Page 26 of Hockey Player Seeking Fan

I nod. “Yup. It sounds great. I think we really have a unique insight into what it means to be a young woman, dating and looking for true love, and how that compares to literary characters who may or may not be an ideal.”

“Yeah.” She sounds excited. “I think that episode one was really good, and I’m excited to get it out there.”

“Me too,” I say. “Me too.”

“So, which one of these guys should I respond to about going on the date first?”

“Which one are you most interested in going on a date with? You have the Scottish guy with his poetry, who may or may not be cool, and then you have the engineering guy who seems very polite—but maybe he’s not going to be as fun. Do you want a poet or an engineer?”

“I don’t know,” I say, wrinkling my nose. “I mean, none of them are really lighting a fire in my soul, if I’m completely honest.”

“So then what would light a fire in your soul?”

“I don’t know. Sometimes you just think about meeting someone and looking at each other and there being that spark.And you just need to talk to each other. And then as you talk, maybe he touches your hand and there’s a little spark. And you just want to continue getting to know each other. And he asks you if you want to go and grab something to eat, and then you do. And then you go for dessert and then drinks before winding up back at his place on the couch, and the next thing you know, he’s kissing you, and it’s amazing. And he’s telling you how beautiful you are. And then he takes you to bed and makes sweet, passionate love to you, while looking you in your eyes and saying, ‘You are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met in my life. And I’m so?—’”

I pause as I realize Sabrina is rolling her eyes. “What?”

“I hate to say it, Erica, but your head is completely in the clouds. That is just not how real life works. Are you really going to go on a date with a guy, have dinner, then go for ice cream, add drinks, then go back to his place and have sex with him all on the same night?”

“I mean, if he’s the one, that could possibly happen.”

“I love you, and I believe in ‘the one,’ as well, but I don’t know if that’s really how life goes.”

“Well, that’s how it’s going to go for me,” I say. “That’s what I want. I want to meet my perfect match. I want to meet the man who is going to absolutely blow me away.”

“Okay,” she says. “I hope that is what you find.”

“Me, too. Anyway,” I say, stretching. “I think I’m going to go and take a bath and relax. Maybe watch a movie and swipe some more and see if I can connect with someone else.”

“Sounds like a plan,” she says. “I mean, if you’re going to win this bet, you need to start going on dates.”

“Exactly,” I say. “I need to start going on lots of dates so that I can show Tyler that the perfect man is out there—and a good man is not an outlier.”

“Yeah, you show him,” she says. “I can’t wait for you to win that bet.”

“Me, too.”

Chapter Eight

Tyler

I can tell as soon as I hit the ice that Elliott has an attitude. I'm not going to ask him what's wrong because I already know, and the fact of the matter is, he's lucky that I haven't approached him to tell him just how shitty he is.

"Hey, Kane, you want to go to the far end?" Lucas calls out to me, and I nod. I grab my stick and skate down the ice. Even though hockey's not my first love, there's a feeling of power I get as I make my way down the rink—the way my blades scratch across the ice, the way my muscles clench and support me. I love it. I love it more than I've even allowed myself to think.

"What up, dickhead?" Elliott skates past me and glares.

"What did you just say to me?"

"You heard me, dickhead."

I have two options here. I can skate up to him, give him my best right hook, send him flying across the ice, or I can ignore him. I know which one I want to do, and I know which one he wants me to do, but I’m not going to give either one of us the satisfaction.

“Why don’t you save it for the next game?” I shout after him.

“So, what, you fuck?" he calls out.

I press my lips together. I don't appreciate how he's talking about Erica, but I don't want him to realize that it means that much to me. I tune him out. He seems to catch on pretty quickly that he's not getting to me because he doesn't say anything else until we finish practice and get off the ice.