The Fear Is Paralyzing

Quinn walked into the house of her mother and step-father, having had them asked her to come over to talk about her meeting with the team earlier that day. She wasn’t sure why they were so interested in every aspect of her owning the team, but she really didn’t think that it’d be a good idea to fight with them over this already. She really was dreading this meeting. She didn’t have Noah or Claire there to back her up, and she had a feeling that her mom and Garrett were going to gang up against her.
 
“Hey Mom, Garrett,” she called out, unsure where they were in the house. Both of them came walking down the stairs, smiling at her.
 
“Quinn, we’re glad you’re here! We were just talking about you!” Corinne said, leaving Quinn with a confused expression on her face.

“You were?” Quinn asked as Corinne ushered her into the living room, motioning for her to sit in the recliner while she and Garrett sat next to each other on the couch.
 
“So tell us about how the meeting went today!” Corinne said excitedly. Quinn didn’t know why Corinne was acting like this. Usually she didn’t really show any interest in anything in Quinn’s life, but for some reason she seemed to be obsessed with Quinn owning the team. “I tried calling Noah earlier about it to see what he had to say, but he didn’t have time to talk at the moment,” she continued, and Quinn was envious of Noah, able to get away from their parents.
 
“It was just an introductory meeting with everyone,” Quinn began. There was no way she was going to give her mother and Garrett all of the details from today. In fact, she was still trying to suppress some of the memories, though she was failing at it at the moment. “I met Mario, the other owner. Saw my office, met the team,” she rambled on.
 
“You have an office?” Corinne asked with excitement.
 
“Of course she has an office, Corinne!” Garrett told his wife. “She’s the owner. She’s got to have an office!”
 
They continued talking about the day for a little while longer, Quinn wishing to hurry their conversation along, wanting to just get out of there. She was meeting Kris at the coffee place in an hour and a half, something that she had intentionally left out of telling her parents, along with her silly statement that made the entire team laugh.
 
“Quinn, we asked you to come over because we were wondering what you were planning on doing with the team,” Garrett finally said, getting to the real reason they had wanted to talk to Quinn. They didn’t care about her day; they just wanted to know what was going to happen to the team. “We understand you just found out you own them, but this isn’t something that you should just wait and see what’s going to happen. We think you should make a decision soon,” he explained.
 
“And what decision do you two think I should make?” Quinn asked, knowing that they had their own opinions on the subject.
 
“Well it’s obvious, Quinn,” Corinne spoke up. “You should give up the team!” she exclaimed. “You can’t keep them! You’re incapable of owning a team! You’re not smart enough to make all the decisions that a team owner needs to make, especially a hockey team owner!” she continued, and with each word she spoke, Quinn felt worse and worse about herself. Eventually, she just stopped listening to her mother altogether. She knew what she thought, that Quinn was a horrible leader and that she was incapable of being able to make decisions about a team. Corinne never saw any potential in her daughter. While Quinn had been in college, Corinne had tried to convince her to pick a different major than management, believing that Quinn would fail her difficult classes and not graduate. And, even after all that, she never believed that her daughter would obtain her MBA either, something else that Quinn proved her wrong about.
 
When she focused back in on her parents, it appeared that Corinne had stopped talking, and now Garrett was speaking. “Quinn, it’s not that we don’t think you’re smart,” he began, and Quinn wanted to snort at that statement. Her mother had just said that she wasn’t smart enough. “It’s just that you’re not sports smart. You know nothing about sports, let alone hockey.”
 
“But I can learn,” she argued, but neither of them seemed to think that was plausible. She wanted to tell them that she was going to start learning today, that one of the players was going to help her, but she decided to keep it to herself, not needing to hear what they would have to say if she told them that.
 
“Quinn, there’s a lot to learn about a sport like hockey,” Garrett spoke to her like she was a little child, something that Quinn absolutely hated.
 
“We have a better solution for you,” Corinne spoke up, and Quinn looked over to her mother, wondering what this suggestion was going to be. Before she even said anything, Quinn already braced herself, knowing that she was probably going to hate it.
 
“We think you should give the team over to Dean,” Garrett stated, and Quinn’s eyes widened, unable to believe that they wanted her to give the team over to her lazy, manipulative step-brother. “Not necessarily completely,” he continued, but Quinn didn’t care at that moment about the details, she already hated the idea. “You could be like a silent partner, and he could be the face of the team.”

“You honestly think that’s the best idea?” she questioned, unable to believe them.
 
“Honey, Dean has the background in it,” Corinne said.

“He has a sports management degree!” Quinn was practically yelling at this point, outraged that they thought he would be a better owner than she was. She still didn’t think she was the best person suited to be the owner of a hockey team, but she knew she was a lot better than Dean ever would be. All Dean would care about is himself, never looking out for what was best for the team. “Some degree does not mean that he’s ready to own a freaking team!” she exclaimed.
 
“Quinn, lower your voice,” Corinne ordered, and Quinn instantly quieted, feeling like she was a teenager getting into trouble once again. “I think you should think about it. Think about giving the team to Dean.”
 
Quinn looked back and forth between Corinne and Garrett, seeing that this was truly what they believed was best. “I’ll think about it,” she lied straight to their faces. “But, I have to go.”
 
“Where do you have to go to?” Corinne asked as Quinn grabbed her jacket, putting it back on, heading to the door.
 
“I’ve got a meeting,” she said, telling them the half-truth. “I’ll call you later,” she added, walking out the door, letting it shut behind her as she made her way to her car. Once she got in, she rested her head on the steering wheel, unable to wrap her head around the fact that her mother and step-father had such little faith in her.
 
***
 
Kris walked into the coffee shop about fifteen minutes late, looking around, finally seeing the blonde sitting at a table in the back corner of the shop. He walked over to her, throwing his jacket in the booth across from her. “Sorry I’m late,” he told her immediately. “Video ran over,” he explained.
 
Quinn looked up from her coffee. “It’s fine,” she assured him. “Feel free to go get some coffee or something,” she added.
 
“Thanks,” he smiled at her, walking over to do just that. He came back three minutes later with his coffee in his hands as he slid into the booth. “I would have called you or texted you to let you know I’d be late, but I realized I didn’t have your number. And, I thought it might be a little bit weird for me to go to Mario and ask for it,” he said with a light laugh.

“Yeah,” Quinn agreed. “I’d prefer to keep this as under wraps as possible,” she said, playing with the rim of her coffee cup. It was obvious she was a little nervous, though Kris wasn’t exactly sure why, whether it was the task of trying to learn the sport of hockey or if he himself was making her nervous, though he was trying to put her at ease as best as he could.
 
“Is that why you chose the table in the back corner?” he asked jokingly.

Quinn looked up, ready to defend herself, before she saw the smile on his face, realizing that he really didn’t mean anything behind his question. “I’d rather not let everyone in the world know that the owner of the Pittsburgh Penguins doesn’t know a damn thing about hockey,” she said with a small laugh. Kris couldn’t help but notice she had a pretty smile, when she did in fact smile, which hadn’t been that often so far. Though, he was looking at trying to change that today.
 
“You want to start learning?” he asked, and she nodded her head. “So, do you know anything about the sport?” He didn’t say it in a condescending way, not like her parents would have, but he simply was wondering where they should begin.
 
“Not really,” she admitted. “I’ve never been around hockey in my life before,” she said, and Kris wondered to himself how that was possible. He had grown up on hockey, and though he knew not everyone was like that, it was crazy to think that the owner of the team’s daughter didn’t know a thing about hockey.
 
“Okay, let’s start with the basics then,” he said with a smile on his face as he looked around the table. Quinn wasn’t sure what he was doing, but he quickly grabbed the container on the table that held all of the packets of sugar. “There are six guys from each team out on the ice at once to begin the game,” he started, grabbing some of the packets. “You have three forwards,” he said, putting down three pink packets in the center of the table. “Behind them, you have two defensemen,” he said, putting down two blue packets behind the pink ones. “And a goalie,” he concluded, throwing a yellow packet down on the table right in front of him.

Quinn couldn’t help but chuckle at him, using sugar packets for hockey players. But, she listened nonetheless, trying to take in everything he was saying.
 
“So, penalties are two minutes in a box?” she asked a little while later while he was trying to do his best of explaining penalties. This was the first time Kris realized how hard it was to explain the sport to a complete novice. Sure, he’d had girlfriends before that didn’t really know the sport, but they at least knew some things about it. Quinn, on the other hand, knew absolutely nothing about the sport, and he didn’t really know how to explain certain things to her.
 
“Not all penalties,” he said, and he saw a look of defeat spread across Quinn’s face. He knew she was having trouble picking up everything he was saying. “Minor penalties are. Well, as long as they’re not a double minor,” he added, realizing immediately that he shouldn’t have added in that last part. He was trying to teach her the basics, and double minors were definitely not good to add in there when she didn’t even know the difference between a minor and major penalty. “But, don’t worry about them right now,” he told her. “Right now, just know that there are major and minor penalties.”
 
“And major penalties are how many minutes?”
 
“Five minutes,” he told her. He thought about telling her about a game misconduct penalty, but he had learned his mistake from bringing up double minor penalties earlier.
 
“Okay, minor penalties are two minutes, major penalties are five minutes. I think I got it,” she mumbled, looking down at the table. Kris had noticed in the time he had been teaching her that when she was really trying to remember something that she would write on the table with the tip of her index finger, almost as if she were taking invisible notes. While some people would find this weird, he found it almost cute with her, that she cared so much.
 
He glanced down at his watch to see that time had flown by, and he only had a couple of hours until he needed to be back at the arena to get ready for the game, and he still had to shower and take his pre-game nap, a ritual for him before every game. “I think we’ll stop there,” he told her.
 
“That’s all?” she asked, looking up at him, a little wide-eyed.
 
“That’s all for now,” he clarified. “I can keep teaching you if you want some other day. But, I’ve got to go and get ready for the game,” he told her.
 
“Oh, gotcha,” she nodded her head.
 
He saw the look of fear on her face, and he knew she was worried about going to the game tonight. “Quinn, you did good today,” he told her. “I know you picked up on the basics. You’ll be good for tonight’s game,” he assured her.
 
“You don’t think I’m going to make a complete idiot of myself again?” she asked him.
 
“Just don’t say anything about the game if you’re not one hundred percent sure that you know what you’re talking about,” he said with a light laugh. Quinn looked up at him, laughing as well. “You’ll be fine, I promise,” he assured her. “I’ll see you tonight,” he added, getting up out of the booth. He gave her a small wave goodbye as he made his way out of the coffee shop.