How We Operate

"Great!" Marc-Andre said, "I always love knowing I've got supporters in the stands."

"You've got my support, too," Henry laughed, "I'm a goalie myself,"

"Really?" As Fluery and Henry began talking about Henry's career as a goalie Geno made his way over to Violet and touched her elbow.

"Talk?" He asked. Violet shrugged and followed him toward his locker.

"Who that?" Geno nodded toward Henry.

"Henry. He's here on business and visiting me." Geno cleared his throat.

"You want come back to my place?" Violet bit her lip and shook her head.

"I can't. I never see Henry any more and he's taking time to visit me. I can't just ditch him like I ditch Matt. And even when I ditch Matt I'm being a horrible friend!" Violet sighed. "Look, maybe next time. Henners and I are going to a late movie and I already bought the tickets." Geno's eyes crinkled at Violet's pet name for Henry. "Rain check?" Violet walked away and she and Henry left leaving Geno to stare after them.

Gonchar walked up to Geno and in their native tongue asked what was up. Geno replied that he didn't know what was up with Violet. Gonch suggested that maybe it was just that time of the month.

"Time of the month?" Jordan rolled his eyes. "Geno, you totally blew her off!"

"What you mean?"

"That night at the club! You disappeared on her for half the night and then when she finally sees you again and you have that blond pair of legs in your lap! She didn't leave because she had food poisoning! She left because she was upset!" Jordan shook his head.

"Upset?"

"Yes! I was talking to her for an entire half-hour and she was fine! She ate at Mellon, if she was sick Matt would've been too." Jordan walked away from the the Russians.

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"Hanging out with you is like hanging out with a cartoon character with a mild case of turrets." Henry said laughing. It was Sunday. They were at the Zoo and Violet had just cursed out a little kid under her breath for taking the last pink cotton candy.

"You've known this about me since I was a tender child,"

"I wouldn't call nineteen the age of a tender child but say whatever you please," Henry laughed and handed Violet a stick of blue cotton candy. "Maybe this will suffice,"

"I think it will." Their evening the night before had been nice. Violet and Henry had gone to see the new Judd Apatow crew comedy and then passed out in Vi's apartment. Matt was going to meet them at the aquarium in two hours for lunch.

Just as the old friends were going to enter the monkey house her phone rang. "Hang on," Violet said to Henry who told her to find him by the gorillas. "Hello?" Violet asked without looking at the caller ID.

"Violet? It Geno,"

"Oh, hey. What's up, bud?" Fuck.

"Just wanted know what you doing," Violet couldn't tell if he was stammering or struggling with the language. She opted to believe that later. Geno couldn't be nervous around her. He was a player. Players don't get nervous.

"I'm at the zoo with Henry,"

"The zoo?"

"Mmhmm. I'm about to take a look at the gorillas."

"Oh. I wanted see if you would uh, do lunch with me?"

Violet smirked. Henry must've gotten to him. "Oh, well I would, but Hennie and I are meeting Matt at the aquarium for lunch. You're welcome to join us." As if Evgeni Malkin would ever go the aquarium.

"Uh...okay. The one on Butler?" Violet's eyes nearly popped out of her head. A) Geno wanted to go the aquarium with her? And B) He knew where it was?

"Yeah, that's the one."

"When should I meet?"

"In like two hours?"

"Da. See you." And Evgeni clicked off the phone.

"Hennie!" Violet shouted running into the Monkey House. "Problem!"

***************************************************

An hour and forty five minutes later Henry was watching Violet pace outside the aquarium cafeteria. They were meeting Matt and Evgeni Malkin to have lunch at an aquarium in a public cafeteria.

"This is fucked up," Violet muttered.

"You really should listen to Matthew. He has good ideas."

"You know what, Matthew tells me that I don't listen enough I don't need it from you too right now." Violet rubbed her face. "Why did I invite him?"

"Because you want to have sex with him. Now pull it together because here he comes with Matt." The two men arrived and Matt hugged both his friends. Evgeni waited for Violet to introduce him.

"Geno this is Henry, Henners this is Evgeni Malkin." Violet held her lips tightly together. This was stressful. The four of them made their way to the food line and grabbed respective items and sat down at a table. It just happened that Violet and Geno were situated next to each other.

"So what do you guys have left to see here?" Matt asked in between bites of a burger that looked and tasted like a hockey puck.

"We have to see the sharks, beluga whales, manatees, and the weird albino alligator thing." Henry answered. Violet was too preoccupied with not spilling on her self in front of Evgeni. "And knowing Vi we're going to spend like twenty minutes alone at the shark tank so I'd say we have a good hour left in us."

Violet, snapped out of her daze by the sound of her name agreed. "Sharks are the greatest. They're the world's perfect predator. They haven't evolved in thousands of years. They're like dinosaurs."

"You really like shark?" Geno asked.

"Yes, a lot. My favorite animal aside from giraffes."

"Oh god, we spent like a half hour with the giraffes. They smelled like shit because they're inside for the winter." Henry shook his head. "I had completely forgotten that you always make me spend a bazillion years with the giraffes."

"You been zoo together before?" Geno took a sip of his soda.

"Yup. It was our first official date back in college, right Vi? She made me spend a long time with the giraffes then, too. Never one to hide the weird." Henry shook his head as Violet smiled brightly. "I remember the conversation at the shark tank, do you?"

"Yes, Hennifer, I do." Violet smiled. "You were disagreeing with me that Sharks aren't stupid. And I told you that they learn as they get older. That they're like serial killers, stalking their pray, not randomly killing. And then you compared yourself to a serial killer in that instead of stalking me to kill me you "investigated" me by talking to people to see if I would reject you when you finally asked me out."

"And then you looked at me like I was crazy to be comparing myself to a serial killer but really you were mad at me because you thought that connectint m6elf with a serial killer was by extension connecting me with a shark, which I clearly cannot contest with."

Geno watched this exchange and let his left hand fall onto Violet's thigh, he had to get her attention somehow. She, although barely audibly, squeaked. He left it there during the rest of lunch, gently squeezing on running his knuckles on her thigh over her jeans. Violet thought she was going to explode. It was his way of showing her that they could have memories too. Dirty or otherwise.

Matt and Evgeni joined them for the rest of their visit. Geno slipped his hand in Violet's back pocket causing a blush to rise up her neck and cheeks. They walked through the manatees, whales, and alligator exhibits, finally coming to Violet's favorite: the shark tank.

Violet walked away from Evgeni, pulling his hand out of her pocket, and walked straitht up to the glass. "Aren't they amazing?"

"They're retarded garbage disposals," Henry replied, rolling his eyes at her. Matt joined her against the glass, grabbing her shoulders. They two stared at the tank. Evgeni and Henry exchanged a look.

"Yes, they're garbage disposals, blah blah blah, but they're such under appreciated animals."

"What you mean?" Geno asked, walking up next to Violet.

"You get one movie like Jaws and every one thinks Sharks are evil. I mean every single movie and TV stereotypes them. Sharks only attack when the smell blood or are in a feeding frenzy. They don't randomly seek out humans to eat, like I said, they pick their pray in advance. And you can't blame a shark for being frightened of a human and attacking. We're foreign to them. And we hate them because they're foreign to us. It's their way of life, we shouldn't question it. Do people question us when we kill cows for burgers?" Violet sighed. "And then of course movies like Free Willy glorify freaking whales when they're just as mean as sharks are." Violet looked at her three make companions sheepishly. "You guys think it's weird I think about these things, don't you?" Matt nodded, snickered.

"Ye-No. No." Henry smiled at Violet. Evgeni took her hand in his.

"I think it special. It make you special." Violet asked him what he meant by special. "The kind that keep up all night."