Page 54 of Neo
She’s curled in the corner of her sofa, reading one of her Econ books like she often does, but perks up once she sees the bag in my hand.
“What is it?” She grins.
“Open the bag.”
She opens the reused paper grocery bag to find one of my hockey jerseys. Well, not just any jersey, the one custom made for us when our program was added to Division I hockey last year.
“Ooh, this is nice.”
I know she doesn’t understand the importance of it but that doesn’t really matter. What matters is when she wears it, everyone else will know what it means, which is precisely the point.
“You never dress right for the rink. I want you to put on a hoodie and then wear this jersey on top of it. You’ll be hockey warm and ready.”
“Yay! When’s your next game?”
“Not until the fifth. They were able to juggle our schedule since we play in the exhibition game every year. Normally, we’d be back to it right after Christmas.”
“You know that Kennedy comes back tonight?”
“You’ve told me a thousand times, so yeah, I’m aware.”
“I just–”
“You don’t want her to come home to find me walking around the house, dick swinging.”
“I wouldn’t have put it exactly like that, but yeah.”
An expression of concern I’m beginning to become all too familiar with crosses Violet’s beautiful face.
“What is it?” I ask her. “You have your worry face on.”
“Have you told Shane or Bass about…this?”
“You do realize that it irritates the fuck out of me, that you always bring up Shane’s name, right?”
“Which is irrational.”
“I never said I was rational, babe.”
I lean in and kiss her firmly on the lips. I should have greeted her this way ten minutes ago. It’s my favorite way to say hello to her.
“I’m just saying, haven’t the guys in the ice house been wondering where you’ve been for the past few days?”
“Not really, Violet.”
“So you spend a lot of nights out, then?” Her mouth forms into a jealous pout. So fucking cute.
“I’m the captain of the house. No one questions what I’m doing or who I’m doing it with. That’s the perks of the job.”
“Uh-huh,” she responds suspiciously.
“Can you put the book down for a little while?”
“Why?”
“Well, we’ve been in your apartment for the past few nights and I thought we’d go out for a few hours before your roomie gets back.”
“Like on a date?” Her bedroom eyes twinkle.