I burst through the tunnel, cleats clicking on the concrete. Workers whipped their heads to stare as I jogged past. I paidthem no heed as I stumbled through the locker room doors, going straight to the cubby I claimed earlier.
I placed my helmet on the bench and reached for my phone, my breath still uneven. Sweat slid down my neck, my fingers twitching with leftover adrenaline as I tapped the link I’d queued up before the game.
As the live video took a second to come up, I plopped down on the fold out chair, bracing my forearms on my padded thighs while I held the phone out.Please tell me I didn’t miss Emmie skating.
The feed finally came up, showing Keira’s face as her score appeared. I let out a sigh of relief at the sight. I was right on time. My heart spluttered in my chest at the sight of her. Even through the phone, she took my breath away.
I snatched a water bottle from my cubby, downing half of it before Emmie skated onto the ice. My grip tightened on the bottle, the plastic crinkling under my fingers as she settled into position, ready to start her routine.
My eyes were glued to the screen as the music started.
“Mateo,you looked locked in tonight. What was your mindset coming into this game?” a reporter asked, his recorder held out to get my answer, along with the other reporters in the room for the post-game interview.
I leaned toward the microphone in front of me. “We came into this game knowing it would be a hard one. Both offenses are strong and have played well so far this season, so we knew defense needed to put the pressure on, and I think we did a good job of that today.”
Beside me, Coach nodded his head in agreement. Thesepost-game interviews were always time consuming and a bit repetitive having to replay the game over. Thankfully, we won or else this interview would be even more annoying.
“Coach, do you feel the team is strong enough to make it back to The Legacy Championship this year?” another reporter asked.
“I do. We have been playing well and the team is in sync both on and off the field,” he answered.
As soon as Coach responded, another pipped up. “What impressed you the most about the team's execution in that final quarter? Things got close in the last two minutes.”
“Our team is great at adapting and listening to each other.”
While Coach continued answering questions, I glanced down at my phone on the table. It was on silent but notifications kept popping up. It was a mix of sports news headlines about the team, texts from my family, and one from Emmie.
I swiped them all away to answer later and stared at my screensaver. It was a picture of Emmie and me kissing in front of Niagara Falls from two weeks ago. I set it as my background the second I got home so I could stare at it anytime I wanted. Like now, in the middle of post-game interviews.
“Mateo.” The sound of my name made my gaze jerk up to land on the man directing a question at me. “You left the field pretty quickly after the final whistle. You skipped most of the on-field celebrations. Was there somewhere you needed to be?”
I knew that would be brought up here. The team's quarterback leaving the field immediately after winning the game was something that didn’t go unnoticed.
“There was,” I answered.
“There’s been a lot of buzz about your personal life lately,”the same guy continued. “Has that affected your focus on the field at all?”
The way he phrased it made my eyes narrow. “It hasn’t affected my focus at all. In fact, I feel more motivated than ever.”
The man opened his mouth to ask another question, but a different reporter interrupted him. I had a feeling now that someone asked the question about my personal life, others would take the chance to chime in as well.
“Coach, how do you feel about your star player dating your daughter?”
Yep. There it was.
Coach shot me a look, his jaw clenched, hands fisting on the table, already pissed the question was even asked. He leaned toward the mic, face set, expression hard. This was about to get interesting.
“Mateo and my daughter’s personal life is no one’s business. Those kinds of questions have nothing to do with football or the game we won today.” His tone was gruff. Final.
A few reporters shifted in their seats, but no one backed down.
“Mateo…” This time it was a woman reporter who spoke up. “Do you want to clarify your relationship with Emmie James?”
I exhaled slowly, Coach silent beside me, already knowing there was no dodging this one. At least I could answer this one on my own terms and set the record straight for any stupid future questions sent my way.
“Emmie and Iarein a relationship, but it’s a private one. She has her own career to focus on, and I support her in that, and she does the same for me. We’d appreciate it if the attention stayed on our careers. If you want to support her, go watch her do what she does best.”
The second the words left my mouth, questions startedflying. Voices overlapped, reporters shouting over one another to ask me another question. Now that I officially said Emmie and I were in a relationship, the gates flung open.
