I took my scrunchie out of my hair and tossed it over the glass. It didn’t make it and fell down. I did it again and it made it over. He tossed me the puck, and I held it to my heart. I blew akiss and he skated off.
Taking a photo of it, I posted it along with the picture of me and the aunties, and a picture I’d taken of me holding my beer up with the guys warming up in the background. I captioned it with,Took the Aunties to the boy aquarium. Go Scorpions!
Music was playing and people were talking. It looked like the game would start pretty soon. Maybe this was a good time to find out which auntie was friends with Marilyn.
“These are really nice seats,” Auntie Kiki said.
“So nice and close,” Auntie Mimi agreed.
“I like their butts,” Auntie Cookie added.
“Yeah, the guys got us great seats. It was amazing meeting them. So…” I eyed all four of them. “Which one of you has a friend who works for this team?”
Four blank faces looked at me.
“I don’t know anyone who works in the hockey ball,” Auntie Mimi said. The others agreed.
“Yeah, but does one of you have a friend named Marilyn, who does PR for something, and contacted her to set me up? She did a really good job by the way.” If I saw her, I should probably thank her, because she chose really good hockey players for me.
Four more blank blinking Aunties. My heart dipped.
“The only Marilyn I know is a madame,” Auntie Cookie replied with a shrug.
Auntie Kiki stared at me. “What are you talking about?”
“On Monday night, you told me to go down to the bar. Steven and Ashton approached me, saying they were waiting for someone with sunglasses and a dragonfly.They’d lost a bet and had been set up by their team’s PR person, Marilyn, because her friend’s niece was in Nashville, and they were to take me out and have a good time. I’m not mad. It was really clever. I’m just curious as to which one of you set this up.” My heart sank as I watched their faces.
Auntie Kiki frowned. “That wasn’t me.”
All of the Aunties agreed.
Auntie Tiff looked thoughtful. “Maybe it was one of the other aunties?”
My heart sank further. It wasn’t them. Would another auntie do this? Possibly. But I wasn't sure who it could be.
“But you told me to go down to the bar.” I frowned.
“That’s where the alphas are. Don’t worry about it, it was probably Auntie Laurie. She knows the weirdest people,” Auntie Cookie waved off.
I wasn’t even sure who Auntie Laurie was.
“You’re right. It doesn’t even matter.” Panic gripped my chest.
The whole sunglasses and dragonflies thing was so specific…
Dragonflies. Claire had a dragonfly clip in her hair. She had sunglasses. She was down in the bar. Before she left with Jackson she gave me the dragonfly clip.
She was visiting and had a matchmaking auntie.
I sucked in a sharp breath as everything came together.
“I’ll be right back. I’m going to use the restroom before the game starts.” Before they could answer I left the stands and found the bathroom.
I locked myself in the stall and leaned against the door as the tears started to fall.
Everything made sense now. It wasn’t my aunties who asked Marilyn to have some nice hockey boys show me around.
It was Claire’s.
