“I’m sure you’ve seen that we’ve had quite a favorable response to your interview,” she said. “Everyone loved what you said about the current…issue at hand. Suddenly—thankfully—the public is commenting less about Carl’s deplorable behaviorand more about whether or not you and Duffy Distefano are going to go on a date.”
“I probably shouldn’t have made that joke,” I said, hoping that hadn’t been a misstep. I was good at football but didn’t know shit about PR damage control. “I was trying to—”
“No, it was perfect,” she said, with a reassuring smile. “You were rolling with the chemistry, right? You two obviously have the same sense of humor so it felt very natural.”
I didn’t know how to respond to that, so I just said, “Oh. Good.”
Bethany cleared her throat and leaned forward a little, looking…intentional. She lowered her voice and asked, “If you don’t mind me asking,doyou plan on asking her out?”
What the fuck?
“Definitely not,” I said, shaking my head. “The last thing I want is to—”
“Really?” she interrupted, her eyebrows going up. “You didn’t like her?”
“No, I mean, she seemed fine,” I said, a little confused by the question. “I just don’t usually ask out strangers that I met on television for five minutes.”
“I get that,” she said slowly, steepling her fingers underneath her chin. “But she did seem really charming.”
“What is this?” I asked with a laugh. “You trying to set me up?”
“Well,” she said, looking serious. “Here’s the thing. Obviously, we’re happy with the public reaction to this…meet-cute. And while everybody is freaking out about how adorable Duffy is, it’d be really great for this whole Carl nightmare if we wereable to show a feel-good ending. It’s much better for the organization if everybody is oohing and aahing over our star player taking out one of the Coyote faithfuls, somebody who has season tickets, right?”
“Right…?” I said, still not exactly sure what she wanted from me.
But then she cleared it all up.
“Would youconsiderasking her out? It doesn’t have to be for real or anything more than a nice night; ask her to dinner, show her a lovely time, and that can be the end of it. But it’d be a really nice period at the end of this sentence and better for us all to focus on the good, rather than the bad.”
I sat there for a second, waiting for more.
Then I realized that was it. “So you want me toask her outfor publicity reasons?”
Bethany raised both hands with a head tilt. “I’m not going to tell you what to do. You’re an important part of this organization and your job is to play football, not PR. But the team is in a bind, and you, Connor, are in the unique position of being able to help us out. One of our core values is community, and Carl’s behavior has obviously eroded a little bit of the community’s trust in the Coyotes, which my fatherhates. But your willingness to speak out against his wrongs, while being your naturally charming self, puts you in this remarkable space where you could really boost the morale and image of the team with just a simple dinner.”
A simple dinner.
“I’m not saying you have to fall into a relationship with her or this has to be a whole big thing, but a nice night out where I could have a photographer catch a couple shots of you and Duffyat a restaurant having a good time—that’d be great for all of us here. But again—it’s completely your choice.”
I looked at the seriousness on her face.Is it, though?
“I mean, she really was adorable,” she said. “The fact that she knew your stats was hysterical.”
“She wastrollingme about them,” I corrected, though I couldn’t help but smile, still in disbelief over the way Duffy had said it.
“That’s what I mean,” Bethany said, grinning. “If nothing else, I think you’ll have a good time—taking her out will be absolutely interesting.”
Yeah, I thought. Taking that girl out woulddefinitelybe interesting.
5
Duffy
“Duff, will you answer the phone?” my dad yelled from the basement.
Yes, my father still had a landline and expected me to answer it as if this were the way life still worked.
Like I was a child, answering the phone for my parents.
