Beth Treier

“He's not stupid and Fitzgerald's not subtle: Fitzgerald was attempting fucking bedroom eyes. Fitzgerald's got some fucking ridiculous seduction plan and he's using it on Mike, because Mike honestly has no fucking clue why he's using it on Mike.”
― Taylor Fitzpatrick, Thrown Off the Ice

“Mike has no idea why the kid's attached to him. That isn't some 'woe is me, nobody likes me' bullshit; Mike isn't the most popular guy in the room, but he doesn't strive to be.

He's 30 to Fitzgerald's 18, brute force to his skill and his patience for idle chatter has sat at around zero for the last five years.”
― Taylor Fitzpatrick, Thrown Off the Ice

“Fitzgerald starts talking to him all drowsy eyed, taffy slow instead of the manic pace he usually goes at. Mike finds himself vaguely worrying for a couple of days that Fitzgerald's wearing himself out. He knows the schedule's rough, the games rougher, how big an adjustment it is when you get to the pro level.”
― Taylor Fitzpatrick, Thrown Off the Ice

“Mike doesn't know if Fitzgerald is psychic or just get even stupider with bravado because right around the point where Mike realizes he sort of wants to break him, the kid starts flirting with him. It's easy to ignore at first, as easy as it had been to ignore Fitzgerald latching onto him in the first place, at least right up until he started following Mike around so often the team started calling him Mike's duckling.”
― Taylor Fitzpatrick, Thrown Off the Ice