“Your mom has a new family?”
“Yup. She was single when she got pregnant with me on a one-night stand in the Netherlands.”
I pull back an inch and eye him. “Your father was Dutch?”
“Probably.” He gives me a sneaky smile. “There’s some Dutch guy out there with a weird sense of humor and good hand-eye coordination. She never even knew his last name. But that’s the wildest thing my mother ever did. She’s been making up for it ever since with an aggressively normal life. Which doesn’t overlap with mine very much.”
“Oh,” I say as my heart sags. I’ve always sensed a deep-seated loneliness in Beck, and I hate knowing that it was true.
“She’s not cold, exactly. Just tuned into a different channel. Like she’s living in a different sitcom where I’m the quirky neighbor who pops in every few episodes.”
I don’t know what to say to that, so I just kiss his neck. His phone buzzes with a text. And then another one. And another.
“Do you want to look?” I ask as the phone keeps up the buzzing.
“In a minute,” he says, scraping his stubble against mine. “How bad could it be, really? I’m already the team weirdo.”
“You’re a goalie,” I remind him. “It’s your job to be weird. Your obsession with new wave music from the Eighties is totally on brand.”
He snorts, and then he lets me go. He picks up the phone, which is still intermittently buzzing like a frantic mosquito. He unlocks it, and we both lean in to see the screen.
Dietz
No way on the Zamboni thing. That's not even possible. Zamboni driver isn't an official
Rigsy
Bro. Beck would 100% argue with the Zamboni driver. I’ve seen him yell at a vending machine.
Martinez
Wait hold up. He’s NEVER had ketchup?? How is that even physically possible
Hennie
@Martinez the Zamboni thing is definitely the lie. You can't get a penalty from arguing with ice crew
Rigsy
But seriously Beck what do you eat fries with??? Mayo like some kind of psychopath?
Kowalski
My cousin got a bench minor for chirping the timekeeper once so maybe Zamboni guy could take it up the chain of command?
Martinez
No but think about it - ketchup is in EVERYTHING. Thousand island dressing. Cocktail sauce. BBQ sauce has ketchup
Rigsy
Those don't count as ketchup Martinez
Hennie
They totally count. If he's never had ketchup he's never had Big Mac sauce
Martinez
