Off the Record : Episode 2

“Hot Mics and Off Limits”

Larry wasn’t eavesdropping.

Not technically. He just happened to be standing close enough to the rink’s media balcony to hear every word Mel was muttering into her headset.

“…yes, Joel Cross… yes, he’s wearing the jersey… no, he still looks like someone nicked his dog. He’s got that face.”

Larry sipped his coffee, trying not to smile.

Day two and Joel was already something of a legend among the admin staff. Not because he was rude — he wasn’t — but because he managed to look quietly furious even when he was just holding a protein bar.

Mel appeared beside him with a clipboard and a sigh. “He just growled at the team photographer.”

Larry raised an eyebrow. “Actual growl?”

“Low noise. Very canine.”

“Excellent.”

Mel shook her head, French accent curling the vowels. “Why are the pretty ones always the most cursed?”

Larry didn’t answer. Because, in fairness, she had a point.

Joel was intense. And not in the edgy-brooding-boy way most athletes tried to curate online. He was quiet in the way that came from grief, or hurt, or something that didn’t want company.

Which made it all the more surprising when, just after the press bit wrapped, Joel crossed the hallway and handed Larry a spare energy bar.

“Didn’t think you’d eaten.”

Larry blinked. “Is this a bribe?”

Joel gave him a look. “No. You just looked… busy.”

Larry accepted it. “You’re oddly considerate for someone who growls before noon.”

Joel cracked a grin — brief, again. Then he was off down the corridor toward the changing room, just like that.

Mel, who had witnessed the entire exchange, hissed, “You’re in trouble.”

Larry stared at the snack in his hand.

He wasn’t sure if she meant trouble as in flirting with a new player, or trouble as in the way something begins to matter before you meant it to.

But she wasn’t wrong.

He was definitely in trouble.