“Maybe add a ‘please’, Brody,” Adrienne threw back, clearly annoyed with him.
He faltered, but as Adrienne pushed through the door in front of me, I heard a small, “Please.”
We walked in silence to the apartments where TJ and a lot of the other guys lived. Her step held no hesitation at any turn, showing she clearly knew the way well. I was grateful she didn’t pry into why I needed to leave. It was almost like the two of us had a silent agreement not to question the other, because she and Brody were clearly in some kind of serious discussion when my presence interrupted them.
Her dress trailed a bit on the concrete as she walked, and I had to run a bit to keep up with her breakneck pace, but I wasn’t complaining. The sooner this embarrassing ordeal was over with, the better.
We both entered my car quickly, and she was all business as she started pointing directions back to the rink.
When we pulled up to the entrance, she hesitated before exiting.
“I’m not a girl’s girl,” she said uncomfortably. “But if you need anything, you can call me.”
I bit my lip, holding back even more crying and nodded at her.
She rattled off her number quickly, and then I watched her until she made it back into the rink.
The ride back was not smooth, to say the least.
I transitioned from thinking about TJ and the way he looked at me with such devotion and concern, to thinking about the consequences of his stupid actions.
I quickly looked at my reflection in the rearview mirror and could already tell my eyelids were all red and puffy from the amount of crying I’d already done, and I still had about an hour left todrive.
Of course, my phone rang then, and I looked down to see the name Jules Scott appear.
Suck it up, you’re a boss. You have a business to worry about, I disciplined myself and cleaned off my face with my hand beforeanswering.
“Hello,” I tried to keep my voice even, but my tone was off, and she could probably tell.
“Hi!” She paused. “Youokay?”
I held my mouth with one hand, trying to swallow back the sob that was trying to break free.
“Ellie?” Her voice was laced in concern.
I swallowed. “Yeah, I’m here,” I said weakly. “I just…” I tried to start talking but my voice cracked and I couldn’t stop the tears.
“Oh Ellie… I’m so sorry. Did something happen with TJ? Do you want to talk about it or should I change the subject? I’m here for you either way,” she saidquickly.
I sniffled and cleared my throat. “Different subject, please. I’m sorry, this is so unprofessional.” I let out a pathetic laugh at just how low I’d sunk.
“Oh my goodness, do not apologize,” she said firmly. “Life is hard. Grey and I were not smooth sailing, so I get it. And we passed over all that professionalism stuff when you had to help me pee at my wedding,” she laughed. “Okay, I’ll shift gears… so Grey and I compromised a bit-” I heard someone mumbling in thebackground.
“Ohmygoodness,” she said exasperated. “Sorry, that was Grey correcting me. Wecollaborated, not compromised,” she laughed, “and we decided to throw a baby celebration, not a shower. I don’t really feel well enough for too much social time rightnow.”
“Everything okay?” I questioned, internally slapping myself for crying over my problems and not even considering what she was going through.
“Oh yes, just so tired, and the doctor ordered bed rest until my due date… which isn’t bad because it’s only about four weeks away.”
“Oh, jeez. Hopefully Grey and Canyon are keeping you company,” Isaid.
“Grey’s not letting me do a single thing these days. It’ll be a hard reality to face when I’m in charge of laundry again,” she snickered.
I laughed at that even though I was still feeling incredibly low. I was thankful for her phone call and for pulling me out of my own mess even for a couple minutes.
“Well, I am very happy to organize whatever you’re thinking. You and baby girl deserve it. What do you think the timeline would look like?” Iasked.
“That’s the tricky part,” she chuckled wryly. “We kind of wanted to wait out the flu season, and everyone we know is involved in hockey in one way or another anyway, so we figured we might just wait until after the season’s over… Maybe May? What do youthink?”
