Social conduct for hate-free inter-colleague teamwork
Short: SCHIT
Paragraph 13:
Party A will not allow Party B to eat alone if it can be avoided.
What the hell got into him today?” Lyle asked, shocked, staring at Blake Ford on the ice. “That last puck should have been unstoppable.”
“Has someone told Moreau that he should be afraid for his job?” Dax asked next to him.
Lucy sighed heavily and leaned against her boyfriend. “I didn’t include him in our advertising campaign because I thought he was going to get fired, Lyle!”
“That’s what I thought,” the general manager confirmed. “Has the guy been drug tested?”
“Hey!” Dax said, annoyed. “Hockey is our drug.” He frowned. “And sometimes weed. But only in the offseason!” he added hastily when Lyle glared at him.
Hazel snorted, but couldn’t suppress a smile. Blake was playing a bit aggressively, but it had been his best game in six months. If things continued like this, the Hawks would be foolish not to give him another chance and add him to the roster.
“Oh dear, it’s about time Matt and Maddie came back from their honeymoon,” Lucy muttered. “Dax talks a lot less nonsense in public if he’s already unloaded most of it on Matt.”
Grinning, Dax planted a kiss on Lucy’s head. “You like my nonsense,” he whispered loudly.
“Yeah, but it should only be under supervision and in moderation.”
“Hm,” Dax said. “I like it when you supervise me. Like old times. We…”
“Good Lord, do me a favor and don’t get married during the season, okay?” Lyle said sharply, turning around. “I’m going down to the ice. I want to see Ford play up close before I vote for him.”
Hazel clearly saw the wordmarriageconjure panic on Dax’s face, which Lucy responded to with a roll of her eyes. “Calm down, Dax. I don’t want to get married yet. We just took our training wheels off. Maddie and Matt started riding unicycles right away. There’s no comparison!”
Dax sighed with relief, while Hazel took advantage of their distraction to discreetly search for Gareth. He was standing two yards away from the window with his sister, looking down at the practice game and talking quietly to her.
Hazel should be happy that things were going so well for Ford, but she was nervous. If she wasn’t careful, she’d touch Gareth, even in front of everyone like this. It shouldn’t be that difficult to keep her hands to herself, but whenever he was within reach, she wanted to stroke his cheek and squeeze his fingers.
His parents were also watching the game somewhere behind her in the VIP lounge, and she felt Gareth’s tension, as if an anvil were resting on her own chest.
She'd last kissed him an hour ago – in another janitor’s closet; she was slowly becoming a fan – but it still felt like she was wasting her time not doing it. Gareth was always much more relaxed and happier when she distracted him with her lips. Which, of course, she couldn’t do here.
She gritted her teeth and forced her gaze back to the game, gripping the bag of gummy bears in her hands tighter. God, it had broken her heart to see Gareth so distraught yesterday. His father still had too much power over him, even if he wouldn’t admit it. She hadn’t been able to let him go home. Besides, they should probably scrap the no-sleepover rule. It was simply more convenient not to be constantly driving back and forth — and nice to wake up together. She hadn’t realized it until this morning, but having a man in bed who greeted her whispering something like,You still kick in your sleep. I hope it’s okay that I kicked back. Purely self-defensewas a surefire way to start the day with a smile. The orgasm hadn’t hurt either.
Okay, she had to stop thinking about it because she was getting incredibly hot — and she heard someone approaching.
“Maybe you should give all our players a pep talk and tell them that the opponents have been doing indecent things to their partners,” Gareth murmured in her ear. “If it always has that effect, we’ll definitely win the Stanley Cup.”
“You are speaking to me too much. People will notice,” she informed him quietly. “But, yes, I’ll take a million dollars per speech.”
He chuckled softly. “We’d better renegotiate that. And you’re eating something. You hate eating alone. So I’m standing here.”
A pleasant warmth flooded her body. With a smile, she popped one of the gummy bears into her mouth, which hadalmost certainly made it onto the buffet along the right wall of the VIP lounge because of her. She shouldn’t be so happy about it; it was a small, innocent gesture, but apparently, small, innocent gestures made her heart sing.
“Okay, thanks,” she murmured. Instinctively, she wanted to step closer to him to breathe in his scent, but stopped just in time. They were at work! She turned to him, her arms crossed more out of self-preservation than anything. “Did I promise too much with Blake? You’re still not going to sell him, are you?”
“No, I don’t think so. Penny and I both think he deserves another chance. Lyle wants to see his abilities up close, and we’re obviously still waiting for the coach’s verdict, but…you were right. It was good to talk to him and wake him up.”
“I love it when you say I’m right.”
He sighed theatrically, which only made her smile grow. “Don’t get used to it.”
