8. Olivia

8

OLIVIA

According to recent scientific research, octopuses occasionally punch fish who happen to be swimming by for no reason other than spite.

Apparently, the octopus is my spirit animal, because, right now, I’d like nothing more than to punch Aaron Marino in his stupid, pretty face.

He just winked at me.

Winked!

The appalling nerve of this man!

I glower at him, standing down there on the ice like a buffoon.

Our gazes clash and his green eyes flare as a slow grin spreads across his face.

Damn his beautiful, cocky self.

Jake is on the ice now too, also looking in my direction, but I know that he’s not looking for me.

I yank my gaze away from Aaron-the-a-hole and focus on my brother. “She’s not here yet,” I mouth at Jake uselessly while willing Sofia to appear ASAP. I made it past security and through to the box unscathed a few moments ago, but with my brother’s girlfriend running late, I don’t know anybody here.

And I’m now being regarded with keen interest from other members of the box, thanks to said ridiculous wink from a certain insufferable man.

“Hi!” A pretty, freckle-faced woman with a light-brown bob haircut greets me warmly as she comes to stand next to me. “I’m Maddie Slater.”

I recognize the last name—she must be Seb Slater’s wife. Lucky for her, because the guy looks like a chef’s kiss in human form.

Plus, she seems nice. Friendly. Maybe this won’t be too terrible.

“Olivia,” I tell her, awkwardly sticking out my hand and smiling back at her. “Jake’s sister.”

“I figured that’s who you were!” Maddie says, then points to the purple-streaked-blond woman on her other side. “This is Reagan.”

“Hi,” I say, and she gives me a little smile, but her expression is tight as she glances at her phone.

“It’s nice to finally meet you,” Maddie continues. “We’ve heard so much about you.”

“Really?” I blink. Like I mentioned, my brother is not exactly a talker, and it’s a miracle from heaven that he met Sofia and actually managed to form a relationship with her that involved, you know, human adult communication.

“Sure,” Reagan pipes up, her eyes darting again to something on her phone screen. “Aaron told me you moved here recently from the UK.”

“Oh,” I say slowly, wondering if Reagan is Aaron’s latest flavor of the week. She seems way too normal to be dating a guy with an ego that large, but I tread carefully, just in case. “Yeah, I arrived in Atlanta last month and I’m renting an apartment downtown.” And then, in case she thinks I’m interested in her man or something along those repulsive lines, I add, “Aaron and I know each other through Jake. They’ve been friends for years.”

Okay, the thought isn’t exactly repulsive—Aaron has an ego for a reason. The reason being that he’s disgustingly good looking in a way that makes me want to simultaneously retch and stroke his biceps.

My neanderthal brain clearly needs to do some serious evolving, stat.

Reagan nods at his hulking form on the ice below. “Do you think he’s okay?”

Weird question. But I do know that he gets nervous before games, and he does all these strange superstitious rituals—seriously, the dude used to have a locker full of crocheted animals at school—that he seems to think will help him win. Maybe she’s talking about that?

“He’s… Aaron.” I lift my shoulders, like this statement explains everything.

But for some reason, she nods like this makes sense.

“I wouldn’t worry, Reags,” Maddie says. “It’s just one dumb live stream.”

“You’re right.” Reagan sighs, placing her phone to the side in a definitive sort of way. “So what do you do, Olivia?”

“I’m a flight attendant,” I tell her. “I used to work out of Heathrow, but I changed airlines recently, and now I’m based in Atlanta.”

Maddie’s lips curve upward. “Ooh, has a hot pilot ever swept you off your feet?”

“I wish,” I tell her with a chuckle. “Most of them seem to be looking for a good time, not a long time, if you know what I mean.”

“Oh, we have a couple of those on the Cyclones.” Reagan rolls her eyes.

“I’m aware,” I say tightly.

Reagan laughs before she reaches out to grab her phone again. Her eyes widen when she looks at the screen and then she glances down to the ice, where the guys are warming up. Her entire demeanor seems to change in an instant. “On that thought, I, um, will be right back.”

She takes off running, but I don’t get a chance to wonder about her untimely exit, because Sofia swoops into the box in a cloud of sweet perfume and warm hugs. “Liv, hi! Sorry I’m late.” She squeezes me tight, then squeezes the woman next to me. “Maddie, it’s so good to see you. I love the new haircut! How’s Gray doing?”

“He’s so good. He just started smiling. Can’t stop grinning at his daddy. It’s the cutest.”

Maddie whips out her phone to show us a picture of her baby boy. He really is adorable with his dimpled smile and big blue eyes. At the top of the screen, a notification pops up and Maddie winces. “Man, this is really blowing up.”

Sofia’s face falls. “I just saw. What was that awful woman thinking?”

“I think Reagan just went to her office to do some damage control.” Maddie bites her lower lip, then glances at my confused expression. “Reagan’s the team’s social media manager.”

“Right.” Not Aaron’s latest woman, then. But this doesn’t quite answer my questions regarding what on earth everyone is talking about. “What happened, sorry?” I don’t want to sound nosy, but my curiosity is getting the better of me. Even if this does have to do with Aaron Marino.

“Ay ay ay, you’ll not believe what’s going on with Aaron, so terrible!” Sofia says with wide eyes. Poor silly lamb, she actually likes the man, having met him in the context of “Jake’s best friend,” and not “Olivia’s torturer.”

She holds out her phone. “You’re gonna lose your mind. Check this out.”

I watch the video on the screen for a few moments before I have to clap a hand over my mouth in a vain attempt to muffle the laughter that spills from me.

Ohhhhh, this is good.

“Wow. That’s, erm… bad,” I barely manage through my giggles as the woman in the video shamelessly cheers as a lizard chomps the head off of a cockroach named Aaron Marino.

Happy Thanksgiving to me. Because for this, I am very, very thankful.

Maddie looks at me curiously, her head tilted to one side like a little bird. “You really don’t like him, do you?”

“No, I don’t,” I say simply, not bothering to mince my words. “But don’t worry, he doesn’t like me either, so it’s a mutual kind of dislike.”

“Ah, I see,” Maddie says in a way that implies that she does not see in the least.

Sofia, meanwhile, has apparently forgotten all about the conversation at hand as she blows a million kisses in Jake’s adoring direction.

I also focus my attention on the ice. Seek out number 22 in the flurry of jerseys skating around and warming up. The next time he looks up at me, I give him a big-ass, genuine smile.

It might be exceedingly petty on my part—the childish brat in me winning out again—but I genuinely think it’s about damn time that man’s way-too-healthy ego took a hit.

Unfortunately for me, though, said ego-hit is short-lived, because within five minutes of hitting the ice, Seb Slater scores thanks to a beautiful assist from Aaron.

Ten minutes later, Perez scores with another assist from the Cyclones captain.

The second period doesn’t go as well for the guys, with Vegas scoring twice to tie up the game.

By the end of the third period, we have a nailbiter on our hands. Both teams manage to get a few good looks but don’t score, keeping the board at 2-2.

With thirty seconds to go, the crowd jumps to their feet as Aaron dekes out two of the opposing team’s defensemen to carve himself a path of opportunity. He’s a big guy—6’5, 230lbs, not that I’ve looked him up—yet he moves so fast, so fluidly, it’s practically poetry on ice.

And no, I would never admit that aloud, even over my own dead body.

He outskates the defense easily, lines up his shot, and takes fire.

Scores.

The arena erupts in a deafening roar and it takes me a moment to realize that I’m on my feet with the rest of the crowd, screaming my lungs out for Aaron fricking Marino.

As if he can hear my thoughts, he suddenly looks up at me and grins like the devil.

I stare at him, transfixed, for a glimmer of a moment, and then sit my ass down as fast as humanly possible.