I show up at seven.
We eat and watch the first period of a game that neither of us is really watching and Chen lets me not talk for a while. We sit in genuinely comfortable silence.
Then he puts his bowl down.
“You going to tell me what happened?”
“Nothing happened.”
“Something happened at the away game. And then something happened after. And now the sessions feel like the first week she was here except worse because at least then it was just professional.”
I put my own bowl down.
“How long have you known?”
“About you and her? I’m not stupid.”
“I said something. She started pulling back. So, I told her she wasn’t a real coach and that I was leaving at the end of the season so I didn’t know what the problem was.”
Chen is quiet for a long moment.
“Mateo…”
“I know.”
“That’s-”
“I know, Miles.”
“No, I mean-” He stops. Starts again. “She came here from somewhere. We don’t know exactly what happened, but something happened – all the scandal stuff. She deserves the chance to start over without us making it more difficult.”
“I didn’t mean it.”
“I know you didn’t. But she doesn’t know that. And if stuff already happened to her and then you said that-” He shakes his head. “You need to apologize. Properly.”
The game is still going. Someone scores and the commentary gets loud. Neither of us reacts.
“What if she doesn’t want to hear it?”
“Say it anyway,” Chen says simply. “Because it needs to be said regardless of what she does with it.” He picks his bowl back up. “That’s what apologizing actually is.”
“When did you get so wise?” I laugh, nudging his shoulder with mine.
“I’ve always been wise. You’ve just been too busy being the captain to notice. And we have training tomorrow. You can do it then.”
“You’re right.”
“And Mateo. Lead with the sorry. Before anything else. Just the sorry.”
MATEO
I’ve been rehearsing my apology since seven this morning and if I don’t do it before the session starts I’ll lose my nerve. I can’t spend one more day in the same place.
She’s already there when I arrive.
I skate over.
“Eriksson.”
