Ch. 8

This is the time
it's a delicate line
to the beginning of what's yet to come
Lifetimes of changes
a strange generation
explanations never come in time
So I'm leavin' everything behind

The Cardigans – Starter

Ch. 8

“There is this really hot strawberry-blonde that is your neighbor across the hall,” Bryce informed me after my mom headed off to bed and we were busy playing Call of Duty, Black Ops in my new place.

“Already checking out the clientele, eh?” I laughed at my youngest brother who was as horny as they came.  However, I probably had no right to judge considering I was most likely a 100 times worse at his age.  Okay, I’m probably just as bad on some nights too…

“Well, she opened the door for mom and I the other day when we were moving your shit in and I accidentally ran into the back of mom as I stared at her…” he admitted while cringing at the memory.

“Smooth move ex-lax,” I chirped, throwing a chip at his head.  “Now I’ll have to explain that you are retarded and maybe get her to feel bad enough for me so that I can borrow a wooden spoon or a cup of milk.”

“See, I just opened the door of opportunity for you,” he grinned, launching the chip back towards my direction.

We played in silence for a few moments before I got the nerve to ask the question that had been nagging at me for a while now.  “So, have you seen Dawn at all?”

“Yup, she comes along to some of the Hurricane games with Trevor and the rest of us.  They seem really happy, I haven’t seen her smile like that in a long time,” my brother said honestly.  I smiled thinking about Dawn’s smile, the one that made it to her eyes, the one I remember from when we were younger.  “She told me to tell you good luck here in Philly and that she guesses she’ll buy your shirzee,” Bryce continued.

This last bit of information just made me laugh.  “I will send one home with you for her,” I announced.  “She will never have to buy a shirzee or jersey of mine for that matter.”

“I figured you’d say that.  Do you miss her?”

I sighed as our team just lost the death match we were playing online.  “I miss her because she was basically my best friend for all these years.  However, I don’t miss what she represented in my life…”

“And what did she represent?” my brother asked sincerely.

“Someone for me to cheat on,” I said point blank.  “She was someone I used for all the wrong reasons.”

“Did you date anyone up in Toronto?”

“Fuck? Yes. Date? No.”

“Well you are young…” Bryce began.

“No, I’m just a guy who doesn’t know what he wants in life.”

“You’re 24 though,” he argued.

“Yeah, and there are guys who have a wife and a couple kids already,” I countered.

“Well mom always said we’d find the one when we weren’t looking for her,” he said in his falsetto, attempting to sound like my mom, but failing miserably.

“I’m just happy being single right now,” I said, effectively finishing the conversation.  I truly was happy to be single, especially since I knew it was going to be hard to find someone that understood the life of a hockey player.  Dawn understood because she grew up with me and knew all my quirks.  She wasn’t with me for the money, she was with me for me and that was now going to be something very hard to find since my star had risen a little higher after winning the Cup.  All I could do was believe in Mom’s words, that there was someone out there for all of us and that I’d find her when I wasn’t even looking for her.

I got up early and headed over to Skate Zone with Patrick.  I hadn’t slept much the night before, especially after I was woken up by a bad dream about Brendan’s accident.  In the beginning I had a bunch of those dreams, sometimes 2-3 times a night.  Now, after a year I was down to 1 or 2 every 2 weeks, so the mornings after I would clear my head with a good jog or time on the ice rink.  This morning it was easy to hitch a ride over with Patrick.

My heart began beating a quicker pace as soon as I began lacing up my skates.  My body even looked forward to my time on the ice.  I stood up and took a sharp, deep breath, allowing the cold air to fill and burn my lungs.  It was as if I was allowing it to wake up every part of me.

I felt my muscles rejoice as I took my first step out onto the ice and pushed off, gliding out to the center and spun around.  After all these years of living on ice skates I had actually mastered figure skating spins on my hockey skates.  I did own a pair of figure skates, but I had always felt more comfortable without the toe-pick to trip me up.  I glanced at the clock, noting that I had a good hour until the guys from the team would start arriving.  I wanted to be off the ice before they got here, I popped in my ear-buds, picked my 45 minute set-list I had programed into my IPod and began my skate.  I allowed the rhythm of my strides to be dictated by the music that filled my ears and focused on only that.

I was up early, mainly because I awoke in the middle of the night from some strange dream that literally had me in tears.  I could only remember bits and pieces of it, but I do know I was standing out in the rain, angry as hell and yelling so much that tears came to my eyes.  I woke up gasping for air as real tears drenched my pillow.  It scared the crap out of me.  So after an hour of trying to go back to sleep I decided to get up and find my way over to my new practice facility.  I was at least an hour early, Jim McCrossin, the trainer was already there so we talked over my fitness routines and came up with a plan that I would follow here in Philly.  After running 2 miles on the treadmill I headed out of the work-out room to check out the practice rink.  To my surprise I found a couple people out on the ice, one guy was working on some stick-handling drills with another guy and then there was this strawberry blonde just skating hard and looking damn graceful doing it.  She looked like she had been born with skates on her feet and I couldn’t help but watching her as she glided around in her own little world.  She was in a pair of ADIDAS warm-up pants and a worn-out grey sweatshirt that hung slightly off her shoulder, revealing the sports-bra she had underneath.  A knitted headband covered her ears, probably helping to block the outside noises as I noted the wires of earphones disappearing underneath the band.

Her hair was cut short, the longest layer just touching the bottom of her chin, the back of the bob looked like she probably spiked it out when she had it styled, but this morning it looked like she had just rolled out of bed to come down here.  The way she moved suddenly made me very interested in her.  There was something vaguely familiar about her face, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. 

I was still studying her when one of the guys that had been working on a stick-handling drill slammed into the boards aside of me, effectively scaring the shit out of me.  “Shit!” I breathed, looking over at the thin, dark-haired guy with a big grin on his face.

“Sorry,” he laughed as he stuck his hand out in front of him.  “I’m Patrick Burke, your old boss’ son,” he said cheerfully.

I left out a laugh and shook his hand.  “Mr. Burke told me I’d probably meet you here at some point.  Nice to meet you Patrick,” I said sincerely.  Despite the fact I was still more than bitter about the fact that Brian Burke picked me up and then quickly traded me away, I wasn’t going to take it out on his son.

“You’re here early this morning,” he said, glancing over at the clock.

“Yeah, I couldn’t sleep and I figured I’d come down and check out the place a little before everyone else arrived.  Nice facility,” I commented.

“Yeah, the staff here is great too,” Patrick said as he stepped back behind the boards with me and took a seat on the bench, beginning to unlace his skates.

I was just going to ask him if the woman out on the ice was staff, but my question left as soon as Coach Laviolette walked out from the locker room and asked to talk with me.

“Gabby!” he called out as I was walking over to Patrick’s car in the parking lot of Skate Zone.  Patrick had a meeting to attend with some of the scouts, so I had decided to head over to the mall to do some shopping.

I smiled to myself before turning around.  “Oh, hey Paul,” I said happily as he had already cut half the distance down between us.  He had just gotten off the Coyotes team bus; they were going to be using one of the other rinks inside the facility for their own practice since there was a basketball game going on at the WFC tonight.

“So, I was wondering if you were available tonight?  I’m looking for a dinner date…” he winked.  It was obvious this guy had no self-esteem problems.

“I am actually free tonight,” I said too easily.

“Well, where do you want to meet then?”

“Where are you guys staying?” I asked.  He said they were staying at the Doubletree Inn that was down off of

Broad St.

in Center City.  So I told him to meet me at Amada restaurant, a Spanish Tapas located in Old City.  It was relaxed atmosphere with awesome food that I figured would be relaxed enough for a date that was only going to lead to one thing and one thing only, and I was completely okay with that right now.

Once our plans were made, I got in Patrick’s car and headed off to the mall with a new clothing agenda in mind and some excited butterflies in my stomach.  However the more I went through the day the more I cursed myself.  Here I was breaking my #1.  But really, it wasn’t like I was going to be in a relationship with this guy.  It was just going to be one night.  Sex shouldn’t count as breaking the rule.  Oh God, I sound like a slut.

“You are going on a date with Mr. BizNasty himself?!” Kristy squealed as soon as I opened the door to my apartment, allowing her to come in.  She just got done her classes for the day and I was going to need some help in the hair and make-up department.  Plus, I was going to be helping her get ready for her date with my brother.  To my extreme excitement and approval, he asked her out when he dropped her off at her apartment after dinner.  He made the comment of, “I’m just going out with her because you insisted.”

“Yeah, okay, you hit it off with her pretty well yesterday, admit it!” I threw back at him, jokingly.

He looked over giving me the look that meant I was right but he was too proud to admit his little sister was accurate in something.  Their date just gave me another reason to justify going out on a date with Paul.  I refused to be at home by myself for the night.

I smiled in the mirror was Kristy yapped on about how excited she was to be going on a date with Patrick and how she was glad I wasn’t weird about it and how she was still unsure if her outfit was too conservative, despite the fact I had told her it was perfect.

“Are you sure this is okay?” I asked hesitantly as I looked over my own outfit in the mirror.  My legs were clad in a pair of tight black leggings and a form fitting ash-gray cashmere sweater dress.  It had the big neck so that I could wear a silver chain necklace and matching silver hoops.  Kristy insisted that I cinch sweater dress with a thick black belt to accentuate my tiny waist.  The outfit went from so-so to glam with my black knee-high buckle boots.  The whole outfit drew attention to my svelte figure.  It was slightly on the conservative side, yet the boots totally gave it the edgy feel I was looking for and what I figured Biz would be looking for also.

I smiled at myself in the mirror and then wished Kristy some good luck for her own date.  Of course I wasn’t lucky when it came to getting out of my apartment without the typical brotherly advice.

“I still don’t understand why you are going out with Paul Bissonnette, Abby.  You know the guy is a tool that is just looking to make you another notch in your bedpost…” Patrick grumbled as I hugged goodbye.

“Yup, and that’s exactly what I’m hoping for,” I grinned as I smacked a kiss on my brother’s cheek.

“That is not at all what I need to hear,” Patrick whined while sticking his fingers in his ears.

“I’m getting out, be happy for me!” I yelled loud enough that he should be able to hear me.

“LaLaLa be safe LaLaLA” he sang as I waved goodbye and headed out of the door of our apartment.