Page 114 of Against The Boards

He shook his head at me. “Come on. You here to run drills with me, or what?”

He took off with the puck before I gave him an answer.

I pumped my legs and followed behind him, trying to bat the puck away from him. We scrummed together until our ice time was almost up.

I took off my helmet and ran a hand through my sweaty hair.

“Are you growing out your flow?” Riley asked.

I laughed. “Nah, just been lazy.”

“Too busy with a certain dark-haired woman?”

I smirked. “Exactly.” I picked my phone up off the ledge of the bench and cringed at all the texts from my sister.

LILIANA: Abuelo told you NOT to ask for a trade!

LILIANA: MICHAEL! Answer me!

“What’s wrong?” Riley asked.

I sighed. “My sister must have seen the reports. I think I need to sort this shit out.”

Riley patted me on the back. “Good luck with that one, man.”

“I’ll deal with it later.”

After hitting the showers, I headed back to my condo. I flopped back on my bed and pulled out my phone. I didn’t think a text message would be good enough for my sister, so I was going to have to make this a phone call. I sighed and dialed the familiar number.

“MICHAEL!” she screeched into my ear.

“Liliana, calm down,” I said.

“You can’t jeopardize your career like this.” she was still in screech mode.

“I know.”

“Then what the fuck, man?”

I sighed. “I asked them to consider Boston if they wanted to trade me.”

“MICHAEL!”

“But I don’t want to go,” I admitted.

She was quiet for a moment. “Okay…” she trailed off and calmed down a little. “Why not?”

“It was before…um...so I kind of have a new girlfriend?”

“Oh, really?”

I could almost see the smirk on my sister’s face, even though she was a thousand miles away in Boston.

“Yeah, you would like her. She doesn’t take my bullshit, and she yells at me just as much as you do.”

Liliana laughed. “Holy shit, did you start dating who I think you did?”

“Yes,” I said through gritted teeth.