I could feel my face pale as I walked into Jim’s office and saw Tyler sitting in one of the chairs across from his desk. He didn’t even look at me as I took the seat next to him and Jim slipped into his chair behind his desk.
An awkward silence filled the room before Jim cleared this throat. “So it’s been brought to my attention that that something may or may not have happened between you two last night.”
“I can assure you that nothing happened last night sir, nothing.” I added just for good measures.
“Then can one of you explain why Tyler’s apparently was at your apratment last night and still there this morning.”
“Well you see sir,” I swallowed, my pulse quicken under his gaze. “Tyler stopped by yesterday because we usually going running on off days you see, but yesterday I was just having a bad day so Tyler stayed with me because I told him that I didn’t want to be alone. I kicked him out after dinner thought I swear. So this morning he just stopped by again to make sure I was okay and then offered to drive me to practice since he was already over and it would be stupid for both of us to drive separately.” I rambled, something I did when I got nervous, and right now nothing made me more nervous than Jim Nill staring at me. I felt like a little kid who just got sent to the principle office, except this time it was a lot worse. “We were going to ask Jamie if he wanted to come with us but by the time I got ready Jamie was already gone and...”
“So you two are not having any sexual relations.” Jim cut me off as he sat, hands folder on his desk.
“No, no, no,” I shook my head and I knew my once pale face was now as bright as a tomato. “I can assure sir that Tyler and I never… hooked up.” I told him for a lack of better words, but I knew he wasn’t very convinced as he looked at me, then at Tyler, and then back as me.
“So there is absolutely nothing going on between you to.”
I swallowed and I could feel my heart rate quicken, but it wasn’t until Tyler looked at me that I broke. “We’ve kissed a couple of times,” I shook my head and I caught myself rambling again, “and I guess you can say we’ve been seeing each other, even though we’ve never actually been on a date before…” it was one thing to joke around with the guys when they thought there was something going on, but it was a completely different thing to seat here and lie to the man that got you your job and I couldn’t do that, no matter how much trouble telling the truth might get me into.
“Now that’s not surprising,” Jim smiled as he leaned back in his chair and I was ready to question him about what was surprising, but there was no need because he continued. “You could defiantly tell there was something between you two when Coach Ruff introduced Brittany to the team.” He just shook his head as he once again leaned forward and rested his hands on the desk in front of him. “So I’ve had some time to think about this and truthfully the guys love you Brittany and Tyler’s game has never been better, so here’s what I will propose, you two can keep doing whatever it is you two are doing, as long as you keep your personal life separate from your professional life.”
“Are you serious sir?” I smiled as I slowly lifted my head to look at him.
“I am,” he nodded his head, “you guys seem to be doing a pretty good job of that so far so I don’t think that’s going to be an issue.”
“No sir, it won’t be.” I reassured him.
“So can we tell the guys then?” Tyler spoke for the first time since I’ve entered his Jim’s office.
“Really, Tyler,” I rolled my eyes of course that is all Tyler was worried about, screw the fact that I couldn’t have just as easily gotten fired.
He gave me a questioning look before he turned back to Jim who only shrugged, “They are your teammates. So I guess they do have the right to know, but let’s try to keep this off the media’s radar for as long as we can. Chances are they will find out eventually, but let’s make that later rather than sooner.”
“Of course,” Tyler nodded before he looked at me, a shit eating grin plastered on his face.
I ignored him, instead truing my attention back to Jim. “So are we free to go now.”
“Yes, so I’ll see you when you get back from the road trip.”
“You sure will,” I grinned as I stood up and Tyler followed. It wasn’t until we got into the hallway, Jim’s door closed behind us that I felt the air rush out of my lungs and for the first time I noticed just how nervous Tyler really was.
“Are you okay?” I chuckled as I stepped in front of Tyler, relief written all over his face.
“Yea,” he took a deep breath and he shook his head as he looked down at me. “I thought for sure he was going to tell me that I couldn’t see you anymore.”
“Yea,” I agreed, “I actually thought I was going to get fired.”
He nodded before he wrapped his arm around my shoulder, “you ready to go tell the guys.”
“Seriously Tyler,” I laughed, “is that all you care about.”
“Yea,” he smiled as he pulled my closer to him. “You don’t know how long I have been waiting to tell the guys that your mine.”
I just rolled my eyes with a shake of my head, “fine, let’s go tell the guys, or at least the guys that are still here.”

---

I guess though it probably shouldn’t have surprised me when Tyler and I entered the locker room that pretty much the whole team was still there. I swear hockey player gossip travels faster than a high school rumor, and let’s just say this was some juicy gossip. Somehow word had gotten around that Tyler was ‘with me’ last night and naturally it was like a game of telephone, so I guess it was no surprise that when Jim got the word it went from tiny assumptions to some pretty big actualizations.
Unsurprisingly, Tyler wasted no time in spreading the ‘new word’ around.
“So guys,” Tyler announced and I could feel the excitement in every word from where I stood tucked under his arm. He wouldn’t let me go no matter how many times I’ve tried to pull away. “I would like you all to meet my girlfriend, Brittany.”
There were bunches of ‘I knew it’ and ‘finally’ thrown around the room before there was a chores of ‘prove it’ song around the room. Naturally I blushed, but Tyler had no shame when he leaned down and roughly pressed his lips to mine. Surprisingly for someone like me, who’s never kissed anyone in public before; it wasn’t as awkward as I thought it would be. For a minute I almost forgot there was a band of hockey players in the room that was until someone decided to yell, “Get a room.”
And with that I pulled away from Tyler, a shy smile on my lips. “I’ll just meet you in the car.” I told him before I left the locker room, to let him gloat a little longer.

Notes