I don’t think I’d be here if it weren’t for him. To be here with him now after all of these years? It’s weird.
A thought that must be all over my face based on Noah’s next words.
“This is weird, right?” Noah asks. His character passes the puck to me, and I fire it into the goal. “Nice goal.”
“Thanks. If only it were this easy in real life, right?” I laugh, setting down the controller to grab a sip of my beer. “Kind of weird, yeah.”
“This is only temporary, I promise.”
I wave him off. “It’s fine. Like Marcus said, I have the room.”
“Do you?” Noah turns around. “Because no offense, but this is one tiny-ass condo.”
“Hey, I’m still on a rookie contract. If I’m going to get traded, I don’t want to worry about selling a huge place.”
“Yeah…” Noah turns his focus back to the game. “It fucking blows.”
I wince. “Sorry. I wasn’t thinking.”
“It happens to all of us.” Noah shrugs. “At least I don’t come with extra baggage.”
“What kind of baggage would that be?” I ask.
“A bunny.”
I nearly spit out my beer. “A bunny.”
Noah looks at me like I have three heads. “You have to know that Nick and I used to have a bunny.”
“You did? I so did not know about this.”
Noah smiles and picks up his controller as we restart the game. “Oreo. He was mostly Nick’s, but we lived together, and I liked the little guy.”
“Do I need to get you a bunny now to keep the peace?”
“Nah.” Noah does a complicated spin move and ends up getting another goal. “As long as you let me have my pre-game naps, I’ll be okay.”
“Duly noted.” I nod. “Anything else I should know?”
“Do you really want to know?” Noah eyes me before turning his attention back to the TV.
“Yes.”
He pauses the game. “Well, I enjoy cooking, and based on your reaction when you opened your fridge, you didn’t have much in there. If you help with groceries, I can cook for us.”
“Okay.”
“Other than that, hockey is twenty-four seven.”
“Same,” I agree.
Noah laughs. “That makes us sound pretty pathetic, right?”
“We probably need more of a life.”
“Eh. If it gets us a championship, I can have a life after hockey. Enjoy it more then.”
I wince. Hearing this and how I reacted at practice the other day? Considering hockey is my sole focus, it wasn’t the best way to handle things. “Look, I’m sorry about practice. I don’t really know what came over me and I snapped.”
