“Really?” Laurel was incredulous.

“Really. Basketball and football, but no hockey. It’s freezing,” JC shivered in his coat.

Malinda laughed. “It’s not that bad. And you get used to it,” she pulled her hair up and into a ponytail, lifting her hair off the name across her shoulders: Warrener. She and Laurel both wore jeans and a long-sleeved t-shirt under their jerseys, while JC still had his coat on, with his hands in his pockets, wishing he had a hat on.

“So this is what you do every other night?”

“Pretty much. I’ve been buying season tickets ever since I could afford them. Our seats used to be way up there,” Malinda pointed up to the 300-level seats – the nosebleeds. “Given the height, they really weren’t bad seats at all.”

“Then Rhett starting getting us these good seats,” Laurel piped in.

“All the players get tickets, and since Rhett has no family here, he gives them to us. So now I only have to buy one season ticket.”

“Why bother buying any at all?”

Shrugging, Malinda said, “We bring Gina and Alicia sometimes. Plus, I’d feel weird getting free tickets.”

JC looked around, “Is it like a Lakers game or the Knicks, where the same people seem to be at every game in the same seat?”

“Basically, it was like that up in the 300s, and it was great because we’d all become friends. And if someone knew ahead of time of time they couldn’t make it to a certain game, they’d either sell them or give them away to the rest of us. Down here, it’s not so much like that. These are the crazy expensive seats. These are the snotty people, while everyone up in the 300s are the friendly party people.”

“Some of them are nice,” Laurel said. “That one lady with the fur coat.”

“Yeah. She seems a little weird, but she is very nice. She always wears this heavy fur coat. She looks so out of place here, and it took me a long time to figure out if all her niceness was fake or not. But she’s really sweet.”

“A lot of the people that sit here got their seats are from the guys,” Laurel continued.

“Yeah, wives, and girlfriends and brothers and sisters and even parents. Most of them are okay. Some of the wives and girlfriends look like they’d rather be anywhere else in the world than here. Like Ami, for instance,” she gestured toward Curtis’s wife, who was absentmindedly rubbing her belly. The couple had just found out they were expecting.

“And McKee’s wife,” Laurel added.

“McKee’s wife can just…well, you know what she can do.”

“You don’t like her?” JC asked.

“I’m not even sure sometimes if he likes her. I think she’s more into him because of what he is than who he is, if you know what I mean. Think, ‘if I wasn’t a celebrity’.”

“That’s so wrong.”

Malinda turned to watch the ice. The Buffalo Sabres were warming up; taking some practice shots on the goalie, Marty Biron, doing some skating drills. Their opponents that night, the Tampa Bay Lightning, did the same at the other end of the ice.

“Which one’s Rhett?” JC asked, and Malinda pointed out #4. “And Curtis?” Malinda pointed to #37. “And the one whose wife we were just talking about?” she directed his gaze to #74.

“Momma, can we eat now?” Laurel asked suddenly.

“Can’t you wait until the first intermission?”

“Can I ever?”

Malinda sighed. “Alright. Are you hungry, JC?”

“Are you?”

“Not really.”

JC shrugged. “I’ll take Laurel then,” he stood up and Malinda began digging in her pocket for money. JC stopped her, “I got it.” Laurel slipped her hand in his and they went off in search of food.

Malinda leaned as far back as she could in her seat, stretching. She watched the guys warm up, waiting for Rhett to look for her, as he did every game. He raised his arm in greeting and she waved back, smiling, a smile that turned into a laugh when Curtis skated up behind him and cross-checked him playfully. Shaking her head at her crazy friends, Malinda’s attention was captured by a young woman, maybe seven or eight years younger than she was, who was approaching from the left.

“Excuse me,” she asked politely, “but I was wondering – that is – my friends and I were wondering,” she gestured a few rows over and back, “Are you Rhett Warrener’s wife or girlfriend? And is that your daughter that you come to the games with?”

If the girl hadn’t been so nice, Malinda might have just told her to go mind her own business. However, she’d seen the girls here before, usually with an older gentleman that she assumed was the father of one of them, and she’d heard them scream for Rhett every time. They’d probably wanted to talk to her for awhile, and this girl was merely sent as the ambassador to get the scoop.

“Yes, that is my daughter,” she began, “And if you’re wondering if she’s Rhett’s as well, the answer is no. Rhett and I are just friends; we only met when he got traded here.”

The girl’s face lit up. “Oh, okay. We were just wondering. Your daughter is adorable, by the way,” she hurried back to her seat, where Malinda could hear her inform her friends that Malinda was not, in fact, Rhett’s significant other, news that caused the others to squeal with joy. Smiling again, Malinda pulled her knees up to her chest, resting her feet on the cup holders on the back of the seats in front of her, awaiting JC and Laurel’s return.

When they came back, they were bearing gifts. JC put an ice cream cone in her hand – cookies-n-cream in a waffle cone – and a box of fat french fries at her feet.

“What’s this for?” she had already started eating the ice cream. “I said I wasn’t hungry.”

“Yeah,” JC said, “And Laurel told me you always get hungry halfway through the first period and she always tries to talk you into getting food before the game starts.”

“And that you never listen to me,” Laurel added. “So eat.”

JC surveyed the crowd. “I didn’t realize it was so huge in here. It looks a lot different with a stage and seats on the floor. There aren’t too many people down here. It looks fuller up where your seats used to be,” he added after a minute.

“They’ll fill in. What happens a lot of the time is that people decide at the last minute to come to a game, and they get here just as it starts. Then there are the people up in the cheap seats that wait until the game’s already started, and they find empty seats down here that are better. And you won’t even notice it’s happening until you look around about fifteen minutes into the game and the place is packed. But I don’t know about today. It’s only Tampa. If you’re here for a Leafs game, it’s like standing room only.”

“Is that the big rival?”

“Huge. It’s awesome. All these Leafs fans come down from Toronto and everything. It can get pretty wild.”

“Sounds fun. I’d love to be a part of it.”

“I’ll check the schedule. I don’t know when we’re playing them. I should, but I don’t,” Malinda told him and glanced up at the Jumbotron scoreboard before looking back at the ice. “Game’s starting.”

The players from both the Sabres and the Lightning had gone to their respective benches for the start of the game. The building went dark and a montage played on the screen, and big Sabres logos shone down on the ice and danced around. The starting line-ups for both teams were announced, and the guys all circled the ice in their own zones before lining up parallel to one another and faced the north end of the arena, facing the flags for the Canadian and American National Anthems. The lights slowly came back on during the songs, and the last word of the Star Spangled Banner was drowned out by the loud buzzer, signaling the onset of the first period.

Curtis, a center, and his two wingers lined up at center ice, Rhett and Jay McKee behind them, for the first face-off, which Curtis won, and the game was under way. Seeing as how it was only the Tampa Bay Lightning, most of the game was tame and textbook. There were no long-standing rivalries between the teams, nor individual players, so there was no need for any sparks, which is all a fight really is. Players generally only fight to get the crowd hyped and excited, which is typically when the team is losing. The team that’s losing will instigate the fight, and it’s mostly if they’re on their home turf.

However, there are some exceptions. Sometimes when the away team is losing, they get frustrated and get into fights. Sometimes it’ll start with a late hit or a cheap shot. Sometimes they’ll start something with a non-fighter, and his fighter teammate will stand up for him, like on an elementary school playground.

Such was the case with Rhett and Curtis. Curtis was a very passive-aggressive player. He could play assertively and dish out legal hits like a beast, but if it started to get a little too crazy, he brought it down a notch. More often than not, this ended up leading to someone trying to antagonize him into a scrap.

This is where Rhett would come in, whether he was next to the action or halfway across the ice. He wasn’t a fighter in the sense that old teammate Rob Ray (two goals a season, but hundreds of penalty minutes for fighting) was, but he could mix it up from time to time. Which is why, when Curtis had a clean shot at the Tampa Bay net stolen from him during a rush due to an unfortunate and rather strong check into the boards by two opposing players, Rhett was there. Curtis and one Tampa player exchanged some words before it turned into a shoving match. The reaction from both teams was consensual, as all ten men on the ice gathered into one giant shoving match. Rhett and the one of the players who had originally put the hit on Curtis branched off into their own struggle, and when another Lightning player tried to get in the middle of that, he was foiled by McKee, who was a more regular fighter than Rhett. The two pairs squared off for a moment, and then Rhett dropped his gloves.

And everyone knew what that meant.

The crowd, predictably, went insane, cheering, screaming, yelling, banging on the glass. Malinda and Laurel joined in.

“Yeah!” Malinda cupped her hands around her mouth. “You got this, baby!” She didn’t notice the strange look that JC threw her way.

Rhett and the other guy held each other by the sleeves, as they skated in circles together, each trying to get in a better punch than the other. Rhett had already knocked the other guy’s helmet off, and his hung off the back of his head. Some more scrapping and flailing punches tumbled the two to the ice, and since it appeared like Rhett threw the guy down, he became the unofficial winner.

Cupping her hands again, Malinda screamed, and was joined by Laurel, “Yeah! That’s my boy! Go Rhett!”

Once both were sitting again, JC commented, “Well, that was…interesting.”

“Welcome to your first NHL fight,” Malinda replied. “Glad you have you in the Rhett Warrener cheering section, where we cheer our man on; we don’t just watch blankly,” she indicated Nicole McKee, who had watched her husband and his sparring partner do some shoving with as much rapt interest as she probably paid her manicurist.

“I see,” JC turned his own attention back to the game, where Malinda’s had been the moment she stopped speaking, where it had been since the very first buzzer, where it remained until the very last one. In just under three hours, the Buffalo Sabres had come to a 3-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning, one of those goals having been scored by Curtis on an assist from McKee.

“Now what?” JC asked.

“Now we see where we’re going for post-game drinks. Unless you’d rather go home.”

“Nope, post-game drinks sounds like a plan.”

“Chances are we’re going to the Pearl, or maybe Darcy’s,” Malinda referred to the Pearl Street Grille and Brewery up on Pearl St., and Darcy McGee’s Irish Pub, on Franklin St. She held Laurel’s hand tightly as they followed the crowd out to the parking ramp. The trio headed to Malinda’s Bravada, which she had parked near the fence separating the players’ lot from everyone else.

“It might be awhile,” Laurel told JC. “We have to wait for them to get dressed and decide where to go.”

“Are you sure you want to go out?” Malinda asked. “It’s not like Rhett and the guys will care if we bail. We could always go home.”

Somewhat jealous of the devotion and routine Malinda and Rhett seemed to have, JC declined the offer. He could be just as much a part of the routine, and he was still pissed that she thought nothing of talking to him in a towel.

The closeness that Malinda and Rhett exhibited really offended JC. Partly because he didn’t want anyone to be that close to her besides himself, partly because it reminded him that she didn’t really need him, and partly because he just didn’t understand how they could be that close and not have something else going on between them.

And when he sat back and thought about it, he had to chide himself. Not wanting anyone else to be close to her? He was no better that Laurel’s father if he acted on that. Malinda really wouldn’t need him even without Rhett. If there was one thing he had figured out about Malinda within twenty-four hours of meeting her, it was that the only person she needed was herself, and maybe Laurel.

It was that last one that always got him. He truly didn’t understand how Malinda and Rhett could be as close as they were and just be friends. He and Madison weren’t even that close and he could admit there was some underlying attraction that waxed and waned from time to time. The very reason they became friends in the first place was because JC hit on her, but within moments of that first encounter he realized she wouldn’t let him get anywhere. Cutting his losses, JC checked his pride, and realized she was a fun chick to have as a friend, and helpful, as she was willing to run his errands when he needed his privacy. Of course, since he was a male, he never wrote her off completely, as there was always a chance that some day they’d both be in desperate need of personal physical contact.

Either way, he was staying put with Malinda downtown. Even if that meant he felt like a chaperone. He’d be sticking like glue to Malinda’s side at whatever bar they went to, no doubt about that.

It took almost half an hour before the guys started to trickle out of the building, joining Malinda and other family members and friends that had remained behind near the fence, also waiting for the guys, waiting to find out where the party was going. Malinda got out of the car and stood by the fence.

“Sorry about that,” Rhett trotted toward her. “I tried to text you so you could get a head start, but you know I have horrible service in the building. We’re going to Darcy’s,” he waved at Laurel in the truck and nodded an acknowledgement at JC.

“Alright. See you there. Nice fight,” Malinda maneuvered the vehicle out of the parking ramp, banking a left and then a right. She drove a few blocks until she passed Darcy McGee’s, parking on a little street perpendicular to Franklin. She pulled her jersey over her head, revealing a wide scoop-neck long-sleeved black t-shirt. Her hint of cleavage did not go unnoticed by JC. The three of them headed back to Darcy’s, as something occurred to JC.

“They let Laurel in here?”

“Oh yeah. It’s not really a full-on bar. They have live bands here sometimes, and as long as she’s with me it’s okay. Plus, they’re so used to it now,” Malinda pulled Laurel and JC off to the side, waiting for some of the guys, who were just getting out of their cars.

“Nice game guys,” she commented as they joined them, and they murmured their thanks, one of them, Maxim Afinogenov, ruffling Laurel’s hair. He had once told Rhett (who then told Malinda) that he liked when Malinda brought Laurel out, as she reminded him of his little sister back home in Russia that he missed.

“Ma-ax!” Laurel protested and smoothed her hair.

It wasn’t long before the entire crew had gathered and they crowded into Darcy’s Rhett ordered Laurel a Shirley Temple and handed Malinda an Amaretto sour before ordering a Molson Canadian for himself and asking JC what he was drinking. He told Rhett he was having a Molson as well, still determined to take over his place in Malinda’s life. While he and Rhett waited for the bartender to acknowledge them again, Malinda and Laurel headed out to the patio, taking up their place in one of the swinging picnic tables. JC watched as Jay McKee, Maxim, and a couple of the other guys joined them, and he wondered where McKee’s wife was. He spotted her a second later, off with the other girlfriends and wives that came out. They didn’t join the guys the way Malinda did.

After they got their beers and headed towards the girls, JC noted that when the player sitting next to Malinda looked up and saw Rhett, he moved away, clearing a spot for him. Rhett, however, left it for JC, and introductions were made. Several of the guys gave JC a funny look, as if they recognized him but weren’t sure from where. A few of them also threw a questioning look Rhett’s way.

Under the table top, Malinda put her hand on JC’s leg. She could sense his hostility and almost primitive defensiveness towards the other guys and felt he needed some reassuring. The only interest most of the guys had in her was because of her enthusiastic involvement with the team. Most of the wives and girlfriends only participated when they had to. There was only a small group that honestly liked to hang out and do things for the team, and even then, they didn’t always hang out entirely with the team, as was evidenced today. Malinda was just one of the guys, part of the team. Besides, until meeting JC just now, half of them were convinced, no matter what she or Rhett said, that Rhett was banging her. And now that they knew he wasn’t, they knew JC was, which meant none of them could.

An our flew by, and Malinda gathered up Laurel, who was doing shots with some of the guys, matching each and every one of their shots of Crown Royal with her own shots of iced tea; and JC, who was trading stories with Curtis about how each one met Malinda. A few moments of eavesdropping told Malinda Curtis was leaving about the part about them having dated for a few weeks. She also didn’t miss the fact that JC seemed far more interested in how Rhett fit into the picture.

“It’s getting late,” Malinda said her goodbyes to various members of the team. “And this one has school in the morning.”

JC exchanged pleasantries, “Nice meeting you,” and followed his girlfriend and her daughter to the truck. Once inside, he couldn’t keep his mouth closed. “And you do that after every game?”

“Most of them. It depends on the game. If we lose, no, ‘cause everybody just wants to go home. If it was a boring game, I don’t always join them. Like today, I might not have gone, but I wanted to show you our game day routine.”

“If I’d known that I would have told you we didn’t have to go.”

“Well, no, I wanted to, but it didn’t matter either way, you know?”

“And you take Laurel with you every time?”

“What am I gonna do, leave her in the car?”

“What about getting up for school?”

“That’s why we leave early,” Malinda looked down at the clock. “Okay, it’s not that early, but it’s not like she’s five. And like I said, we probably only go out once on school night during the week. You figure there’s a game every other night, so the most there can be on school night’s is three, and we’ll probably lose one, and one will be boring. So we’ll only go out after one.”

“I see,” JC was silent for the rest of the ride home. The drama didn’t start until after Laurel had taken a bath and was asleep in bed. Then JC’s line of questioning picked up again. “So I’ve been wondering, how exactly did you get involved with the team if you’re not a wife or girlfriend?”

Malinda shrugged, “I’ve always been a Sabres fan, and I’ve never been shy, so one day when I saw Curtis at the mall I went right up to him and started talking to him. He was one of our favorites – mine and Laurel’s – and I told him that. He’s a nice guy, as you’ve seen, and we hung out, got to be friends. He invited me as his date to a few dinners and events. Then Rhett came to the team and he and Curtis got to be friends, so all three of us started hanging out.”

“And the rest is history.”

“Basically.”

“And you got to be that involved just by being friends?”

“Why do I get the feeling you’re asking me something else?”

“Because I am. I don’t get it, Malinda. How are you and Rhett that close? How does the team accept you as if you were one of the wives? Why is there a bag in your front closet with men’s clothes in it?” he hadn’t meant to blurt that out, because then he’d have to admit he’d been snooping.

“A bag with men’s clothes? What are you talking about?”

“The bag in the closet,” JC rose and opened the offending door, pulling the bag of the hook. “This bag. It has men’s clothes in it, and since you and Mr. Warrener seem to be so close, I’m taking the risk and assuming it’s his.”

“It is. He’s spent the night here a few times unexpectedly, and he left some spare clothes here in case of an emergency.”

“I don’t see anyone else’s emergency clothes here.”

Malinda gave him a sharp look. “The only other person that would ever need clothes here is Gina, and she can fit into mine. And maybe Laurel’s friends, but I’m sure they can squeeze into hers if it ever comes up.”

“So it’s never come up? Rhett’s the only one who ever spent the night?”

“Where the hell are you going with this?”

“Madison’s never spent the night at my place.”

Scoffing, Malinda retorted, “Um, excuse me, but I think Rhett and I are a little different than you and Madison.”

“How so?”

“You guys have a bit of a love-hate relationship, very sibling rivalry-ish.”

“And you and Rhett?” JC slammed the closet door.

“A protective one.”

“And what is he protecting, exactly?”

“Jesus Christ JC! What the hell do you want me to say? Do you want to hear that Rhett and I are sleeping together?”

“Are you?”

“No!”

“So why is that the first thing you would think I was asking?”

“I thought your profession was music, not psychology. That’s precisely what you were asking me, and you know it. You just wanted me to say it so you wouldn’t have to. I can’t believe I have to explain this to you. I really can’t believe it.”

“What’s so hard to believe? Every time you or Laurel open your mouth I hear something about him, you have all these little routine activities that involve him, the team seems to treat you as if you’re together, he’s spending the night, he’s got clothes here – ”

“There’s a toothbrush and a razor in there too, did you catch that while you playing Sherlock Holmes?”

“What would you think if you found Madison’s stuff all over my house?”

“Okay fine, you want the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?” Malinda was getting frustrated. She hadn’t planned on ever telling JC any of this because it wasn’t really important, but he was hell-bent on finding out everything. “When I first met Curtis, I liked him. And he was interested in me. And it didn’t bother him that I had a kid. Those events he took me to as his date? Yeah, it’s because we were dating. It went nowhere. When Rhett got here, Curtis tried to fix us up. Again, it went nowhere. I just stayed friends with both of them.”

“And while you were dating…?”

“Nothing happened, if that’s what you’re trying to find out.”

“You never answered my question.”

“What question?”

“What would you think if Madison had clothes and things stashed at my house?”

“For starters, I wouldn’t freak out like you. But I would think that she was psychotic, considering she lives next door and the odds of her being stuck at your place for any reason are slim.”

“What’s that mean?”

“We are in Buffalo, JC. Blizzards and driving bans are some things we have to deal with come wintertime. And since that means people can get stranded, we have since learned to be prepared. Like I said, Rhett left stuff here in case of an emergency. He’s used that toothbrush twice, and hasn’t needed any of those clothes. If there is a real emergency and he’s stranded here for a couple days, he’s set. Gina lives too close to really be stuck here, but if she ever is, again, she can fit in my clothes, and yes, there is a toothbrush in the bathroom with her name on it.”

“If you say so.”

“I do say so. What the hell brought this on anyway? I thought we’ve had this conversation before.”

“Actions speak louder than words. And when you’re running around acting like you belong to the guy, what you say doesn’t mean much. When we were at the bar, whoever the hell that was sitting next to you moved as soon as he saw Rhett coming, like that was his spot.”

“For starters, that is his spot. We sit together at the bar all the time. Second, that guy was at my birthday party, so he knows about you. Maybe he saw you coming and moved for you.”

“He looked at Rhett before he moved, not at me. And why did everyone else look all surprised that you had a boyfriend and it’s not Rhett?”

“Because some of them think like you do, that Rhett and I are together. And I think some of them see me so much as one of the guys that they can’t see me as a woman, they can’t picture me having a boyfriend.”

JC scoffed. “Well, if you dress like that every time you go out, I don’t think they have much of a choice in how they see you.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“Did you really have to take off the jersey to go in to the bar? Furthermore, did you really have to wear such a low-cut shirt if it was only going under a jersey?”

“Are you kidding me?” Malinda stared at JC, mouth gaping. “Every shirt I own looks like this. It’s not even that low. And yes, I had to take the jersey off. Did you see anyone else wearing one? And did you notice how warm it was in there? I would have died if I still had the jersey on.”

“While we’re on the topic, why do you have a jersey with his name on it? Why not just a plain one?”

Malinda turned and marched down the hall. “Where the hell did this asshole streak of yours come from?” she asked over her shoulder.

“Don’t walk away from me in the middle of a conversation.”

“It’s not even a conversation; it’s the damn Spanish Inquisition. Good Christ. I’m not walking away, I’m proving you wrong,” she entered her room and flung open her closet doors, pulling jerseys from their hangers to show JC. “Here, you see? I got Curtis, McKee, Maxim, Ray, May, and Barnaby. Two of these guys aren’t here anymore, and the others I feel strange wearing because of their wives and girlfriends.”

JC, temporarily silenced, formed a new plan of attack. “That still doesn’t explain all the time you two spend together – the way you act like a couple.”

“And why not, JC? Why aren’t we allowed to just be friends?”

Having no real answer, it was JC’s turn to walk away. He retreated to the living room, setting up the couch to sleep on. It still really bothered him that Malinda and Rhett were so close, but without any real, explainable reason why, he had to admit defeat in this argument. And the worst part was that tomorrow afternoon he’d be flying home and he felt horrible making his last night with Malinda so hostile.

Malinda threw her jerseys back in her closet, fuming. The nerve of JC to go into this line of questioning, even after the brief discussion out in California with Madison. She stripped off her clothes and pulled on a t-shirt, crawling into bed. She sat back against her pillows, contemplating Rhett and JC and even Curtis and her relationship with each. She was in the middle of figuring out how to change her behavior towards Rhett so as to further reassure JC that nothing else existed between them when she stopped suddenly, angered all over again, flinging her legs over the side of the bed.

“You son of a bitch,” she said to JC when she reached the living room. “Not only did you question the status of my friendship with Rhett, you just caused me to do the same. I sat in my room just now trying to figure out how I can change the way I act with Rhett. That is fucked up!”

“Seems to me you shouldn’t be worrying about it if there’s nothing to worry about, as you insist there isn’t.”

“No, what it seems to me is that I love you so much I was actually about to re-adjust my principles for you. I will never give up Rhett just to make you – or any man – happy. Which, I suppose, leaves you with two options. When you get me, you get all of me, including Laurel, Gina, Rhett, Tyler, Curtis, the bookstore, and the Sabres. You can choose to take it, or you can choose to leave it. I’ll see you in the morning,” once again, she abruptly turned her back to JC and went to her bedroom. This time, however, she closed the door behind her.

The next morning couldn’t have been more awkward. JC and Malinda avoided each other, passing each other in the hall like a couple of gunslingers, and they gracefully managed to keep their anger hidden from Laurel. JC bailed on the girls and holed up in a hotel room for the remainder of the day. Even though his goodbye to Laurel had been friendly, with her clinging to his neck and begging him to spend more time, as was her usual parting ritual, he was much more formal with Malinda. He threw his bags in the trunk, thinking she had just dumped him the night before, and she watched him get in a cab and drive off, assuming he had taken Option B. Both of them called their best friends, Joe and Gina, respectively, to tell them the same thing:

“I think it’s over. I think we just broke up.”