“Great, a woman travelling with us. You know what that means.” Adam McQuaid was the first one to say a word after Kara had left. He stepped off the ice and looked at the others. Tyler Seguin, the one with the big mouth, looked at him utterly confused. “We have to keep our mouth shut, watch our language and all that. It will certainly be difficult for you and Brad.”
“Oh, stop it for a second, Quaider, will you?” Andrew Ference stepped forward and looked at him. “If Claude thinks it’s a good idea, we’re safe. I think she really wants to learn and doesn’t want to sell us to the press. Do you really think Claude would let her travel with us if that were the case?”
That shut Adam up pretty quickly. They talked a little more about this, all of them agreeing that they would have to watch what they said and get to know her a little bit better before they judged her. After all, they didn’t want to be described as dumb, violent hockey players, so they should give her a chance.
“Hey Benny!” Benoit Pouliot turned around to his teammate Gregory Campbell, or Soupy as he was called by his teammates. Both men were already showered and dressed again. “Wanna go out for a beer?”
“Sure. Why not?” Benoit hadn’t been out with Greg in two weeks. He didn’t even really know why. Maybe it was because he’s had to get used to his new house. He’d moved in there just before the season had started so there were still bits and pieces to be done, but he should be finished with the rest by next week.
Shoving his phone and wallet into his jeans pockets he left the building with Gregory. The rain had stopped, but it was still miserable outside. The pub was just around the corner so they left their cars at the arena and decided to get them after that beer. Or should that evening turn out to involve more than one or two beers, leave the cars there and take a cab home.
When they entered the pub they were immediately greeted by a few familiar faces, including the bartender. Greg only made a swift motion with his hand and they went to a table in the corner of the room. They didn’t have to wait long for their beers.
“So, what do you think about that writer gurl?” Benoit knew that this would be the first thing Greg would want to talk about. There was a difference between talking to one person and talking about this in front of the whole team. Especially because they had said that they would wait and get to know her first.
“I don’t know.” Benny shrugged a shoulder before he took a sip of his beer. “She seems to be telling the truth about not wanting to sell us to the media. If the coach trusts her, we should probably do the same.”
“That wasn’t what I meant. I think we’re all on the same page there.” Greg leaned back, crossing his arms over his chest. He eyed his teammate for a moment. “I was talking about her, you know? I think she looks kinda cute. I like women in heels.”
“Yeah and I saw you checking out her rear end when she was walking away.” Benny hid his smile behind the bottle. Soupy was right. He wouldn’t say cute, but she was certainly interesting. Not the type of beautiful the media advertised everywhere, certainly not skinny, but she was confident.
“Guilty as charged.” Soupy held up one hand and grinned at Benoit. He’d still not said out loud what he thought about Miss Robinson, but Soupy knew. Or at least he thought he knew. Benny wasn’t someone who talked much. He was rather shy, but once you got to know him a little bit better, he opened up more and more and suddenly the shy guy was gone. “But there’s nothing wrong with that.”
“I didn’t say that. You’re too predictable.” Benny took another sip from his beer bottle before he leaned back in the chair. “I don’t know what to think about her to be honest. We’ll have to wait and see where that goes. I just don’t think it will be easy for her, you know? She said she needs to get to know the game of hockey. Like, does she want us to tell her everything about the game? We need to focus on the next games and keep the good work up. People already underestimated Tuukka and we need to show them just how wrong they were about him.”
“Easy, boy.” Greg eyes him suspiciously. Something was up, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. “Why are you raising your voice?”
“I did?” A look of utter puzzlement crossed Benny’s face. He shook his head and sighed heavily. “I’m sorry. I need to get out of the house.”
“Already? You’ve been living there for a month.”
“I know. I love it there, but there’s still some work to do. Only putting some drawers together and stuff but I can’t see it anymore. Luckily I’ll be done with this next week. And we’re leaving for Toronto in two days, so that’s good.”
“First we need to beat Montreal.”
Oh, yes. Benoit’s former team. Their arch rivals. He’d been looking forward to this game all week. It would be intense, like pretty much every game against the Habs. But that didn’t change a thing about him and Carey Price, Montreal’s goaltender, sharing a beer after the game. They’d done that throughout the last year, because no matter what happened in the hockey world or with their teams in particular, those two were still friends. When they met they tried to avoid talking about hockey.
“We will, so Carey can pay for the beer tomorrow.”
“Ah yes. I forgot about that for a moment.”
They stayed for another hour, and then decided that it was time for them to hit the hay. They had a long day ahead of them and a game to play in the evening.