In Love With My Best Friend's Boyfriend

I heard Kelsay’s annoying voice laughing as Henrik and I approached the group.

“You’re so funny, Pavel!” She said, putting on a fake smile.

Pavel forced a smile that never touched his eyes and fell away instantly. He turned toward her and she pouted. “What’s wrong, Pavel baby?” She said in a really pouty voice.

“Not feeling well,” He responded in his choppy, Russian accented English.

His accent made me melt inside. The sound of his voice sent shivers down my spine. Just seeing him sent butterflies racing through me. I knew that I was either in love with him or falling for him, and hard. I glanced over at Henrik and Nicklas Lidstrom. Both of them smiled at me sympathetically. Henrik came over to me and wrapped his arms around my waist. He leaned toward me.

“Just play along,” He whispered in my ear before tipping my head up gently to kiss me.

I wrapped my arms around his neck and he spun me around to face him. We pulled away to cat calls and wolf whistles. We smiled at each other and he wrapped an arm around my shoulders. I glanced at Kelsay and Pavel. Kelsay looked disgusted; Pavel looked… jealous? Was he jealous of Henrik? No, he can’t be, I thought.

Henrik did say Pavel didn’t like Kelsay, I reminded myself.

But was he serious?

Why would he lie to you? If he wasn’t, he wouldn’t have told you, dummy.

Great, now I’m losing arguments with myself in my head. The last thought left me feeling grumpy, but Henrik smiled down at me and squeezed my shoulders, getting another envious look from Pavel. Yup, he’s jealous all right. Inwardly, I smiled, but outwardly, I snuggled into Henrik’s chest and let his arms wrap around me. Pavel pushed by us and dragged Kelsay with him.

“You coming, or you just going somewhere else?” Pavel asked in a nasty voice.

“We’re coming with you guys,” Henrik responded smoothly.

I followed him to his car and sat in the back seat. Henrik got in the driver’s side, and Nicklas got in the passenger’s seat. Tomas Holmstrom sat on one side of me and Chris Osgood sat on my other side. Squished between two hockey players and neither are the one I want, I thought with an inward sigh. Chris and Tomas smiled at me.

“Hank, you never told us you had a girlfriend!” Chris whined.

I bit back a laugh and Tomas snorted as Henrik’s face turned pink.

“Never thought I needed to dad,” He said.

“Hey, if anyone in this car is dad, it’s Nick!” Chris said.

We all laughed as Nick’s face turned red.

“Hey now, no fighting,” Nick said as sternly as he could muster before we all broke into a fit of laughter.

We pulled into the parking lot of the bar and were let in instantly by a bored looking bouncer. We went to a large table and piled into the booth. Pavel, Kelsay, Marian Hossa, Jiri Hudler, Johan Franzen, Ty Conklin and Valtteri Filppula joined us and sat down. The waitress took our orders and we downed our drinks quickly. Some random blonde bimbo took Marian to the dance floor. A pretty little brunette took Ty from our group. Slowly, the group dwindled down to me, Pavel, Henrik and Kelsay. Kel was on her fifth drink and looking for a guy. Hank was looking for a dance partner since I had already refused to dance with him when he was drunk. Pavel and I had had one drink each. We watched as Henrik was pulled to the dance floor by some fake blonde that couldn’t keep her hands off of him and Kelsay was pulled off by a guy that groped her the whole time. I glanced at Pavel, feeling his gaze burn into me. I turned away and stared at the table. I could tell his gaze was still on me.

“What’s wrong?” He asked, moving closer to me.

I shook my head. He put a hand on my shoulder. “You can tell me. I keep it secret,” He promised.

Again, I shook my head. “Why?” He asked.

“It’s about you and Kelsay,” I said quietly.

He turned my head so I was forced to face him and stared into my eyes.

“What about us? We make you jealous or something?” He asked.

I lowered my eyes and nodded. “Why you jealous? You have Hank,” He said, and I sensed the bitterness dripping from his tone.

“That wasn’t real. We’re not really going out. We were pretending to,” I confessed.

He stared at me curiously.

“Why you do that?” He asked.

“Because…. I really like you,” My voice got quieter, if that was even possible.

He leaned toward me. Kelsay stumbled back toward the table.

“Pavel, what the hell are you doing?!” She screeched.

He turned toward her.

“I was talking to her. She very quiet. I couldn’t hear her,” He said.

Her face cleared up and she leaned down to kiss him. I turned away, disgusted. He pulled away, gasping. I turned back a little to see Kelsay, a little disappointed, go back to the guy she had been using. “I don’t like when she does things like that,” He said.

“Why don’t you tell her, then?” I asked.

“It would hurt her,” He said simply.

I nodded.

“Is that why you won’t break up with her?” I asked.

He nodded.

“I don’t want her to be hurt,” He said softly.

I glanced at the dance floor.

“Doesn’t look like she’d be too hurt,” I observed.

He turned to face them, then turned back to me, disgusted to see her grinding up against the other guy. We ordered another drink, water for both of us, and started talking about our lives.

“You come home with me?” He asked around 2:30.

I shook my head.

“I want to make sure the others get home all right,” I said.

He nodded in understanding.

“Practice is at noon tomorrow. You come?” He asked.

I smiled and nodded.

“I should go rescue the others,” I said.

He stood to let me out, and I gave him a small hug as I left. “Thanks for listening,” I said softly, then turned toward the dance floor to search for Henrik, Nick, Tomas and Chris.