Page 43 of Hard to Get

“I do. I have a barbecue on the balcony. I like to hand rub my meat.”

“Oh my God.”

“What? It’s a great rub recipe. The secret ingredient is coffee.”

I’m intrigued. “That sounds good. What’s your favourite steakhouse?”

“The Original Cow is good. Also Beef it Up.”

My mouth falls open. “That’s not a real place.”

“It should be. Also, Steak it Easy. T-Bone or Not T-Bone.”

I crack up.

“That is the question,” he adds. “What’s your opinion on boning?”

I slide my head side to side, grinning like a fool. “Funny. That is some prime humour.”

“Ha!” He grins with delight. “Good one!”

As we eat our lunch, I notice a family sitting at a table across the room looking over at us. The two young boys look excited, bouncing in their seats and whispering.

“I think you’ve been recognized.” I nod at the family.

“Yeah?” He doesn’t look.

“I just saw the mom pull one of the kids back. I think they’re trying not to interrupt your meal.”

“That’s considerate.”

“I suppose fans aren’t always.”

“Usually, they are. There’s always a few that are a little, uh, over-eager. More so since we’ve been losing so much.” He grimaces.

“I guess they get frustrated.”

“I get it. We’re all frustrated. And we play for them, right? So they have a right to be pissed off. Hockey’s the only big sport in this city, so it gets a lot of attention.”

“We do have women’s hockey now.”

“Yeah! And that’s great.”

“Right? Do you go to games?”

“I haven’t, but I want to. We could do that.”

Another future suggestion. “We could. That would be fun.”

“I can call the play by play and you can talk stats.”

“Yes! I totally could.”

“You’re really into this stats business, aren’t you?”

I grin at him. “You’re just realizing that now?”

“No. I’m just understanding it more, I guess.”