“I’m sorry,” I begin at the same time she says the same thing.
She giggles nervously, and I shake my head. “I’m sorry this whole morning has really thrown me. It’s not an excuse, but I shouldn’t have ignored how you were feeling. If you want to cry, that’s completely valid.”
“And I’m sorry for trying to leave without you. You’re right that we need to stick together.”
“Your husbandwaskinda being a dick,” I half-jest.
“He kinda was, wasn’t he.”
“I’ve never been good with feelings,” I admit. “My parents were gone a lot growing up, and my sister and I were raised by nannies. Hockey became my life from the minute I learned to skate, and it’s not necessarily a sport that promotes anything other than being tough.”
She nods as we continue to walk.
“I expect that same toughness from my team, but I shouldn’t expect it from you,” I explain.
“It’s okay to feel things,” she says. “But, I shouldn’t have taken it out on you. We aren’t going to get home unless we work together.”
“I think you’re onto something with the ‘Stella is trying to teach us a lesson’ thing.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, if this Stella person is the one who put us here…” I pause and take a deep breath. “The reporter with pink hair really went in on me about my shoulder injury and my future. She asked if I had plans to retire and settle down, and the team’s publicist kinda rushed me out before I could fully answer her.”
“Why didn’t you say that back at the house?”
“Because my shoulder injury and what it means for my career isn’t really something I want to talk about.”
“Okay…” She clenches her jaw. “But, what do questions and your future have to do with being here with me?”
“The settling down part. I mean, we woke up married. That’s kind of as settled down as you can get.”
“But why me?”
Because I’ve been pining over you for years.That doesn’t make sense though. My closest friends don’t even know that, so how could a total stranger. She wouldn’t. She couldn’t.
“I don’t know. Do you remember anything she said or you said that was along the same lines?”
She plays with the chain of her necklace and then pauses suddenly, covering her mouth.
“What is it?”
“Oh…um…” Blush covers her face, and she turns away from me.
“Come on, the retirement discussion isn’t something I want to think about either, but we gottadig deep, right?”
“Okay, well…” she begins, flipping back around to face me and crossing her arms. Her eyes lock somewhere over my shoulder. “In the cab, she gave me this crystal, and it was super weird. I ended up spilling my guts to her, and then when I set it down, it was like I came to and realized everything I said,” she rushes out.
“Which was what?”
“Huh?”
“What did you say to her?”
“It’s a little blurry, but it had something to do with wondering what it would be like if you and I ever got a second chance.”
My whole face breaks into a grin, and my stomach swoops.
“Is that so?”
