Ch. 12

Oh, your love gives
Me a heart confusion
Adagio breezes fill
My skin with sudden red
Your hungry flirt
Borders intrusion
I'm building memories on
Things we have not said
Full is not heavy as empty
Not nearly my love
Not nearly my love
Not nearly

Give me the first taste
Let it begin
Heaven cannot wait forever
Darling, just start the chase
I'll let you win
But you must
Make the endeavor.

Fiona Apple – The First Taste

Counting Crows - HangingAround   - A/N - the link to this song was placed here because it plays a roll in the story... so make sure you listen to it... fun song... goes along with the fun chapter. :o)

Ch. 12

By the time Tuesday afternoon rolled around I was beginning to feel semi-human, despite the lovely bubble world experience I constantly seemed to have.  I decided I was at least well enough to venture across the hall to Kris’s so that I could return his Tupperware container that had contained the most delicious cookies in the world.

“Hey Snots,” he joked as he opened the door to find me standing there.

“Hey yourself, Betty Crocker,” I giggled back, sounding completely ridiculous due to the fact my voice was a raspy octave lower than normal.  We stood there looking at each other for an awkward silent minute.  I kind of forgot what I wanted to say because I had suddenly realized he was standing there in only a pair of gym shorts, practically looking like a billboard for Men’s Health with his chiseled torso.  Oh and look at that on his bicep, the date he won the Stanley Cup, how cute.  The look on his face however made it seem like he was put-out about something.

“So what’s up?” he asked, breaking the uneasy tension I suddenly had.

I shook my head to get myself back on track and stuttered, “I wanted to give you back you container and tell you thank you for the cookies.  I’m pretty sure they were better than anything I’ve ever tasted,” I admitted.

A large grin came over his face as he accepted the empty container.  However, it still bothered me that the grin didn’t make it to his eyes.  “Glad you enjoyed them…”

“Patrick tried to eat the last one but I growled at him,” I confided as I thought about the silly exchange between me and my brother.

“I’m sure you were scary,” Kris chuckled, yet still sounding he was maybe occupied with something else.

“Oh most definitely…Um, I’m sorry, I’ll leave you be, I just wanted to give you back your container…” I said, totally confused on why his attitude with me had completely changed.  I mean, it was nice not to have him hit on me, but he was so distant that it threw me for a loop.  I practically shoved the container into his hands and turned to head back to my apartment.

“Patrick seems like a nice guy,” he suddenly blurted out as I took a step away.

“He’s great,” I said enthusiastically, “Not that I’m biased or anything,” I smiled lightly turning my head back to look at Kris.

“How long have you two been together, if you don’t mind me asking?” Kris spoke like it pained him greatly to even think the question.

Oh you have got to be kidding me! Do I play along? No, that would just be too evil, funny, but too evil even for me.  I couldn’t help but snort.  “Together?” I asked slowly as I fully turned around and looked at Kris.

“Yeah, like how long have you been dating?  It would have been nice of you to tell me, especially since I had made an ass out of myself more than once blatantly hitting on you…” he continued, sounding more annoyed than anything at this point.  

“Is this why you’ve seemed distracted since I’ve knocked on your door?” I asked, trying my hardest not to laugh, but I was failing miserably.

“If it is, what’s it to you?” he challenged, puffing his chest out just a little.  This of course just made it even more impossible to not laugh.

“I find it slightly pathetic that a guy with your good looks and arrogance is so put-out when one woman, who you don’t even know, turns you down.”

“You think I’m arrogant?”

“Oh most definitely.  Hello? Have you seen your car?!” I scoffed.

“My car does not make me arrogant.”

“Maybe, maybe not, but the way you are pouting right now makes you arrogant.”

“You are very judgmental on someone you don’t even know,” he shot back.

“I just know the hockey player types…” I laughed, turning back towards the door of my apartment.

“Is that why you are dating a scout instead?  You can’t handle a real hockey player?”

This made me stop in my tracks and spin around to face him once more.  I’m still not sure how returning an empty container turned into ‘are you single or not?’ but it sure did quickly.  “He’s my cousin, Kris.”  I wish I had a camera to take a picture of how big his blue eyes got when the words hit him.  “So who is being judgmental on someone they don’t know?” I threw back at him with a classic Burke smirk.  After standing there for a moment in silence I nodded, knowing I had won this battle and said, “Thanks again for the cookies, Kris,” and finally went back into my apartment, closing the door behind me.

Wow, you really know how to fuck things up for yourself, don’t you?

I’m not quite how everything took a complete nose dive off the cliff, but it quickly happened and now I was left sitting in my apartment trying to figure out how the hell I was going to fix this.

Is this even worth the effort? Well, I’ve gone this far and I have to admit that there is just something about her that makes me more and more curious.  I’m like a child who still has to touch the hot stove, even after I was told not to.

*Knock Knock*

“Do you like pounding your head against the wall?” she asked, humor filling her eyes as she tried to sound cranky.

“I must,” I admitted, defeated.  “So I’m bored because I’m totally new here and I have no friends to hang out with…”

“Well, I can’t say I’m surprised you don’t have anything friends…” she smirked.  “Are you thinking I want to hang out with you?” she laughed as she took a step back to allow me into her apartment.

Without saying anything I walked in and held up the recipe for the chocolate chip cookies.  “Truce?”

“You want to bake cookies with me?”

“Sure.  You seem bored too…”

She actually laughed out loud but quickly found herself in the middle of a coughing spell.  I grabbed a glass of water and handed it to her like I had done the night before, she looked at me and hoarsely asked, “Are you sure you want to bake cookies with a sickie?”

“As long as you promise not to snot in the batter,” I chuckled.  This earned me a shove from behind, making me laugh even harder when I heard her trying not to also laugh.  She sounded like some sort of wheezing seal.  “You still sound like shit.”

“If you are trying to make friends with me, that is not the way to do it,” she teased as she began grabbing ingredients from the cabinets.

“Do you have a stereo or something?  We need some tunes…” I informed her while watching her easily move around the kitchen.

“Over by the TV; my IPod is sitting on the coffee table if you want to plug that into it…” she said absently with her head buried in the fridge.

I was actually interested in seeing what kind of music she listened to.  It is well documented that I’m somewhat of a music freak, listening to everything and anything.  I can’t stand listening to just one genre and it used to drive me crazy that Dawn only listened to Hit List type music.  I was also a big fan of country music, so when I had it playing in the car she would bitch up a storm.

Hmm, let’s see… Coldplay, OAR, Lady GaGa Jason Aldean, Muse, Miranda Lambert, Patsy Cline, Radiohead, Ben Folds, Taylor Swift, Weezer, Destiny’s Child, Claude Debussy, Led Zepplin, Jay-Z, Breaking Benjamin, Mumford and Sons…very eclectic to say the least.

I hit the shuffle button, turned up the volume and walked back towards the kitchen, hoping for the IPod to not fail me in my need for some fun background music for my quest to learn more about my green-eyed neighbor.

I smiled when Jason Aldean’s Johnny Cash song began filtering through the apartment, I couldn’t help but tap my foot to the beat.  I always listened to music when I was working out but I often forgot to play it when doing things around the apartment.  Instantly I realized it was necessary to remember more often because I forgot how much listening to it made me smile.  It made me smile even more when I heard Kris humming along.

“Do you like country?”

“You sound surprised,” he grinned as he cracked some eggs into the mixing bowl.

“I think I’m even more surprised that you can crack eggs with one hand,” I exclaimed as I watched him in awe.

His grin became even larger and I suddenly noticed that his blue eyes sparkling like diamonds on the ocean when he smiled.  “I can find my way around the kitchen,” he winked, completely pulling my mind in the gutter as I suddenly found myself wondering how well he could find his way doing other things.  Earth to Abby?! Rule #1.  Besides, since when have you been attracted to blonde haired, blue eyed boys?!  “Speaking of which, do you have plans for dinner?” he asked, pulling me from my thoughts.

“What? Um, yeah, I mean, no…” I stuttered as I went back to focusing on getting all the dry ingredients measured.  “I haven’t been eating a lot since I’ve been sick,” I continued.

“Well, I was thinking of making soup and grilled cheese sandwiches or something.  I have some chicken and veggies over in my fridge that we can make into chicken noodle soup, perfect for snot noses.”

I took a deep breath, bit my lip in hesitation and shrugged my shoulders as if it was no big deal, because really, it wasn’t a big deal.  Right?  “Sure, I’m game.”

A large smile graced his face.  “Good.  You know what, you finish mixing up the batter and I will run over and get the stuff for the soup because it will have to simmer for the rest of the afternoon.”

“I think I can handle that,” I laughed at his enthusiasm.  He was like an excited puppy as he jogged out of my apartment.

The last time I cooked with a woman was back in Chicago with Dawn.  I found cooking to be one of the most relaxing things to do and it was even better to have someone to hang out with while doing it.  The last few weeks have been totally stressful for me, so basically having a full day to spend getting to know Gabby and cook was my ideal kind of day.

I quickly found out why I had been so drawn to her, every time she smiled the room lit up and I loved the easy banter we threw back and forth at each other the whole time.

“So what’s your story?”

“What do you mean?” I asked as I chopped up some carrots for the soup.

“Why did you move here to Philly halfway through the season?  Were you playing shitty in Chicago or something?”

“Ouch,” I took the knife and pointed it at my heart, pretending to stab myself with it as I laughed at her bluntness.  “Um, actually I was traded from Chicago to Toronto a few weeks after winning the Stanley Cup…you do know what the Stanley Cup is, right?”

“I did live in Toronto and Brian Burke is my uncle, smartass.”

I laughed again as she stuck her tongue out at me before going back to scooping out cookie batter on the tray.

“Just making sure since you didn’t even know who I was…”

“I can name the teams but I don’t follow so close that I know the name over every player on the team.”

“I’m not just every player,” I joked back.  She promptly body checked herself into me, pushing me down the counter a few steps as she rolled her eyes and popped some cookie dough into her mouth.

“I saw that!” I cried.

“Saw what?” she asked innocently.

“You eating the cookie dough!  You better wash your hands, I don’t want to get sick from your germy fingers!” She bust up laughing as I grabbed her wrists, drug her over to the sink and put some globs of soap on her hands.

“Seriously?!” she squeaked through her fits of raspy laughter.  “The germs would bake off with the hot temperatures!”

“Oh is that true?!  Well then I’m sure as hell never eating anything you make!” I laughed back.  “In fact I’m glad you made hid from me and my family the other night because you probably would have licked my glass and then I would have been sick like you…”

“That is totally disgusting, Kris Versteeg!” she scowled, this time pushing me.

“You are very violent too,” I continued to pick on her.

“If you don’t like it, then get outta here!” she shouted as loud as her sore throat allowed her.

“Nah, it’s too much fun busting your ass,” I said as I kept laughing at her.

He really had no problem busting my ass and because of that I found myself laughing more than I had in over a year.  It was amazing how comfortable I felt around him; especially if you added up all the minutes we had spent around each other in the last week and a half, it maybe added up to a day. 

I had just put the first batch of cookies in the oven when the first sounds of the beginning drum, guitar and piano riff of Hanging Around by the Counting Crows began filtering through the apartment.  I went to rip apart some paper bags so that the cookies could cool on them but I stopped and smiled when I heard Kris begin singing along to the song.  It was a classic 90’s tune in my book and for some reason I wasn’t the least bit surprised to find him shaking his ass to it.  Personally, I was never able to at least tap my toes to the song and I would always play it when I needed a pick-me-up kind of melody.  Kris knew every word and belted it out terribly out of tune, but he didn’t seem to care.   I lost it when he turned his head, found me watching and began breaking out a funky dance.  Soon he came bopping over to me, coaxing me to dance like a goober with him.  Of course it wasn’t that much longer after that I too began singing along.  Sad to say that he actually sounded better than me, considering I was not only tone deaf but also sick.  I was wheezing by the time the song finished and Kris once again handed me a glass of water to stop my coughing fit.

“No more excitement for you,” he joked as he plopped down next to me on the couch.  “Too much throws you into these coughing/snotting sessions and it’s not totally attractive.”

“Oh good, I was trying my hardest to make sure you didn’t like me that way.”

“Like you what way?” he asked, seeming overly interested in my opinion in the matter.

Choose your words carefully, Gabby.  I looked at him and made the first serious eye contact with him for the first time today.  “I don’t date hockey players,” I said seriously.

He left out a laugh and then stopped when he realized I was being totally serious.  “Wait, what?”

“I don’t date hockey players,” I informed him again so he would know I wasn’t joking.

“Bad experience?”

“You could say that,” I said, having to break eye contact with him because the way he was looking into my eyes put me on high alert.

“Well what if I said I don’t date girls that curtsey and have boogers on their nose?” he asked, easily turning what could have been an awkward situation into a comical one.

“Then I would say, I don’t blame you,” I laughed, mindlessly checking my nose just in case there was once again a booger on it.

“So can you be friends with a hockey player?”

I pretended to think about it, even added some suspense by looking around the room, twiddling my thumbs and biting my lip before finally answering, “Since you shared your cookie recipe, I’m thinking it’s an even trade.”

“Once again, the cookies save the day!” he fist pumped into the air as the egg timer buzzed in the kitchen.