Ch. 11

Drink up baby doll
Are you in or are you out?
Leave your things behind
'Cause it's all going off without you
Excuse me too busy you're writing your tragedy
These mishaps you bubble-wrap
When you've no idea what you're like

So, let go, let go
Jump in
Oh well, what you waiting for?
It's all right
'Cause there's beauty in the breakdown
So, let go, let go
Just get in
Oh, it's so amazing here
It's all right
'cause there's beauty in the breakdown

Frou Frou – Let Go

Ch. 11

To my dismay and Bryce’s disappointment, Kristy was our waitress for the rest of our dinner.  Bryce even asked what happened to Gabby, but Kristy made some comment about Gabby not feeling well and that she had to leave early.  Something made me think that Kristy was covering for her friend, but obviously I was not going to ask any questions.

The rest of dinner was filled with delicious food and constant conversation, considering it could possibly be the last time I saw my mom and brother before the playoffs.

“Thank you again for everything, Mom,” I said as I buried my face in her hair, memorizing her scent, as she hugged me.

“Anything to help you out,” she squeezed me tightly.  “Good luck, Kristopher, I love you.”

“I love you too, Mom,” I whispered, fighting back the tears that suddenly threatened.  After punching my brother in the arm and then quickly hugging him, I stood in the parking lot watching them drive away towards the airport.  I sighed and then opened up the car door, climbed into the Audi and drove the opposite way towards my apartment.

I was only a few blocks away from my new home when I noticed a bus with its flashers, sitting along side the street.   A few people were standing around on their cell phones and a couple were walking down the deserted street.  I slowed down to pass the bus and once I got on the other side of it I instantly noticed her strawberry blonde hair peaking out from underneath her rainbow colored toque.  I drove past her a bit and then pulled up along side the curb, pressing the down button for the passenger side window.

“I thought you went home early,” I heard his voice chirp from an unseen location.  I stopped and looked and then I noticed the ostentatious Audi parked next to the curb not that far from me.  I groaned inwardly and began walking towards my original destination, choosing to ignore him.  I had been found and I wasn’t totally in the mood to explain myself.  “Gabby, come on.  Its cold out and I can give you a ride home.  It’s not like it’s out of my way,” he continued yelling out his window like he was at a cattle call.

“I’m fine,” I yelled back, even though I was freezing.  My knee length skirt and thin nylons weren’t exactly made to keep me warm.  I kept walking and after a minute or two passed I watched him speed by, making sure he revved the engine loudly as he passed.  I just rolled my eyes and bit my lip to keep from shivering.  Typical hot-shot hockey player. 

She didn’t look totally surprised to find me leaning on the trunk of my car as I waited for her in the parking lot of our apartment complex.  She did however look like a frozen Popsicle.  “You know, if you wouldn’t have been so stubborn, you could have been a lot warmer for the last 2 blocks of your journey,” I said, unable to stop myself from chirping her as I walked up beside her to head inside. 

“I don’t take rides from strangers,” she said through chattering teeth whiled I waved the key-fab in front of the sensor, allowing a warm gush of air to great us as the doors opened.

“Well, I already told you my name,” I attempted to joke.  “And you’ve already met my mom…Hell, you know more about me than most of the chicks who have jumped into my bed.”

She left out an ironic laugh as we stepped into the elevator and shook her head.  “Wow, I don’t know what to be more impressed about, your gaudy ass car that screams, ‘look at me, I’m rich,’ or your openness about being a male slut,” she chuckled as she raised a condescending eyebrow.

Ouch.

After a silent moment where I attempted to stop the wheels in my head from spinning so fast from basically being completely shut down without even attempting to hit on her.  I must have loved to be abused in a former life because I couldn’t help but try again.  “So, obviously we haven’t started out on the right foot here…”

She looked back at me like I was speaking a different language.  It was at this point that I noticed her beautiful green eyes once again.  I was unable to hold them for too long because she shook her head and looked down at the ground before speaking.  “I’m sorry, I’m not usually a rude person.”

“Well, I have to admit I’m not usually one to garner such hostility from a pretty woman,” I laughed back.  “I might be willing to give you a second chance if you will go out on a date with me tomorrow night,” I said, taking a daring chance.

“Wow, you really don’t know how to let up,” she laughed nervously as she shook her head at my forwardness.  What the fuck are you doing Versteeg?  You are not this desperate to be berating your neighbors for dates, and what the hell happened with the happy to be single lines you’ve been telling yourself?  At that, the elevator doors opened and she booked it down the hall, obviously trying to get far away from me, and in her defense I couldn’t really blame her, I was being a complete ass.  Maybe it was because her eyes completely did me in every time I looked at them or maybe it was the simple fact that I was totally attracted to her.

“Gabby…” I called out in a last ditch effort as her hand connected with the doorknob to her apartment.

“Have a good night,” she said sarcastically while opening the door and closing it behind her in an abrupt manner.

I unlocked my own door and locked it again after I closed it behind me, all while kicking myself in the ass and cursing under my breath.

He was a complete ignoramus and I was totally in the mood to punch something.  To make smart ass remarks was one thing, but to blatantly hit on me several times was enough to disgust even the most dejected person.

It must be the blonde hair.

A couple days went by that I was able avoid him.  I found myself checking the internet for their scheduled practices so that I could make sure I did my workout in the gym at that time and either be out running errands or hunkered in the apartment by the time he might be arriving back.  It became quite the game and I was feeling giddy at the thought I had successfully circumvented him for 4 whole days after the initial incident.

Besides that little glimmer of luck, the rest of my week was fairly shitty to say the least.  I had managed to contract a nasty cold, which was probably from walking in the frigid temperatures after refusing a ride from Mr. Big Pimp.  By Sunday I had hit bottom and I found myself wrapped up in blankets on the couch with tissues littering the flood beside me.

“Abby, you sound like total shit.  Are you sure you don’t want me to come home and get you to a doctor or something?” Patrick asked worriedly into the phone.  “It actually sounds like you might have the flu or something…”

“No, I’m fine.  There is no need for you to come home from Boston because I have a silly cold,” I paused to hack up a lung and continued, “Besides, if you come home now you won’t be able to come home for your date with Kristy next weekend.”

“Dropping my date with Kristy to take care of my sister is not the end of the world,” he growled into the phone. 

“Patrick.” I said stubbornly into the phone.

“Fine.  At least promise you will get your ass to the clinic or something.  I’m sure Kristy could get you in somewhere.”

“I promise to call her as soon as we get off the phone…” I rolled my eyes knowing that it would take me to be on my death bed to go to the doctor.  My thought process was cut off by someone knocking on my door.  “Shit, I have to go.  Someone is at the door.  It’s probably Kristy bringing over a care package or something.”

“I love you, Abbs.”

“Love you Patrick.”

I hit the end button on my phone and grabbed another tissue before stumbling over to the door.  I was still snotting into the tissue when I opened the door without even bothering to look out the peephole.  I stopped mid-snot when I found that it wasn’t Kristy standing in my doorway, but that it was in fact the very person I had been avoiding all week.

“Kris,” she said with her hands and tissue covering her nose.  She looked a complete mess.  Her hair was sticking out all over the place and she was wearing an oversized pair of sweatpants and a Boston University sweatshirt.  “What do you want,” she continued in her muffled, scratchy voice.

“Wow, you look like shit,” I commented without really meaning too.

“Gee, thanks,” she mumbled as she finally finished blowing her nose, revealing that it definitely wasn’t the first time she had done so because it was cherry red.  “So did you come over here to compliment me on my how shitty I look or do you need something?”

I left out a nervous laugh, looked at my feet and then back up at her with eyes that most likely announced I had completely lost my train of thought.  I cleared my throat and said, “Um, not to dig myself a deeper hole, but you have…” I paused, gestured at wiping my nose and continued, “you need another tissue.”

I watched as she touched her nose and then observed a total look of horror as she found a big booger attached to the tip.  “Shit,” she grumbled, leaving the door to her apartment wide open as she ran frantically back to the couch to grab a tissue.  Probably against my better judgment, I invited myself into her apartment and closed the door behind me.  It was an identical set-up to mine and I was actually surprised to find it was sparingly decorated like mine; if I wouldn’t have found her in it, I would have assumed this was a bachelor’s apartment.  Save for the chick-flicks sitting on the coffee table, there was nothing in the room that announced a girl lived here.  No pictures hung on the walls except for a framed diploma from the University of Vermont.  I was still taking in my surroundings when she piped up, “What is it that you want, Kris?  I am obviously sick…”

“That is obvious,” I smiled as I turned around to find her without a booger on her nose but to replace it was a scowl as she stood with her hands on her hips.  “Um, yeah, I was here wondering if you had a cup of sugar I could borrow.”

“A cup of sugar?” she asked incredulously.

“Yah.”

“What do you need a cup of sugar for?”

“I’m baking chocolate chip cookies.  I thought I bought all the ingredients, but when I began my task I realized I didn’t have sugar.”

“You are baking chocolate chip cookies?”

“You sound surprised that I’m baking, but yes, I am.  I just got home for the Flyer’s Wives Carnival and I smelled chocolate chip cookies all day, so I decided that I would bake some,” I answered in a matter of fact tone, slightly depressed that she didn’t think I could bake.

I’m pretty sure I watched her jaw drop slightly before she went back to scowling at me.  She stood there for a moment before walking over to the kitchen.  She opened up one of the cabinets and pulled out the container of sugar and handed it over.  “Just put it in front of my door when you’re done with it,” she said shortly.

“I really appreciate it,” I said with an easy smile.

She nodded her head and walked back over to the couch shivering.

“Do you need anything?” I asked out of pity.  She really did look like shit and here she was by herself without anyone to take care of her.  I knew how much it sucked to be sick without having someone to tend on you.

“Just close the door behind you,” she mumbled, already snuggling in to watch whatever movie she had put in to watch.  I found myself unable to move as I stood there watching her.  I didn’t realize I was staring until she piped up, “Um, hello?”

“Sorry,” I said sincerely as I shook thoughts from my head.  “I also just wanted to apologize for the other night.  I really don’t know what my problem was…”

“Whatever,” she said like she truly didn’t care.

“No seriously, I’ve been brought up better than that,” I continued, knowing my mom would have slapped me silly if I had acted like that in front of her.  “I guess I was just wondering why you didn’t finish waiting on us and had your friend lie for you…”

“I curtseyed,” she said without looking over at me.

I paused for a moment before letting out a laugh.  “Yeah, so?”

“That was totally lame and there was no way in hell I could come back and wait on you,” she said in a dead serious tone and for the first time I felt like I was actually talking to the girl that smiled at me that morning in the gym.  Of course it could have just been the cough medicine talking, but either way I was just happy she wasn’t giving me the hard-ass attitude that I felt was totally not her.

“Well, I did find it kind of weird but in all honesty it wouldn’t be the first time someone did something weird in my presence.  People often get star struck when meeting famous athletes…” I laughed lightly as I said this last part.

“You’re a famous athlete?” she snorted, throwing herself in a coughing fit.

I quickly retrieved her a glass of water and once her coughing fit was quelled I said, “Um, yeah, I won the Stanley Cup last year when I played for the Chicago Blackhawks and I was actually just traded here from the Toronto Maple Leafs to Philly the other week.

“Oh,” she mouthed and then shrugged.  “I’m not the big hockey fan, but I guess my cousin did say something about that…”

“That’s funny, the way you moved in hockey skates the other day definitely made me think otherwise,” I said, slightly surprised and now second guessing if it was her at the Skate Zone the other morning. 

Her eyes got a little big but then went back down to their normal size when she asked, “You were watching me skate the other morning?”

“Maybe…” I answered with my most charming smile.  “It was kind of hard not to notice you gliding out on the ice.”

I watched as she blushed and looked away from my gaze.  “Oh.”

I wanted to ask her more questions but she began wrapping herself up in her blanket again and effectively ended the conversation as she said, “Well, like I said, just drop the container in front of the door and I will get it before I go to bed.”

I looked down at the sugar container in my hands and nodded, “Hey, thanks again.”

She nodded and hit play.  I couldn’t help but smile as I walked out to the sounds of Pride and Prejudice filtering through the TV speakers.

I knew he wanted to ask more questions, but I refused to let the conversation go any farther.  I had already let my guard down, so to speak.  Something about his easy manner made me soften quickly.  Truthfully, I had never been one to overreact about things before, so why start now?  Another thing that crossed my mind was that he seemed to enjoy me playing the hard to get card, which was not at all what I wanted to play with him.  I didn’t want him and I sure as hell didn’t want to come across as playing any cards with him to make him think that.

He wasn’t arrogant, but he was obviously comfortable in his own skin, a personality trait that was totally me before everything happened.  I didn’t think it would hurt to make friends with someone that reminded me of me.

That night before I went to bed I opened the door to my apartment and found not only my container of sugar but also a Tupperware container with a bow made of twine wrapped around it.  Of course there was a note that accompanied it and I found myself grinning like a total dork as I set the container on the kitchen table so that I could read the note.

Gabby, thanks for letting me borrow some sugar to make the cookies.  This was my mom’s recipe and for some reason, no matter how sick I was, they always seemed to make me feel better.  I hope they do the same for you. ~Kris.

Monday morning practice arrived and we skated our butts off, especially since it was trade-deadline day and I don’t care who you are and how safe you think you are, you always have a little extra effort to put into practice on trade-deadline day.

I was tying my skates when someone from the PR department walked over to me.

“Kris?”

“Yeah?”

“Would you be willing to be mic’d up for practice today?  I know the fans are interested in getting to know the newest forward for the team…” he asked hesitantly, obviously worried that I might shoot him down.  He obviously didn’t know much about me because I was always one for being accessible to the fans, video stuff being included.

“Sure,” I cut him off before he could ramble on even more.  “No problem.  I just can’t promise to keep from cursing,” I joked.

A big grin came across his face as he waved off the admission of my potty mouth.  “We have editing tools for a reason,” he laughed.

“It will probably be good practice for an intern then,” I winked.

Soon I was hitting the ice with the team and making sure to announce the fact that I was mic’d up, so if someone didn’t want someone else hearing anything, they were forewarned.  Despite the fact I kept myself in check because of being recorded, I realized I was quickly becoming comfortable with my new teammates.  It was easy to joke with them, and I felt like I had instant chemistry with my linemates, Mike Richards and Andreas Nodl.  Working on the same line with Mike made me realize why Tazer worked so well with him in the Olympics.  They complimented each other, Mike was very laid back, but when it came time to work, his nose was to the grind and he followed through with everything he started.  I think we got along so well because he was like one of the “good old boys,” like the guys I had hung out with when I grew up in Lethbridge. 

“You interested in going out for lunch with a couple of us?” Richie asked as I gathered my stuff to head back to the apartment and do nothing.  A bunch of off days with not a ton of friends always equalled boring.  It wouldn’t be so bad if I could be outside to do some exploring, but it was the end of February and the weather seemed to be all over the place here.  Today we were actually in a Tornado Watch.

“Most definitely,” I grinned.

“Good, cause I’m calling dibs on shot-gun in your car,” Carcillo piped up from across the room.  And the chauffeuring begins.  “You bet buddy,” I laughed, truly thinking it was funny how everyone was always fascinated by the Audi, everyone except for Gabby who totally called it ostentatious the other night.  Hmm, I wonder how she’s feeling today.  Wait, stop.  Why are you even thinking about this woman?!

Lunch with the guys ended up being too short because I soon found myself just cruising around the streets of Philly, a couple times becoming slightly worried that my windows were going to be shot out, but I just made a mental note not to drive to those places at night-times.

As soon as I began walking down the hall I felt this instant urge to knock on her door and without my permission, my feet walked me right over to her door instead of mine.

*Knock, Knock*

The door opened and I quickly found myself taking a few steps back as a dark haired guy answered.

“Oh hey Kris,” he said cheerfully, causing me to quickly realize it was Patrick Burke, one of the scouts for the team that I had met the other week at the Skate Zone.  Wait, what is he doing here?

“Hey, Patrick,” I smiled despite the fact a million things were going through my head at the moment.  “Do you live here?”

“Yup, I’ve been here for a few years now,” he said easily.  I’m not here all the time because I’m in Law School in Boston.  I’m actually supposed to be there now, but Gabby was really sick and I wanted to make sure she got her ass to the doctors…”

“Yeah, how is she?” feeling totally awkward for hitting on my co-worker’s chick.  But in my defense, it’s not like she told me she wasn’t single.

“She’s sleeping now, Doc says she has strep throat,” Patrick said worriedly.  “She said you stopped over last night to borrow some sugar,” he said not sounding a bit upset that I had been in his apartment, alone, with his girl.

“Oh, yeah. I was in the mood for chocolate chip cookies,” I confessed with a nervous laugh.  “Well, I’m glad to hear she went to the doctor.  Good seeing you again, Patrick,” I said while backing up towards my door.

“Same here, I’m heading back to Boston later on this evening, but I’ll be back for the weekend, so maybe I’ll see you then,” he said cheerfully as I waved and smiled thinking about how much of an ass I really was.  Now for some reason it completely made sense; Gabby got free skate time at the Skate Zone because she was Patrick’s girlfriend. 

Smooth move, Versteeg.