I charge back to my room feeling guilty as shit that I took this man’s bed, and I start pulling my blankets and sheets off. He shows up right behind me, gathering the blankets and trying to put them back on the bed.
“Stop that.” I swat at his hand. “I’m giving you your bed back.” I move to the corner, stick my hands under the mattress, and lift on three, only to barely make it budge. “My God, what is this thing made of? Lead?” I attempt again, but it’s not going anywhere. “How can something so comfortable be so heavy?” I motion to him. “Here, give me a hand.”
He stands there holding my blankets, shaking his head at me. “No, I’m not going to help you.”
“Halsey, you can’t possibly think that I’m going to sleep on this bed knowing it belongs to you. Come on, help me.”
“We’re not switching it. You’re a guest, so you get the nice bed.”
“You’re the owner, so you get the nice bed,” I shoot back.
“If I’m the owner, then I get the last say, and I say you get the nice bed. I get the air mattress and you get to keep your money. End of discussion.”
I take a step back. “End of discussion?” I prop my hands on my hips. “Halsey Holmes, do you really think that kind of talk is going to go over well with me?”
He shrugs. “I hope it does because I’m not changing my mind.” And with that, he tosses the blankets back on the bed and walks out of my bedroom.
Well . . . I would not have expected that kind of attitude from him, but here we are.
Little does he know, I don’t go down without a fight.
Chapter Nine
HALSEY
“Dude, she saw the air mattress.”
“What?” Posey says as he picks up a water bottle while we lean against the boards after skating around to warm up our legs.
“She asked me why I was sleeping on an air mattress. She went into my room and saw it, then put the pieces together and figured out that I gave her my bed. She proceeded to strip her bed bare and attempt to drag the mattress to my room.”
“Did she?”
“She couldn’t even lift it off the frame.”
“Did you help her?”
“No. I told her she was the guest, and I’m the owner of the apartment. Therefore, I decide who gets the bed. End of discussion.”
Posey cringes in horror. “Dude, you said that?”
“I know.” I grip my stick tighter. “Fuck, I felt my balls shrivel up as I walked away. The look on her face wasn’t good. I proceeded to clam up after that and haven’t talked to her since.”
Posey shakes his head while the rest of the guys finish up and start filtering past us on their way back to the locker room. “That’s a fucking setback. How could you tell her end of discussion?”
“I was embarrassed that she saw the half-dilapidated air mattress, and I didn’t know what to say. She caught me off guard when she attempted to drag the regular mattress out of her room. It was a clusterfuck, and I wanted her to stop, so I said end of discussion.”
“Who did you say that to?” Silas asks as he slides in next to us.
“Holmes said that to Blakely,” Posey answers.
“Nooooooo,” Silas says in a low voice. “Holmes, man, I know you’re new to this, but you don’t say that shit to women.”
“I fucking know,” I shout, which grabs the attention of our coach. “Shit, let’s move this off the ice.”
Together, we filter past the bench and down the hall toward the locker room.
“Wait up,” Eli says, catching up to us. “Christ, I’m sore.”
