He shrugged. “Our families were supportive, and I thought we were strong, but apparently not. If Katie’s family and yours are opposed, plus with the stress this life puts on partners…well, maybe that’s too much opposition.”
I got what he was saying, but I wasn’t giving up on Katie. Time to move on.
“So did you get a degree? I went from juniors to the AHL to the NHL. No college.”
He stood to pick up our plates. “Yes. Just because I was drafted didn’t mean I’d play.”
People had told me to have a backup plan in case hockey didn’t work out, but I’d never listened to them. I’d been sure I’d play, and here I was.
I stood—I was supposed to clean up when he cooked. “Hey, that’s my job.” I grabbed the rest of the dishes and took them over, hip checking him away from the sink.
“I don’t have anything else to do right now.”
I shook my head, blocking him from the sink. “You can go play a game or watch TV or something. We’ve got, like, fifty million channels and streaming sites.” I started running the water in the sink, and the sneaky fucker put some dishes in the dishwasher. “Hey!”
He backed off once his hands were empty. “Okay, I’ll leave you to it. Anything good out to watch lately?”
Huh. We hadn’t spent that much time together in the evening. I was usually out somewhere, or he was. There’d been a bunch of guys coming back for the preseason I’d met up with, and I’d been around for training camp, checking on the newbies and helping out where I could. “What do you like? Sci-fi, fantasy, horror, action, chick flicks…”
He leaned against the island, hopefully not checking on whether I did a proper job on the dishes. I preferred a roommate who wasn’t a mess, but I didn’t want a clean freak who’d be on my case all the time.
“Action. Thrillers and suspense.”
“Okay, maybe there’s a new James Bond or Mission Impossible?”
“I’m going to take a guess here and say that’s not what you watch.”
I put the frying pan in the drying rack and pulled the sink plug. “No, I’m big into Star Wars, loved the Dune movies, stuff like that.”
“So, you like baby Yoda?”
I stared at him. “You mean Grogu?”
He stared back. “Is that baby Yoda?”
I wiped my hands and hung up the towel. “You have much to learn, Padawan.”
“I don’t need to follow your imaginary world.”
I crossed my arms. “Because James Bond is so real?”
He grinned. “You got me. MI6 is not quite like the Bond movies.”
I wasn’t going out tonight and had nothing really to do except try to figure out my next move with Katie. “Tell you what, you find something you like and I’ll watch it with you. And then you watch something I want.”
He grinned. “Any limits on what I can pick?”
I rubbed my hand on my pants. “I don’t like scary stuff. Call me a wimp if you want, but I don’t like horror.”
“I don’t either. What about something just a little scary? Not a lot of blood, but some suspense.”
I shrugged. “I’ll try, but if I don’t like it, I’m not going to keep watching.”
“Same here.”
“Beer?” I asked.
“Sure.”
