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I smile at Melody, hoping her full lips will curl into a smile of their own. She keeps her beautiful face expressionless as she pulls up her pink and black glasses. My smile grows despite the lack of response. I’ve always had a thing for glasses, and the idea of watching her take them off while letting her hair down is on replay in my head.
“Are you famous?” Tina asks. Her brother looks at her like she just kicked a puppy.
“More than ever now, unfortunately,” I joke.
“Well, I’ve never seen you on a stamp,” she states.
I sigh. Maybe one day my face will grace the corner of every American’s mail.“And to answer your other question, I’m here to do some volunteer work. You know, giving back to the community that raised me.” I can see, in the corner of my eye, Verog looking exhausted with me.
“Are you gonna volunteer at our school?” Ryan asks.
The kid is jumping on his toes and looks so excited. And there’s my opening. No way is Verog going to let this kid down so hard. And if I can set myself up at this school, well then, that’s an even better chance to get to know the school nurse.
Verog looks at me with a warning, but it’s too late. I’ve already decided. “Yes. In fact, I’m going to be the volunteer assistant coach for the hockey team,” I state proudly. “Just volunteer. Temporary. But yes, I’ll be there.”
Verog grips the table tight as little Ryan loses his mind.“Oh mygosh!I have to tell the other guys. This issocool!Coach, you are so cool for having a famous friend. Why didn’t you tell us? This is so cool!”
I chuckle at the kid’s excitement but pause at the look on Melody’s face. She seems a little disappointed at this news. Did I make a bad first impression? Has she seen my epic, life-ruining viral video and already judged me unfit to be around her kids?
I should have thought this through better. Maybe I can make a good second impression later and win over her confidence that way.
“Okay, Ryan. That’s enough. We need to get to our own table now,” Melody says quickly.
Ryan nods, seemingly satisfied that he’ll get to see me often now.“Thanks so much, Coach. I’m gonna tell the other guys how awesome you are!” Ryan says as Tina practically pulls him to their booth.
I chuckle and raise my glass to Verog. “Kids. They’re great, aren’t they?” I ask before taking a nice, refreshing gulp. When I set it back down, Verog is glaring at me.
“You’re a real piece of work, you know that?” he asks. “If I say no now, none of the kids will ever let me live it down.”
I shrug. “Always have been.”
Verog sighs, takes a bite of his burger, and shakes his head as he swallows. “Fine. You can be the volunteer assistant coach.”
I smile. Of course, I can.
“Assistant. Alright? Emphasis on assistant. You have to follow my directions.”
“Whatever you say.” I grin, knowing this will all work out exactly right.
6
MELODY
Isigh and let my head hit the back of the booth. Of all the absolute bad luck…
“And then one time, in one of the playoff games, Jaromir body blocked the other team’s best player and made him so angry, he tried to start a fight, and Jaromir used that distraction to—!”
“Eat your pizza,” I say. “It’s getting cold.” I just need one small pause between all the hero worship to collect my thoughts. It was bad enough that my olive branch to Ryan, a night at the tacky arcade pizza parlor, was burned to a crisp due to seasonal staffing practices. But now my backup plan at Dieter’s has blown up in my face.
Why did Ryan’s number one hockey hero have to be visiting our town, having dinner in the one place I thought we’d have a semi-peaceful second choice? Now Ryan’s unreachable. His head is so high in the clouds over this turn of events that I don’t think he’ll be touching the ground for a week.
Still, it was genuinely nice to see him so happy. It’s not every day you get to meet your idol. I’m happy for Ryan, really, even if this makes my problem much harder to handle.
“Ryan, slow down, you’ll make yourself sick!” Tina exclaims. She’s slowly picking at her macaroni and gaping at her brother, shoving slices of personal pizza in his mouth nearly one after another. Why? How?
“Ryan, come on, please,” I beg.
“Do you think he’ll be here a little longer? I wonder if he’ll sign my menu. Or my shirt. Or maybe my face!” Like I said, completely unreachable. Ryan shoves the last slice of pizza in his mouth and washes it down with cherry soda before standing up.
