Misery

A week later, Catherine was becoming less and less concerned with her and Adam’s relationship. Things between them were returning to normal, to how things were before he became a Chicago celebrity.

When he went out with his friends, his teammates he either took Catherine with him so she could mingle with the other girlfriends or he came home at a reasonable hour, not at three AM and smelling of other women’s perfume. Catherine put all of her trust into him, something she told him she had done, and Adam was keen to not mess it up.

She woke up early on a game day with an uneasy feeling in her stomach. Maybe it was because she knew things had been going so well with Adam and she was afraid that would change or maybe it was because Adam had invited her to the game that night and the Hawks were playing the Blues.

As she sleepily walked into the kitchen and began making breakfast, she decided it was the latter. There was the chance that she would see Cam, Cam whose calls she had been ignoring for the past week.

She was sad that she wasn’t talking to him anymore, but it wasn’t like she had anyone to blame but herself. He had come into her life at a time when she was most confused, most torn. And while his advice was terribly one-sided (“Leave Adam.”) she still appreciated and loved his friendship.

Adam wandered into the kitchen twenty minutes later, his hair all over the place and only a pair of boxers on. He looked at his girlfriend at the stove in just her bra and underwear and he could only shake his head at his stupidity. Had he really almost messed up the best thing in his life?

She turned to him after he placed his hands on her hips, a spatula in her hand.

“Morning, babe,” She said, smiling up at him.

“Mmm,” Adam responded, kissing her and Catherine laughed, thinking that was supposed to be his version of ‘morning.’

Having his arms wrapped around her made her feel like nothing in the world could go wrong, no one could hurt her. The cynical part of her brain laughed. Wasn’t he the same person who had hurt her most?

Pushing the negative thoughts from her head, she ushered Adam to the table, putting a plate of eggs and bacon (his energy food) and a large mug of coffee in front of him. She grabbed the plate and coffee she had made for herself and sat down across from him.

She was just starting on her eggs when she felt Adam’s eyes on her. She glanced up to see him smiling at her, except it wasn’t really a smile. He was smirking at her. She shook her head at his clean plate and if there was one thing she knew about Adam was that he loved sex almost as much as he loved food.

“Adam…” She said, slowly, standing up hesitantly.

“Cat…” Adam mocked, standing up too.

“Get away from me!” She said, laughing.

Adam only winked at her and pounced at her as she ran into the living room, sending them both hurtling onto the couch. Catherine laughed and smiled into the kiss, Adam trapping her underneath him.

As Adam went for the hook on her bra, their doorbell rang. Catherine stared at Adam, confused because he seemed to know who was at the door. He hung his head and trudged to the door, a sullen look on his face.

Catherine watched the door, but when Aimee burst through Adam and flew to the couch, pulling Catherine into a hug, she knew who had arrived. Troy Brouwer shoved Adam and they both shared a laugh at the girls.

“Dude, Cat, where have you been?”

Catherine smiled and blushed, shrugging her shoulders.

“Oh, the bedroom?” Aimee asked.

Catherine blushed even deeper at Aimee’s bluntness.

“Whatever, like you haven’t been doing Troy every chance you get.”

“Yeah, Cat, you got me there,” She said, laughing.

Before Catherine realized it, Adam had pulled some clothes on and grabbed his athletic bag, standing by the door.

“Cat, I’m going to practice with Troy.”

Catherine could only nod as Aimee pulled her into the bedroom, trying to get Catherine dressed and out shopping with her. Catherine agreed after much arguing and soon she found herself well outside of downtown Chicago and in the suburb of Schaumberg, walking the mall known as Woodfield.

As they passed store after store, Catherine felt her phone vibrate in her back pocket. Thinking it was Adam after coming home from practice, wanting to know where she was at, she quickly hit the button to answer the call.

“Hey, babe,” She greeted.

“You’re calling me ‘babe’ now, after ignoring me for the past week?”

“Cam.”

“Catherine.”

“I’m sorry!”

“You’re back with Adam, aren’t you?”

Her silence confirmed his worst thought.

“Why?”

“He apologized and he said it wouldn’t happen again.”

“And you believed that?”

She was silent again. She knew Cam wasn’t purposely making her feel like she was an inch tall, but that’s how she felt. She ended the call and turned to Aimee, just wanting to go home. The other girl understood and quickly ushered her friend out of the mall.

- - -

Halfway through the game, Catherine was ready to run her fingers through her red hair and rip it out of her head. The looks of pity she was getting from the other girlfriends made her roll her green eyes so many times, Catherine had lost count.

Aimee kept glancing at Catherine, trying to get her to calm down, but each time Catherine would let out a fake grin and mutter she was fine. Aimee learned to back off, knowing that the girls’ looks on top of the phone call from Cam were not making Catherine a happy person.

The game was almost over and again the Blues were losing, down by three goals. With ten minutes left in the third, Catherine was looking to just get out of the arena and get home.

Picking at her nails in frustration, she was ready to punch Aimee when the other girl shoved her.

“What the fuck?”

Aimee glared but practically shoved her friend’s head to look at the ice.

“Oh god. Oh god. Oh god.”

Having Cam and Adam in another fight was not in her plans for the evening. And sitting so close to the ice, Catherine could tell there were words being exchanged between the two of them as they wrestled for an upper hand.

She watched as both Adam and Cam were escorted off the ice, receiving game misconducts for the fight, as well. Knowing Adam was probably seething after being ejected from the game, Catherine bolted from her seat and ran toward the locker room, barely slowing down to show the guard her pass.

“Adam!” She said, out of breath as soon as she burst through the door.

She winced when he didn’t turn around to look at her, but kept throwing his gear at his locker. Finally, he had run out of things to throw and he sat in his stall, breathing heavily.

“How long?”

She furrowed her eyebrows, confused, “How long what?”

“Cam Janssen is the Cam you were talking about when you walked out on me.”

She nodded and Adam cringed.

“I met him after the last home game against the Blues.”

He nodded and barely looked at her, but she knew he wanted her to continue.

“We’ve been talking,” She paused. “He’s a really nice guy and he became a friend to me, Adam.”

He stood and groaned.

“He offered me friendship when I barely had a relationship with you, Adam.”

He turned to her and Catherine almost fell over. His usual bright blue eyes were clouded in sadness, but the thing that shocked her was that they were tear-filled.

“I am so sorry, Cat.”

She let herself be pulled into a tight hug as Adam whispered he was sorry into her ear over and over again.

“Adam, it’s okay,” She said, holding him just as tightly.

More confused than ever, Catherine wondered what Cam had said to Adam to make him freak out as much as he had. And as soon as Adam was calmed down, as bad an idea as it seemed, she knew she had to find Cam and talk to him.