Chapter 2: Aftermath
2707 Words
I didn't take Sawyer's hand.
Not because I didn't want to. My whole body was still shaking, and something about grabbing onto a man I'd known for exactly four minutes felt like falling one more time.
"I can't go out there," I said, glancing toward the tunnel entrance where the noise of the crowd kept building. "Everyone will be looking for me."
"Then we don't go that way." Sawyer nodded toward a side door marked STAFF ONLY. "There's an exit near the equipment room. Nobody uses it during games."
"You just happen to know that?"
"I've played in this arena for six years. I know every exit in the building." He said it plainly, no bragging in it, just fact. "Come on."
I followed him. My phone buzzed in my pocket over and over, notifications stacking faster than I could process. I didn't look. I already knew what I'd find.
The side door led to a narrow hallway lit by a single flickering bulb, then out into the players' parking lot. Cold air hit my face and I finally let myself breathe.
"Thank you," I said. "For back there."
"You don't have to thank me." Sawyer leaned against the wall beside the door, arms crossed, watching me the way someone watches to make sure a person is actually steady before they walk away. "Do you have somewhere to go tonight? Because I'm guessing your place isn't an option."
He was right. Derek's name was on the lease. Derek's name was on half my life.
"I'll figure it out," I said.
"That's not an answer."
I looked up at him, irritated and grateful at the same time, which was a strange combination to feel about the same person in the same minute. "Why do you care?"
"I told you already." His eyes didn't leave mine. "I've wanted a reason since preseason. I'm not going to waste it by letting you sleep in your car."
My face went hot despite the cold air. "I have a friend I can call."
"Good." He pulled his own phone from his gear bag and held it out. "Call her from here. I'll wait until she picks you up."
I stared at him. "You don't have a game to play?"
"I have four minutes before warmups end." A ghost of a smile crossed his mouth. "I'll live."
*****
Priya picked me up eleven minutes later, still in her scrubs from a hospital shift, horrified expression already fixed on her face before she even got out of the car.
"I saw it," she said, pulling me into a hug before I could say anything. "Everyone saw it. Nora, I'm so sorry."
Over her shoulder, I watched Sawyer jog back toward the arena doors, stick in hand, already shifting back into game mode like the last fifteen minutes hadn't happened.
He glanced back once before he disappeared inside.
I didn't understand the feeling that settled in my chest when he did. It didn't belong there. Not tonight, not with my life still smoking from the wreckage Derek had left behind.
"Who was that?" Priya asked as we pulled out of the lot.
"Sawyer Kane."
Her head snapped toward me so fast she nearly missed the turn. "The Sawyer Kane? Derek's Sawyer Kane?"
"He's not Derek's anything."
"Nora." She said my name like a warning and an apology at once. "You cannot be seen with your ex's rival forty minutes after your ex cheated on live television. The internet will eat you alive."
"I'm aware," I said quietly, watching the city lights blur past the window. "I was there for the live-television part."
She reached over and squeezed my hand, and neither of us said anything else the rest of the drive.
*****
By the time I turned my phone back on that night, the video had over four million views.
My name was trending. Derek's name was trending. Even Bianca's name was trending, mostly attached to words I wouldn't repeat out loud.
I scrolled through comment after comment, my stomach twisting tighter with every one.
‘She didn't even know. Poor girl.’
‘Derek Vance is trash confirmed.’
’Wait who was the guy who showed up at the end???’
That last question had over ten thousand replies.
Someone had captured the moment Sawyer stepped in front of me. Someone had captured every second of it, slowed down, zoomed in, captioned with hearts and question marks and ‘the way he looked at her.’
I closed the app and set the phone face down on Priya's coffee table like it might bite me.
My real phone, the one I never gave to reporters, buzzed once more.
Unknown number.
‘This is Sawyer. Got your number from the trainer's office roster before you ask how. Are you okay?’
I stared at the message for a long moment before I typed back.
‘How did you know I'd want you to have my number?’
‘I didn't. I wanted mine in your phone in case you needed it. Delete it if you want.’
I didn't delete it.
‘I'm okay,’ I wrote instead. ‘Or I will be. Thank you again. For tonight.’
‘You don't have to keep thanking me.*’
‘I know. I'm doing it anyway.’
There was a pause long enough that I thought the conversation had ended. Then:
‘We won tonight. 4-1. Beat your ex's team on his own ice, the night his life fell apart. Small mercies.’
Despite everything, I laughed. It surprised me, how easily it came.
‘Did you plan that?’
‘No. But I won't pretend I didn't enjoy it.’
Another message followed before I could respond.
‘I have a proposition for you. Not tonight. When you're ready. Just think about it.’
‘What kind of proposition?’
‘The team's looking for a new head trainer. Ours quit last month. I think you'd be good at it. Better than good.’
I sat up straighter on Priya's couch. "You're offering me a job three hours after my life exploded?"
I hadn't meant to say it out loud. Priya glanced over from the kitchen, eyebrows raised.
‘I'm not offering you pity,’ Sawyer wrote, as if he'd heard me anyway. ‘I'm offering you an escape hatch. Whether you take it is up to you.’
I looked at the message for a long time, thumb hovering over the keyboard.
Three hours ago, my whole life had a shape. A boyfriend. A team I traveled with. A future I thought I understood.
Now none of that existed anymore, and the only steady thing in the wreckage was a man I'd known for less than a day.
‘I'll think about it,’ I finally wrote.
‘That's all I'm asking.’
I set the phone down again, heart pounding for reasons that had nothing to do with Derek at all.
My real phone buzzed one more time before I could sleep.
A text from Derek.
‘We need to talk. I'm outside your apartment.’
I sat up fast, pulse spiking. Derek didn't know I was staying at Priya's.
He was standing outside an apartment that wasn't mine anymore, waiting for a version of me that no longer existed.
- Writer
