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He leaned in, kissed me, but I turned my head away. “Dex! No! I’ve got horrible morning breath.” While his smelled minty fresh.
He laughed, then kissed my forehead.
“I’ll call you from Finland. Be good. You can be bad when I get back.”
28
DEX
* * *
“For the past year, we’ve thought you’d be a great fit with our company.”
Ellen Masters, the CEO of OutdoorNow sat across from me at a huge conference table in the corporate office in Chicago. Three colleagues sat with her along one side, and I was on the other. My agent, Scott, was beside me.
The high-rise view out the wall-to-wall windows was pretty spectacular. After spending over a week in Montana, I missed all the green. The open spaces. The lack of people.
Hunter Valley was changing my perspective.
For a business that built their brand on adventure, they looked far from outdoorsy in their crisp corporate attire. I didn’t look much like a hockey player in my own suit. This was business though. Big business. The number they were proposing in the contract would be greater than the one I had with the Silvermines.
I sat up straighter and adjusted my suit at her words.
“But the bar incident in June really had us thinking twice.” She glanced at the others who nodded.
I looked to Scott, who didn’t even blink. He’d told me in the elevator that I’d have to withstand their thoughts and opinions on the fight to get through the meeting.
“While I’d like to apologize for what happened, I won’t,” I said.
One of the women to Ellen’s right sucked in a breath, clearly surprised.
I held up my hand hoping they’d let me finish what I had to say on the topic. “I’m not denying responsibility or diminishing what happened, but the unvarnished truth–without any kind of media spin–is that a woman was being bullied and harassed. Verbally, but the words were sexually threatening. I won’t stand by and let this happen. The man refused to back down or listen to reason, which I tried first. He threw the first punch, and I threw the second.”
I paused and out of the corner watched Scott’s jaw clench. His commission was on the line.
“You’re saying you condone violence,” Ellen stated, her words spoken carefully.
I shook my head. “No. I defend myself if attacked and I defend those who are not as strong as me. Note, I didn’t say weak. The woman at the center of this wasn’t–isn’t–weak. She was being threatened by someone bigger and a danger to her. I stood up to her bully for her. There’s nothing I can do about how it went viral on social media, without context I might add, and how I was turned into an enforcer off the ice.”
“Which is why we question you for a partnership. You’d be joining our family and our customers will believe what they see online and in the media.”
“I won’t stop protecting others, sponsorship or not. You should respect that about me. My teammates and others who were there do.”
I held my breath because this was the moment.
Ellen took a moment, as if she was making her final decision, or just torturing me.
“Which is why the latest round of news about you is what we feel is the actual Dex James.”
I frowned and glanced at Scott, gave him a, What’s she talking about? look.
“Haven’t seen the latest?” Ellen asked, sounding amused.
“I’ve been in Montana.” I made it seem like the state had no internet or social media access.
Scott pulled out his cell, swiped on it a few times, then handed it to me. He must’ve screen captured articles and posts because one after the other were photos of me on the ice with the kids at the winter complex. In one, I had a cone on my head and led the girls through a fun skating drill. I couldn’t help but smile at the photo. Another was where I was high fiving a line of boys as they left the ice at the end of practice. Fuck yeah, that had been a good time.
“Yes, we know,” Ellen added.
