Chapter 605: Foppa XXXVIII—Responsible…
Forsberg wanted to curl up and die.
Jo was nowhere to be found after the press conference. He hid from everyone in his room until it was time to show up at the locker room for the All Star game. He even thought about skipping the game, but he knew that he’d never live that down. It would be pointless to hide and give everyone more ammunition to laugh at him.
What the hell had gone wrong here?
Obviously, that Keating guy had gotten bad information, but from whom? Why? How could this have happened? Did Keating want to destroy Peter? Had this been a trick by a reporter to get attention? But no reporter ever got anywhere on a bad story. It wouldn’t make sense for him to actually goad someone on bad info.
In the locker room, everyone stared at him. They’d been talking to each other and silenced upon his arrival. It felt eerie to be at the brunt of something like this. No one asked him what happened, however. They simply continued to stare. Peter ducked his head and went through the motions of the game. Hoping that everything could just end by the time he got through with this day.
After the game, he got phone calls from Lacroix and even Gary Bettman, both of them concerned about his mental state. He got a text messaged death threat from Patty. Unable to take it anymore he called Hartley and poured his grief out to him. Just the balm he needed! Bob assured him that everything was going to be fine, that he would take care of things and that no, Patty didn’t hate him. Soon, he got a phone call from Sakic. Peter swallowed hard, took the call and was gloriously assured from Joe that he understood when a prank was a prank, and this one had gone real bad. Don’t worry, Peter, we’ll work this out. This doesn’t mean you’re completely out of trouble here, but we’ll figure something out!
What do you mean I’m not completely out of trouble! I didn’t do anything wrong! I’m innocent!
Well, Peter, you did attack Patty’s wife the night before we came here, I mean obviously you’re going through some stress. I need to look into this.
At the hotel room, Peter finally saw Jo. She was pale with anger, her lips tight and colorless. “You never told me you thought Joe was a crappy captain.”
Peter held out his hands. “I wasn’t wanting to be captain!”
“Did you think about me? How am I going to face Debbie? Just when I thought
things were going good again, you go insane on me! Are you…” Josefina gulped here and held out one hand to him, speaking in a girlishly worried voice. “Are you going insane on me baby?” Her eyes looked so hurt and fearful now, tender, and soft.
Peter went to her, gripped her slim hands, overcome with affection. “I’m not crazy, honey.” He tried to kiss her.
“Damn!” She spat as she pulled away from him. She put her hands on her hips. “If you were, then at least I’d have some excuse for you!”
Peter pinched the bridge of his nose. “Just tell Debbie…”
“Ah, no, no, no, no,” Jo breathed, wagging her finger. “She already called me. I already washed my hands of this! I’m not covering for you, you crazy bastard! I told her that I had no idea about this.” She lifted her nose. “I even burst into tears!”
Peter grimaced. “You….cried?”
“I asked her how I could have been so stupid all along. I had her feeling bad for me and telling me that I should ‘give you another chance’ and stick it out with you. You’re under the bus-wheels alone on this one, Mister! I’m coming out clean on this, Peter! CLEAN!” Her eyes sparkled with crazy animation, she even seemed to be trembling as she laughed.
Peter squinted. “Jo, are you sure you’re not crazy?”
“OOOOOO!” She hissed and she stormed out of the hotel room.
Peter took a flight home alone. Evidently, Debbie felt so bad for Jo that she invited her on the plane ride she and Joe were taking home on Ms. Cruz’s personal jet. Peter, was most cordially not invited. It was just as well, anyway, because Peter did want some time alone to think about this.
He stewed more about Phil, wondered how this could have happened. He went over his mind the possible fall-out from this. Not only would he have to make this up to Joe, he needed to make it up to Patty. In fact, he was pretty sure he’d really have to make good with Patty on this. Whereas Joe was a pretty forgiving sort of guy, Patty was always more than happy to bear a cross.
At the airport, Peter collected his baggage and began to wander out. Near the food court he saw Mike Modano. Well, during this whole thing, Mike hadn’t approached or tried calling him. Not that he should have but…well… that had seemed kind of odd. Peter squinted. Actually, this was odd! He recognized the reporter, Keating, and he and Modano were standing near each other, both of them smiling. Mike said something. Phil laughed and patted his arm. And then he wandered off, leaving Mike to watch after him kind of longingly.
Oh, now Peter got it.
His cheeks and the back of his neck burned as he followed Modano all the way out of the airport and to the parking garage. As soon as they left the elevator, Modano acknowledged him. “Need something, Peter?”
“You did this to me!” Peter cried, pointing.
Modano blinked, and actually looked like a woman playing innocent.
“You did this!” Peter repeated. “You’re sleeping with Phil Keating and you got him to manipulate me!”
“What are you going to do about this, Peter? Huh?” Modano said without hesitation, his smug smirk barely attempting to hide his glee. He looked taller, stronger, somehow less vulnerable and effeminate as Peter remembered him to be. This unusual confident change in Modano’s demeanor threw Peter off, and it worried him.
“Well,” Peter cleared his throat and did his best to sound firm, “I’ll, I’ll tell everyone! I’ll tell JOE! They’ll know everything!”
Modano sneered. “Everything?” He lifted his eyebrows. “What do you mean everything? Were you planning on leaving out our little tryst out of the details?”
Peter
pointed at him. “They’ll never believe you! I’ll tell them all that you were in
a jealous rage because I wouldn’t sleep with you! I’ll say you’ve been obsessed
with me since
Modano smiled peacefully. “I’m not the one who fell apart in front of the cameras and suggested that Joe wasn’t being a very good captain to the team. That brilliant part was all you, buddy.”
Peter’s heart galloped in his chest. Panic strangled at his throat and his guts. He wanted to win here, so desperately. He wanted Mike to understand that he was the crazy one, not Peter! After all, Mike was the crazy one!” “No! They’ll believe me! They will!”
Modano shook his head and looked away. “What’s easier to believe, Peter? You tell me. That you freaked out in a last ditch effort to get the captaincy, or that I for some reason become obsessed with you in Dallas, finagled a trade to this team to get to you, then when you didn’t put out, I grew jealous, seduced a locally popular reporter, manipulated him into goading you into a complete freak-out in front of the press? Come on, Peter.”
Peter felt his skin blistering all over, boiling, bubbling! He shook his head. “I hate you! You…how could you be this cruel? This isn’t fair!”
Modano patted him kindly on the shoulder and sighed. “Why don’t you go home and relax with your hot girlfriend? That is, if she still wants to be around a power hungry psycho like you.”
“ARGH!” Peter tugged on his hair and he watched as Mike got into his car and drove off. “Argh!”
At that point, Phil Keating passed by. Stopping to smile at him, “Hey, Peter! Sorry about that bad information. I guess my source was mistaken. No hard feelings, right?”
Peter fell to his back, onto the hard pavement. He closed his eyes and wanted to die. He couldn’t think of anyone who had ever whipped him this good. Even what Patty did to him didn’t feel as…violating as this!
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