My Name Is... Olivia

Chapter 15

Nothing felt better than stepping on the ice on a Monday morning; what a way to start the day! The Bruins were still out in the west coast and weren't coming back until Wednesday. So I thought today would be the perfect day for Dougie to step back on the ice; that reason is because no one will be able to distract Dougie or make him get off track when he needs to be focusing on his practice.

When I got out to the ice, Dougie was already out there stretching. I stayed in the team's bench and leaned against the boards while I watched Dougie. He looked up and noticed me. "Aren't you going to stretch?" he called.

"It's not like I'll be shooting or anything," I revealed.

Dougie stood up from the ice. "Then what are we doing here?" he questioned.

I stepped on the ice and leisurely skated towards Dougie "You know the play book I gave to you last week?"

"Yeah," he nodded. "And I looked at it."

"But did you study it?"

Dougie crinkled his nose. "Study? Are we actually doing a written test about the drills instead of doing them?" he inquired.

"If you don't know the drills, you'll be useless out there," I reminded him.

Dougie stopped himself from skating into the boards and looked at me. "I know that," he assured me. "But I thought this would be one of those practices where you judge my skills and look for things to improve. I didn't think we were doing to be working on the whole playbook."

"Really though, it's not an actual playbook; more of possible scenarios," I rephrased.

"Either way," he repeated, "I didn't think we would be doing all of that today."

I stepped onto the ice and took a couple strides forward. "Well I can't do it all because I was told that I can't push you too hard." I turned to face him and patted my head with my glove. "You know because of the whole head ordeal."

"That whole accident was the best thing that has ever happened to me," he kidded.

"Hey," I spoke up, "at least when you begin team practices, everyone's going to take it easy on you for the first while."

"If they take it easy on me on the ice, they'll push me harder off the ice," he told me.

I smirked at Dougie. "Oh, your life is so hard," I teased.

Dougie smiled back at me. "I know, I sleep until ten, I have to warm up my bacon, and then I have to play hockey games until nine."

I groaned. "Eleven hour days are the worst," I said.

Dougie laughed and shook his head. "Are we doing this or did we come here for nothing?"

"Whenever you are ready, Douglas," I challenged.

With the whole rink silent it wasn't hard to ignore the ringing noise from the bench; it was my phone. I glided over to the bench and picked up my phone. Claude's name flashed on the screen. I accepted his call because I knew if I were to ignore it, we would have a very intense talk about ignoring our boss. It's not really something I want to discuss.

I looked at Dougie who paused to look at me. "Just give me a moment," I told him.

I answered Claude's call and brought the phone up against my ear. "Hello, Claude," I said.

"Where are you at this moment?" he inquired.

"The practice arena," I told him.

"Is Dougie there with you?"

I looked back to the ice and saw Dougie shooting some pucks towards the net. "Yes he's taking some shots to the net right now," I assured him.

"Is he holding up well?"

"Um..." What was he talking about?

"I mean is he complaining about his head? Has he stopped doing a drill because his head is throbbing?"

"I haven't pushed him too hard," I informed Claude. "But I'm pushing him hard enough."

"Hard enough?"

"I don't know what his limits are yet. I don't want to push him too hard," I explained.

I continued to watch Dougie shoot at the net. "Alright I was just checking in," he told me. "We'll be back in a couple days, make sure the fort is held down until I get back."

"Do you not trust me?" I questioned.

"It's not that I don't trust you, Olivia," said Claude. "It's just that you don't have enough qualifications to be the head of an NHL team."

"Thanks for softening my hurt feelings, Claude," I joked.

He laughed, "Anytime."

"You should be the team's motivator instead of coach," I kidded.

"No I'm not doing that," he assured me.

"Good because you're not very good at it," I jabbed.

"You should probably hang up before you say something that I really do not like," he warned.

"Alright, goodbye Claude," I said.

"See you soon, Olivia." I hung up.

I skated back towards Dougie and stooped when I realized if I got any closer, I will most likely get hit by Dougie's stick. Dougie straightened his spine when I approached him. "What?" I questioned.

Dougie's eyebrows were sagged. "Olivia I respect you," he told me. "Trust me I really do. But I can't remember, alright? I can't remember what's happened between us and it annoys me." He skated closer to me. "I don't care if it hurts me to know the truth. I don't mind if you begin to cry while telling me. If it was something I did, I'm sorry-"

"It was all me," I informed him.

"Whatever the reason, I want to know Olivia. I want to know now because the sooner you get this over, the less I'll aggravate you; the quicker the burden will disappear."

I shook my head; tears began to rush to my eyes. "No," I said. "I'm not going to tell you because no matter how long I wait to tell you, the hurt's still going to be there. I feel guilty for doing what I did to you and the guilt won't disappear because you say it does."

He skated closer to me and reached his gloved hand towards me. I pushed his hand away from me. "Dougie," I shook my head, "don't push it."

I turned around and skated back to the boards, I clutched my phone and headed back to the change room with more guilt upon my shoulders than before.