Florian
I blink. I must have misheard. “I am a Blizzard. I have been planning on playing for the Blizzards for years. They chose me. And I have been playing well.” Except… That is a lie. I allowed myself to get hit. “Are they angry I got hit?”
“It’s not personal, Florian. It never is.”
They probably tell all agents to say that. They probably learn that in agent training school. Maybe he’s reading from a handbook now:How to Always Act Like You Care about Your Players.
“They’re getting their old defenseman back. Dmitri Volkov. His appeal to return to the US was approved, and…”
Oh.
My shoulders sag. “He was with the team first.”
“Yes.”
I’ve heard about Dmitri Volkov. It’s not every day an athlete is deported. He married Coach’s son, and though the news reported that the marriage was fraudulent, Oskar moved with him to Sweden.
I know the team members FaceTime them both regularly. I know they said Dmitri’s deportation was unfair.
That must have been why my teammates were acting strangely. Maybe that’s why Coach suggested I accompany Mateo on away games.
I thought the team was perfect.
But maybe they thought I would be replaced soon, they were just waiting for the final official word, and they wanted to give me a nice time like a dog they know is going to be put down.
“I’m sorry, Florian. This sucks. But it’s not that bad. Nashville, uh?—”
“Has vitamin D.”
“That’s right! You haven’t seen how cold it gets in the winter in Boston. This is good news.”
“Yes,” I say, even though Nashville isn’t ranked well.
I do not want to move to Nashville. I like Boston. Boston is my home.
I never imagined myself in Tennessee. I am a winter sports person, and Nashville is not a winter sports place.
Nashville is a place for football and cheerleaders and cowboy hats. It is a place where people ride bulls for sport. It is not a place I ever imagined I might be.
It is hot and humid and un-Boston-like.
But I am a hockey player. Sometimes we get traded.
I cannot simply find another job in Boston for another hockey team. The Blizzards is the only NHL team in New England.
And I want to be in Boston.
Mateo is in Boston.
I will miss him so much.
How can I simply move to a different region of the US? How many states will there be between us? How many miles?
Since I joined the Blizzards, I have never even played Nashville. What will I encounter?
But Mateo is not my real boyfriend. How can I miss someone who only pretends to love me?
“Thank you for telling me,” I tell Chase. “It is not pleasant to give someone news they do not want to hear.”
