Puck Off!

Chapter 7

The following morning, I sat across from Ella in Finagle a Bagel, a nice bagel shop in Boston that was also incredibly distracting. I tried for what seemed to be the millionth time to get her attention while Ella stared transfixed at the bagel slicer, and finally gave up. One of the joys of this bagel shop was that after you ordered your bagel, they would toss it onto a little conveyer belt that ran across the service window and down to an automatic slicer that was like a circular saw that then both cut the bagel and shot it the rest of the way down the line to the worker who would then toast the bagel and provide the toppings. It was quite the draw for kids, who would stand transfixed while watching bagel after bagel go for a ride and cheer on the slicer.

It was also a draw for Ella, who was still a kid at heart. "That is the coolest thing ever!"

"The bagels are pretty good too," I pointed out while taking a bite of my everything bagel slathered in cream cheese.

"Mmmm. Good point!" She finally turned her attention back to the food and took a sip of her coffee before taking a bite of her own bagel. "So, what was it you were blathering on about?"

"I was saying, please don't mention my owning the building or the restaurants tonight. I'll share that information with Iryna on my own when I'm ready to."

She shrugged while nodding at that. "I don't think it will matter, but whatever you like. I'll try to keep my tongue."

"And here I thought you were going to try to give that to Elske," I joked. Honestly, I wasn't sure if that was a thing or not. We hadn't talked much after the shakes last night since Ella almost fell asleep on the subway as the rocking made her a lot more relaxed than normal.

"I don't think so. I'm pretty sure she's straight, and romance on the team is probably frowned on in case of a breakup."

"You never know. She seems like she'd be a good friend at least." Hell, even had Iryna not mentioned Elske liking Ella, I could tell on my own! How did she not see it?

"For sure, yeah!" Ella agreed. "She was a lot of fun to hang out with last night. And she's only a freshman so we could be hanging out for a few years. I'd like that."

"Sounds like another reason to come here to BC then." I really hoped the tour would be the final factor, since the other tour had gone so poorly.

She smiled broadly, nodding in agreement. "Honestly, I think the tour is almost a formality right now. I felt so comfortable last night with Elske and Iryna, that knowing that those would be my teammates and friends makes me want to move here tomorrow!"

I was happy for her. Ella had always been tight with her teammates growing up, so for her to already have that camaraderie before even enrolling probably gave her a sense of security. "Well then let's go take that tour and then you can hopefully give your new teammates the good news."

The train wasn't too packed for a Saturday morning, but Ella was more jittery than I'd ever seen her. I was so excited for her, seeing her future come into shape. I'd felt the same thing when I got my first job at Newberry out of college and knew that I was going to be successful at it. Now it was her turn. She was going to be at college and living her life. Yeah, she'd be living with me, but she wouldn't have the security of being at home with mom and dad, and it would be an adjustment to be in a new city.

We got to the campus a little bit early, but that just gave us a chance to go into the student bookstore and grab a few BC tee shirts. We hadn't even started the tour yet, and we were already charmed by the campus. The smile on Ella's face let me know that this was going to be an easy decision.