I felt him relax into sleep, his breathing evening out, his body going heavy against mine.
The next day would be a new challenge. The Buffalo game, the scrutiny, the beginning of our lives as public figures. And a test for Étienne’s performance, our future together.
But tonight, we had this.
And it was enough.
Wednesday morning, I woke to sunlight streaming through the window, and Étienne pressed against my side.
He stirred when I moved, his eyes opening slowly. “Morning.”
“Morning.” I kissed his forehead. “How do you feel?”
“Good.” A small smile. “Sore, but good. Content.” He stretched, winced slightly. “That was—last night was perfect. Thank you for being so patient with me.”
“Always.” I ran my hand down his back.
He propped himself up on one elbow. “I want to learn. I want to try everything with you.”
Heat flared through me. “We will. But right now, we need to check our phones. Face whatever’s waiting.”
His expression sobered. “Right. The real world.”
We got out of bed, pulled on clothes, and retrieved our phones from downstairs. I powered mine on, and immediately it started buzzing with notifications that had accumulated overnight.
Hundreds of them. Maybe thousands.
I opened social media. The post from yesterday had over a million likes. I ignored the avalanche of comments this time.
On other social media it was harder to avoid the divisiveness. #LoveWins was trending, but so was #BoycottGlaciers. People were arguing in threads, debating us, defending us, attacking us.
My DMs were full of messages. Some supportive, some threatening. I closed the app before reading too many.
“The news is everywhere,” Étienne said, scrolling through his own phone. “ESPN did a whole segment this morning. They interviewed Griffin. He said we were brave and that the fans need to support us.”
“That’s good.”
“There’s also an article about protests planned for thisafternoon’s game. Some religious group is planning to picket outside the arena.”
My stomach dropped. “Great,” I said, my voice flat.
Étienne continued reading. “The organization released a statement of support. Coach Wilson gave an interview saying we’re valued members of the team.”
I checked my texts. More support from teammates. Gia had sent a long message about how proud she was, how Mama had cried reading the posts, how she was working on getting Mama to call me. Kinnunen had texted this morning asking if we needed anything before the game.
And one from Coach Wilson.
Coach
Presser at 9:00—optional for you guys, but might be good to address it once.
“Optional media availability at nine.”
“I got the text too. Should we do it? Talk to the media?”
“I think we should. They probably want statements from us if they already went to Griffin. We can get it over with. Say what we need to say once, then focus on hockey.”
“Okay.” Étienne set down his phone. “Then let’s get ready. First day as publicly out hockey players.”
