Darkroom: A Moo U Hockey Romance

by Kate Willoughby

  I had a wide open net.

  Come on, baby.

  With a quick wrist shot, I fired the puck toward the net…and hit the pipe.

  FUCK.

  Time ran out on the power play, their fifth man came back out on the ice and the moment was gone.

  I continued to play like shit and as the minutes ticked past, I felt more and more guilty. We were able to tie the score at the end of the third period, and just when we all thought we were going into overtime, Kurly, of all people, scored a game-winning buzzer beater. Those of us on the bench leapt up and over the boards to congratulate him. Even though he was often a dick, he deserved some accolades.

  In the locker room, I presented Kurlander with the Burlington U game MVP poncho, a busy pattern of crazy yellow, orange, tan and brown crocheted zigzags. No one really knew who made it, maybe some long ago coach’s great-grandmother. Kurlander stuck his head through the hole and as it settled it over his shoulders, he flapped his arms to make the fringe move, as tradition demanded.

  The mood was jubilant and I plastered a smile on my face for the sake of the team. We’d won our first home game of the season. But inside, I was angry and frustrated with myself for my overall craptastic performance, especially that missed shot on the power play. I mean, the net was wide fucking open.

  Maybe I needed an eye exam.

  After showering and changing back into my suit, I grabbed AJ and we headed out to meet Indi and Ruby.

  “Congratulations! Great game!” Indi gushed. She had a huge smile on her face and just the sight of her lightened my mood considerably.

  “Did you see my assist?” AJ asked.

  When the girls looked at each other, AJ laughed. “You’re not hockey fans, are you?”

  “No,” they admitted.

  “Did you even understand what was going on?” I asked. Nothing like three hours of watching something that didn’t make a lick of sense to you.

  “I think so,” Indi said. “The puck is supposed to go in the net, right?”

  I almost fell for that, but I saw the twinkle in her eye.

  “Very funny,” AJ said. “Yeah, the puck’s supposed to go in the net.”

  Elbowing each other gleefully, the girls laughed. I didn’t join in.

  “So the team goes to the Biscuit in the Basket after the games,” AJ said to the women. “We have a reserved table there on game nights. How does that sound?

  “Sounds fun,” Ruby said. “Indi?”

  Indi nodded her agreement. “Sure. Why not?”

  A blast of raucous cheers greeted us when we got there. A win really pumped everyone up and the place was crowded. When Briggs, our new goalie, spotted us, he yelled our names and waved us over. We threaded our way through the people and obtained stools for the ladies. Our usual table, table seventeen, had plenty of seats left but it would be full before long.

  AJ made introductions while I flagged down a server and ordered us a big basket of assorted wings, fries and a pitcher of beer. The girls asked us questions about the game and AJ and I did our best to answer without mansplaining.

  After about fifteen minutes, Indi said, “Well, I still don’t really understand icing, but I think I have the gist of the game.”

  “You were really impressive out there,” Ruby said to AJ. “I want you to score a goal for me tomorrow.”

  Someone said something at the other end of the table I couldn’t quite make out, but it must have been amusing because there was some chuckling. AJ didn’t seem to hear it either. He just gazed at Ruby and said, “As you wish.”

  “I’m going to the restroom,” Indi said. “Ruby?”

  “Sure. I’ll go with you,” Ruby replied.

  When they were out of hearing distance, Kurlander asked, “Hey, Forts! Think you’re gonna score tonight?”

  When I didn’t honor that dickhead comment with a reply, he said, “I hope so, since you sure didn’t score on the ice tonight.”

  The whole table oohed.

  “First of all,” I said, “don’t talk about her like that. Do it again and you’ll regret it.”

  That got another round of oohs.

  “Second, fuck you. At least I was taking shots. You scored the game winning goal but most of the shots on goal tonight were mine. Let’s take a tally at the end of the season and see who’s on top.”

  I realized too late that my tone had gotten sharp and defensive.

  “Shit, Forts. Can’t you take a joke?” Adler asked.

  “Yeah, we won tonight, so let’s celebrate,” Thomas said, lifting his beer stein.

  I didn’t answer as our food arrived and the ladies returned.

  Still feeling touchy, I grabbed a chicken wing and even though I knew they were way too hot to eat yet, I took a bite anyway and burned myself.

  “Damn it.”

  “What?” Indi asked.

  “It’s too hot,” I complained, waving a hand at the wing.

  “Want me to blow on it?” Indi asked with a teasing smile.

  Ruby giggled and after a glance at Indi, AJ hooted a laugh.

  I knew she was just flirting, but my brain supplied me with an image of Indi, gazing up at me, her gorgeous lips wrapped around my cock, which was a huge mistake, considering that I was in the middle of the bar with my teammates all around. If one of them noticed, no doubt he’d attribute my aroused state to the wings and dub me Chicken Bone for the rest of the season.

  But at least it pulled me out of my sour mood.

  The rest of the evening was fun and thankfully, no one else teased me about the missed goal. Honestly, I didn’t blame them. A five-year-old could have made that shot, and looking back, I should have taken Kurly’s chirp in stride. I could take a joke. I really could. I was usually the first one to make a self-deprecating remark. I chalked it up to having thrown up my pregame meal and needing some body fuel.

  As AJ, the girls and I got up to go, I swallowed my pride and offered Kurlander my hand. “Great goal tonight, man.”

  Kurlander nodded. “Thanks.”

  “See all you bastards tomorrow,” I said.

  It was chilly outside, cold enough to see our breath. The campus was quiet except for the muted music and voices coming from the Biscuit.

  “Oh, it’s such a beautiful night,” Indi said, looking up. “Look at all the stars.”

  I obediently gazed up. Thousands of points of light decorated a black velvet sky. One lacy cloud drifted across the view like a slow-motion spray of snow from a skidding skate blade.

  “I feel like walking,” she said. “Will you walk me home?”

  Carter Hall was only a five-minute walk from the Biscuit.

  I glanced at AJ who shrugged. “Wanna walk?” he asked Ruby.

  “Not really. It’s too cold.”

  “Okay,” I said. I tossed AJ the keys to the Wrangler. “You drive Ruby back and I’ll meet you at home.”

  “Cool.”

  My arm around Indi’s shoulders, we ambled down the walkway toward their dorm as AJ and Ruby headed toward the rink lot where I was parked.

  “Did you have fun?” I asked.

  “Yes, but I don’t think you did.”

  “What makes you say that?” I asked as my phone rang. “I had fun.”

  “Really? Because I got the feeling like something was bothering you.” She gave me a sidelong glance. “Aren’t you going to answer that?”

  I pulled my phone out of my pocket, afraid it was Adam Kee calling me out on that missed goal. It wasn’t.

  “It’s just my dad.”

  “That’s so sweet. He probably wants to congratulate you.”

  “Not exactly. Now that he’s retired, whenever he can, he tries to stream the games live. That way he can give me pointers as soon as possible, after the fact.”

  She stopped. “Wait, really? He really calls after every game just to critique you?”

  “He believes there’s a prime window of opportunity between execution and critique and that the sooner he talks to me,
the better it will sink in. Personally, I don’t think it works that way, but he’s my dad, so I just grin and bear it. It really is helpful though. He’s an amazing hockey player. People say he’ll probably make it into the Hall of Fame.”

  “Wow. That’s impressive.”

  “It really is. But even so, I’m not going to interrupt our date just so he can tell me everything I did wrong.”

  “Good choice,” she said, taking my hand and starting toward her dorm again. “So, was that why you looked tense back there at dinner? You were expecting your dad’s call?”

  “I looked tense?”

  She nodded and rubbed the spot between her eyebrows. “You had a tiny little line here most of the time.”

  “Dad’s call doesn’t bother me that much. I’m used to that. I didn’t like how I played.”

  “Really? I thought you looked really great out there.”

  “That’s because you know almost nothing about hockey,” I said, squeezing her hand. “Take my word for it. My performance tonight was a ridiculous string of mistakes and miscalculations. I’d list them all for you, but I don’t want to bore you.”

  “I wouldn’t be bored, honestly, but I also don’t want to encourage you to beat yourself up any more than you already have, especially when your dad is already waiting in line to do that.” She snuggled closer.

  “He’s not the only one.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I’m under a lot of pressure. A lot of people are expecting great things from me.” I laughed humorlessly. “It’s been like that almost my whole life.”

  I told her how, when I was a kid, the expectations from my family didn’t really register on my radar. Hockey was something I did for fun. And because I was good at it, I didn’t really have to practice that hard. My innate skill allowed me to skate circles around almost everyone.

  But as I grew older, things got more serious. I still had fun in middle school, but practice wasn’t just playing around with my friends anymore. It was work. My parents, especially my dad, expected constant excellence. I had to be the star, the lead goal scorer, the MVP, the one with the most ice time. No one ever came out and said it, but if I hadn’t gotten drafted, I’d have been a disgrace.

  “I remember thinking once I got drafted, I’d have it made. I’d get some breathing room. Everyone would relax. I’d have a contract and a team who believed in my potential. I couldn’t have been more wrong. If anything, the pressure is ten times worse. I vomited before tonight’s game.”

  She winced. “This is exactly why you can’t put pressure on yourself. You already have too much external pressure.”

  “Easier said than done,” I said as we finally arrived at Carter Hall.

  “Do you want to come to the game tomorrow?” I asked, trying to sound nonchalant. I really wanted her to see me play a decent game.

  “Yes. I really liked seeing you out there. It was exciting and now that I know the rules, I’ll be able to enjoy it even more.”

  I lifted my hands and almost cupped her cheeks but remembered at the last minute and detoured them to her shoulders. She snickered, so I guess I wasn’t as smooth at the detour as I thought. She wrapped her arms around my waist and stepped close as I bent my head to kiss her.

  She felt so good in my arms. I threaded my hands in her hair, marveling how silky it was. Her mouth opened under mine and I took full advantage. The kiss got deep and hot. I knew Carter Hall had suite style rooms which would mean we could take this upstairs.

  I laid a trail of kisses along her jaw down her neck and she panted softly, which excited me even more. When I sucked her earlobe into my mouth, she gave a low moan. Fuck. That was only her earlobe. I wondered what kind of sounds she would make if I went down on her.

  But then she pulled back and said something in a voice too soft for me to catch.

  “I’m sorry. I didn't hear you.”

  “I just said I need to go. It’s pretty late.”

  “Sure. That's fine. It’s all good.” I gave her what I hoped was a I-have-no-problem-with-that smile, even though I was sporting a steel rod in my pants.

  “I’ll see you tomorrow,” she said, her cheeks flushed, her lips wet from my kisses.

  “Tomorrow,” I agreed.

  As I turned to go, I surreptitiously adjusted my cock to a more comfortable position, but there really was no such thing as comfortable for me at the moment. I was so hard and so hot, it was a wonder steam wasn’t forming around my crotch.

  16

  Indi

  I woke up the day after the home opener when Ruby knocked on my bedroom door.

  “Indi, are you awake?” she asked softly.

  “I am now,” I said with a groan. It was just after nine.

  Ruby opened the door and leaned against the door jamb. “AJ wants to know if I want to go to dim sum with him in town and I haven’t had dim sum in ages, but it’s boring if you go with just two people and I told him to ask Hudson if he’ll come too and now I’m asking you.” She said all of this rapid-fire while my brain was still coming online.

  “Hold on. Slow down.” I sat up. “What’s dim sum?”

  “Sorry. I forgot. Dim sum is sort of like a Chinese buffet that comes to you. You go to the restaurant and sit at the table and they wheel these carts around. Each cart has different things to eat—small plates—and you just pick what you want. I had no idea you could get dim sum in Burlington. This could be life-changing if it’s good.”

  “I don’t understand how the number of people have to do with how good it is.”

  “If you have more people, you can order a bigger variety of things. That’s what makes Chinese food amazing. Most other cuisines you order your one thing, but with Chinese food, it’s family style and you get to share everything.” She came to the bed and got on her knees. “Please say yes, Indi. I know you’re not…crazy about Chinese stuff, but I want to go so bad. Having dim sum would be the next best thing to being home and I also kind of don’t want to go on a solo date with AJ.”

  “What? Why not?”

  She wrinkled her nose. “He’s really nice, but you know how people say, ‘He’s just not that into you?’ Well, I’ve got the opposite problem. He’s really intense and last night I got the feeling he was on a mission to find things we have in common. He wanted to know everything about me. I mean everything. But I want to give it another chance before I make a decision, so I really need you to come to dim sum.”

  “All right, but you owe me,” I said.

  She scoffed as she sent a text to AJ. “Like you don’t want to see Hudson again as soon as possible.”

  “I can’t deny it,” I said, grinning like an idiot. “I really really like him. In fact, I think I might want to sleep with him.”

  “Might want to?”

  “Okay, I definitely want to sleep with him, but I…” I bit my lip. “I’m a virgin.”

  “You are?” She looked up from her phone. “Sorry. It’s fine. I’m just surprised. I just sort of assumed.”

  “Exactly. Hudson’s going to just assume too and that’s the problem. I feel like I should tell him, but it’s so embarrassing.”

  “I’m sure he’ll be fine with it. He seems like the kind of guy who’d think it was sweet.”

  “So you think I should tell him first?”

  “Absolutely. You should also—and tell me to butt out because it’s really not my business—but you should also share your birthmark with him. Unless you’re planning on a one and done.”

  “No, I made a promise to myself a while ago that anyone I slept with needed to be fine with my birthmark.”

  “Good plan. Because if they aren’t okay with your birthmark, they don’t deserve the glory of your goddess body. Now,” she said, getting to her feet and pulling me out of bed, “unless you want him to see that birthmark this morning, we’d better get ready. They’re coming to pick us up in forty minutes.”

  “You’re looking sharp this morning,” I said to Hudson after Ruby
and I got in the back seat.

  He was wearing jeans, a sweater, and his Indiana Jones fedora.

  He tipped his hat at me and grinned. “Why thank you. I wore this just for you.”

  “I thought you wore it because you thought it was Halloween,” AJ said.

  Hudson congenially flipped AJ the bird before starting the Jeep.

  “Where are we going?” Ruby asked.

  “It’s a place on Church Street called Wang’s,” AJ said. “It hasn’t been there very long, but the word has spread and it’s gotten pretty popular.”

  There were people waiting outside when we got there, which wasn’t surprising, since the place was small. But people waiting meant they were doing something right—food or service or both.

  Five minutes later, we were weaving our way through the restaurant. I was surprised to see quite a number of Asian diners. Back home in Brattleboro, I could go a year without seeing another Asian. People wearing aprons were pushing aluminum carts full of stacked metal cylinders. As I passed one, the attendant lifted the lid off one of them to reveal white buns with a little daub of pink on them. Another held flat white noodles folded like blankets with tiny shrimp in the folds. It all looked very different from the food I was used to.

  As soon as we sat down, a pot of tea appeared on the table while someone parked their cart next to our table. Ruby and, surprisingly, Hudson indicated what they wanted and the server picked up the small plates and containers with tongs and put them on the table, then stamped our check, one stamp per plate. Before we could even start eating, another cart came by and more goodies where chosen. We hadn’t even been seated for five minutes and we already had a table full of food.

  “Okay,” Ruby said, “let me give you the rundown of what we got. That’s siu mai, which is pork, shrimp and shitake mushroom wrapped in a noodle. That’s my favorite. That’s ha gow, rice noodle filled with shrimp. This thing that looks like a deep-fried football is haam siu gok.”