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The other half of a smile
Tanggal publikasi:
2026-10-17 23:37:43
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Fake Dating My Hockey Neighbor The girl in his hotel lobby
Chapter 43: The Girl in His Hotel Lobby*Sloane*I wanted to go home.I wanted it so badly that I'd packed my bag before the postgame argument was even over. I'd stood there, holding the strap, while Rhys glared at me like I'd insulted his mother, and I'd thought, *I am done. I'm getting on the first flight to New York, and I'm never speaking to this man again unless Marcus is in the room.*Then Marcus found me in the hallway with his phone in his hand and a look of deep sorrow on his face."I have bad news.""Of course you always do.""Your flight's delayed.""How long?""Four hours. Maybe five. There's a storm somewhere over Connecticut, and apparently nobody in the entire state of Massachusetts is allowed to land.""What about the team?""They have their own arrangements. They're on a charter in the morning.""And I'm on a commercial flight that's been *eaten by weather.*""Essentially."I closed my eyes. I thought about the next morning, how I'd planned to be at my desk by eight,
Fake Dating My Hockey Neighbor The game he couldn't win alone
Chapter 42: The Game He Couldn't Win Alone*Rhys*The dinner had lasted ninety-one minutes.I knew because I'd counted. Sloane had made Marcus write the terms on a napkin before she'd agree to go. Ninety minutes, no personal questions, no interviews, and an exit whenever she wanted. She'd put on a smile, shaken eleven hands, and walked out the door at 9:31 sharp, without a backward glance.It had been exhausting. Everything about her was exhausting. Contracts and clauses and *in writing, please.* I didn't see why a woman needed a legal document to eat a dinner.I'd been thinking about it all morning, lacing up my skates in a visitors' locker room in Boston, and it was ruining my concentration.Worse, so was the wolf.It has been strange lately. Whenever she crossed my mind, even for a second, it lifted its head and *listened,* like a dog hearing its name in another room. I'd stopped fighting it. It was easier to ignore it, the way you ignore a ringing in the ear.I had bigger problem
Fake Dating My Hockey Neighbor A trip neither of us wanted
Chapter 41: A Trip Neither of Us Wanted*Sloane*I'd spent the weekend staring at a silver pin.It was the size of a fingernail, on the left lapel of a dead man's jacket, and I'd zoomed in on it so many times that I could have drawn it from memory. A leaf, maybe. Or a flame. Every time I thought I had it figured out, it changed shape on me.I hadn't told Rhys, I wanted to. I'd even thought about it, For about eleven seconds, on Saturday night, I had my phone in my hand and his name on the screen. Then I'd pictured his face, cold and flat, saying *delete it,* and I'd put the phone down.If I wanted to show him, I'd choose the time and place. So on Monday morning, when Marcus appeared at my desk at the newsroom, grinning like a man who'd found a twenty-dollar bill, I was in no mood."I have wonderful news.""Oh,no…" I groaned. "You haven't heard it, why the sad face...""I don't need to. You're smiling. Nothing good has ever come from that smile.""Rhys has been invited to a major s
Fake Dating My Hockey Neighbor Two people, Two motives
Chapter 40: Two People, Two Motives*Sloane*I told everyone I wasn't nervous.I told Tessa. I told my reflection. I told the cup of coffee in my hand, which was shaking a little, and I told it twice.The standards review was set for ten o'clock Monday morning, in a small conference room with a long table and no windows. It was the kind of room built for hard conversations. Someone had put a plant in the corner, probably to make it feel friendlier. It hadn't worked."Okay," Tessa said, sliding a folder across the desk. "Let's go through it one more time."We'd been at it since seven. She'd brought bagels, and I hadn't touched mine.I opened the folder and laid everything out, in order, the way my first editor had taught me. The anonymous email that had started it all. The scan of the place card, with the five words in that small, hurried handwriting. A picture of the photograph, photographed on my kitchen table, with a ruler beside it. Every message to and from building management.
Fake Dating My Hockey Neighbor The wrong kind of distraction
Chapter 39: The Wrong Kind of Distraction*Rhys*Sloane told me my face was irritating at four o'clock.By eight, a hundred commentators had told me worse.The sports channels had been talking about nothing else for three days. *Can Calloway keep the room? Is the captain cracking? What does the new girlfriend mean for his focus?* One man in a bow tie said the C on my chest looked "a little heavy lately." I'd turned the TV off and stood in my kitchen, breathing slowly, until the urge to throw it out the window passed.Then there was Nolan Pierce.His post already had four million views. He'd followed it with an interview, a podcast, and a long, lazy grin on the cover of a magazine. Every time someone put a microphone near him, he found a new way to say it. *Too busy being a boyfriend.*I'd wanted to answer. God knew how bad I'd wanted to reply to him. That night, twelve minutes after he'd called, Evan had shown up at my door in sweatpants and one sock. He'd held out his hand without
Fake Dating My Hockey Neighbor The first thing I regretted noticing
Chapter 38: The First Thing I Regretted Noticing*Sloane*By morning, the clip had one point two million views.I knew because Marcus sent me the number at 6:04 a.m., followed by seven exclamation points and a string of tiny fireworks. I knew because Tessa sent me the same number at 6:07 with the single word *WHY.* I knew because a stranger on the subway held up her phone, pointed at the screen, then at my face, and mouthed, *Oh my gosh.*I'd had worse weeks. I just couldn't remember when.The standards office still hadn't called. My editor had stopped meeting my eyes. A new batch of records had landed on my desk, and every page seemed to say *wait.* And on top of all of that, I was supposed to spend Thursday afternoon in a team arena, smiling for photographers.Marcus called it a "small media event." I called it a hostage situation with snacks.---It was held in a side room of the arena, with a banner on one wall, a table of sad little sandwiches, and four photographers who looked
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