Ooof. While it wasn’t completely ridiculous I’d never paid that much for a single bottle of wine before.
But it wasn’t like we couldn’t afford it.
“That’s fine,” I replied.
He made a show of opening it and pouring a taste for my approval. It was wine. Nice tasting red wine.
“Excellent choice,” I told him.
The sommelier poured it for the table and left the bottle for us.
“This is nice. Are omegas supposed to prefer champagne? Usually, I just drink beer or whatever’s at the party. I’ve been ordering fancy drinks because my aunties are paying,” Kai replied.
“I have no idea,” Steven replied. “Oooh, this is yummy.”
For the price per bottle, I should hope he’d like it.
“How did practice go? I’m still not taking from your focus, am I, because I don’t want to do that,” Kai said.
“No, not at all. Everything’s going to be fine. Well as fine as it can be,” Steven said.
“One thing we did was that we went over a bunch of strategies and studied our opponents,” I told her.
Kai frowned. “Okay? I don’t really understand what you do.”
“Oh, okay. So, the goalie, the guy in the net, stops the puck. My job is to get the puck past him and score. Iwatch for things like what side do they favor? What’s their weakness? What would be the best way for me to score on them,” Steven explained.
“Oh, that makes sense. So, you study the way your opponent plays for each game and modify a strategy based on the team’s overall strengths and weaknesses. Got it. If your job is to score, what does Ashton do?” Kai asked.
“I protect our goalie. I work in a pair with Rhett,” I replied, showing her a photo of my teammate on my phone.
Our food came, and as we ate, we explained the basics of the game. We also showed Kai some video clips to get a better understanding.
“Steven, why do you have multiple fight montages to music?” Kai looked up from their phone.
Steven flashed a bashful grin. “If someone messes with my teammates, I’ll punch them. Also, fights happen in hockey. It’s a big reason why people like it.”
“And how he lost the bet. He got in a fight and got a timeout for it,” I added.
Kai grinned. “Right. Your sport has a naughty corner for when players misbehave.” That grin turned to a frown. “Do you ever get hurt in these fights?”
“Sometimes. I try not to get hurt, suspended, or fined. I’m just doing my job protecting my team. If you hurt one of my teammates, I’m going to go after you,” Steven explained.
“Protecting your teammates is important.” Kai took another bite.
“Hey, we got tickets for you and the aunties,” Steven added as he stole a bite of my steak.
“Thank you, I'm so excited.” Kai gave a happy bounce.
“I’m excited for you to see us play,” I replied.
“The Puck Panthers are good. We’re the underdog. As much as we’d like to win it, it’ll be tough. Usually we don’t get this far, but we’re going to try.” Steven shot me a look.
Oh, we were all going to try.
“I think it’s amazing that you’ve had such a great season. Is there some factor that made it such a better season than the others?” Kai asked, taking another bite.
“Marilyn thought that if she started getting everybody matched up with omegas it might make us play better, and so far it’s working,” Steven explained.
