Page 15 of A Good Puck

“Love you, bye,” Olive said quickly before hanging up. She fled from her spot quickly, blending in with the other tourists who were walking out from the main cathedral and towards the auxiliary buildings, no less beautiful or majestic.

Olive mulled over her sister’s words. Logically, she knew that reaching out to Charlie could be just that—a simple, casual meeting, no more and no less. But emotionally, Olive knew that if she let herself open that door again, there was a chance she could get hurt. Olive thought of what her sister would say to that. She’d probably say something about how Olive could get hurt no matter what she did, and that keeping herself closed off to new experiences because of a shitty ex was letting that shitty ex win.

She’d be right about that. There was no way Olive would let Natalia win. Not after she abandoned Olive to enjoy this amazing place without her.

With that newfound resolve, Olive finally opened the text from last night that she had been ignoring.

sure, same bar?

CHAPTER

EIGHT

CHARLIE

Practice went great.Charlie was finally used to Coach Brady’s directions, and she thought the team was working more cohesively. In their practice, Charlie scored two flawless goals; a real feat, because Campbell was a beast in net. It was a welcome distraction from her unanswered texts from yesterday, and Charlie was happy to have something else to focus on.

“You must all get your rest tonight, because we have to be on our best behaviour tomorrow,” Coach Brady said as the team headed back to change and leave the rink to the next practicing team.

That was fine by Charlie, because she was ready to finally turn her brain away from thoughts of gorgeous women and toward hockey strategy. They were playing against Sweden tomorrow, and she needed to do some extra reading on their coaches and players. While the coaching team gave them all a rundown, Charlie had a long email’s worth of game tape to watch for the rest of the day.

She walked through the Olympic Village with a lightness that she hadn’t felt in some time. Though Charlie put a lot of pressureon herself when it came to hockey, she genuinely enjoyed the sport, and there was nothing more thrilling than scoring a goal. Every time she did, it reminded her that maybe this career wasn’t all through nepotism and good luck. She actually had some skill, she thought. Charlie passed by some other Team Canada athletes on her walk, and they all shared a knowing nod and look with each other.

When Charlie got back to her room, she was not totally surprised to find it empty. Though Heather was on the team with her, she tended to do her own thing during the day, and she generally conked out as soon as she arrived back at the room with her wireless noise-cancelling headphones.

Perhaps being out one too many nights had left Plaker with a poor impression of Charlie, because she rarely spoke to her last night even though she was finally in the room. Or maybe Plaker was bitter that the Toronto Succubi had traded her for Charlie two years ago, and that Charlie had gone on to take the team to the best record in the PWHL. Of course, Blake had helped too, but sports commentators had praised Toronto for that decision all those years ago.

Whatever the reason was, Charlie was glad to find the hotel room empty, as it meant she could watch the games in peace for tomorrow. She booted up her laptop and lay in bed, scrolling through the emails and opening all the YouTube clips she needed. Charlie left her phone to charge across the room, and she heard it buzz with an incoming text.

Charlie tried her best to go back to the video she was watching, but the pinging sound echoed in her head. It was likely Blake, or perhaps it was the coaches. It could not be what she hoped it was, but she stopped anyway to go check.

Charlie smiled when she read the text, overjoyed that it was her wish come true.

OLIVE

sure, same bar?

Charlie should’ve texted her to postpone, to save any meeting to tomorrow so she could rest like the coach had told them to.

how about 8pm?

see you then

Charlie tried her best not to smile like an idiot at her phone, but she surely failed. Just then, the door opened and Plaker stepped in. Considering Charlie had seen her in the locker room earlier, she was surprised it took her this long to return.

“What’s that face for, Lajoie?” Heather asked Charlie, raising an eyebrow as she dropped her bags on her bed.

The smile dropped from Charlie’s face. “None of your business.”

It was childish and stupid, but Charlie was not going to tell her frenemy about this. Absolutely not. She went back to her laptop and put her headphones in, loading up the previous video. She didn’t bother to see what Plaker did, as she was sure she was likely doing the same on her side of the room. Charlie glanced at the clock and tried to stamp down her smile. Only a few hours until she got to see Olive again, and she counted down the time in between her note-taking and video watching.

When her roommate left in the evening, presumably to get dinner, Charlie quickly put away her laptop and indulged herself in scrolling through more of Olive’s photos. She probably knew too much about the woman now, but she really was curious about her. With tomorrow’s game on the way, she could not afford to be out as late as she had been the previous night, and Charlie was hoping to use the evening to get to know her on a personal level, away from the rush of needing a distraction.

Charlie grabbed dinner and a chocolate muffin at the Olympic cafeteria, and then made her way to the bar. She had a baseball cap on and her usual all-black attire. It may have been a touch excessive thinking that she needed a disguise, but you never knew.

As Charlie walked up to the bar entrance, she spotted Olive waiting outside. Olive was wearing jeans and a scoop neck top underneath a leather jacket that Charlie knew would keep her distracted all night. Olive waved when she spotted Charlie, and Charlie stopped next to her. Charlie wanted to reach out and hug her, do something, but she was feeling unexpectedly awkward about this reunion now that it was here.

“Let’s head inside?” Olive finally asked, and Charlie nodded, following her in.