Epilogue
Dawn
Six months later…
It’s always a big game when Toronto comes to Montreal.
I didn’t like knowing that. I didn’t like that a tiny part of my brain was full of that information when it should have been full of details about economic policy in the interwar period or the effects of increased salinity on African lakes or the ways that the probability of a certain event may or may not affect the probability of a different event. Yeah, there were a lot of other things that could have used that little bit of my brain.
But overall? My brain was big. There was room for a few unnecessary details. Which meant there was room for me to be a good girlfriend without turning into a hockey-crazy zombie. And even room for me to enjoy a few of the perks, like getting to play hostess to my friends from back home when a big game happened. And for my Corrigan Falls friends? It would have been hard to come up with a bigger game than this one. Tyler and Logan were both on the Montreal roster, and Toronto had called Toby up from the Raiders about a month earlier and he didn’t show any signs of heading home. It was the first time Toby had played against Tyler instead of with him, but that was all part of the fun. And definitely part of the attraction that had drawn so many visitors from back home.
“This is a sweet suite,” Oliver said, his arms stretched out as if trying to measure the distance from one wall to the other. Tyler and Logan had combined forces to arrange the box at the arena; I had no idea whether they’d spent money or just called in favors from the team, but either way, it was a sweet suite.
And, okay, maybe it would have been a bit more fun if my boyfriend had been up there with me instead of way down on the ice, but there wasn’t room for him anyway. Logan’s parents were there, and Mrs. McMann had made the trip, escorted by her new bestie Oliver; Nat, obviously, and Toby’s parents and baby sister—a bit awkward to see them again after the breakup, but not bad, really; Karen, who was such a frequent visitor to Montreal that she might as well have moved there, except she was still trying to be awesome and build relationships with her family in the Falls; and finally, after some last-minute wrangling, Claudia and Winslow.
Winslow had been to New York for a couple games but was spending a lot of his time with their farm team, apparently getting even bigger and stronger, which was kind of scary, so you’d think his schedule would have been the tricky one to arrange. But Chris was Chris, and there was just something about him that made people want to help him out and make him happy. So his team management had been easy about giving him a couple days off. It was Claudia who was the problem; apparently there was some big robotics conference coming up and she’d felt as if she should stay at home and prepare for it. But she’d figured something out, eventually. Of course she had. She was Dia the Determined.
So we were all there for the big game. And legal drinkers in Quebec, which meant we could enjoy the champagne and everything else that came with a suite. Including a whole buffet full of snacks and a dedicated suite attendant to make sure that our every whim was satisfied.
Yeah, okay, sometimes being an NHL girlfriend wasn’t the worst thing in the world.
At some point the puck must have dropped. Nat and Chris and Logan’s dad were practically glued to the glass between them and the ice; I even saw Nat’s shoulders moving a bit as if she was totally visualizing herself down there on the ice, skating along with the rest of them.
It was nice that she and Toby had that. Nice that they’d found someone who shared their passion for the sport.
But for me? I had my Introduction to Psychology final exam in a couple weeks, and it was the course Logan was auditing with me. He’d already made up a bunch of study aids—like, a bunch of study aids, from flashcards to an actual mini-video game he put together somehow. Instead of playing Words With Friends when he was away, he and I played Famous Psychologists or Fun with Symptoms, and it was fun. Incredibly nerdy, but fun.
He was really interested and was planning to audit another psychology course the next semester; I was thinking about letting him do it on his own, and then he could just tell me the highlights and I’d get all the good stuff without spending a whole course on it. There was so much to learn, and so much to explore. Like I said: nerdy. And totally happy about it.
I wandered over to find a seat and watch the game, and Mrs. McMann smiled from her own spot by the big sheet of glass. “Your young man is doing very well,” she told me. “He just undressed the ‘D’ with a slick toe drag.”
He just—wait. “Mrs. McMann.” I couldn’t believe she’d been holding out on me. “Are you a hockey fan?”
She smiled beatifically. “Of course, dear. Isn’t everyone?”
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