PuckingSkylerShaw: That might be the greatest thing I’ve ever heard.
PuckingSkylerShaw: I need more details.
So I told him.
I replayed the whole insane story, from the overheard conversation to the escalating lies to Benji’s “Rest in peace, Space Duke” eulogy after he left. Skyler responded with a string of laughing emojis and demands for clarification.
PuckingSkylerShaw: Wait, he said the aurora photos were CLASSIFIED?
jacks_mills_52: National security concerns. Very seriousastronaut stuff.
PuckingSkylerShaw: I’m dying.
PuckingSkylerShaw: I’m actually dying.
PuckingSkylerShaw: Murph is going to lose his mind when I tell him this.
jacks_mills_52: Speaking of, aren’t you guys on a plane right now? How do you have service?
PuckingSkylerShaw: We landed like an hour ago. I’m home.
PuckingSkylerShaw: Couldn’t sleep. Took allergy meds and they wired me worse than Whitney before a concert.
jacks_mills_52: Damn, that was cold.
jacks_mills_52: Butfunny.
jacks_mills_52: So you decided to message random barbacks at midnight?
PuckingSkylerShaw: Not random. One specific barback.
Something about that made my stomach flip.
Specific.
He’dspecificallywanted to message me.
I knew I was reading too much into all this. Skyler was bored and awake and wanted someone to talk to who wasn’t a teammate. That was all. There was nothing special about me.
jacks_mills_52: Well, I’m honored to be your insomnia entertainment.
PuckingSkylerShaw: You should be. I was playing Angry Birds before this. You’re a significant upgrade.
jacks_mills_52: Dude, the bar was literally on the floor.
PuckingSkylerShaw: And yet you cleared it.
Despite me seeing three screens in my hand, we talked for another hour.
He told me about the road trip, the prank Murph pulled on Erik, and the win streak they were riding.
I told him about the glitter incident from a few weeks back, about Finn and Chase’s ongoing wedding planning debates, and about the regular who’d proposed to his boyfriend at the bar last month.
It was easy, talking to Skyler. Talking to Skyler Shaw, NHL captain, multimillionaire athlete and verified celebrity, was easy. He didn’t feel famous when he typed in all caps about Space Duke or sent face-plant emojis when I mentioned that we’d run out of the good whiskey last week.
He didn’t feel like some stranger I watched on TV.
He felt like a friend.
