Ever since I had moved home from college, I'd had this curiosity. I played hockey, but the team that I played with was two of my sisters and a bunch of women with an average age of 35 so I never really felt I had anything in common with most of them. I was about 24 at the time.
One evening, we had a new skater join us. She was a college soccer player and from what I could see she was in better shape than most, if not all, of us. Clearly she had skated before and wasn't a total newbie. It took a couple laps around the ice for her to get her legs under her, but once she did she jumped into the play as though she had been playing forever. For my entire hockey career, I had been playing as a goalie and even against men I had never had anyone get a hat trick against me... until she showed up.
After the scrimmage, I went into the locker room with my head hanging. I had always managed to hold my own against any other skater, but for some reason this one really got to me. "Don't be too hard on yourself, she's clearly not a novice like most of the people you play against", said Ryan, our team's goalie coach. Stu, our other coach, seemed to think she was going to be our bread and butter as a defenseman. "Mica, how do you feel about playing defense?", Stu asked our newest skater. "Well, I really like to generate offense and score so I'm not sure about being a defenseman." she replied.
Oh great, I thought. She's never going to come back because they are going to stick her on D when that isn't where she wants to skate. I really liked the idea of having a strong defenseman in front of me. Plus she was pretty easy on the eyes and that definitely helped take the sting out of the way she handed my ass to me during the scrimage.
The next week, I came in to practice a little bit late and was surprised to see Mica there. I was sure she was going to bail on our team because she didn't want to play defense and was going to get stuck there. I made my way to an open spot in the locker room to unpack my gear and begin dressing for the skate. I caught a glimpse of Mica's muscular legs as she pulled her breezers up and fished around in her bag for her shin pads. "No wonder she can skate" I thought as I glanced at her legs while she was standing with her back turned to me.
I started to dress and as I did I caught sight of her broad muscular shoulders. "Fuck, she's going to light me up all night long", I said in my head as I looked away from her and knelt down to fasten the straps of my leg pads. I looked in her direction and said, "I wasn't sure you were going to show up" to which she replied, with a wink, "I would rather protect your net than not play hockey at all.". During the whole scrimmage, I was mulling that wink moreso than playing goal.
I walked into the locker room after that skate with my head slung low again. I couldn't believe how this woman could manage to find every open spot I left in my net. Mica walked past and said, "Don't worry about it, you had an off game. Nothing a couple beers can't fix. Let's go to the Halftime."
"I thought you weren't old enough to drink", I replied. Mica calmly replied, "Don't worry about it." I was puzzled by her comment, but didn't think much about it as I finished undressing and headed for the showers.
As I was standing in the shower, letting the hot water wash away my lackluster performance in the net I looked around me. I had showered in this locker room hundreds of times before and had never looked in any direction but down to find my shampoo. Most of the women I played hockey with were older than me, married, and had children. Showering was simply a matter of getting rid of the funk associated with hockey gear.
Mica walked in and stood across from me as I was rinsing off my hair. She had her back turned to me and I caught myself watching soap suds and water run down from her shoulders and down her back until cascading off her round, muscular ass. She turned around and I knew I was busted. She looked right at me and gave me another wink, just like the one she had given me earlier when telling me not to worry about my less-than-stellar game play. I looked away, but then found myself again looking in her direction as she turned around. I watched as she shampooed her hair and rinsed it off, letting the suds run down her shoulders and over her six pack abs. This made me nervous as I had only seen bodies like this in sports commercials and movies. I wasn't totally out of shape, but my body wasn't nearly as toned as hers. I envied her build and frame as I watched her rinsing off. I knew I was staring so I told myself to break my gaze and get dressed.
I realized everyone else was done showering and letting the hot water wash away the aches and pains of practice, so I dressed, packed my gear, and headed to our sponsor bar.
I walked into the bar and saw Mica and the rest of the team sitting at a few tables that were pushed together. I looked around and saw the only open chair was next to Mica, so I sat down and waited for the cocktail waitress to come by. "I'll take a Miller light", I said. Mica ordered a Bud light. I was not going to tell the waitress she was underage and Mica's confidence made it seem like she had walked into plenty of bars and ordered drinks without ever being carded.
As the waitress walked away, Mica leaned over to me and said, "Thanks for not ratting me out. I love a beer after hockey". The waitress came back with our beers and the whole team descended into talk about an upcoming tournament. I was a bit dejected about all the tournament talk as I was not going to be playing in it. Our team's manager had decided that only one goalie was needed and offered the chance to our other goalie. Maybe it was this that fueled my choice to continue drinking beer long after I should have stopped.
One by one the team finished their drinks and left; work and school and kids were coming up in the morning for most of the team. As we sat and enjoyed our beers, Mica whispered to me, "Is everything okay? You seem a little distracted." I replied by saying, "I'm pissed about not being allowed to play in the next tournament because one person doesn't want to have me play". I proceeded to tell her that our team's manager was not a fan of my family and seemed to take every opportunity available to cut me off from the rest of the team. "That's bullshit", Mica said, "I scored a hat trick on you, but when I was on the other end of the ice against the other goalie I scored five goals. I think teams should take two goalies all the time in case one gets hurt or just has a bad game." "That's what I think too.", I said. Mica put her arm around my shoulder in the kind of "half-hug" you would give a teammate.