As the second most talented player on the team, I’m sure he was only too thrilled to learn that I hadn’t made the list. I look forward to rubbing my return in his face.
It’s important to mark your territory and piss all over the competition, but athletics demand that you be more subtle about it if they’re on our team. On a good day I can only tolerate Jared, but if he keeps mouthing off about me, no amount of padding or team building exercises will stop me from kicking his ass.
As I walk down the landing between the seats and head down to the bench to lace up my skates, he spots me and his stubble-filled face turns sour.
“So I suppose the rumors are true then,” he greets me as I skate up to the team.
“What rumors might those be?” I ask with a smirk.
“You’ve somehow managed to make a big return,” he says dryly, not even attempting to hide his displeasure. They say envy is the biggest form of flattery and Jared is one hundred percent green with it. It’s not a good luck on him, no matter how familiar it is.
“Return?” I ask, skating backwards around him. “It would only be a return if I went somewhere, Jared. I never left.”
He scowls at me and I laugh in his face. We’re supposed to be on the same team, yes, but at the same time, this has never been more of a competition. Well, for Jared, at least. As long as I’m here, he’ll lose.
Coach’s whistle interrupts whatever bullshit comeback he was going to make, and we skate up to the goal for the pre-training huddle.
“As you all know, there’s an important game coming up in a few days to start off the season. Now…” Coach pauses, roving his eyes over the crowd of us. “I don’t want any of you ladies slacking off from now on.”
“You should give Patsy over there that speech,” Jared mumbles, loudly enough for everyone to hear, but no one joins him in his pathetic joke. Most of the others aren’t as pathetic as he is. Most of them are also not stupid enough to think they’ll win this shit without me.
“Got something to say Jared?” I challenge him, but Coach interjects.
“I don’t want any of you doing anything stupid this season. We actually have a chance to win. Our line-up is strong, and you’ve all been working hard, so let’s just go out there and get this done, alright?”
“Yes Coach!” we shout back.
“Alright. Now we’re working everything today. I’m splitting you up in teams. Jared, Maverick, you’re team captains. Black against yellow. Pick your teams and let’s go!”
The whistle goes off and my heart starts thumping faster as adrenaline takes off in a mad rush through my veins. It’s always like this when I’m on the ice. The excitement, the eagerness, it comes in full force.
Jared is a strong wing defense player and I expect him to take up his position in the rink. However, rather than doing as I expect, he walks down to the face-off in center position to challenge me directly.
“You’re making a big mistake Jared,” I chuckle at him.
“No English man, you’re the one making a mistake by staying here. I don’t know what you did, but I know you’re not supposed to be here and the fact that you are makes me sick,” he sneers, never keeping his eyes off mine.
I don’t back away from his gaze, staring him down just as intently.
“Well buddy, get a barf bag and some Tylenol because I’m here to stay.”
Coach drops the puck and I knock it over into my defense guys, taking control of the game and shutting him up in one fell swoop.
There are a lot of things in my life that I have failed at and a lot of things that have failed me.
Hockey has never been one of them.
Hockey will never be one of them.
18
“Beth? Beth?”
From a distance I hear someone calling my name, but I’m so far up the mountain of my thoughts that I can barely make out what is happening around me.
“Beth!” I jump at the hand placed gently on my shoulder and turn around to stare at Tyler who has concern etched deep into his brows.
“Yeah? Oh, I’m so sorry.” I look down at the water on the floor and hurriedly turn the tap off. What the hell is going on with me? Actually, scrap that. I know exactly what the problem is.
“That’s okay. It’s a good thing you’re not a chef. That would have been a whole different situation.” Tyler smirks at me and I hide my face behind my fingers.
“I’m really sorry. I just have a lot on my mind.”
The noise of the restaurant returns, and I’m once again launched into the flurry of busy waiters and yelling chefs.
“Are you good to go back out?” His hand moves from my shoulder and travels down to my wrist. I blush at the soft, gentle familiarity of his touch and he squeezes my hand gently, reassuringly.
“I’m okay.” I smile at him and he nods, accepting my answer.
“Good. A group just came in. They’re at table six. I’ll get this sorted,” he says, gesturing to the water on the floor.
“I’m right on it.”
I grab the crisp white apron hanging on the back of the kitchen door and tie it around my waist before heading out.
As I walk over to the booth, my heart plummets inside my chest. Even from the back of his head, I know Maverick when I see him. Of course he would be here with his minions at this hour. I suppose I should be grateful that I can at least keep an eye on him here, not that I would intervene with his friends watching.
Gosh, these lines are so painfully blurred.
“Hi,” I say dryly, barely making eye contact with any of them. “What can I get you?” My pen and notepad are already in my hands as I ready myself to take their order.
“Eww, how about a different server,” Suzanna scoffs at me and I glance up at Tyler serving the table close by, searching for something, anything, that’ll stop me from rolling my eyes at the ‘customers’.
“I’ll have a turkey sandwich and some fries.” Marco points at me and I jot it down.
They take turns placing their orders for a mountain of shit and I can’t help but wonder what it is they’re celebrating. I know Maverick has no reason to celebrate. His world just got a lot more complicated, not that they would know that.
When I get back to the kitchen, Tyler is on his way out with a tray.
“Wanna trade tables?” I call after him, trying not to sound too desperate.
“Sorry babe. Ordinarily you know I’d do anything for you, but these are regulars and very heavy tippers.” He winks at me and I nod.
I can feel eyes on me as I head to the next table to collect orders and fight the urge to turn around and ask that I not be made the subject of conversation. This is usually my safe space. My boss likes me, and my supervisor may well be my best friend. You couldn’t ask for a better working environment. Still, knowing that they’re all in here, in one spot, has me sweating rainstorms and shaking slightly on the inside.
There’s no way of knowing when they’ll strike or what they’ll do and I’m not stupid enough to think that Maverick will actually do anything to stop them, though I am hopeful enough to pray that given our business relationship he will.
I try to keep a straight face as I place the plates on the table and start counting backwards from ten when Jessica, desperately clinging to Maverick’s arm, calls me a peasant.
I glance down at Maverick who is busy tapping away at his phone with his ear-pods in, ignoring not just me, but Jessica as well.
“Enjoy your meal.” For the sake of professionalism, I manage to smile before turning to walk away.
“Wait!” Suzanna calls out and I cringe at just how close I was to getting away from them.
“This is not what I ordered.” She points at her salad - the only salad on the fast food menu with absolutely no variations.
“How so?” I ask with a heavy sigh.
“I said no mayo and I asked you to dice the chicken not give me chicken strips.”
“That’s not mayo, that’s dressing and it’s on th
e side, so you don’t have to eat it if you don’t want it. As I explained before, we don’t serve diced chicken. We have chicken strips. That’s what the menu says, that’s what I said, and it’s what you agreed to.”
“Are you calling me a liar?!” She practically shouts the words at me, and a sudden hush falls over the entire room as heads whip around to stare in my direction.
“No. I’m not calling you a liar. I am trying to understand what we got wrong so we can get it rectified.”
“Oh, so you’re calling me an idiot then?” she huffs standing up and emptying her water glass onto my face.
I can feel my fingers tighten around the serving tray as I fight back tears and the instinctive urge to sail it into her forehead, again, all in the name of professionalism.
“Beth, are you okay?” Tyler rushes to my side with a wad of napkins. I take them from him with cold, tense hands.
“I’m going to have to ask you all to leave.” Tyler addresses the table and I hear, rather than see the scoffs.
“And who the hell do you think you are?” Ethan asks rudely.
“I’m the guy kicking you people out of here.” Tyler hitches momentarily at the word ‘people’ and I know him enough to know that that is not what he wanted to say.
“Listen buddy,” Maverick growls at him, “just go back into the kitchen, and take your waitress with you. Replace her with another one and we can just pretend this didn’t happen and we won’t have this place closed down.”
Unbelievable.
“I’m not very sure you heard me,” Tyler’s jaw clenches but he still manages to mask the hostility flaring in his nostrils. “I’m asking you and your friends to leave.”
“Loo-” Maverick starts, but Tyler cuts him off.
“Now.”
“I thought the customer was always right,” Jessica chimes in, still latching onto Maverick like a sloth on a tree and something about it unsettles me.
“This isn’t the 1960s. We do not treat our people like crap, and we do not serve customers who do. What just happened here is unacceptable in this establishment and if you don’t leave, I will have to call the police and file charges for assault.”
My brain jumps automatically at the mention of ‘charges’ and the words are out of my mouth before I even have a moment to think them through let alone yank them back into the waste basket of my mind.
“No Tyler, really I’m fine. There’s no need for all that. No charges.”
Maverick cocks a perfectly trimmed eyebrow at me.
He stands slowly, towering over Tyler by about an inch, but Tyler remains unphased by the obvious challenge, and steps closer to meet him instead.
I can feel my fingers growing increasingly twitchy. I’ve seen Tyler take thugs down easily, but I’ve also seen Maverick do the unthinkable without lifting a finger and I will not have Tyler or this place be the collateral damage of a Maverick sized shit storm because of me.
I hold onto Tyler’s arm and pull him away far enough to stand between them.
“Look at me,” I whisper and he reluctantly glances down. I shake my head at him, “Don’t do this. They’re not worth it.”
“Listen to the waitress buddy.”
“Shut up Maverick,” I snap, whipping around to face him. “You haven’t paid for anything. So please, don’t create a scene. Just leave.”
“Don’t talk to him like that,” Jessica snaps, jumping up to his defense, but my eyes never leave his nor does he even glance back at her.
He has to know how bad of an idea this is. He doesn’t need me to tell him this. Is his ego really so fragile that he’d be willing to risk state and my money for it? I seriously hope not.
“Go,” I grunt and I see his pupils dilate fractionally before he rolls his eyes and beckons to his friends to move out.
My shoulders sag and I feel the balloon pop in my chest, relieving pressure as they start walking towards the door.
“Are you okay?” Tyler asks, holding onto my shoulder, his ocean blue eyes washing over me with the kind of compassion I could never dream of getting from Maverick in this lifetime.
“I’m okay.” I squeeze the hand still resting on my shoulder and gaze up towards the door in time to see Maverick look away and walk out, taking all his chaotic air with him.
19
There’s a Titan striking an anvil in my head as I speed down the freeway. Just who the hell did that bloke think he was, talking to me like that?
And why did little Miss Beth feel emboldened to talk down to me on his behalf?
I floor the pedal as my teeth grind harder together. I screech to a halt at the traffic lights as it goes from amber to the color painting the insides of my eyes, slowly red-washing the night as my temper continues to peak. I barely break in time to stop us from being slammed across the highway by a deep blue minivan speeding in from the left intersection.
“Maverick!” Jessica yelps.
“Shut up Jessica,” I snap and she whimpers into submission.
She fidgets in the seat beside me and I barely glance at her as I try to figure out a way to make them pay for what just happened.
Beth needs to learn that no one defies me like that and just gets away with it. I will make her suffer for her presumptuous insolence and I will ruin that shit-face bloke she seems so fond of in the process - without it counting as me terrorizing her, of course. Who the hell does he think he is putting his hands on her, touching her back and her neck, coming to her defense like he’s some kind of modern day hero?
Again, red is all I see. It’s not that I give a damn about Beth. It’s just that… It’s just that… I mean… we’re married for fuck’s sake. Does she have no idea what the hell it’ll look like if people do find out and remember the night she was all over that bastard of a waiter?
Your blowing your thoughts out of proportion, my mind yells at me. And I grit my teeth, trying and failing to calm my anger.
The light goes green and we fly to Jessica’s apartment with her stunned into silence for the rest of the way. I’m still pissed at her little stunt at Slate, but now there’s Suzanna to deal with too. They’re both acting like children and I can’t deal with this crap now that I’m so close to getting into the state games. None of them are worth this golden opportunity and I need them to get themselves together with some degree of haste.
I pull up to the front of her parents’ home and press the button for her to get out.
“You’re not coming up?” she asks quietly, and I spare her a glance.
“No.”
“Are you still mad about the other night?”
“Get out Jessica. I need to go.”
“Maverick, I already apologized for what happened, but if you need to hear it again-”
My jaw seems to have been wound up tightly all evening, and I take a deep breath with my eyes closed before I turn to look at her.
“I’m not doing this with you anymore.”
Her mouth falls open and her eyes water almost instantly.
It’s been a crappy day from start to finish and something tells me it’s not about to get any better. I don’t need to add one of Jessica’s temper tantrums to my list of things to take care of. I’ve already got Jared, Beth and her boy toy on my shit list; Jessica’s name has too many syllables and I simply do not have the energy or the desire to put up with any more of the melodrama.
“What are you saying?” she shrieks, and I start the engine.
“‘I’m saying, I need a break from you and your constant crap. You and Suzie are more work than you’re worth, really.”
“Maverick-”
“Jessica. Out!” I point to the curb that’s eagerly awaiting her.
She slowly drags herself out of the car and I close the doors and speed away before she even reaches the sidewalk.
My flat is only a few blocks away, but there’s something else more urgent on my mind that I need to do, or I’m going to explode.
I make a sharp U-turn at the end of her
street and head back towards the direction of my offending bride and her overly eager friend.
The taillights before me fade away quickly as I race back to the restaurant.
I’m back in time to see them closing up and I barely park the car before I jump out, my heart thumping in my ear as I feel my arms winding up to throw punches. I shove the door open and step inside, the bright lights hitting my eyes at an awkward angle, making me squint.
I spot Beth in her gaudy black barista outfit, leaning against the counter, talking to what’s his face and my fists clench the closer I get to them. She’s laughing at something he said and tucking one of her fly-away hairs behind her ear, blushing like a wall being doused with spray paint.
My strides are long and swift, shortening the gap in record time, and I still have no idea what I intend to do. I’m not even sure why I’m here or why I’m so riled up, but I’ve become an automaton and all I can do is watch the radical side of me seek retribution.
The smirking boy toy spots me first and his shoulders bristle instantly. “Can I help you with something?” he asks brusquely.
“No. Just taking what’s rightfully mine,” I snap back, latching onto Beth’s wrist and turning to leave.
The booths are empty, and in the silence of the night, all I can hear is the raging caveman beating his chest inside my head.
Beth is shocked at my presence, and gawking at the rough contact, but quickly recovers and starts to pull away from me.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she protests loudly. “Maverick let go of me.” She’s struggling as I drag her along with me.
From the corner of my eye I can see her boy-toy coming around the counter at top speed to her rescue.
“Maverick!” she screams again.
“Hey! Buddy! I don’t know what your problem is man, but I’m gonna need you to let her go!”
I glance over my shoulder to see him holding a baseball bat. So he’s willing to get bloody just for little Miss Beth here? I suppose they really are fucking.
Something about that pisses me off even more and I yank her in one tug to the other side of me and turn my back to her, blocking her from him.
Vile Intentions: A Dark Sports Bully Romance Page 10