Page 81 of Top Shelf

“You are. Your face says murder, but your eyes keep going back to your phone.”

I pull at the tape around my wrist. “You are suddenly very observant for someone with a bad attention span.”

“I’ve always been observant, baby. People just get distracted by the charm.”

“That is not what distracts them.”

His grin flashes. “It’s Heidi.”

I say nothing.

“You checking your phone every twelve seconds is also not subtle.”

“You are one to talk.”

His smile softens for half a second, and he glances at his own phone in his locker before shrugging. “My girl is objectively fascinating, that’s why—and has me by the balls. Happily.”

“So does mine.”

The words are out before I’ve stopped myself, and Chase’s eyebrows lift, but for once, he doesn’t say the joke waiting in his mouth.

“Yeah.” He nods. “That’ll do it.”

Media waits outside the locker room, hungry to carve our disappointment into quotes. I answer the hockey questions about the missed chance at playoffs, and what the offseason will bring. What we need to improve and focus on for next time.

Near the end, a reporter lifts his phone slightly. “Viktor, there’s been a lot of attention on your personal life after the last home game. Anything you want to say about the reports that you’re married?”

The room shifts, and cameras and phones adjust by fractions.

I think of Heidi’s fingers sprawled across her desk when I proposed this marriage. Her voice saying the studio is mine. The way media can bend a story toward the most well-known name in the room, even when that name is not the important one.

“My wife is a private person,” I say. “I will not make her post-game ”

It’s a simple sentence, but I know simple sentences don’t always stay simple once other people get hold of them.

My phone buzzes once we’re on the bus.

Heidi: Saw the game. I’m sorry.

Me: You watched?

Heidi: I always watch. The presser, too.

Me: Press is boring.

Heidi: So are you sometimes but I still watch.

Me: You married me anyway, so the joke is on you

Heidi: There were mitigating financial circumstances.

Heidi: And thank you. For what you said.

I look out at the dark road moving past the bus window.

Me: I meant it.

Heidi: I know.