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Eli gave him a quick smile. “Thanks.”
“King and I will be there,” Nolan said. He looked around for yesterday’s clothes. They’d brought them up at some point. “My dad got us tickets.”
“Cool.” Eli winked at him. “Motivation not to suck. Excellent.”
Nolan chuckled and kissed him again.
“All right, guys, we’re rolling,” one of the team’s social media interns said from behind the camera.
Sitting on a stool a few feet away with a Vermont Trailblazers backdrop behind him, Eli smiled into the lens. “Hey, I’m Eli Parker.”
“And I’m Paul Sandbaker.”
“And this is Trail Mates. I’ll go first.” Eli made a show of clearing his throat, then read off the flashcard he’d been given. “If you were a sound effect, what would you sound like?”
Jesus, who came up with these questions?
“An air horn,” Sandbaker said. “Because I’m always inserting myself into ongoing conversations.”
Eli had to laugh.
“What’s your phone background right now?”
“Oh man, it’s super boring.” Eli pulled his phone out and unlocked it. “It’s a screenshot of my weekly calendar. I change it every Sunday.” He pointed it at the camera so the intern could zoom in on it. “Saves me from having to tap into my calendar seventeen times a day.”
“You know they have widgets for that, right?”
Eli was sure the intern would add a record-scratch sound effect in editing.
“What?” He thumbed over to his calendar. “Where?”
Sandbaker rose from his stool and stood over Eli’s shoulder. “Right here.”
“Ah, man, that’s so much better. It’s even color-coordinated like my calendar. Game fucking changer.”
The intern sighed. “Don’t swear on camera. Keep going.”
“My bad, sorry.” Eli referred to the second question on his card. “Would you survive alone out in the wilderness for one night?”
“Fuck no,” Sandbaker stated.
Another sigh from the intern. He stopped the recording. “You do know you have fans who are, like, five years old.”
“Are they on social media?” Sandbaker asked.
“You don’t know that they aren’t,” the intern rebutted.
“Fine, fine. Sorry. No more swearing.”
Sandbaker grimaced at Eli, and Eli hid a smile behind his flash card.
Twenty minutes later, the intern shooed them out of the meeting room. Zanetti and Cotton took their places.
“Have fun,” Eli said, patting Zanetti’s shoulder. “It was a blast.”
Zanetti didn’t look convinced.
On the elevator down to arena level from the Trailblazers’ admin offices, Eli leaned against the wall across from Sandbaker.
