The Fear Is Paralyzing

Quinn was more nervous now than she had ever been in her life. She wasn’t looking forward to meeting the team, and she definitely wasn’t looking forward to being introduced as the new team owner. She had no doubt in her mind that the guys were never going to take her seriously. She was a young, blonde woman, and she would bet anything that the majority of the team wouldn’t be able to look past her boobs in order to hear what she was saying.
 
She parked in the parking lot and got out of her car, waiting for Noah to meet her. He had driven separately, knowing he would have to go into work later in the day, and he didn’t want Quinn to be stranded at the arena with no way to get home. He pulled up next to her a few minutes later, and she looked around the parking lot to see there were quite a few cars there. She knew she was going to meet them after their practice, so she assumed most of the cars belonged to the players.
 
“We’re meeting Mario, the other owner, first,” Quinn told Noah as they made their way to the entrance of Consol Energy Center. “I’m not sure if there’s going to be anybody else there,” she continued as a security guard stopped them.
 
“Sorry, this is a closed practice,” the man said. Quinn knew the man was just doing his job, but she had hoped to get through the place without being stopped. She wasn’t sure how to approach the situation.
 
“Um, I’m Quinn Layman,” she began.
 
“And, I’m Roger Goodman. What’s your point?” he asked, a bit of edge to his voice, and Quinn knew this wasn’t going to be an easy man to convince.
 
“Roger,” she heard someone say, coming up behind the security guard, putting his hand on his shoulder. “Don’t be rude to the new owner of the Penguins,” he said with a smile. “Mario Lemieux, nice to meet you,” he said, extending his hand out to Quinn to shake.
 
“Nice to meet you, too,” she told him. “I’m Quinn Layman, this is my step-brother, Noah Myrick. I hope you don’t mind that I invited him along,” she added as Mario shook Noah’s hand as well.
 
“Quinn, you’re the owner, you can do whatever you want,” he said with a sincere smile. She was glad that he wasn’t being more close-minded about this right now. “Now why don’t you two follow me and we can go down to my office. Well, I guess it’s your office now, too,” he said with a small chuckle, realizing his mistake. “It was Mitchell’s office as well,” he explained.
 
Quinn and Noah walked past Roger, who said a quick apology to Quinn before she passed. She simply smiled at him before trying to keep up with Mario, who was walking quite fast and trying to tell her some about the team and the arena. “The team just started playing in this arena at the beginning of the 2010-2011 season. It’s really a nice place, has everything we could ask for. A little over 18,000 seats for the hockey games are available, with sixty-six suites, one of which is yours now, by the way,” he said, and Quinn looked over at Noah with a shocked look on her face. What exactly was she supposed to do with a suite?
 
Mario continued talking as Quinn took a quick peek out onto the ice to see a few players out there, skating around. “You’ll soon see as you travel around to other arenas that this one truly is the best,” Mario smiled.
 
Quinn looked at Noah, mouthing, “Travel to other arenas?” She hadn’t been expecting to travel anywhere. Actually, she didn’t know what to expect. That was why she was there today, to try to figure everything out.
 
“And, this is your new office,” Mario said, stopping as he walked inside a room, allowing Quinn to walk around him and look inside. “That’s my office right through there,” he told her, pointing to a door that connected to another room. The door was currently open so she could see his desk, along with numerous pictures of different Penguins players on the walls.
 
The office she was standing in, which apparently was now hers, had the same general construct, but it wasn’t decorated like Mario’s had been. She wasn’t sure if that was because they had taken it all down after Mitchell had passed away or if Mitchell had never decorated it in the first place. As she walked around the large room, sitting in the desk chair and wheeling it over to the window to look outside, she couldn’t help but feel a little weird. She was sitting in the chair of her father, one that she never really knew. And, now she was about to take over his job for him. “What are you thinking, Quinn?” Noah asked her, noticing her staring off outside.
 
“It’s weird, you know?” she answered honestly. “To be sitting in Mitch’s chair. I haven’t talked to the man or seen him in eighteen years. And yet, here I am, sitting in his chair. One that he sat in all the time. It’s just weird.”
 
“We can change this up as much as you’d like,” Mario told her. “Make it your own if you’d prefer. Just let me know what you want, and we’ll get it all ordered for you and made over.”
 
Quinn smiled at the man. “Thank you,” she told him sincerely. “So, what exactly do I do as an owner?” she asked him.
 
Mario chuckled, not really knowing how to answer the question himself. “Well, Quinn, everything. You’ll go to all the meetings with me. You’ll make decisions for the team. You’ll have an influence on the players, who stays and goes, who gets traded, things like that. You do everything, especially as the majority owner. You’ll have to listen to people complain and figure out how to fix their problems. You’ll help with some of the hirings in the case of someone major getting fired.”

Quinn was beginning to feel overwhelmed, and Noah could tell. “Maybe we should just let her get introduced to the team first. Ease her in?” he suggested.
 
Mario nodded in agreement. “I think that’s for the best. Quinn, you’re obviously welcome to have a say in anything and everything at this point. I’ll make sure Carolyn forwards to you anything important and information about all the upcoming meetings and things like that,” he said, and Quinn could only assume that Carolyn was either his assistant or secretary. “You come to whatever you want in the beginning here while you try to figure out how involved you want to be.”
 
“How involved was Mitch?” she asked. Mario didn’t say anything at first, a little surprised she was calling him Mitch. For as long as Mario had known the man, he had always gone by Mitchell, and to hear someone call him Mitch, in particular his own daughter, was a little surprising.
 
But, Mario was quickly back to his old self, answering her question. “Mitchell was fairly involved. Not as involved as some owners, and not as involved as I am myself, but I also have a personal history with the team,” he added, not wanting to make Mitchell seem like a bad person, though Quinn already had ill feelings towards the man who had abandoned her and her mother. “He went to some meetings, stayed away from others. He gave his input on things when he had something to say about them, but he didn’t talk just to talk. He came to most home games and went on a few road trips a year. All of the guys knew him, but I don’t know if any of them knew him personally,” he explained. Quinn nodded her head in understanding. “It’s up to you how involved you want to be in the end.”
 
“Okay,” Quinn said, not really knowing what else to say to him. She wasn’t sure how involved she wanted to be, or if she wanted to be involved at all. She still was giving some major thought to giving up the team completely.
 
They talked a little while longer before Noah had to leave to go into work. Quinn was disappointed, wishing that he could have stayed when she met the team, but she knew he had a job that he had to do. She told him goodbye before she walked with Mario into the team meeting room. “The guys should be off the ice by now. They’re going to go get changed and then come in here to meet you,” he told her just as one man walked into the room.
 
Quinn looked at him, having no idea who he was. He walked over to her, extending his hand. “I’m Dan Bylsma,” he told her, and by the look on her face, it was evident that the name didn’t ring a bell to her. “The head coach,” he clarified.
 
“Oh, nice to meet you,” Quinn smiled at him, as others began filing in. She hated the feeling of everyone’s eyes on her, judging her. They didn’t know a thing about her, but they were already forming opinions of her, before she even got a chance to speak to them.
 
Her eyes grazed across the room, looking at all of the men. It was more than a little intimidating to stand in a room full of huge men, whom she was supposed to technically own now. She didn’t like it one bit. She wanted to run from the room, run out of the arena and back to her apartment, as far away from these guys as she could get. But, she wasn’t able to do that.
 
“As most of you have guessed, this is Quinn Layman,” Mario began, and instantly the room was silenced. Quinn was surprised that one man could be in control of all of these people in front of her, but apparently they respected him. “She is the newest owner of the Penguins, taking over for Mitchell. I assume you’ll all show her some respect as she makes the transition,” he spoke, earning some snickers from the group, something that Quinn couldn’t figure out, but she shrugged it off as all of the attention turned to her, and she realized that they were waiting on her to speak.
 
“Hi guys,” she began, trying to find her words. “Like Mario said, I’m Quinn Layman, I’m taking over for Mitch. I’m still trying to learn my way around here, but I’m trying to find my way. Um,” she paused, trying to think what else to say. She wasn’t good at talking with no preparation beforehand. There was a reason she hadn’t become a speech major in college. “Well, I guess I’ll just say, score some points and win that trophy!” she said as much enthusiasm as she could muster up, her words coming out similar to a cheerleader at a pep rally. It was obvious to everyone that she had no idea what she was talking about, and within a few seconds everyone was laughing out loud at her.
 
Quinn shut her eyes, wishing she could go back in time and take back what she had just said, but she knew that was impossible. As the laughter continued, only growing louder as the seconds ticked by, Quinn couldn’t take it any longer. Without a word, she rushed out of the room, letting the door slam shut behind her. She had to get out of here, but she really had no idea where she was or where she had come in earlier that day.
 
She had never been to the arena before, and she had no idea how it was set up or where she should go. She heard the door she had just come out of open up, and she didn’t want to face anybody, so she ran into the first room she could find. She didn’t even turn on the lights, instead just sitting down in one of the chairs that was in the room. She didn’t know where she was, and she didn’t care. All that mattered was that she was away from everyone that she had just humiliated herself in front of.
 
She sat in there for at least a half an hour, making sure that everyone was gone before she dared even leave the room. She was just about to get up when suddenly the lights come on, causing her to jump from surprise.
 
“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you,” she heard someone say, and she turned to see a handsome younger man standing there, who she assumed was a player on the team. But, really, she had no idea. For all she knew, he could actually be a coach, like Bylsma had been, though she didn’t know it at the time. “Are you okay?” he asked her, and she detected an accent in his voice.
 
“Fine,” she lied, wishing he would just leave her alone. But, she knew that wasn’t going to happen when he sat down in the chair next to her, facing her.
 
“You ran out of there pretty quickly,” he said, and Quinn resisted the urge to roll her eyes at him for stating the obvious.
 
“Well, I didn’t want to stay there and listen to everyone laugh at me,” she said, avoiding looking over at him.
 
“Do you know anything about hockey?” he asked, the question catching Quinn off guard. She wasn’t expecting him to be so forthright with it. She also didn’t want to answer the question, even though she knew he already knew the answer. But, she didn’t want him going back to his teammates and telling them about this conversation, giving them more fuel to make fun of her with. When she didn’t answer, he continued. “Do you?”
 
“No,” Quinn stated softly.
 
“Would you like to learn?” he asked, and Quinn finally looked over at him. He was more handsome than she had originally thought. He was wearing a simple Penguins t-shirt that fit his muscles just right. She could tell he had long hair, though it was currently hiding under a backwards baseball cap. “I can teach you,” he told her.
 
Quinn looked at him skeptically. “Why would you do that?”
 
“Because it’s obvious that you know nothing about hockey when you’re telling us to go score points instead of goals,” he said with a chuckle, remembering back to her speech. “And, I just thought it’d be better if we have an owner that actually knows the sport. But, if you don’t want to…”he trailed off.
 
“You’d teach me?” she asked. He nodded his head. “And you wouldn’t be doing it just so you can report back to your teammates and have a good laugh at me?”
 
“No,” he said, and something in his voice made her believe him.
 
“Then I’d really appreciate the help,” she told him sincerely.

“Good,” he smiled at her, a lopsided one that made Quinn want to smile herself. “Then I’ll meet you tomorrow, that way you’ll know some stuff before your first game. Meet me at 21st Street downtown tomorrow at eleven,” he said, referencing a little coffee shop.
 
“Thank you,” she told him, getting up to leave. “Oh wait,” she said, turning back around just as she reached the door. “What’s your name?” she asked, embarrassed that she didn’t know and that she hadn’t asked him in the beginning.
 
“Kris,” he told her, that lopsided grin coming back. “Kris Letang.”