But this is our last game until after Christmas. The league pauses for several days over the holiday so players have time with their families. Ever since I was a little kid, my dad has always thrown a big party on Christmas Eve for anyone associated with the league who doesn’t have other plans. It’s usually well attended by guys from all up and down the West Coast. There are a lot of players whose families are too far away to visit for only a couple of days. Or there are some players who don’t want to make the trip and fuck up their sleep routines, et cetera. But it’s only a three-hour flight from LA to Seattle, and they don’t have to worry about time zone changes, so anyone who’s around often comes into town to celebrate.
Dad always offers to have guys sleep at their place, but he also books a block of hotel rooms at a nice hotel not far from their house. He takes care of everything, including making sure the travel expenses are all covered for any team staff that might not have other plans, the guys who don’t make the big bucks that players do. My mom even makes sure everyone who attends gets a gift, and she does research for months to get gifts for everyone who might come. It’s especially nice for younger players from overseas who might not know a whole lot of people yet. It’s just another way my dad has always shown that he’s a good person underneath all of his toxic masculinity bullshit.
The party is always fun. It's a nice tradition and I would have loved to bring Ben, but I’m sure he’ll be with his family. I hope his stepdad is doing well; I’m sure holidays are stressful if you have a parent in a care facility. But Josie will be coming, of course, and since Brad’s already in town since the Sasquatch are playing his Florida Jaguars tonight, he’s staying, even though the rest of his team is flying back to Florida after the game. My other brother Mike will come into town tomorrow after his LA Icons play their last pre-Christmas game. Mom said something about him possibly bringing a new girlfriend, so that might be interesting to watch. Chrissy will be bringing Tom, and overall, it will probably be nice for all of us to be together for the holiday.
But that’s a couple of days off. Right now, I need to focus on getting through the next few hours. I’ve gone over everything a million times, so I think everything should go off without a hitch.
I’m at the players’ bench getting some stuff organized when one of the equipment techs comes up to me. “Hey, Aleks, there’s a call for you down on the landline in the locker room.”
“There is?” I ask, confused. “Did they say who it is?” Nate just shrugs unhelpfully. I roll my eyes at him, and he laughs. “What, do I look like, your secretary? Go talk to them,” he says good-naturedly, and I toss a towel at him as I head down the tunnel to the same phone where I took the call about Josie’s car accident a couple of weeks ago. Trying not to think about that, I answer the call.
“Hello, this is Aleks Warren speaking.”
“Hi, Aleks, my name is Julie. I’m Bruce Tremaine’s assistant from the Boston Bears. Bruce would like to speak with you. Can you hold on just a moment?”
My brows furrow in confusion. Bruce Tremaine is the general manager for the Boston Bears. I’ve met him a couple of times through my dad, but never in a professional role. “Um, sure, no problem.”What the hell is this all about?
A few minutes later, his voice comes over the line. “Heya, this Aleks?” His voice is kind and full-bodied, sort of like the man himself, from what I remember. A former NHL player, Bruce discovered his true calling as a coach after retirement. He’s probably about sixtyish, close to my dad’s age, and he’s heavyset, a big man who was all muscle in his youth but has added a little more padding around his middle as the years have gone by. It’s been a few years since I’ve seen him, but I remember liking him a lot. “This is Bruce Tremaine. I think you and I have met a few times through your pop, right?”
“Hi, Bruce. I think we’ve met before, yeah,” I say, still totally confused.
“You’re probably wondering what the fuck is going on here, am I right?” He laughs, and the sound makes me want to laugh too. I can hear the smile in his voice, and if I remember right, he looks like a smaller, beardless Santa Claus. Smiley and happy with red cheeks and sparkly blue eyes.
“Well, yeah, I guess I’m a little curious,” I chuckle. “Not that I mind or anything.”
“Well, Aleks, I’ll be up-front with you. I don’t like to play games, and I’m sure you’re busy. Now, things haven’t hit the press just yet, but there will be a release going out tonight after the game. We’ve had to let two of our assistant GMs go this afternoon. There was some shady shit going on, and they made the mistake of thinking that because I’m old, I’m also blind and dumb. Which I am not. I won’t go into details, but it’s not a great situation for us, and I’ve had to clean house. I’m hoping we’ve got to the root of the decay, but only time will tell. Anyway, my point is, I’ve been talking to your boss, Carson Wells, and he speaks very, very highly of you. He said you’ve been an incredible asset to the Sasquatch already, and you’ve got those guys down on the farm team running like a well-oiled machine.”
“Oh, thanks. That’s great to hear, Mr. Tremaine,” I say, still wondering what the fuck is going on.
“Call me Bruce,” he says before he continues. “So, as you can imagine, having to let a bunch of people go on short notice like this is a big blow to the team. There’s going to be press since, like I said, these guys were involved in some shady shit. But aside from all of that, I need to get them replaced ASAP so I can keep this goddamn hockey team afloat.”
I swallow. “Sure, that makes sense.”What the actual fuck?
“So, Aleks, based on Carson’s glowing reference for you and what a great job you’ve done with the EC Eagles, I was wondering if you’d entertain the idea of moving here to the East Coast to take a position as one of my assistant GMs.”
My jaw drops open, and I let out an audible gasp, causing Bruce to bark out a loud laugh.
“I, um, but what I, uh, are you—I mean, are you serious right now?” I ask, my voice rising to a pitch just this side of hysterical.
“I am serious. I’ve talked with Carson, and he gave me permission to talk to you. But he wanted me to make sure to tell you that if you want to stay in Seattle with the Sasquatch, he would love to keep you, so you’re under no obligation. We’ll have to go through an official interview process to keep the folks in HR happy. I get the final say on who gets the job,” Bruce says.
“Anyway,’ he continues, “you’ll be coming in as a junior person, replacing people with a lot more experience, but there is a lot of room here for you to move and grow within the Bears organization. Hell, young man, I’m not gonna live forever, and I gotta retire sometime, assuming ownership doesn’t put me out to pasture before I’m ready to make the call myself.” He chuckles at his self-deprecating joke. “But my point is, there are paths forward for you here that might be a little clearer than they are with the Sasquatch.”
I am absolutely, completely fucking blown away. My head spins as he keeps talking about benefits and contracts and I don’t even know what the fuck.Holy fucking shit on a shingle. I just got offered an assistant GM position. In Boston, of all places. The Bears are a storied hockey team, one of the originals. They’ve struggled the past few seasons, but it sounds like at least some of the reasons for that will be gone. And best of all, it’s where Ben is going to be. I don’t know whether that will even matter, given that the long-distance issue was only one reason for him breaking up with me, but I can’t extinguish the flame of hope that starts to burn brightly inside me. Maybe there’s a way after all.
“God, yes, of course, Bruce, that would be amazing. I would love to come work for the Bears!”
Chapter 24
BEN
“MerryChristmas!”mysister,Lauren, yells from the kitchen when I walk into my mom’s condo. Because Bob has been doing amazingly well on the medication during the drug trial, we’re able to have Christmas at my mom’s condo instead of at the care home. Being able to bring him home for short trips again is something we thought was over for him. Thanks to the miracle of modern science, we’ve been able to get some more real, quality time with my stepdad.That’s exactly why you’re moving to Boston, Benjamin. To help create more of these moments for thousands of other families.I need to remember the big picture. I’m not moving there for me; I’m moving there for all the families like ours who my research can help and for Dennis Madsen, who keeps telling me how happy he is that he can hand over his research to me, that I’m the only person he feels confident to trust with his legacy.
I’m coming to my parents’ place directly from the airport, having just flown home from two days in Boston, where I met with Dennis and the board of trustees at Boston University. It didn’t take them long to make their decision, as Dennis had promised. They extended their offer to me earlier this morning. I just have to sign the paperwork and send it back, and my dream job is mine. The thing I’ve been working toward for my entire career.
It’s going to be good. I just need to get there and get to work. It will be amazing. My parents are so goddamn proud of me it hurts my heart. My mom, while she keeps talking about how much she’ll miss me, keeps cooing about how much fun she’s going to have on her trips to Boston to visit. And in the last week or so, she’s even been very cautiously talking about bringing Bob to Boston for a visit. The look on her face when she talks about that is almost enough to bring me to my knees. I will do anything to help my mom have a tiny piece of the life she dreamed about for so long. She deserves her piece of happiness, and being able to help make that happen is what I’ve wanted for my entire adult life. It’s why I chose to go into medicine in the first place.So why the fuck am I so completely and utterly miserable?
It’s December 23, otherwise known as Festivus—because my family are serious freaks aboutSeinfeld.It’s ridiculous, but it’s our special form of ridiculous. Lauren is on call for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day this year, so as usual, we’re doing our celebration a little early. Depending on how tiring it is for Bob, I may drop by and hang out with them tomorrow and on Christmas Day, but there’s just as great a chance that I’ll sit home and chill out on my own. It sounds like a shit way to spend the holiday, but since I’m moving in a few weeks, there’s no shortage of stuff that needs to be done. Somehow, the thought of starting to pack all my stuff into moving boxes makes me feel sick to my stomach. But it’s probably just that I need to get to work on it, same as the job itself. It all feels overwhelming right now. That’s probably my issue; I’m sure it’s not that I feel sick when I think about not being able to see Aleks again.
