NOVA
The *Apex* piece dropped on a Tuesday morning.
Diane sent it to my email at 6:14 AM with a subject line that read: *We’re golden.* No body text. Just a link.
I opened it on my phone in bed. The cover loaded first. A photo from the charity gala I hadn’t known they were using. Cole in the midnight-blue tuxedo. Me in the green dress. His hand on my back. My face turned up toward his. The headline across the bottom in white serif font: HOCKEY’S MOST SURPRISING ROMANCE.
I closed the phone. Opened it again. Read the headline a second time to confirm I hadn’t hallucinated it.
I hadn’t.
The article was two pages. Diane’s draft, polished by the magazine’s editorial team, woven into a narrative that read like a love story because that was what it was designed to be. Our quotes were interl
