Trade Deadline - Avon Gale Page 0,10
his seats were way up high, but he’d cheered when everyone else did, and even bought himself a souvenir T-shirt. And maybe he’d gotten sort of into the playoffs last year, when the Venom had won the Stanley Cup—but why did the playoffs take literal years?—and he’d laughed, thinking about how Danny once wrapped up an old fancy wineglass of his mom’s in aluminum foil and carried it around for the day. He’d explained you got a day with the Cup and a parade when you won, so Micah had dutifully thrown some confetti at him while Daniel propped the “Cup” in a wagon and dragged it behind him while waving to their neighbors.
“Dude, you okay?” Cody, one of the newest full-time staff members, interrupted Micah’s reminiscing. Which he was doing standing stock-still in the elevator. “You know how these work, right? You take them, and then you get out of them? It involves buttons. I can show you, if you’re having trouble.”
“Ha, ha. Yeah, I just...got some news. Kinda?” Micah laughed and shook his head. He held his phone out, which showed the Instagram post of Daniel Bellamy’s that started his whole trip down memory lane and inability to leave the small confines of the elevator.
The image showed Daniel grinning and wearing a Miami Thunder jersey with his name and number. Not every day you get to go home and play for the team that started your love of the game. I’ll miss my Venom boys and the ATL crew, but excited to see where the future takes me at home in Miami!
“You’re a hockey fan?” Cody asked, blinking. “Or is it just ’cause that guy’s hot?”
Micah raised his eyebrows.
“I mean.” Cody shrugged. “Toxic masculinity sucks, that’s a good-looking dude. Not your type?”
“He was my best friend when we were kids,” Micah said.
“No way, that’s cool. I don’t know anyone famous.” Cody paused. “Wait, no. I think a girl I went to high school with was on America’s Next Top Model but she got kicked off on the second episode or something for not wanting to cut her hair. So I’m not sure that counts.”
“I don’t know how famous hockey players are, but yeah, it’s pretty cool.” Micah, who had finally made it off the elevator, slid his phone in his pocket. “I mean, I haven’t talked to him in years, but we were pretty close as kids.”
“Get him to come here and sign some autographs,” Cody said. He worked in marketing and communications, and was from Iowa. When Micah first took him swimming with the dolphins, Cody had paused beside the water, looked right at Micah and said, are they supposed to be this big, are you sure they’re not sharks?
Micah liked Cody. He was, like most everyone who worked at the aquarium, open-minded, friendly, and more inclined to want to know what people were doing that day for lunch than who they slept with. Micah never made a secret he was gay, and so far, no one had even given an inkling they had a problem with it. Definitely not Cody, whose girlfriend was getting her masters in women and gender studies at the University of Miami.
“I’ll get right on that,” Micah said. “Right after I remind him who I am.”
“Nah, you never forget your childhood bestie, man. That’s what social media is for! Send him a message or something.”
Micah shook his head. “Do you know how many messages those guys must get? I bet they don’t even read them. Hell, we get enough weird ones on the Instagram for a dolphin, I think I’ll pass.”
“What kind?” Cody made a face. “Never mind, I probably don’t want to know, huh?”
“Mostly just porn bots, I think,” said Micah.
“You don’t think a dolphin getting solicited for sex is weird?” Cody slid a grin at him. “Micah.”
“You know what I mean, bots aren’t—they’re not real, and more people try to buy the dolphin than anything.”
“Yeah? How much?” Cody rubbed his hands together. “I’ve got my eye on a house with a pool.”
Micah just laughed. “I think Silver would be more trouble than he’s worth, but don’t tell him I said that.”
“I won’t. Hey!” Cody snapped his fingers. “We could go to a game, yeah? I think we get discount tickets, but, uh. The Thunder kinda suck, dude. No offense,” he added quickly, as if Micah owned them or had some strong opinion about the team. “I know about hockey. I can repay you for not making fun of me for