“Thanks, Annalise,” Eloise says, “We’re really happy.”
“Yes, thanks,” I echo, letting my hand slide away as she gets up.
“Just don’t make our lives difficult for at least a month and we’ll be fine. Now you should go tell your team before they think you’re dying or something.”
“They wouldn’t—”
“They might,” I cut Eloise off. “They’re great catastrophizers.”
“But Rhea and Rory—”
“The worst,” I say, standing up as well. The glass walls feel suffocating. “And Lawson is going to make us skate laps for forcing him to sit in on this meeting.”
Eloise grumbles as she also gets up, pushing the office chair under the table, and clasping her hand over mine. “He didn’t even sit through the full meeting. He left as soon as he heard it was about us disclosing our relationship.”
“He was switching from concerned to sour; it was in everyone’s best interest that we didn’t hear him scream at us for wasting his time.”
She rolls her eyes. “If he makes us skate laps, I’m going to—”
“Going to what?”
She stops, looking at Lawson, who is standing outside of the locker room, arms crossed. His moustache is twitching, hiding the smile that I know is threatening to emerge. “Nothing,” Eloise says, straightening up. She drops my hand, and I bite the inside of my cheek to hide my own smile.
“I thought so,” he mutters. He walks up to both of us, clapping our shoulders, and in a rare moment, beams at us. “I’m proud of you two. Don’t fuck our chances of getting the Walter this year.”
“Yes, sir,” we say in sync. He jerks his head towards the door.
“Go tell them what’s up. They’re nervous nellies, and I can’t have them skating like that.”
“On it,” I say. He squeezes our shoulders one last time before he disappears down the hall. “He’s like a wizard, just showing up out of nowhere.”
“I hate it,” El grumbles. We watch him for a moment more, taking in the silence before we look down the mahogany door. “Shall we?” she asks.
My throat suddenly feels tight. “Do we have to?” I whine.
“Yeah, but if you’d rather we do this later, like at Gin and Bear It or something, we can do that too,” she shrugs.
I shake my head. “No, it should be now. Sorry, I just...”
I trail off, not knowing how to put into words how real this is feeling. She doesn’t say much in return, just nudges my shoulder. “I know. Think of it this way, I’ll be coming out too, in case any of the rookies aren’t aware.”
I let out a heavy sigh. “But you’re established.“
“Always good practice to let the people closest to you know who you are. You said it yourself, this isn’t just a team, we’re a family.”
I nod, squeezing my eyes shut for a moment. “You’re right. I was right. Fuck,” I mutter. “Okay, I cando this.” I stride forward, catching her off guard. I shove the door open, slamming it against the cinderblock wall, and twenty-one pairs of eyes are looking at me.
“Oops,” I mutter. “Hey, everyone.” They blink back in response. Eloise is a step behind me, her presence looming over my shoulder. I can feel the wave that she gives to the rest of the girls. They’re in various states of undress and readying with practice gear on.
When my eyes rest on Winnie and Brynn, they’re nudging each other, trying to hide grins under their hands. “Hey, guys,” Eloise says.
The team says nothing.
“Look, we… um, we have something we want to tell you before any rumours get too out of hand,” I say, wringing my hands out. My stomach is in knots, and I wish that I had eaten something to settle it.
Eh, that might have made it worse. Maybe it’s a good thing that I didn’t. “We, um…” Eloise places her hand on my shoulder, and suddenly there’s a scream. I jump, turning to the source of the scream.
Winnie has her hand over her mouth, cheeks pink and looking like she absolutely didn’t mean to make that sound. “Sorry, I thought I saw a spider,” she says with a shrug as if that’s the best excuse she could make. There’s a wary sense in the air now, and I’m not sure how to go from here. “Go on. This is important; continue,” she nods at me, blue eyes bright.
