Blue Paint & Red Lights

"So when are we going to get a puppy?" Antti came up from behind me while I was trying my hand at making lunch. I had bacon sizzling in a skillet for BLTs. I shifted them around in the black pan and replied.
"What did you guys do?" The bacon popped and I stepped back quickly into him and he placed his large hands on my waist.
"You alright, there?" I nodded and he continued, "When we were in Montreal, we went to a club."
Normally, that would make most wives hold their breath for the next sentence, but I knew Antti would have been extremely uncomfortable.
"A couple of us just sat in a corner and had some drinks. It was me, Tomas, Fraz, Brouwer, and Sopes, mostly."
I laughed and he asked, "What's so funny?"
"All the married guys huddled in a corner. It's a funny image." I shrugged, flipping three pieces of bacon and backing up when it sizzled dangerously. Antti chuckled deep in his chest and replied, "Yeah, I guess that is kind of ridiculous, but it counts as going out with the guys, right? When can we look for a puppy?" I could hear the smile in his voice and I turned.
"I said for Christmas, Antti." My hands were on either side of his face and I planted a light kiss on the tip of his nose before turning back towards the food.
"No fair." He whined.

The guys didn't have a lot of time to spend at home that day. All of them had to go to a skate meet and greet. No significant others really planned on going, but Karolina had called Angelina and I, demanding that we keep her company there. We grumbled but agreed, realizing that we had nothing to do this Saturday. Well, I didn't- although Angelina must have had some kind of grading to do because she kept on mentioning a test she had just given them. We waited outside of the rink in Millenium Park for Karolina, watching the guys skate around and talk to fans, occasionally shaking their hands, taking pictures, or signing things.
Karolina had us waiting outside for her with the promise of "big news". Angelina and I had no idea what this could mean, but it didn't make us any less excited.
"She's having a baby." Angelina brainstormed, "With Kane."
"No way, he'd freak this early in the relationship and Hossa would take it personally." I added, laughing at my own joke. Angelina began to laugh but starting coughing instead, staring over my shoulder.
"I am not having a kid." Karolina said, standing with her hand on her hip, glaring at the back of my head.
"Oh shut up," I turned, "You know I'm kidding."
A smile broke out on her serious face and she hopped on one foot briefly.
"NEWS!" Angelina reminded her and we both stood to meet her height.
"Well, you guys know I swim a lot, right?" She wrung her hands and smiled up at us.
Angelina and I sighed and motioned her to get on with it.
"I'm being sponsored by Speedo!" She shrieked and started jumping. We jumped with her and I said, "Oh god, Karolina! I'm so happy for you!" Angelina said something along the same lines and we eventually calmed after people began to stare.
"So what's going to happen?" The only experience I had with being sponsored was knowing a sponsored skateboarder- other than that, I was clueless.
"I wear Speedo suits whenever I'm swimming in public now, and they provide them for free and enter me in competitions and pay me for doing well. I get to travel all over and kick ass!" Her voice was still three pitches higher and the excited look was intensified in her eyes.
"That's so amazing, Karolina!" I yelled again, happy that she was going to do what she loved and get paid for it.
"I'm telling Patrick later tonight. He still doesn't know." She giggled uncharactistically.
I just shook my head and laughed as we made our way closer to the entrance of the rink and grabbed a bench. Angelina threw down her skates and sat, saying as she began to pull them on, "I need to get these puppies sharpened."
I glanced down at the razor edge I had just exposed on my skates by pulling off the guard on the blade. I saw Angelina looking at them too and I shrugged, smiling at her and said, "Perks of having connections."
"Puh-lease." Karolina added her two cents from beside me where she was already tightening up one CCM skate.
We hurried to keep up with her pace and finally we all stood, wobbling onto the ice.
The guys were still doing the public relations work so we skated around the rink a couple times to warm up before goofing off. Karolina had goaded us into being disruptive near the players and distracting them- only for a little bit. We all knew what it was like to meet your idol, so we waited until our intended target was not talking with any children. Our first target was Antti, because he was the easiest to make blush between Kane, Brouwer, and himself. Karolina was in the lead as we skated slowly behind him while he was signing something for a very beautiful girl with long blonde hair. I strained to hear what they were saying and felt a pang of jealousy when I did overhear their conversation.
Antti and the girl were talking in fluent Finnish and Karolina led us in a circuit around him, wasting time until the girl left. His face was bright and smiling, he was clearly enjoying talking to her in his native language. Three emotions hit me then. Jealousy, for one, because the girl was beautiful and young and clearly Finnish. He was smiling at her and talking quickly in his native language and I was getting older, maybe he was thinking of a 'good Finnish girl', anyway. I felt guilty because I had never taken the time to learn Finnish for the fear of slaughtering it with my monolingual tongue. Then guilt hit me after those two because I couldn't- in my right mind- doubt Antti. Sure, as newlyweds we were still consistent in our relationship and everything was dandy, right?
Before I could mull that thought over, Angelina pinched my upper arm and asked me, "Are you ready?" I quickly glanced over at Antti and found him fan-less. I shrugged and agreed to go along with the stupid play we had thought up.
"Go do it!" Karolina acted, shoving my lightly.
"I don't know, guys!" I said a little louder to get his attention. Angelina noticed him looking this way and poked me in the arm, "Go!"
I stared at the ground and skated sheepishly towards him, acting like a besotted fan.
Before Antti could have an inkling to whatever shenanigans we were up to, I wrung my hands and stopped in front of him.
"Mr. Niemi...I- uh... I'm you're biggest fan!" I shrieked, hopping on my skates.
He started to chuckle and Karolina jabbed me in the back, prodding me on.
"Oh no! Why are you laughing, is there something on my face?" My hands flew to my face and began to wipe it. He caught on to the stupid act and put his hand on his hip.
"Of course not!" He smiled his half-smile and I almost dropped the improv and smiled back. Antti always had that effect on me- I just wanted to cup his face and kiss all over it in a horribly romantic way.
"Mr. Niemi, she's a huge fan!" Karolina fluttered her hand around her mouth like she was overwhelmed.
"She loves you!" Angelina blurted. I managed to turn and look horrified at her confession. My eyes widened and instead of looking at Antti in his pale blue eyes, I stared down at the chipped ice at our feet.
Antti pulled me into a hug and said loudly, "Then I love you, too!"
Well then, we never accounted for this. Hell, we just had an idea and decided, 'hey, this seems fun! Let's see how he reacts!'.
"I bet you say that to all the girls." I said quietly into his chest and he released me, still smiling down at me.
"Not all the girls. Only you and my wife. I'm married, yeah?" He dropped the act for a while and looked at me in all seriousness. Antti knew I heard him and the Finnish girl and felt the need to reassure me. I caught myself looking at him again and smiling a bright smile and ruining the effect so I dropped my eyes.
"All the good ones are." I mumbled and kicked at the ice a little, making a rut.
I heard Karolina whisper to Angelina behind me, "Troy is alone. Time to go!"
Gina grabbed my arm and told Antti, "Oh, look at the time! We have to be home by now! Sorry!"
He smiled and leaned forward to whisper something in my ear for only me to know.
"You're naughty."
I blushed deeply before Angelina pulled me away.