I’m pretty sure there were only two ways
Crazy Hair could have looked better than he had at O’Callaghan’s. The first was
as he did right now: sitting on a bench in the locker room wearing nothing but
the lower half of his uniform, including his skates, sweat rolling over his
sinewy pecs and creating a happy trail all the way into his hockey pants.
The second way—I can only assume—would be if
he were completely naked.
“Aleksandr, this is Auden Berezin. She will
be your translator.”
“I don’t need a translator.”
I almost laughed, because he’d said he
didn’t need a translator in Russian.
“You must talk with the media at some point,
Sasha. They’re riding my ass to get better answers from you than ‘was good
game."
Aleksandr Varenkov, hot Russian hockey god,
laughed, showing the perfect set of white teeth I’d noticed at the bar.
“You have your teeth in, but you haven’t
even showered yet?” Orlenko asked.
Was Orlenko a mind reader? I sure hope not,
because I would be fired for thinking about my client naked.
“I wanted to look good for pictures.”
Aleksandr winked at me. Then he stood, and drops of sweat raced down the hard
planes of his chest.
I’d never been so envious of perspiration in
my life.
“Sometimes I talk in the shower. Will she
translate for me in there?”
My cheeks began to burn, so I averted my
eyes, lowering them to the black Cyrillic script tattooed down his sides, then
thought better of that line of sight and studied the soiled beige carpet below
my feet.
“Aleks—” Orlenko sighed, rubbing his
forehead.
“Zhenya,” Aleksandr began. “You know I’m
kidding, yes?” He shoved a towel onto the shelf above his nameplate and walked
away without waiting for an answer.
“Yes,” Orlenko hissed. He’d said it under
his breath, but I heard him and wondered what my grandpa had gotten me into.
“Well, that was Aleksandr Varenkov, your client. He’s a talented player and a
good man. But he can be a little—”
“Douchey?” I offered in English. I shouldn’t
have said it, considering Grandpa’s professional reputation was in my hands.
Then again, Evgeny Orlenko was Grandpa’s friend first, so maybe he wouldn’t be
too hard on me. Besides, Grandpa knew what kind of mouth I had, and he’d sent
me for the job anyway.
Orlenko laughed, and continued in Russian. “Wild was the word I was looking for, but
your adjective may not be that far off.”
“I’ve got it, Mr. Orlenko.”
“Are you sure?” He inspected me through
thick black-rimmed glasses that were too small for his puffy face.
“As a college student with an active social
life, I’ve learned how to handle arrogant douche bags.” This time I was being
paid to handle one.\
“I shouldn’t be having this conversation
about one of my clients,” Mr. Orlenko said, his lips quirking up, then back
into a tight line. At least he was trying
to keep a straight face.
“You’re like a breath of fresh air, Audushka. I
hope you stay that way even with his off-ice antics.”
Off-ice
antics? What the hell did that mean and why would I
have to deal with them? “Will I have to hang out with him outside of the arena?
I thought I was here to translate for media interviews after games and some
practices.”
“Aleksandr speaks very little English. He’ll
need your assistance in all aspects of his career; interviews, community
service. At least, until he gets acclimated. Vitya said you were here for the
month, is that correct?”
“Yep. All of winter break.”
“You’ll be putting in a lot of hours.”
“I’m a hard worker. And I need the cash. Got
cut from the soccer team, and I have to replace the scholarship money I lost.”
I was running my mouth again. Maybe I did need to tone it down.
“Well, I’m sorry to hear that. The being-cut
part.” He cleared his throat. “Here’s my card. I wrote my cell number on the
back. If you have any trouble or if Aleksandr makes you uncomfortable in any
way, please give me a call.”
“Thanks.” I scanned the card wondering if I
should try to memorize his number now, since I wasn’t sure how stable this client
sounded.
After Orlenko left the locker room, I
realized I hadn’t asked him what I should do next, and he hadn’t given me
instructions as to where I should wait while Aleksandr showered. Since I wasn’t
part of the media, I was extremely aware of being the intruder standing in a
room of half-naked men. A shower shouldn’t take very long, so I dug my e-reader
out of my messenger bag and sat down on the stool that Aleksandr had just
vacated.
“Ewww.” I jumped up and skimmed my palm
against my damp backside. Hadn’t even thought about any runaway sweat that
might’ve dripped from Aleksandr’s lean, hard body onto the stool.
Stop.
Just stop thinking about the shiny, wet flesh covering his impeccably carved
frame.
