Slightly Infatuated （12）

"So, which one is he?"

The thunderous thump of a puck slapping against the boards where they were standing jolted them both. It'd come off Ryan Baylor's stick. Amara looked through the glass at him, and he sported the biggest smile she'd seen on him yet, clearly surprised to see her. "Seriously? You literally met him before!"

"I can't fucking remember. Point to him."

"That one. Number 21," she replied, gesturing towards Ryan, as she and her new friend from work stood rink-side watching Bridgeport's warmup skate.

Amara had almost forgotten what it was like to have a female companion. She'd lost touch with most of her female friends over the years, and the only ones she'd had recently bailed after the divorce.

Dani was a little younger than Amara, at 35. She was the lifeblood of The Bull, and all the patrons knew her by name. She was on the curvier side, with huge boobs and long hair that she'd let go almost completely gray, but it worked for her. She had a boisterous personality; if she thought it, she said it, no matter where she was or whether it was appropriate or not.

"I gotta warn ya, baby girl. I ain't got no filter on this thing," she'd told Amara the first time they'd met.

She'd trained Amara and they'd worked nearly every shift together over the past few weeks, where they'd spent a lot of time getting to know each other. Amara had told her all about the drama with Ryan and had dabbled in a little talk of Tyler as well. Since they both had this Saturday night off, she decided to surprise the boys by showing up at tonight's home matchup against the Hershey Bears.

It'd been three weeks since the start of the regular season, and she hadn't made it to a single game. She'd been busy; between working on a long freelance article whose deadline was looming, bartending, and banging the absolute shit out of her boyfriend, free time was in short supply.

That's right.

Boyfriend.

After falling asleep and waking up in his arms after their first time together, she'd caved and reluctantly agreed to date him, even though he snored like an asthmatic grizzly bear. She had serious reservations about it, unsure if either of them was ready for it.

Amara'd consoled herself with the fact that she wasn't the first smart woman in history to make a stupid decision just because the dick was on point, and she wouldn't be the last. The next morning over coffee, she laid out some ground rules for him.

"So, if we're gonna do this, we need to take it slow."

"Um, my tongue was just in your asshole. Take it slow as in…?"

"As in you don't post me on social media. Like, at all. I don't want the attention and scrutiny that comes with that. And I don't want our business thrown around in that locker room. Leave me out of there. Also, you're not allowed to say the ‘L' word. Ever. Until I die, then if you wanna say it at my funeral, that's the only exception."

"Amara. I mean this with all due respect. You're the weirdest fucking woman I've ever met in my life."

"These are your terms and conditions. Check the ‘I accept' box or hit the ‘back' button on your browser, kid."

"Fine," he said, standing behind where she was seated and wrapping her in his arms. "I accept."

"And you do know that having a girlfriend means you don't get to have sex with five Instagram sluts a week anymore, right?"

He sighed. "Fine. I mean, I can try to cut it back to like, three a week if I have to. Yes, Amara. I kinda figured that."

"Just making sure. I mean, you're a bit of a whore, Ryan."

"I guess no one's ever given me a reason not to be." He reached an arm around to her face, grabbed it, leaned in, and gently turned it towards his. "Hey: I want this. I'm gonna do this. I…I can do this."

"Let's just both agree to give it our best shot, OK?" she said softly, still unsure about how all of this was going to play out, but physically unable to tell him no.

"Does this mean you'll come to a game now?"

"I don't know anything about hockey, Ry. Not a damn thing."

"So? Don't you wanna come support your man at what he does best?"

"I'm pretty sure I did that this morning. Twice, actually."

"Well, it'd mean a lot to me if you'd come support me. Us."

"If I get a night off soon, I'll come. OK?"

And tonight, she'd kept her word.

"Jesus, he's hot as hell. You get to bang him whenever you want? Fucking look at him. Shit, 21 can do sum for me!"

She shushed Dani as she noticed a family with small kids standing next to them, the mom glaring daggers. "PG, Dan. Keep it PG."

Amara fixed her attention on Ryan, Tyler, and Osi, who were chatting at center ice. Ryan had bent down to talk to them, as they were both on all fours stretching out their hips. He pointed in her direction, and a few seconds later, both Osi and Tyler were waving to her. She waved back, and so did Dani.

"Holy crap, they're smokin' hot, too! I really gotta start watching hockey. So, uh, is one of those two the one you're secretly in love with?"

Amara started to protest, but she realized it was useless, as Dani would just call her bluff anyway. "So that…would be number 17. And I'm definitely not in love with him. Slightly infatuated would be a better term."

"Uh-huh. Yeah, I certainly can understand that," she said, checking him out as he skated around the boards past them, smacking the glass in front of Amara with the butt of his stick and winking as he passed by. "Damn, Mar. He's got a baby face."

"Yeah, I know. He's only 20. You'd never know it though. Kid's got some serious swag. He's…a little dangerous."

Dani fanned herself. "My God, woman. I wanna live a day in your shoes, surrounded by all these hotties. You're the luckiest goddamned bitch on Earth, you know that?"

She made a face and snickered. "Far from it."

Amara should've been watching her boyfriend, but she just couldn't seem to peel her eyes away from Tyler. A warmness overtook her as she fixated on him: skating flawlessly, tossing a few pucks over the glass for some excited kids, and running passing and shooting drills with his teammates.

His smile was downright intoxicating; this was clearly where he was happiest, not to mention meant to be. Whereas Ryan looked very serious and focused, Tyler truly looked like he was playing and having fun, and it filled her with joy to see him so happy, especially after the events that had transpired this past week.

Dani tapped her shoulder, snapping her out of her swoon fest. "You're uh, getting the death glare, 10:00," she warned, as Amara turned around and scanned the thin crowd.

"Who? Where?"

"Your man, baby girl."

She looked back at Ryan, unaware of how long she'd even been gawking at Tyler. His smile had disappeared, and his eyes had gone cold. He rolled them at her before skating around the back of the net, snatching up a puck, and proceeding to wind up and crank a clapper right in Tyler's direction before skating to the bench and exiting the ice. Tyler had had to jump to avoid being hit by it.

"Shit," she muttered, rubbing her forehead.

"He knows?" Dani asked.

"Yeah. He knows. I mean, I've never told him directly, but he knows."

"And baby face? He feels the same way about you?"

She nodded. "We're good friends, but there's a serious sexual tension there, and no matter how much I try to ignore it, try to fight it, it's not going away. We haven't done anything because of his girlfriend and now Ryan, obviously. But it's…getting progressively harder," she said, as Tyler skated over to her and mouthed, "Fuck was that?"

Amara shrugged, knowing damn well what it was.

Tyler approached the bench, leaving the ice for the locker room, and Amara turned to Dani. "Especially since he just broke up with his girlfriend this week."