Page 4 of Rivals

“How about I buy the winner coffee tomorrow?” he asked as we skated towards Trevor. “We can catch up.”

“I’d like that.”

“Excellent. How about seven o’clock at Jazzy Joe’s?”

Sounds great.”

“Okay. I’ll let you get back to it. I’m going to go run my sprints on the other rink. I’ll see you tomorrow, Mitchell.”

Alex skated off, hopped over the boards and headed to the other rink. I stood, watching long after he’d gone. Wow. I was going to sit across a table from him tomorrow.

“Drool much?” Trevor skated to a stop next to me.

“Shut up.” I shoved him away, harder than I meant too and caused him to get tripped up. He recovered before he fell. “It’s coffee and catch up.”

“Keep telling yourself that, bro.” Trevor shifted from poking fun to more serious. “I saw how you looked at him… and how he looked at you.” Despite being younger, Trevor had a knack for making a point. “It’s been a while since you’ve had a date, Mitchell, so why not enjoy it?”

“Who said this was a date?” I needed to keep my expectations in check. “Don’t you imagine he’s dating someone, or even married?”

“You’re not. Why does he have to be?”

“Okay. Stop. It’s just coffee.”

“We’ll talk when you get home and see if it was just coffee.” He scooted the puck out from in front of me and took off. “Catch me if you can, Mitchell.”