Not to be outdone, I used my best robot voice. “Nico’s a great guy. He’d give you the shirt off his back.”
Marissa pressed on. “Are you excited to be working on this new project together? Since you’re so close, it must be a dream come true.”
Nico snorted. “It’s a dream all right. A fucking nightmare.”
“Nico!” Marissa was not amused. “Read the line I gave you.”
He groaned like he was on the rack. “It’s fantastic. We’re going to have so much fun traveling together and spreading the joy of hockey.”
Before I could go on, I had to swallow the bile rising in my throat. “There’s no one I’d rather do it with. Look at those eyes. You could drown in them.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Nico said.
Marissa looked at both of us. “Go on.”
Nico and I read together through clenched teeth. “Ha ha ha.”
“There now.” Marissa’s voice was as bright as a kindergarten teacher trying to keep the kids awake. “That wasn’t so bad, was it?”
“No worse than a root canal done by a drunk goalie,” Nico deadpanned.
The boys completely lost it, howling and pounding the table. I was glad somebody was having a good time.
3/
nico
During the next break,I left the league’s offices and found a quiet corner in the hallway. I called the Condors’ office and asked for Bill Tyson, the GM, expecting an argument from the receptionist. Instead, she put me through.
I started talking as soon as he answered. “I’m uptown at the HFNA offices. Do you know what’s going on here?”
“Yes.” His voice was careful. “Are you excited about your new adventure?”
“As excited as if I’d fallen into a sewer.” I tried to keep my voice down, but it was still too loud. “What the fuck, Bill? I can’t be away from the team. This is a stupid idea, and on top of that, they’re trying to make me work with?—”
“Your old buddy, Paquette.” Now, he sounded gleeful.
“Old buddy?” Bill and I became friends when he was the assistant GM. One night after Packy robbed us of a win over Buffalo, I’d told Bill about our history over a bottle of scotch.
“You know how I feel about him,” I said in the present, “and this will not end well. Every time he looks at me with that pretty-boy face, I want to punch him. Then he does some weird fuck-you thing with his eyes, and the bottom drops out of my stomach.”
“Listen to yourself. Do you really hate him? Because it sounds a little like?—”
“Please, Bill. I don’t want to do this. Send Bennett. It’s the kind of bullshit he loves, and he’d get along fine with Packy.”
“Won’t work. The league specifically requested youbecauseof your history with Paquette. Everyone knows you two don’t get along, and I’m sure they’re banking on that to spike interest.”
“They don’t know everything that happened with us, though. You do. Why the fuck didn’t you tell them?”
“What makes you think I didn’t? The woman who called said it would be all the better because you could channel your hatred into something positive.”
“Thereisno positive where Packy’s concerned.” I stared at an electrical closet while I calmed down because I had to persuade Bill to help me. Finally, I asked, “What if we let that part of it go? Tell the commissioner something’s come up with the Condors, and you can’t be without me right now.”
Bill laughed. The bastardlaughedat me. “You’ll only miss a handful of games. Do you think Gasser wouldn’t want a chapter-and-verse description of the big problem? In case you’ve been living in a dream world, he’s not known for his flexibility.”
“Fuck him. Please help me get out of this. I can’t work with that son of a bitch Packy.”
“I’m due at a meeting, Nico.” He sighed. “Look, I’d help you if I could, but it would only make things worse. If you weren’t good with people, you wouldn’t be the Condors’ captain. Put all the bullshit with Paquette aside and make the next few months easier on yourself. Hell, you might thank us all before it’s over. Maybe you two will forgive and forget.”
