Page 37 of Hockey Player Seeking Fan

“I know.” She takes a sip. “Ooh, this is so good. What is it?”

“Something delicious.”

“Let me guess. Sprite and Malibu?”

I nod slowly.

“Oh, I love this,” she says, sipping. “I'm going to be so drunk by the end of the night.”

“I think you're drunk right now.”

“Only a little bit because you took so long to get here. We had three drinks each, and I hadn’t really eaten, so…” She shrugs. “Anyway. What were you doing tonight?”

“You mean aside from helping your date match up with the love of his life?”

“Yeah, aside from that—oh, my. You didn't have a date, did you? You weren't in bed with some hot blonde bimbo, about to get head, and then I called?”

“Erica, unlike you, if I were in bed with a hot bimbo, about to get head, I would not have picked up the phone when you called.”

“What?” she pouts. “You would've just let me go to voicemail?”

“Yeah. I would have in that instance.”

“That's messed up.”

“Well, I wasn’t.”

“True. So, did I tell you the podcast went live?”

She looks at me with wide eyes. “I think it's good, but I don'tknowif it's good. If I play you part of it, would you tell me what you think?”

“I'd love to hear the podcast, but I don't know if you can handle the truth. Can you handle the truth?”

She says in a deep voice, “I don’t think you can handle the truth.” She giggles. “I may have gotten that a bit wrong.”

“Who’s that supposed to be?” I ask her.

“Isn’t he an actor? Or maybe a wrestler? I don’t know. Maybe a hockey player?”

“So, are we going to listen to the podcast?”

“It’s loud in here. You won’t be able to hear it properly.”

She pouts again, shifting closer to me, and I feel her hand on my thigh. She runs it up, and I freeze.

“You are so built. I bet you have muscles of stone.”

“I wouldn't say that exactly, but as I said, I’m an athlete.”

“You are kind of cute when you’re not annoying,” she says.

I stare at her for a couple of seconds. “And you're kind of beautiful when you're not being mean.”

“I'm not mean. Do you think I'm mean, Tyler Kane?”

“Why do you always say my full name?”

“I don’t know. Maybe because I like to say it.”