Holiday Hockey Tale The Icebreaker's Impasse (By Ivory Row) novel Chapter 46

Stormi

“Coach Franklin Humphies?” I ask as I push the door open when he calls out to come in.

“Yes.” Great. He sounds testy and grumpy already.

“I’m Stormi Britton, here from the Kenton Gazette to interview you. We have an appointment.” I try to remind him he consented to this.

“Oh right, the female perspective bullshit. If girls want to watch the game, they can. Not sure why they need you to give your opinion. Girls can be raised to appreciate sports.”

I ask him questions about his hopes for the team. How he thinks they will fare after this year when they lose most of their offensive line to graduation. He answers begrudgingly the entire time. Here I thought I was asking real sports questions and not some fluff female piece, but his attitude acts like I inquired about his favorite nail polish color.

“And to end, would you like to tell our readers anything about your family? I’m sure they are very supportive of you and the team.”

His jaw clamps together as his hands ball into fists. “Why are you asking about my family? Did that little b***h put you up to it?”

“I’m sorry? What are you talking about?” I lean away and show my confusion. “Readers like to know about a man’s family when devotes a lot of his time to his career. It gets some of the highest responses in our articles when male or female reporters write about it.”

“I don’t talk about my f*****g family. You got your damn waste of time interview. Now get out. And if you’re smart Miss Britton, you’ll find new friends. I heard who you’ve been hanging around with.” He stands up and opens his door without looking at me. I hurry to grab my things and get out. The whole way out of the stadium, I’m glancing over my shoulder. On the way back to the paper office, my mind is racing about how he knows I’m friends with Luci. Not that his words are going to stop me. She’s the sweetest person and Syd is too. I finally found a group of girls not waiting for me to fall on my face and they aren’t catty about every other female we see. The puck bunnies we make fun of, but honestly, they write their own jokes.

I sigh as I think about typing up that asshole in a favorable light. Going to be a lot more work than I was hoping for. All I really wanted to do today was get ready for the hockey game tonight to watch the four kings play with my friends and two sweet little boys.

“Was he an ass?” Mike asks me as I sit down at my desk to begin typing this up.

“Beyond an ass. What would you call that? Maybe a rectal toad.” I say with a grimace.

Mike snickers. “He’s a jerk. What did he say to you?”

“Sexist drivel, called me honey a few times and even said he forgot he needed to break things down easier for me. I wanted to punch him in the face. He got all defensive when I asked him about his family, explaining to him that’s something women like to read about.”

Mike winces. “No one’s told you, I guess. You did just move here.” He stares down at his desk awkwardly.

“Well, are you going to tell me now?” I finally ask with impatience. “Don’t set me up like that unless you plan to finish.”

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