Page 7 of Face Off

I tried to hide my laughter at their teasing. It was clear the team had fun together.

“Taylor is another resource for you if you need anything artistic done. Like graphics or drawings,” Chloe added.

“Perfect.” I added notes of what everyone was responsible for in my binder. It was old-fashioned compared to everyone's laptops and tablets, but it was a tried-and-true system I loved.

Chloe continued. “I’ve been managing our accounts for the past few years, but with the added work I have on the marketing side of things and wanting to be around more for my son, I decided I was ready to pass the torch. That being said, we have a huge project due at the end of next week. I don’t want to throw you to the wolves, so I’ll be helping you through this instead of traditional training.”

“Trial by fire,” Cam teased.

“Right.” Chloe grinned. “The Fury has a charity week every year, and one of the biggest draws is the calendar. We have duffels full of signed memorabilia and exclusive gear that go for anywhere from five hundred to five thousand dollars, and those are big money makers, but the calendars go for twenty and always bring in the most money overall.”

“And that’s what we’re in charge of.” Matt chuckled. “No pressure.”

Right. So the most important item of the annual fundraiser was on my shoulders. What a way to tip my toes back into things.

“Okay, what’s been planned, and what needs to be done?” I asked.

“She doesn’t scare easily.” George eyed me. “I like her.”

I fought to contain my smile. I appreciated that they were diving in and not holding back with me.

Cam looked up from his tablet. “We have the photoshoot with the players scheduled for Friday after practice. That gives us a week to edit, format, send to the printers, proof, and approve.”

“It’s going to be tight, but we’ve survived worse.” Taylor clicked around on her laptop.

Matt dropped his head back against his chair. “Why do we always wait until the last minute though?”

“Because contrary to what we think up here, the team isn’t just waiting around for us whenever we need them.” Chloe smiled up from her phone.

Cam chuckled. “Well, when you need them, they’re there, but not the rest of us.”

“It was the only time available, okay?” George bit out. “Next time, you get twenty-three men to clear their schedules when you would like them to.”

I added a note to work on building a relationship with the team so conflicts like this didn’t keep happening. If there was an existing us-versus-them mentality in the front office, it would be hard to undo. Granted, we had very different jobs and hours than the players, but that didn’t mean that there should be any animosity. We were all after the same goal, helping the Fury be the best team in the league. At least, I hoped so.

Taylor brought us back on topic. “Right, so Friday at three-thirty, the photoshoot will start. The dogs will arrive at three to give them time to calm down.”

I held up my hand, and she stopped. “Dogs?”

“From the humane society,” she clarified. “It helps with adoptions, and a portion of the calendar’s proceeds goes to the shelter.”

So not only was I supposed to manage twenty-three players, but dogs. From the shelter. With who knew how much training.

I was used to working with babies. How hard could this be?

“Are there two calendar options, or do some of the guys double up?” I asked.

“It’s a fourteen-month calendar. Since they usually arrive to the fans in May, we go from April of this year to next May. The goalies usually share a page, and then the top players fill out the rest, so not everyone on the roster will be there,” Chloe clarified.

“I’ll send you the complete list,” Cam said while looking at his laptop.

“Thank you.” I didn’t know any of the players, besides Mikey the Rude, so other than the number, I wasn’t that interested in who would be there. Although, maybe I should look them up and memorize the names to the right faces so I had a bit more control of the situation on Friday. Plus, it was my job to know them. The faster I caught on, the better.

Hopefully, they were a bit nicer than Mikey had been so far. I assumed they were all divas, but my experience with professional athletes was limited to … well, nothing. I was basing this purely on stories I’d heard on the news about basketball players and football players, and if I was going only off that, then all pros were adulterers, drug addicts, drunks that got in fights at clubs, and occasionally hard criminals. All in all, not my type of people.

Chloe had worked hard to convince me during our interviews that the Fury wasn’t like that. They didn’t tolerate behavior from their players that might bring any negative light to the team. She assured me the majority were married with families and led relatively boring lives outside the arena.

“So dogs at three, players at three-thirty. That means setup needs to start at two, at the latest.” Chloe pointed to George.