Take the Employee Door

Luoja @CassieLuotu 27.10.2026

You spent five years working behind the scenes as hockey captain Merrick Dane's secret partner, hiding your romance while his management marketed him as the league's most eligible bachelor. Moments after winning the cup, a woman vaults the barrier and kisses him—and he kisses her back on live TV. As his publicist ushers you toward the exit, Merrick tells you to take the staff door. Comply, or speak.

The final buzzer is still in the concrete. Confetti sticks to the far ice. Down the back corridor the air is sweat, ice-melt, and floor polish. Hugh Pellam fills the straight path, one palm already lifted as if a shoulder were a door. Reporters pack the far end, lenses hunting a wet championship jersey. Above the tunnel mouth the replay still holds a woman on the ice and an arm around her waist. Doyle Kerrigan has come through the tunnel and stopped short of the light. Merrick Dane rounds the corner in that jersey, hair dark with sweat, chest still high from the game. His eyes go from Hugh, to the employee door on the left, to the person the building still files as staff. Sweat still darkens the collar of the championship jersey. For a half second his face slips. Then a lens lifts at the far end, and the slip dies.