I don’t understand why you’re still dating him.”
“Because he’s the most decent guy since…”
“Asshole. Repeat after me… Ass. Hole.”
“I don’t want to talk about Jeremy.”
She throws her arms in the air. “Now you’ve ruined my day. You know I can’t stand his name.”
“He’s my ex.”
“Yes, but I had to endure him all the same.”
“It’s been two years,” I remind her.
Tedi was our neighbor when I moved down here to Florida with Jeremy. She’s the one who told me about him cheating when I went to work, and we’ve been best friends ever since.
“Anyway, I’m not sure how much longer it’ll last with Joran.” I speak honestly because I tell Tedi everything, although I haven’t told her about my encounter with Aiden Drake. Mostly because she’s a hockey fanatic and would make a bigger deal out of it than it is. When Joran had invited me to the New Year’s party, I wasn’t even sure if anyone from the team would be attending. I just knew it would be a bunch of rich people out of my league if they were invited by the Gerhardts.
She leans her chair back and crosses her ankles on the edge of the desk. “What happened?” she mumbles around her croissant.
“New Year’s was kind of a bust and the other night, I went to the Fury game with him.”
“Seriously? And you didn’t invite me?”
“I was in a box with him and people from his office. I spent most of the game watching it on my own, even though I don’t know much about hockey. Joran said there was some rookie kid in the box he wanted to impress. I honestly wondered why he even brought me in the first place.”
“I could’ve been your tutor,” she says.
“You’ve tried, remember? I’ll never understand why they come and go off the bench so much and what it all means.”
She laughs. “For someone who does social media for athletes, you might wanna try harder.”
I stick out my tongue at her and she laughs.
“Watch out, your face might freeze like that.”
“Anyway. Aiden—”
“Drake?” Her eyes light up. “He’s out of his funk. Did you hear?” She twirls in her chair. “He had an amazing game.”
I watched from the box, elated for a man I barely know. Joran might as well have orgasmed by the third goal, screaming so loud that families below the box were staring at us. I can’t deny that after I got home and turned on the television, I listened to the announcers talk about his slump, showing pictures of the amazingly strong man’s head hung in defeat after so many other bad games, a huge smile pulled on my face that he’d finally scored again. Not only once, but three times in one game.