Page 32 of He Has Pluck

He gives me a smirk, adjusting his Clark Kent glasses, and reaches into his back pack. He pulls out a bottle. “No, but this should help until I can bring in reinforcements.”

I laugh again, and it feels good to have a familiar soul in residence after dealing with so many people who are like mysterious aliens to me.

“You ready to work with a fucking hockey team?” I ask.

“Bring it on. How bad could they be after the drug cartel?”

Shaking my head, I say, “Come on down. I’ll show you.”

I show him the edited clips so far and tell him about Jason being the subject and the focal point.

“The schedule is hectic, making it difficult to do all the filming and all the production edits, as well as travel with the team.”

He sits at the computer and skims through some clips while I call Dan to let him know Carlos is in for the second camera and to help with edits. Dan gives me assistant director/producer level decision-making.

“I thought that’s what I already had,” I say, half joking.

“Just make sure you give me the best product possible. Something that could win us an award to make this worth our trouble.”

“They give out awards for shit like this?” I’m truly surprised. I look at Carlos, and he shakes his head, disgusted with my apparent ignorance. I end the call with Dan.

My alarm goes off, and I shut it. I always set an alarm when I have to be somewhere while I’m working on film editing because I lose all track of time.

“You ready for this?” I say.

“Sure. You know, I actually like hockey. I don’t know if I mentioned that to you. I used to go to the hockey games in college sometimes.” I look at him in horror, and he laughs. “I’m not nearly as one dimensional as you are.”

“Sure you are, you just refuse to admit it. You know you have no life outside of work.”

* * *

At the rink I bring him along, swearing to myself that I have nothing to worry about because I made no promises to Jason. There is no commitment between us. Not that there’s anything between me and Carlos. I need to get past my obsession with Jason.

Maybe I should tell Jason that Carlos is staying with me but the rink isn’t the place. Besides, if Jason were to make a surprise visit, it’s not like he’ll find Carlos in my bed. He’ll have his own room upstairs, out of the way.

But I can’t be thinking ahead like this. I need to shut it down and move on. My pussy weeps at the idea, infecting the rest of me with the traitorous sentimentality. Who’s looking out for my survival? My brain or my pussy? I can’t be so sure anymore.

When we arrive at the practice facility, we go to the rink, and as the players come out of the locker room, I introduce Carlos as a colleague and college friend, who will be assisting me with the filming and production. It’s true. There’s nothing between us besides friendship.

I don’t have a chance to introduce Jason until after the morning skate.

“After you dress, Carlos is going to help me out and play interviewer off-camera. He won’t be seen or heard in the final cut. He’ll prompt you with the context of the clip that I want you to comment on, and tell you want we’re looking for.”

Once Jason is dressed, we use the locker room for the interview.

He does well until Carlos asks him about the altercation with Tony in the bar.

He stands. “I thought we weren’t going to include that scene in the documentary.”

“Not the whole thing, just the initial shove against the wall, and then we’ll cut to the end when you’re all good again. Carlos agrees it would be—”

He takes me by the shoulder and pulls me aside. “I don’t give a fuck what Carlos thinks.” His voice is low, but his anger is loud and clear. “We talked about this.” He gives me a look that makes me touch my chest for fear there’s been a hole seared right through to the other side of me. His eyes shout traitor, and I shrink from the accusation with guilt for a second before I right myself. There’s nothing between us that means I owe him, and I didn’t make any promises about the almost-fight scene.

“I told you—you and I don’t get to make the decision about what goes into the documentary.”

Chapter Ten

JASON