Queen II Barzal

Chapter Thirty-One: Tyler

"Asshole knows," I told Nick when I got back to Seattle.

"How the fuck does he know?" Nick asked.

"I don't know," I said. "He saw us kissing at the mall,"

I buried my face in my hands.

"What the hell am I gonna do?" I asked. "God knows what he'll do with that information. For fucks sake, he tried to blackmail me!"

"He did? Are you okay?" Nick asked.

"I told him no and he made a realization that we don't want to be the twenty-twenty-one Sabres,"

"Is there anyone that would?" Nick asked with a chuckle.

"I don't think so," I said. "It's why Hall left and did surprisingly better with the Bruins that season,"

"You remember hockey from that long ago?" Nick asked.

"Basically, hockey stories from my dad are like history lessons," I said. "He tells these stories about how he played against Ovi and Crosby, how he scored against Carey Price, and how the Sabres had an eighteen game streak of not winning a game,"

"Damn," He said. "Your dad is so fucking cool,"

"He's the best," I said.

"Do you remember who broke the Sabres streak?" He asked.

"The Philadelphia Flyers," I said. "It was an embarrassing season for them, too. My dad was friends with Carter Hart, but he wasn't a fan of some of the other guys,"

"That's so cool," He said. "Now you get to have your own stories,"

"You're right," I smiled. "And I could tell my kids about the time that I played the Mathew Barzal in the NHL,"

"Damn, I forgot about that, it's pretty cool how you get to play against your dad," Nick said.

"It really is," I said. "He said that he's not retiring until we play one game against each other,"

"That's cute," He said.

"My dad has been like a best friend to me since I was born," I said.

"I'm going to have a tough time actually telling him that we're together when we get the chance," He laughed.

"He likes you... I think," I said.

"You think?" He asked, laughing.

"I don't know, we've never talked about you," I said.

"That's fair," He said. "We don't want to seem too suspicious,"

I let out a small sigh.

"Are you okay, baby?" He asked.

"I hate keeping this from him," I said. "Especially being held with that secret against me,"

"Oh," He gave me a hug and started rubbing my back. "Everything will be okay,"

After a few months of back and forth, I was back in Buffalo for practice again. I was exhausted, dragging my things back to my new townhouse. I threw myself on the bed and fell asleep right away. When I got up for practice, I showered and got dressed. I went straight to the rink a little early to get in a little warm-up.

The team started showing up a bit later and we took some laps to warm up. I had a good practice, slightly getting along with Asshole. We weren't friends, but he wasn't bitching at me anymore.

After practice, Asshole asked if he could talk to me in private. What the hell does he want this time?

"Yeah, we're alone, what do you want?" I asked in a bitchy tone.