“Charlie, please tell me you are going to text this woman again.”
Charlie shook her head, much to Blake’s obvious disappointment. They were about to say something else when an announcement above signalled that it was Team USA’s time to practice now.
“Good luck out there,” Charlie said. They nodded and left, heading down to join their teammates. Charlie watched their practice for a few minutes before leaving to go grab a bite, hoping some good muffins would distract her from everything else.
That distraction didn’t last long, and by the time Blake and Charlie found themselves in the local bar, Charlie was dying to speak to Olive one more time. Maybe it could be innocent. She seemed like a nice person. Charlie mulled this over on her second beer.
Blake glanced around the bar then turned to Charlie, trying to keep their voice lowered. “Dude, you’re being so weird. Weirder than usual.”
“I know. It’s because I can’t stop thinking about last night.”
“Then you should repeat it,” Blake said, as if this was the most obvious answer.
Perhaps it was, but Charlie did not want to hear it.
“I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“The last time I felt this way about someone, I was benched.”
“So? We’ve all been benched in our careers,” Blake said.
“Around the ’22 Olympics. Final game,” Charlie clarified.
Blake blinked, then sighed into their own beer. “I see why that would trouble you.”
“Thank you,” Charlie said. This relief was short-lived as Blake continued with their logic.
“That was four years ago, though. You’ve improved since then. You can afford a little distraction.”
Charlie smacked them on the shoulder. “Of course you’d say that. You are counting on me failing so Team USA can win.”
Black gasped. “Absolutely not! I don’t need you to be lovestruck to win against you. In fact, actually, you shouldn’t contact this mystery woman at all, so you can be ten thousand percent focused on the game.”
Charlie laughed. Though she knew they weren’tactuallylooking to use the situation to their advantage, it was fun to rib with them. Charlie jokingly thought to herself that this was a useless endeavour on Blake’s part as anyone who knew the two of them would say that Charlie was the better player.
“How about I contact her and still beat you?” Charlie offered.
“That is a great idea. Really show it to me by getting fucked again!” Blake clapped their hands sarcastically.
Charlie blushed. It was not that she talked about her sex life often, oreverwith Blake, but she guessed someone as experienced as them would have her figured out in mere seconds.
Charlie took a final sip of her drink, and then stood to walk to the bar to get another. She really shouldn’t have been drinking that much, but she had a late practice the next day. It felt like the perfect day to drain out thoughts of a sexy women who made you experience things for the first time.
With a new drink in hand, Charlie went back to the table she shared with Blake. They were watching figure skating coverage on the TV, oddly interested in it, so Charlie stared at the contact page for Olive on her phone. She had saved it with her full name, as that is what Olive gave her, and Charlie realized that this would be the perfect opportunity to do some cyberstalking.
Charlie looked her up on Instagram, swiping past all therandom DMs and notifications of posts that she was tagged in. It wasn’t much, but with the Olympics coming up, Charlie was definitely being tagged on more fan pages than normal—especially as news sites started covering athletes on Team Canada. Charlie’s story, in particular, was practically ripe for inspirational messages.Charlotte Lajoie comes from a long line of star hockey players, and her stats remain some of the highest in the PWHL,said one particularly unoriginal graphic last week, in which a picture of her mid-play was superimposed over a picture of her father. He’d been called one of the best hockey players in the world, according to him and everyone else with a working computer.
Charlie searched Olive’s name, and it only took four tries to find her profile.
It was set to public, and Charlie was grateful, though a little worried for her. It wasn’t as if Olive had many followers, so perhaps she was too used to being private, but someone as beautiful as her surely shouldn’t be allowing the whole internet access to her.
Her photos were on the fairly tame side, and she appeared stunning in each one. Most were vacation pictures, but the occasional office selfie cropped up, and Charlie paused as she admired Olive’s smile in one.
“Woah. I can see why you’re like this,” Blake said.
Charlie hastily lowered her phone to the table, flipping it so the screen was facing the table.
