Page 53 of Tricky Puck

But before I make it to the locker room exit, coach Spence slams through the door with a deep dark scowl on his face. Aimed at me. Fuck.

“Milano, my office. Now.” He turns and heads back out the door where he came in.

I exchange a glance with Jason and his eyes are wide. “What the fuck?”

As I’m about to follow coach out the door, Sabien rushes in from the dining area waving his phone at me. “Link, did you see this? What happened here?” His face is white and he shoves the phone in my face.

What I see makes me freeze like I’ve been run over by a glacier. It’s also the answer to the question of why the fuck the coach wants to see me in his office. Fucking Dennis the handyman posted his damn photos on social media.

I’m looking at a photo of me punching George in the face. “Fuck.”

“What are you talking about?” Jason says, looking over my shoulder. “Shit. No wonder coach is out for blood. Who is that dude you’re punching out?”

“What’s going on, Link?” Sabien asks like he’s catching his breath, tamping down on his panic.

“I had an altercation with Delaney’s ex-boss. He fired her and when I went up to her cabin—he was the last person I expected to walk in on. They were arguing.” I take a deep breath. “Turns out, he owns the cabin, but in the meantime, we had this disagreement. But it’s all good now. I swear. We have no beef. as it turns out, he’s a hockey fan.”

“Who posted the pics on IG?” Jason says, taking the phone and thumbing it. “Holy shit, there’s a video clip—it has close to a million views.” He blows out a whistle. Some of the other guys are checking their phones and shaking their heads, glancing at me.

“Link, you can’t let coach—” Sabien starts.

“He knows. He just invited me to his office to chat about it.” I hold onto my cool, my natural reticence defying whatever fear I should have, rescuing me from nerves and tamping down the churn in my gut.

Sabien rubs his hands over his face. “Oh man. This is bad. We need you this season if we’re going to make a run⁠—”

“I know. Don’t worry. I have no intentions of going anywhere. I’ll take care of this. It’s all a misunderstanding.” I say the words, and they’re true, but in this world of social media and hyper sensitivity and the need to judge celebrities whether the facts warrant it or not, I shouldn’t be so confident.

Especially since Coach already threatened to trade me.

I will not let that happen. That’s the thought I hold onto as I give my friends, and all my teammates in the locker room who are watching me, a nod of reassurance. Then I walk confidently through the door and down the hall to Coach’s office.

“Take a seat.” He doesn’t look up from his phone.

I remain standing and fold my arms across my chest. Maybe that’ll help keep the pounding of my heart to a minimum because it’s starting to thud faster.

Coach finally looks up and meets my defiant glare with one of his own. he tosses his phone at me and I’m quick enough to catch it.

“Tell me why you were in a fight and I had to find out from the PR office because the photos end up on social media? Tell me why the Sherriff was called and I know nothing about it until I see it in the comments and PR confirms that it’s true?” He stops his low growling tirade and I wait a beat to make sure he really wants me to answer his questions because they might be rhetorical.

I decide he doesn’t want to hear what I have to say because he’s already made up his mind. So I remain silent. He holds my stare and I don’t flinch.

He bangs on his desk. “Damn it, what’s wrong with you? We’re fielding questions from the press and so far, we have no idea what to say to them. What the fuck is going on, Milano?”

I clear my throat. I was wrong about him not wanting an answer.

“It was a misunderstanding between me and George—the guy I was fighting with. It’s a long story, but we’re all good. No charges were pressed⁠—”

“I don’t care how fucking long your story is. Tell me. Every last thing.”

I tell him the facts, or most of them, about going to pick up Delaney at the cabin to bring to the game because her family was going to be there, and George being her ex-boss and I didn’t know he owned the cabin and that they were arguing when I arrived so I misunderstood the situation, then about the creepy handyman who took the photos and that he was told to delete them.

The only thing I didn’t tell Coach is that Delaney is my fake girlfriend. I feel a strong need to leave her out of it, to keep our relationship out of the discussion.

When I finish, Coach watches me in silence for a few beats and I’m comfortable staring back.

“So you have a girlfriend?” he says, and my comfort disappears.

“No, not exactly.”