Page 18 of Hard to Get

“This is my teammate, Laurent,” I say. “Laurent, Stella. We have twin dogs.”

“Riiiiight.” LG beams at her. “I’ve hea⁠—”

I elbow him in the ribs. “Don’t you have clothes to try on?”

“Yeah, I just came to tell you I’m going into the fitting room.”

“Okay. I’ll be there in a few.”

Taking off the jacket, Stella says, “Okay, you sold me on this.”

She looks all boss girl again today, in a pair of black pants with a creamy satin blouse tucked into them and a black jacket.

“You should have a scarf and hat to go with it.” I point at a table piled with accessories.

“Oh my God. Maybe you should work here instead of playing hockey.”

“I’d probably get a staff discount. Could be worth it.”

She laughs again. I like making her laugh.

As she explores scarves and mitts, I say, “You can wear your new jacket tonight when you walk Betty.” Just making sure she remembers.

“I could,” she agrees with a knowing little smirk. “Well, I better pay for these and get back to the office.”

“Do you work near here?”

“Yeah. Just a couple of blocks that way.” She points. “Um, can I have my purse back?”

“Oh yeah.” I hand it over. Then stand there awkwardly. “Okay, I better try this on.” I wink at her. “See you later.”

Okay, now it has to be destiny. We ran into each other somewhere neither of us would expect to. Or is it fate? Is that the same thing? What is happening to my brain?

LG leaves the store with more new clothes than me after the sales girl flirts with him for half an hour. He also leaves with her number. Good for him.

I drop my teammate off at his place, a condo high-rise not far from mine. At home, I play with Frank with one of his tug toys, do a load of laundry, and make myself a southwest chicken and quinoa dinner. I make a lot of it, so I have meals for the next few days.

As I’m eating, I go down a rabbit hole online researching what the difference is between fate and destiny. In that pit of information, I encounter luck and serendipity. I don’t really like the idea of my future being predetermined, or the things that happen in my life as inevitable. I’d rather think I have some agency over my life.

This makes me think about my career and how shitty it’s been going the last few years. If I have agency, I’ve been doing a crap job of using it. I mean, it’s not just me; the whole team has been lousy. But… maybe I need to take ownership of my role in it.

I think about the stuff our new coach said yesterday. About leading by example. Show up, work hard, and hold each other accountable for that.

Those are exactly the things we haven’t been doing. At least, not consistently.

Huh. Okay, that little detour distracted me briefly from Stella.

Anyway, maybe it’s better to think of my meetings with Stella as luck. Or serendipity. Yeah, that fits better: finding something enjoyable or important that I wasn’t looking for. And for some reason, I do feel like meeting Stella is… well, I don’t know if important is the right word. Maybe significant? I feel like there’s some kind of meaning or reason to our encounters.

Jesus. The next thing you know, I’ll be studying up on Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud. I did take some psychology courses in university the one year I attended.

But I’m such a doubting Thomas these days. It’s weird for me to be thinking of happy coincidences.

Speaking of which, it’s time to get to the park.

7

STELLA