She pressed her hands to her temples, shutting her eyes.
Murphy deserved to be all the things the world saw in him. He was joyful, uncomplicated, a golden retriever in human form.
And the last thing she wanted was to be the one who taught him otherwise.
There was a knock at her door before it opened, and Sasha poked her head in.
“Did you get my email?”
“I did,” Hillary said as she took a sip from her coffee.
“I asked Murphy to come and talk to us about this. He says he’s okay, but I would really like to formulate a strategy to maybe keep him out of the spotlight for a while. Maybe the break will be good and let all this die down.”
Just then, there was a knock at the door.
“Come in,” and there he was.
He took in Sasha and Hillary and the general sense of unease in the room as he entered. “Is everything okay?”
“Everything’s fine. I was just talking to Hillary about the internet stuff.”
He bit his lip and looked between them.
“I’m okay. I mostly just ignore it. As long as it’s not an issue for the organization . . . or umm, you guys,” he said, flicking his gaze over to Hillary. “I'm good.”
“Okay, we are thinking we might pull you back from media for a few games,” Sasha said.
“I’ll try my best to be as boring as possible.”
Sasha gave an amused chuckle, “It’s appreciated.”
“Did you guys need anything else?” he asked.
“Not at the moment, but please, if anything out of the ordinary happens, please check in,” Sasha answered.
“Of course,” he said as he turned to head out the door.
“Murphy,” his name was out of her mouth before she even knew she said it.
He turned, and their eyes locked. She needed to say something, but no words would come out. She cleared her throat, digging for any level of professionalism. “If you need any help dealing with this, please reach out.”
That was what she said. After all, it was her idea of a North Star crossover that had put him in this situation. She wasn’t really sure what was her place to say. The lines were blurred, and her walls were down.
“I will.”
He turned to leave, and a part of her wanted to call him back just to hug him. But Sasha was here, and this was her job. What a mess.
Once she was alone in her office, she closed her eyes, pulling in a deep breath. This needed to end. It had been a bad idea at the gala, a bad idea at the farmer’s market, and in Calgary. She needed to put a stop to the Murphy roller coaster once and for all.
28
MURPHY
By the time his skates hit the ice for the game that night, Murphy’s mind was buzzing.
Even if he had just told them, it wasn’t too much, it was.
And it wasn’t just the internet. It was Hillary. It was the spotlight. It was everything.
