“Isn’t that the truth?” He shakes his head. “Who would have thought Edmonton would have kicked you guys out of the playoffs.”
“Not us,” I tell him. “Especially since at Christmastime they were dead last.” I start to walk toward the elevators. “But you never know. Playoffs are a different beast.”
“They sure are.” He nods. “I look forward to watching.”
“Have a great day.” I finally break the conversation, walking over to the elevator and pressing the button to go up. I look up at the two elevators in front of me and then the two behind me to see which one is going to get here first. When the doors swing open behind me, I turn and head into the elevator and press the button for the fourteenth floor.
I take a step back in case someone else comes into the elevator and wait for the doors to close before it starts to move up. It stops on a couple of floors before it finally opens on mine, and I have to move around two people before stepping out into the hallway. I step out to face the other elevators and there is an office on one side and another on the other side. That’s it, two offices per floor. I make my way over to the office that has fourteen zero two on it before turning the handle and pushing it open.
“Hello.” I take a step into the empty office space and look around at the small space—gray carpet all around, four walls all painted a sterile white. A couple of windows in between to give the place more natural light, but not much, and the only overhead lights are the eight square bulbs in the tiled ceiling.
“Hey,” Kylie says, walking out of one of the two offices in each corner of the room, a smile on her face. “Finally.” She makes her way to me and I give her the biggest hug.
“I feel like I haven’t seen you in forever.”
“Relax.” I kiss the top of her head. “It’s only been three months”—she steps away from me—“and we FaceTimed at least once a week.”
“I want to say you look horrible.” She folds her arms over her chest. “But you look good. You even have a tan. I guess Canada agrees with you.” I shake my head. After the fundraiser, I knew I had to get the fuck out of town. That night I sent a couple of trainers messages to see who had a place on their roster and was lucky I had someone in Toronto who could take me. I booked a house on the lake.
We would do on-ice practice every single morning and then in the afternoon. I would do my training outside in the sun, since it wasn’t a hundred and fifty degrees. I flew back to Arizona two days ago when I took out Mrs. Visabell’s granddaughter to fulfill my part of the auction, and I was officially free of all obligations. I didn’t even spend the night in Phoenix. I couldn’t stomach it, so I landed in the morning and took a private plane out of there the same afternoon.
“I wish you would have come out,” I tell her. “The house even came with a boat and a Jet Ski.”
“I was busy”—she rolls her eyes—“quitting my job and then packing my shit and moving.”
“I told you we could hire you movers to do all of that.” Now that she finally caved and took up my offer to start up the foundation.
“Why are you so extra? Hire movers? Who are you, the Rockefellers?” she asks and then holds up her hand. “I don’t want to know. What do you think of the office?”
“It’s an office.” I shrug my shoulders. “I’m sure you are going to make it less like a psych ward and more like a welcoming space for people.”
She throws her head back and laughs a full belly laugh. “Yes, I have Ariella coming in tomorrow to go over some plans.”
“That sounds great, and then we need to hire a couple of people,” I tell her and she looks to the side.
“Listen, I think we should start small.” She walks to the other side of the room. “I think we should hire one more person.”
“You think it’ll be enough with just two of you?” I run my hands through my hair. “I don’t want you to bury yourself in your work.”
“One of us can call around and speak to different organizations to see where we can offer help, and the other can call around and see which corporations can donate to our little foundation.” She cocks her hip to the side. “First order of business is a bachelor auction.”
“Fuck that. We know how the last one ended.” I shake my head as the phone in my back pocket rings. “That’s my alarm; I have to get to the rink. It’s the first day back.”
“Okay,” she replies and then claps her hands and shrieks, “How exciting is this!”
I open my eyes and try not to laugh at her. “I couldn’t sleep last night thinking of the excitement.” I pull the phone out of my pocket and turn off the alarm. “Let’s have dinner tomorrow after your meeting with Ariella.”
“Sounds good,” she says, “skate bag.”
“Nope.” I shake my head. “Still not using it right.” I laugh. “It’s bag skate and it’s a term when the coach is punishing us.”
“Whatever.” She uses her hand to shoo me away. “Go and leave me with my four white walls.”
“You settling in okay at your place?” I ask her of the two-bedroom apartment I rented for her without her knowing. She would never have taken the place if she knew the real price of the apartment.
“It’s gorgeous and it has its own gym and a rooftop pool.” Her voice goes higher. “And I know it’s not twelve hundred dollars a month, jackass.”
I laugh. “I have to go. I don’t want to be late on the first day.”
