You Should've Come With A Warning

Ch. 7

I held the sheets against my chest as I sat up frantically looking around the room for Jordan. I absorbed the fact that he wasn’t there, so I wrapped my body in the sheets and made my way out into the rest of my apartment. He was gone. I grabbed my stomach because I suddenly felt nauseous, I didn’t think he’d just leave me there alone. He wasn’t cooking in the kitchen, he wasn’t watching tv. He wasn’t with me.

I didn’t know if I should feel used or not. I could feel that he was being honest with me last night, I thought he cared about me…there had to be an explanation for why he wasn’t there, I just had to wait it out. I went to my room and let the sheets I had enveloped around my body fall to the floor. I jumped in the shower and let the hot water fall over every inch of my body, as my mind couldn’t shake the images from last night. I stayed in the shower longer than usual trying to wash away everything I felt. I heard the door creek open, which caused me to quickly shut off the water and dive into a deep panic.

I threw a towel around myself and cautiously walked into the living room where I saw Jordan. He had a bag of what looked like breakfast sandwiches and coffee. I just looked at him, not moving, not sure if I should be happy he was there or pissed he had left without so much as a warning.

“I know,” he looked at me with guilt all over his face. I shook my head slowly unsure of what to say. “I’m going to be honest with you- I had every intention of leaving this morning and not coming back.”

My mouth fell open. I thought he cared about me more than that.

“Anna…I couldn’t do it. I wanted to, but it took me about ten minutes after I walked out that door to realize I couldn’t do it. It wasn’t easy to find a place open to get breakfast and coffee, but I brought some back.”

“Why….why did you want to leave? Did last night mean nothing to you-“

“No, it meant everything to me!” he cut me off. “I’m torn. I’ve been torn. I noticed you the first time you ever showed up at the arena. I’ve cherished every moment we’ve spent together and I’ve been falling for you since the first time I met you…why else would my brother randomly talk to you? Come on,” he looked away from me and took a breath. “I know Sid likes you too. It’s pretty obvious and I know you know it too. Ordinarily it wouldn’t bother me because he never stays true to one girl for a long period of time, but he made his move first.”

“Sooo I’m a game to you?”

“No! No, that’s not what I’m saying. Things are complicated because we’re all friends.”

“Uh huh.”

“He seems like he might actually really have feelings for you.”

“Don’t I get a say in who I want to be with?”

“Of course you do. You think this is easy for me?”

“Well you’ve sure as hell been doing a good job pretending to hate me.” His eyes filled with more hurt than they already had in them and he walked over to me and placed his hand on my cheek. “Anna…it’s just too hard for me to see him touch you. I tried to brush it off but when I saw you two dancing in New York it made me want to throw up. I figured the further I pushed you away the easier it would be for me to deal with.”

“So what now?”

“I don’t know,” he whispered. I turned to walk to my room, frustrated, and still in nothing but a towel and a wet head but he grabbed my wrist, spun me around and pulled me into him. Before I could react I realized that my lips had met his and my heart fluttered, awakening me to the core. The fact that when he touched, kissed or even looked at me my soul cried out for him had to mean something. I’d never felt that way before, I didn’t feel that way when Sidney kissed me, and I didn’t want to feel this way about anyone else. Even though the past couple days or weeks, whatever, had been so aggravating between Jordan and I, I knew him so well, we were so close…it fit.

Everything he’d been saying to me pierced through my ears as he hungrily kissed me and I pushed him away. “No! No, I’m not doing this. If you don’t care, if you’re just using me I can’t do this.”

He put his hand to the back of my head, pulled it forward and reunited his lips with mine. “Just, stop. I…love you.”

Everything inside of me froze. He froze too, clearly not expecting to reveal what he just did. “What did you just say?” My eyes opened in shock.

“I…I love you,” his words were soft and when his eyes met mine he let out a nervous laugh, “I didn’t expect to tell you that, I’m sorry.”

“Jordan I love you too,” I couldn’t say the words quick enough. They fell out of my mouth and when I heard myself say them I didn’t regret it. He looked at me with relief and pure joy plastered all over his face.

“You do?”

“Yeah,” I laughed.

Before I could let out another word Jordan’s lips were pressed against mine and he was lifting me up bridal style, carrying my damp body into the bedroom. The towel I had wrapped around me barely covered anything and within seconds it was completely removed and laying on the floor. Jordan’s clothes joined it seconds later. Our touches were soft and our kisses were tender. As he slid into me he told me he loved me and as he pushed in and out of me his hand found mine. It wasn’t much different from the night before, the only difference was that our love for each other wasn’t masked anymore; it was vocal. Honest.

Our Christmas was beautiful. We snuggled by the fireplace and watched movies all day. I made dinner and baked him cookies and he barely let me out of his grasp. To be fair, I didn’t want to be out of his reach. He made me smile uncontrollably and the look in his eyes when he looked at me made my body tingle.

I cuddled up into him as we both arranged ourselves comfortably under a blanket. I turned my head up and looked at him, “Jord…”

“Yeah baby.”

“What’s going to happen to us after today?” I was timid with my question.

I felt his chest tense up. “We’re going to have to figure it out. Not tell anyone, especially Sidney.”

“So you don’t want to end it?”

“NO! Not at all. I want to be with you, it’s just going to be complicated.” He kissed my forehead and I felt myself melting.

“Hey Jord…” He moaned, beckoning me to continue. “Did anyone other than your brother know you were in love with me?”

I felt the rise and fall of his chest as he let out a laugh. “Yeah. Kris knows. I don’t know how Sid doesn’t know, unless he just doesn’t care or he’s just that stupid. It’s not exactly a secret.”

“What’s the deal with Sid?”

“You’ve hung around him for a while now. You know how he is. He wants what’s a challenge for him- why do you think he plays hockey? He likes girls, lots of girls, but you’re different for him. I know he loves you as a friend, but because you guys are so much in that zone, you’re a big challenge to him. I know Sid and I know him well, no matter what happens, he wouldn’t stay faithful to you. It’s the thrill of the chase.”

“That’s encouraging,” I teased. “I feel so special now.”

“Don’t get me wrong…that’s how he is, but I don’t know everything. He’s been hung up on you for a lot longer than I thought he would be. When I saw you two kissing at his place…I couldn’t even stand it. I felt like I’d lost you completely and,” he laughed a little, “that’s why I threw the pillow.”

I laughed and reached up to kiss his chin. “Why didn’t you just tell me?”

“Why didn’t you?”

“Good question. I tried to fight it. I didn’t know, and when I finally admitted it to myself you were already acting pissed at me and I was afraid to tell you.”

“You’ve been my best friend since we met, basically, I don’t want to lose you again. We’ll figure everything out.”

It was getting real late, which meant Christmas was almost over. The city was still covered in a blanket of white and I was still wrapped in Jordan’s arms. It was one of the most incredible holiday’s I’d ever had. We were almost asleep when I felt the rumble in Jordan’s chest indicating that he was speaking.

“What?” I lifted my head to hear him better.

“I said Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas to you.”

“You’re the best gift I ever got,” he whispered in my ear and quickly kissed my cheek. I smiled as my eyes closed, inhaling the moment. The heat from my fireplace was causing tiredness to set in. We were completely relaxed, cozy and content and that’s how we fell asleep that night.

When I woke up in the morning I was still tangled up in Jordan and I immediately started smiled and kissed him lightly on the cheek. He was still sleeping and I stared at how adorable he was. It was the best Christmas, period.

When he finally woke up I was in the kitchen making breakfast as I typically did. I was standing over the stove when I felt his arms slide around my waist. “Good morning beautiful.”

I leaned back and let him hold me. “Good morning handsome.”

“What’s for breakfast?”

“You’re just going to have to wait and see.”

We ate breakfast together and quickly went back to the couch to just hold each other. It was the day after Christmas and nothing was on our agendas, it was perfectly reasonable for us to do nothing. We definitely dozed off for a decent amount of time and it felt so good. Sleeping in his arms was everything I could ask for. Nothing could spoil the moment.

Then something unexpectedly did. There was a knock coming from my door. Both of us sat up startled. “Who’s that?” Jordan was as caught off guard as I was.

“I don’t know,” I shrugged. “I’m not expecting anyone. Why the hell is someone always here! I’m so sick of hearing knocking…especially when I’m not ready for it,” I grumbled as I threw the blankets off of us and ran to the door. Jordan followed and stood behind me protectively as I opened the door to see Sidney. My heart started pounding and I felt Jordan tense up.

“Hey,” Sid looked uneasily at Jordan. “What’s up…? What are you doing here?”

“I spent Christmas with her,” he was cold with Sid.

I felt the tension and hugged Sidney innocently. “What are you doing here! I thought you were going to be home for another day or so?”

“I…wanted to surprise you.” He was clearly the surprised one when he opened my door and saw not just me but Jordan too.

I laughed uneasy, “Yeah you definitely did a good job.”

I welcomed him into my apartment and we spent the rest of the day together- al of us. Above everything else he was still my friend and I was going to make it as comfortable as possible for both he and Jordan. Jordan was visibly frustrated but it was only because he knew his friend was trying to be with me…or something to that effect. Sidney was irritated because Jordan wasn’t leaving and he didn’t want to act differently with him around, and I was edgy because of the obvious dispositions the other two had. The more I thought about it I couldn’t help but laugh to myself- turns out, Kris had given me the best gift after all.

They both left at the same time, almost as giving a truce, and I was secretly relieved that they were. I didn’t want Jordan to leave, but I couldn’t deal with the awkwardness anymore. I don’t think Sid suspected anything, he just wanted to get me alone and his plans didn’t quite go accordingly. Jordan hugged me goodbye like he normally did as to not give anything away to Sid and when he looked me in the eyes I knew what he was saying. He didn’t want to leave, and he wished Sid had just stayed home. He squeezed my hand to tell me he loved me and I smiled at him, implying all the above back. Sid was grabbing his stuff and hugged me goodbye, but it wasn’t so innocent.

“Alright Sid, let’s head home. She’s had enough of us for the day,” he padded Sid on the shoulder and egged him out of my place.

“Okay, okay. Hey, you’re coming to the party this week, right?”

I looked at him and then Jordan, “…Yeah.”

“Do you know what I’m talking about? The After-Christmas, Almost-New Years, Welcome back from mini break party. We have a formal-ish thing with the team then afterwards we go our drinking and dancing…”

“Yes! I remember! I know,” I had definitely momentarily forgotten, but I remembered promising I would go. “I’m going. Don’t worry. You still have a few days and games before anyway.”

“Just making sure you remembered so you can go shopping if you need to,” Sid winked at me. I glanced at Jordan who looked like he was fantasizing about tackling Sid.

“Well thanks for your consideration boys, don’t sweat it. I’m always there when you need me to be.” Which was true. Things were just more complicated than ever and the next few days leading up to the party were going to be extremely interesting.