The Hot Hockey Single Dad Is My Roommate

Chapter 1

IVY

I've always loved the season of Christmas. The smell of roses, the lingering scent of roasted chestnut and the way every street corner glows with lights. It was comforting and familiar, the kind of season that makes you believe everything could end well. Christmas had come and gone, and the New Year was only a few hours away. Normally, it filled me with warmth, hope and a soft kind of ease.

Tonight, I decided I would let my worries wait. Work had been exhausting lately, worse than usual. For the past three years at the sports management company, I had poured myself into every project, hoping to finally move forward. Instead, I'd been stuck doing endless overtime work, handling small and meaningless tasks. Every day felt like a reminder that the promotion I wanted wasn't coming.

Some days, I seriously thought about quitting. But right now, I didn't want to think about any of that. Tonight, I wanted to laugh, toast to the New Year with my boyfriend, and forget everything else.

Nathan and I have been together for two years. I met him through my mother's childhood friend. Since my Dad left before I was born, my mother had been convinced that the only way I could avoid the mistake she made was to marry early and not end up a single mother like her. I grew up imagining what life would have been like with two parents. I cried in school whenever they had "Bring Your Dad" events and I had no one to bring. Other kids laughed at me. teachers looked at me with pity. And my Mom never once asked how any of it made me feel.

To her Nathan is the perfect, responsible, dependable and the kind of man any mother would want for her daughter. And honestly, part of me believed her because my relationship with Nathan was a rocky start. Until recently that comfort has been laced with small disagreement and tension with Nathan business not going well. I still believe it could be sorted out. Maybe tonight Nathan and I could hit the reset button.

However, what I didn't expect is to have all hopes shattered when I walked in on my boyfriend and my cousin making out in bed. The same person I was planning on celebrating New Year with. The same girl I had asked for advice on what to gift my boyfriend just this morning because I wasn't able to get a gift on time. And now I'm watching them eat each other up.

"Yeah, keep going. You're everything she isn't," Nathan grunted pining her more to the bed. Something sharp hit my chest. Anger, betrayal, and a sting of disappointment. I had come here to share my burden of worries with him. So this was the reason why he was acting weird lately and not giving our relationship much respect. Because he was seeing another woman. And that with someone I know?

I felt hot and cold mixed together thinking about all the times I should have think well. But I chose to foolishly listen to my mother narratives on getting married before I turned twenty-five.

I didn't walk away. Instead, I pushed the door open, slamming it hard against the wall. They jumped apart instantly. Nathan jerked back while Lana scrambled off him, grabbing the sheets to cover her nakedness.

"Ivy? What the hell are you doing here?"

"I should be the one asking that. Having s*x with my cousin huh? Really?"

I expected that gentle Nathan to be shocked. That's the first thing a thief does when caught. But Nathan did none of that. Instead, he scoffed.

"Oh please. Don't start with your drama, Ivy. Christmas is over."

"Drama?" I chuckled bitterly walking further inside. Everything in me was telling me to throw something at him. But I held my anger, just for a bit. "You're sleeping with my cousin, and you call me walking in on you a drama?"

He rolled his eyes. "Maybe if you weren't so cheap, I wouldn't be doing this."

Cheap? I clenched my fist, looking around the room for anything solid. I might seriously break his head.

"You and your mother forced me into this stupid relationship. Always pushing marriage like you're some perfect wife material when you're not even good in bed. Do you know how embarrassing that is?"

My chest burned with anger and everything possible.

"Get out!" I yelled. "Both of you get out!"

"This is my house!" Nathan yelled back "Do yourself good and get the f**k out of my house you bitch."

A weight crashed in my chest. How could he be this pretentious?

"How dare you!" I lunged forward to punch his face, but he caught my hand midair and flung it away.

"No how dare you. You and your mother needs therapy."

Lana laughed. "Honestly, Ivy. You should've seen the signs. The poor man needs someone fun not a miss too smart shoe."

A flame shot up my spine. "Shut up, Lana. Just...shut up." She has no right to say all that about me. When she has nothing solid to back her life up.

There was no point in trying to make whatever relationship we had work. No need to think about spending New Year when I've already gotten a New Year gift in form of a heartbreak. I swallowed and glared at Nathan. "You're an asshole. And from today onwards, we are done."

Clenching my fist, I turned around and walked out without a second glance.

By the time I got back to my apartment, the festive lights in my living room felt dimmer. I dropped my bag on the floor, and sank onto the couch. The blanket from the morning was still there and my laptop sat on the coffee table, staring at me.

My phone pinged with a notification in my palm. A text from my boss.

"Ivy, I need the sponsorship document from last week. Forward it as soon as possible,"

I didn't want to spend another year like this. Unseen. Overworked. Unappreciated. And I definitely wasn't going to work on New Year's Eve.

"Whatever," I muttered to myself as I pulled my laptop up and opened my email page. Blank, empty, waiting.

Work has drained me. Nathan had cheated. My mother wanted marriage before I turned into her version of a disappointment. And here I was, alone on a New Year's Eve with a cold apartment and a bruised heart.

Yeah. I was done

I typed out my resignation letter. Short and direct. And before I could talk myself out of it, I hit send. At that exact moment, the clock on my wall changed to 12:00. Midnight.

Fireworks exploded in the distance echoing through the cold air outside. My whole apartment lit up for a second from the glow.

People everywhere cheering, celebrating, kissing. And I sat there alone on my couch, watching the colors burst across the sky through my window.

A new year had begun. And I was starting it completely alone and jobless.

**

The sound of my phone vibrating somewhere near my elbow, dragged me out of sleep. My neck ached, my back was stiff and my memory was still very much stacked with last night event. I groaned and reached blindly until my fingers closed around the phone.

My eyes squinted at the caller ID. Mr. Harland. My boss. Well—ex-boss now.

"I really didn't want the first call I get on New Year's day to be from him." I muttered.

I considered ignoring the call. Let him leave a voicemail telling me I'm irresponsible or unprofessional or whatever employers say when you quit on a holiday. But I was awake anyway, so I slide answer.

"Hello-"

"Ivy. Check your email. Right now!"

Confused, I shoved the blanket off my legs and pulled my laptop closer. A bold new email sat in my inbox, fresh and unread.

The subject line made me sit up straighter.

CONGRATULATIONS — NEW POSITION APPROVED

"What...?" My heartbeat picked up as I clicked it open.

You have been hired as PR Strategist for the Chicago Blitz Sports Management Team. Report to the client's residence as soon as possible. Contract and address attached below.

I stared at the screen. A new position? A PR strategist? Me?

I had resigned. I was sure of it. So why? My eyes drifted down to the sender. Not Mr. Harland. Corporate. A different company.

So instead of losing my job... I'd been transferred into a new department overnight?

I rubbed my eyes and read it again. The attached contract was also there and a file labeled "Tricky problem". It was real.

"Oh my God." A laugh escaped me. "My New Year might actually not start up terribly."

A sudden energy surged through me. I needed a shower, a coffee, and a moment to process the fact that I wasn't unemployed. In fact.... I'd just leveled up to a big sports company.

**

The Uber dropped me off in front of a massive black-gated mansion. The kind of place that screamed money and privacy. I double checked the address on my phone again.

Yep. This was it.

The instruction in the email had been annoyingly vague. "Assist the client with an urgent reputation matter" and "Requires immediate, in-person support."

Honestly, I barely skimmed the details. I had clicked accept and signed the contract before my brain was fully awake. Who cares about client's profile when you were newly single, newly jobless and desperate for a new beginning? Work was work. And a sport management team was practically home turf for me.

Beside...if the client had a tricky problem, well...good. I was tired, angry and in the perfect mood to fix someone else's chaos.

I pressed on the doorbell having reaching the client's floor. For the first few seconds nothing happened. I was about to press again when the door swung open. And the world stopped. Standing there, shirtless, tattooed and looking like every bad decision wrapped in muscle was Cole Dawson.

For a full second, I genuinely thought my vision was messing with me. Maybe low blood sugar. Maybe sleep deprived. Maybe the universe playing its final joke on me. My breath caught somewhere between my ribs as I instinctively unlocked my phone, scrolling through the client's profile I had ignored earlier.

His name was written in bold. Cole Dawson. The star Ice hockey player. My client. But that wasn't why my heart jumped into my throat. It wasn't about him being my client. But because Cole Dawson was my high school crush. The same guy who spent most of those years being annoyingly aloof, distant, and impossible to read. The kind of boy who could make you feel seen and ignored at the same time. Tall, talented, and handsome. He was the boy everyone liked—including me. He was the popular one while I was the quite girl who liked him from far away and hated rejected too much to even try confessing.

Cole dragged his gaze over me from top to bottom, slow and for a moment I thought I'd see a flicker of recognition on his face. But something unexpected happened. He shut the door on my face. I blinked at the polished wood, jaw dropping open.

What just happened? Did Cole Dawson, my client just slammed the door in my face? I stood there, completely frozen, my hands hanging at my sides as shock settled low at the pit of my stomach.