Another Heart Calls

Meredith Taylor sat in the Blackhawks locker room, waiting for her boyfriend, Patrick Sharp, to get done with all of his interviews so they could go out to eat, celebrating the team’s win. She looked over to her left and saw one of her best friends, Charlotte Armstrong, sitting there, waiting for her fiancé, Marty Havlat. The two looked over to Meredith’s right at the same exact time and saw the one person Meredith did not want to see: Janelle Myers.

Meredith didn’t know Janelle too well; she had only met her the day before when Janelle had surprised Patrick in the locker room.

Janelle and Patrick had grown up together in Thunder Bay, Ontario. In fact, they had been nearly inseparable. But, when Patrick had moved away they had drifted apart, and they had not seen each other in nearly ten years. That had changed the day before when Janelle had gotten into the locker room.

Just like today, Meredith had been waiting on her boyfriend to get finished doing his interviews after practice. She had been talking to Charlotte about her wedding plans when all of a sudden she saw some girl walk into the locker room.

“That’s weird,” Charlotte said to Meredith. “Do you know who that is? They usually don’t let fans into the locker room after practice.”

“No idea,” Meredith replied, not really caring about the girl too much. Maybe she was just some fan who had won something. “So, have you two decided on a day yet?”

“Well, it’s going to have to be sometime this summer,” Charlotte said.

“Obviously,” Meredith laughed. “Unless you two want to get married on an off-day for the team and then have Marty play in the game the next day.”

“No,” Charlotte said. “We haven’t actually sat down and talked about it yet. I mean he just proposed last week.”

“Yeah, I know,” Meredith said, looking up and seeing that Patrick had finished his interview. She stood up and was about to walk over to him when the girl they had seen walk in earlier beat her to him. The girl ran over to Patrick, jumping on top of him.

“Talk about crazy fans!” Charlotte said from behind her, laughing.

Meredith just looked at the girl, currently latched onto her boyfriend. Patrick looked surprised, and then he took a step back and looked at the girl more closely. “Janelle?” he questioned.

Meredith looked back at Charlotte, looking for an answer from her. Charlotte simply shrugged, indicating she knew nothing about the girl.

“Oh my god!” Patrick yelled. “I can’t believe you’re here! I haven’t seen you in how long?”

“Like ten years,” Janelle answered.

“How did you get in here?” Patrick asked.

“Well, I know someone who knows someone,” Janelle replied. “Oh my god!” she exclaimed. “I can’t believe I’m actually seeing you again!”

“I know,” Patrick said hugging her again.

Meredith decided this would be a good time to go over and introduce herself. She walked over and stood next to Patrick. He glanced over, noticing she was standing there.

“Oh,” he said. “Mer, this is Janelle Myers. I’ve talked about her before,” he introduced. Meredith thought back and faintly remembered Patrick saying that she used to be an extremely close friend of the family. “Janie, this is my girlfriend, Meredith Taylor.”

Janelle looked over at Meredith with a smile on her face. “Girlfriend?” she asked.

“Yep,” Patrick said, putting his arm around Meredith and pulling her closer. “For about six months now.”

“Six months, wow!” Janelle exclaimed. “I’m so happy for you,” she added, sincerely, as her eyes became a little sad.

Meredith didn’t know what to think. She knew that Janelle obviously had a crush on Patrick, just by the way her eyes looked when he had introduced Meredith as his girlfriend. But, at the same time, she just seemed too nice to hate her.

“Thanks,” Patrick said, pulling Meredith out of her thoughts.

“So, are you in Chicago for a visit?” Meredith asked Janelle.

“No, actually I just moved here for my job,” Janelle replied. “I work for a business that actually opened a new building here.”

“Cool,” Meredith said.

“Hey, Janie, you feel like going to dinner with us?” Patrick asked.

“I don’t want to intrude,” Janelle said.

“No, come with us,” Meredith insisted.

“Okay,” Janelle said with a smile. “Thanks.”

Later that night, after Janelle had gone home, Meredith had to ask Patrick what had been on her mind all night. “Patrick, did you and Janelle ever date?”

“What?” Patrick asked, looking over at her.

“Did you two ever date?” Meredith repeated.

“No,” Patrick said simply.

“Did you ever want to?”

“Mer, why are you asking all these questions?”

“I’m just curious,” Meredith said. “She seemed to have a crush on you.”

“Meredith,” Patrick said, laughing slightly. “You have nothing to worry about, okay? You’re my girlfriend, not Janelle.”

“I just wondered if you ever wanted to go out with her,” Meredith told him. “You can say yes. I won’t be mad,” she added.

“Yes, I used to have a crush on her,” Patrick admitted. “But not anymore. Listen, she’s just an old friend, nothing more.”

“Okay,” Meredith replied, letting the topic go.

So, now here she sat in the Blackhawks locker room once again, waiting on Patrick. As he got finished with his interview, he walked over to Meredith, who sat in front of his locker. He looked over to see Janelle sitting there, too. “Janie, what are you doing here?” he asked.

“Oh, I just came to see you,” she replied, smiling. “I mean it’s been ten years since we’ve seen each other.”

“Well, what are you up to?” he asked.

“I don’t know. I think I’m probably just going to grab something to eat,” she said.

“Meredith and I are going out to eat with Marty and his fiancée, Charlotte,” Patrick said. “You can join us if you want.”

Janelle looked over at Meredith, as if asking for her permission. “You should come,” Meredith said, not wanting to hurt Patrick’s feelings by not inviting his old best friend.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, let me introduce you to Charlotte right now,” Meredith replied as she walked over to where Charlotte was standing.

“Char, this is Janelle. Janelle, this is Charlotte,” Meredith quickly introduced. “Janelle’s coming with us to eat tonight,” Meredith said, looking over at Charlotte.

Charlotte gave Meredith a questioning look, trying to see if she was alright with Janelle going. “Okay,” Charlotte said as the two boys walked over, joining them, and the five of them walked out of the locker room.