“Last one back from a full lap is a loser,” Jade announces the second we hit the ice. The whole way here she’s been playing me about how she hasn’t skated in so long. I’m sure it was just to throw me off when she jibed me earlier about not wanting to race me.
I watch her push one skate in front of the other as she glides away with a pretty good head start before I realize what’s going on and I slide off after her. “Nice going,Princess!” I holler with my hands cupped around my mouth for effect. My long glides don’t take long to catch up with her, but she’s fast. Always has been. Jade always kept me on my toes in school because, like me, she was good at sports and games.
She was very good at anything she put her mind to.
Turning her head briefly, she whizzes past other skaters as I try to take her from the inside. Her hair flies behind her as she glides, the figure hugging dark yoga pants she wears cling to her legs, her white fluffy jacket flapping with the motion. Her skin already looks flushed from the cold of the ice. And she has justthe right amount of cute cockiness to turn and skate backward for a second to goad me.
“Come on, JJ!” she calls after me.
I laugh, shaking my head, I haven’t heard her call me that in a while. We both donned the same nickname a long time ago.
I finally reach her side and tug her by the hips as she squeals. I hold her in place, my fingers pressing into her flesh between the waistband of her leggings and where her white, long-sleeved gym top meets. We both skate past the entry over to the barrier, where we manage to stop just before we crash.
“That was most definitely a tie!” I announce as our skates come to an abrupt halt and I grip onto the edge of the rink, barely able to contain my laughter.
“Oh my god, Jay!” she squeals, her breaths coming out in fast puffs of air. She’s laughing too and clutching her sides, so I quickly know she’s okay.
“I had it all under control,” I state as I hold my side for a second, trying to get my breath back.
“You almost got beat!”
“Wouldn’t be the first time.” I wink.
Is it just my imagination or does that sweet shade of pink on her cheeks grow a little deeper, spreading over her face?
“Hey, Jay! Jay!” someone interrupts, as we both regain our composure and turn our heads toward where the voice is coming from. Jade clutches onto the side of the barrier as a tall, leggy blonde waves over to me from the side, just a few metres from where we are. I lift an eyebrow at the attractive woman leaning on the rail with a smile for me a mile wide and a twinkle in her eye that can only mean one thing.
Yeah, we’ve screwed.
“Umm.” I run a hand through my hair as I see Jade looking over at the busty blonde who’s wearing a cream bodysuit that’s a size too small; her enormous breasts almost spilling out of thedeep V at the front. A puffer jacket hangs off her shoulders like it was an afterthought. I swallow hard.
“It’s Janey!” The woman quickly reminds me, waving her fingers out towards me in an attempt to get me to come closer.
I look at her quizzically, like that’s supposed to mean something to me.
“You know, from that night in the playoffs…”
I cast my mind back further than I want to go. I know the night she means, but it was months and months ago. Now I think about it, Janey is a regular on the hockey circuit, always scoping out a player to hook up with.
She was trying to cozy up to Taylor that same night outside the locker room, but he was all in a conundrum about Emmerson being in town for the game after he hadn’t seen her in so many years.
I gallantly took Janey off his hands for the night and showed her a wild time back at my place.
I swipe a hand over my face as quick, short bursts of imagery shoot through my mind about what we got up to all night. And I don’t fucking want her bringing that up now. Not in front of Jade.
I glance toward Jade, who looks a little uncomfortable as she shifts on her skates, I don’t think she knows where to look. “I’ll give you a moment,” I hear her say. Her voice has dropped so quiet, it’s almost inaudible. She even pushes off her skates and glides out onto the ice and circles around like she’s in a world of her own, one where I’m not invited anymore. It makes my heart sink.
“I wasn’t expecting to see you down here,” Janey gushes as I awkwardly palm the back of my neck because all I want to do is enjoy this time with Jade, not stand here hashing up a wild night I had months ago with a puck bunny. “That night we had was so hot, JJ. I was hoping we could do it again sometime.”
My eyes are still on Jade. There’s no way she wouldn’t have heard that, even if she has skated away from us. I turn back to Janey.
“Look, I’m with a friend right now,” I say, awkwardly motioning toward the tiny blonde who just got a firsthand look at how I usually do things in my spare time. Fucking great.
Janey doesn’t spare Jade a second glance. Instead, she tucks a strand of her waist-length hair behind her ear with a long hot-pink nail. Nails that clawed down my back not so long ago, leaving marks, when we screwed seven ways to Sunday.
“Let me give you my number again,” she says, batting her long eyelashes.
“I have it,” I lie. I couldn’t stop her from typing it into my phone that night. But I’m not usually in the habit of going back for seconds once I’ve been with a puck bunny, or any one-night stand, so I well and truly deleted it. A dick move perhaps, but necessary all the same.
