Page 136 of The Tryout

I wait a few minutes for a response, gathering my things from the now-empty locker room. Finally, my phone buzzes.

Tomas Novak 5:10 PM

Sure. Want to come over for dinner?

Avery Lawson 5:11 PM

Maybe…somewhere else? It’s kind of personal.

As I walk out the door, I’m still waiting for a response. Honestly, I should have just said yes to the dinner invite; maybe the warm chaos of Novak’s home would help settle whatever is happening inside of me. Still, I’m not sure I can pull off the kind of politeness I’d want as a guest in his home, in front of his family. Finally, as I get to my car, my phone buzzes again. He’s sent me a location, and a terse message.

Tomas Novak 5:19 PM

I’ll meet you here at 8:00.

Not missing bedtime for your bullshit.

Three hours later, I’m sitting in a booth, nursing a beer, at what can generously be called a dive bar. The floor is sticky beneath my shoes and it took twenty minutes for the bartender to notice me for long enough to serve me a lukewarm domestic beer.

Just as I’m considering leaving and trying again with Novak tomorrow, he enters. For him, the bartender perks up immediately.

“Tomas! How are the girls?”

A frosty bottle is already open and on the counter.

“Good, good. Growing up too quick.”

He grabs the bottle, taking a long drag before looking around the bar and finding me.

“Gotta take care of this. Talk later?”

The bartender nods as Novak walks over to me, sitting on the opposite side of the booth.

“Alright, what was urgent enough to drag me away from home?”

Though the words are harsh, his tone is softer than usual. After all, he didn’t even really push back against coming out tonight – just named a time and a place.

“I’m…sorry. We probably could have done this at your place. I’ve just been in kind of a shitty mood. Didn’t want the girls to see that.”

He smiles a bit at that, taking another drag of his beer.

“I appreciate that. They like you a lot, you know? Even Elena, and she’s not easy to impress.”

I smile, finding myself wishing I had seen them tonight.

“I actually…I kind of wanted to ask you about Elena, if that’s okay?”

His eyebrows cinch together.

“Maybe.”

That’s probably the best I’m going to get from him, so I keep going.

“I’ve had a lot of time lately, with Finn in Minneapolis, you know?”

He nods silently.

“Anyway, I was trying to remember how long you were in Boston, and where else you had played, and I found an article from a couple years ago. There were, uh, rumors that you’d gotten an offer to stay in the NHL, playing for, uh, Tampa maybe? But somehow you ended up in Des Moines instead.”