“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Charlie said.
“It’s no use pretending with me. I haven’t seen you stare at anyone’s Instagram like that—not even when that Victoria’s Secret Angel hit on you at New York Fashion Week last year.”
“She wasn’t hitting on me. She was merely saying I’m one of her favourite PWHL players.”
“The fact that she even knows what the PWHL is means she’s gay,” Blake pointed out matter-of-factly.
“Not everyone knows what we do. Olive didn’t,” Charlie retorted.
“So her name is Olive?”
As usual, Blake didn’t miss anything. Charlie nodded, knowing she had failed all attempts at being secretive.
“That’s a nice name. Pretty name, pretty woman. Sounds like you have no reason not to contact her.”
Charlie shook her head and gestured towards the TV screen. “Go back to your figure skating and leave me out of this.”
Charlie picked up her phone to continue her innocent scrolling when she saw her greatest fear had come true. In her haste to put down her phone, Charlie had accidentally liked the selfie she was looking at. And it wasn’t a recent selfie either, it was at least twenty posts down on her profile. Even to someone as clueless about social media as Charlie could tell that it was a clear sign of cyberstalking.
“I’m so fucked, aren’t I?” Charlie said in horror as she stared numbly at the phone.
Blake leaned over and looked down at her phone.
“Right you are, buddy. Right you are.”
CHAPTER
SEVEN
OLIVE
Olive was notabove sliding into someone’s DMs, but it would be ridiculous for her to do so now. Charlie had her number, so it was up to her to initiate contact. While Olive had wanted her to, she had not expected it to come in the form of liking an old selfie of hers on Instagram.
To be fair, it was a great selfie, but when she saw @/charlielajoieofficial liked her photo, Olive had no idea what she would find on her profile.
Not only was she a PWHL hockey player, she was also one of the most famous Canadians playing hockey, like ever. Olive should’ve known Charlie was an athlete based on her very impressive muscles, but she had no clue Charlie was a professional athlete. One competing in the Olympics right now.
Of course. There would be no other reason for her to be in Milan right now than for work, and this was the event of the year, or rather, the next four years.
Olive sighed and glanced out towards the town beneath her. There was no reason for Olive to spend this beautiful evening, in afancy restaurant overlooking Milan, thinking about a woman who couldn’t even muster the courage to text her.
Besides, there was no guarantee that Charlie had received Olive’s note.Maybe it fell out of her pocket? Or perhaps the paper got so wrinkled in the laundry that it was illegible.
The excuses sounded absurd, even to Olive. She so wanted those things to be true, but she knew she had to accept the fact that it was just one night for Charlie, and Olive should treasure it as that. Just one night.
A blue icon informed her that she had a message request in her Instagram inbox. It couldn’t be…
She clicked into message requests, heart hammering. It was just a postless account telling her to DM them to get free necklaces.Spam, of course.
Olive opened her text message app to send a text to Bronwyn for advice. Just when she hit send, she received a new text from an Ottawa-based number, one that she didn’t recognize.
UNKNOWN NUMBER
hey it’s Charlie
from yesterday?
Olive smiled at the message before she could stop herself. Olive knew she could not stay mad long, and this perhaps irritated her evenmore.Olive had a soft spot for mascs who were secretly soft on the inside, and though the texts were short, she still could hear them in Charlie’s voice.
