Seraphina righted her clothes and managed to get dressed and leave the locker room before the period ended, narrowly avoiding possibly a lot of questions from her players. She couldn’t be too concerned with Brandon fixing himself back up. Not that he was going to go back on the ice at all. He received a game misconduct and now Jimmy Stafford was in net. She didn’t think he was going to be suspended, thank God, and she hoped her rookie goaltender would be able to keep the Blackjacks at bay and come up with a win. The Blackjacks were chippy and had a lot to prove, but so did the Gulls. They needed the two points if she wanted to seed in the Pacific Division.

When she returned to her seat, Katella took one look at her and snorted. “Locker sex, Seraphina?” she asked. “Really?”

Seraphina felt her cheeks turn red. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she muttered under her breath as the referees skated onto the ice.

The rest of the game went by in a blur. She actually felt pretty bad about not paying as much attention to it as she wanted to because she couldn’t stop thinking about Brandon, about what they did, about what this all meant. She couldn’t just tell him no now. She couldn’t tell him they couldn’t be together when it was all she wanted. He had told her him and Stevens had gotten into it because Phil Bambridge couldn’t keep his mouth shut and his players had believed what he said instead of taken it with a grain of salt.

Which was fine. Understandable, even.

But to say Brandon was pissed was an understatement. He fucked her like he was still angry. Not with her but with what had happened to her. With what he couldn’t stop. He had taken his anger out on Stevens when it really should have been directed at Bambridge. Of course, Stevens shouldn’t have been running his mouth as a way to distract the goalie, especially since Stevens had no idea what had transpired between him and Seraphina the previous evening.

Brandon, luckily, didn’t do any permanent damage to his hand. A long icing and tentative care, plus forty-eight hours of non-use would mean it would heal just fine. There was a slight chance Brandon could be suspended due to his aggression, but Seraphina doubted it since she had seen plenty of fights that were similar and none of the skaters got suspensions before.

“So?” Harper asked, furrowing her brow and giving Seraphina a look. “What happened?”

Seraphina felt herself blush and couldn’t look Harper – or anyone else, for that matter – in the eye. “I guess Stevens began running his mouth to Brandon because Phil Bambridge can’t keep his big mouth shut,” Seraphina said, clenching her teeth together. “His entire team knows about me and Brandon, apparently.”

“How the hell could they possibly know that?” Katella asked. “It wasn’t as though they were in your room while you guys had sex last night.”

“Oh.” Seraphina realized she had forgotten to mention that she and Brandon had kissed before, in the lobby. “Brandon and I were arguing before Phil Bambridge even showed up to pick me up. He was trying to talk me out of going again and we ended up kissing. Phil Bambridge saw the kissing but he made no mention of it except when he tried to feel me up.”

“Bambridge is probably pissed because you rejected him in favor of Thorpe,” Emma said. “And running his mouth is his way of getting back at you.”

Seraphina shrugged. “I can’t begin to tease out his logic,” she replied.

“But that doesn’t explain why Brandon lost it,” Katella pointed out. “So what if Bambridge told the whole team about you? How does that piss off Thorpe?”

Seraphina shrugged. “He wouldn’t go into specifics,” she told him. “All I know was that he continued to run his mouth and Brandon lost it. We’re probably sitting him next game so his hand can recover.” Before they could ask, she quickly added, “It’s not broken or sprained, just sore, thank God.”

Katella was quiet for an uncharacteristic amount of time. By now, she would have been in the middle of a long lecture about how good this was for everyone involved, what this meant, and what Seraphina should do.

“So what does that make you guys?” she finally asked, picking her eyes up to look at Seraphina.

“What does that mean?” Seraphina asked.

“It means,” Katella said slowly, “are you and Brandon a thing now? I mean, clearly you just had sex in the locker room. And I’m not pointing that out to put you on the spot. More like, you guys can’t sleep together and not be together.”

“Why would you assume we were doing that in the first place?” There was an edge to Seraphina’s voice she couldn’t seem to control. She didn’t particularly like what Katella was insinuating with her line of questioning. “You know I’m not that type of person, Kat.”

“Honestly, after what happened between you and Brandon the past forty-eight hours, I really don’t know who you are,” Katella said. “At least when it comes to him. It’s obvious he loves you, you reject him. He gets into a fight on the ice because some jackass is trash talking you and you have sex with him in the locker room.”

Seraphina clenched her jaw. “It’s complicated,” she said with a shrug. “We haven’t actually talked about what we are.”

"Would you, though?" Katella took a long sip of her drink, her eyes on the glass even though it was clear she was talking to Seraphina. Harper was munching on a jalapeño pretzel while Emma was chowing down on some popcorn. 

"Would I what?" Seraphina asked. She had bought a Kit Kat Bar because she had been craving chocolate but now she was in no mood to eat. Not even something sweet, which was odd since that wasn't typically like her. She could eat chocolate all the time if she had to.

"When you guys talk," Katella said, "and he told you he wanted you to be with him, would you be with him?"

Seraphina shrugged her shoulders. "I have no idea," she said, shaking her head. "We couldn't go public right away. We might not be able to go public at all, not even to the team. I wouldn't be surprised if someone tried to blackmail me for a spot on the team or someone tried to goad Brandon in another fight." She shook her head. "It wouldn't be a good idea."

"So you're saying you would keep it a secret?" Harper said, looking up from her pretzel and raising a brow. 

"What other choice would I have?" Seraphina asked.

"I just think that the fact that Seraphina is even considering being with him, even if it is under the radar, is an excellent idea," Katella said. "Oh, look! Now Negan's getting chirpy with Stevens. I wonder if that jackass won't keep his mouth shut."

"Considering Bambridge told him everything that happened to me, it wouldn't surprise me if he was trying to get other players off the ice," Seraphina said and then shook her head. "I need to have a talk with the team after this. We're so close to a seeded spot that we can't risk it based on defending honor. They have to just deal with it."

"Oh, come on, Sera," Katella said with a fake pout. "It's so hot when they fight for our honor."

"True," Seraphina said, "but it's also stupid. Stevens is a third line nobody. It's his job to get star players like Zachary Ryan, Kyle Underwood, and James Negan off the ice for five minutes. The fact that he got Brandon Thorpe kicked out of the game is a fucking miracle."

"You better hope they don't realize he has feelings for you," Emma said, leaning forward and clutching her popcorn to her chest. "They could target you in order to get him off the ice."

"I think that was a one-time thing," Seraphina said. "I highly doubt he's going to lose control again the way he did with Stevens. He's not the sort of guy who gets into fights. I mean, he's a goalie."

"True," Harper said, nodding her head. "But you'd be surprised. Our guys fight a lot for skilled players. We have fourth-liners that would defend them, sure, but they defend themselves and the easy target is the significant other."

The game ended with a couple more tiffs on the ice between Negan and Stevens. Katella, of course, was on her feet and cheering for him. Her eyes were dark green and there was a particular smile that slithered onto her face. There was love and affection there, Seraphina noticed, but also lust and desire. Seraphina hid her own smile. She understood now why Katella loved the fighting in hockey. Before she knew The Code, knew that fighting was actually a strategy for the sport, she thought the entire thing was pointless. 

But once she inherited the team, she realized fighting was a necessity. The team used it as a way to send a message that they weren't going to tolerate any roughing of their skilled players, the team used it as a way to regulate the game when the refs weren't calling anything, they used it as a strategy to get a skilled player off the ice, to get the fans into the game, and to inspire his team after they'd been scored on. And, after she watched Brandon engage in it as a way to defend her, she realized it was a draw for the females. Sure, some believed fighting took away from the sport and made it seem ridiculous rather than athletic but Seraphina had her mind changed and she was so glad she did.

Seraphina stepped into the locker room before the media and the team, who had just wrapped up a speech given by Cherney, parted ways to make room for her. She took a step on the bench so she could be seen. Her face was beaming with pride. Also, she had some awesome sex where she was standing but nobody else needed to know that.

"Guys," she began, "thank you so much for your hard work and dedication. Shoutout to Jimmy who stepped up when Thorpe decided to get himself kicked out of the game for losing his shit for some reason. I really wanted to win this one for personal reasons and I'm so glad you guys came through. We already have a wild card seed for the playoffs. Nothing is guaranteed obviously but if we play like we did tonight, we could make playoffs, boys!"

Everyone cheered and whistled. 

"Alcohol on the plane on me!" she exclaimed.

More cheering.

"All right," she said. "Finish what you're doing here. Media will probably want to question you - even you, Thorpe. You better figure out a good reason why you completely lost it out there." She gave him a wink and he grinned back.

A look passed between them, a secret look that nobody else understood. A look that was just theirs.

Her heart skipped. This could work, she realized. This could work.