Playing the Game of Love

October 8th, 2010
Friday
Logan International Airport, Boston, MA
3:10 A.M.

The plane shifted into motion, turning slowly onto the runway. They were told to fasten their seat belts and the plane picked up speed. Raina felt the strange rush of acceleration as it lifted off the ground. Soon they were in the air and Raina undid her belt. The instant after Tuukka got his unbuckled he went to the bar in the aisle.

''Look at all the drinks!" he said in excitement. ''Where do I even start?!" Marc and Milan got up to join him and a few minutes later they returned with several different types of alcoholic drinks in their arms.

''You guys have practice tomorrow; don't get drunk off your asses again.” warned Raina.

"Look who's talking, remember your little incident with Michael Kantor?" She saw Milan fists clench in anger.

''If I ever see that little bitch again I’ll-"

“Calm down,” said Raina elbowing him in the ribs. "If I hadn't been so drunk I would of never gone anywhere with him." Instead of replying he just leaned back into his seat and crossed his arms clearly still angry about what had happened. She was tempted to reach forward and take one of the bottles for herself. She knew if her father or one of the staff members came back into the room she would be in extreme trouble.

The TVs flicked on and the movie 300 started. Raina wasn't interested in watching the movie and leaned back onto the cushion of the seat, looking up at the ceiling bored. She found herself drifting into a light sleep and struggled to keep her eyes open. But the feeling of exhaustion overcame here, and she fell off into oblivion.

Raina awoke to the feeling of something falling down the side of her face. At first she tried to ignore it and go back to sleep. She felt it again, something brushing against her cheek as it fell. She heard hushed giggling from above her and her eyes fluttered open.

"Shit she's awake!" Raina sat bolt upright and looked around Milan wasn't in his seat. Across the table she could see Tuukka and Marc watching her with wide grins on their faces as if they were trying to hide something she felt confused.

"What?" She felt something fall down her face again. It fell into her lap. Annoyed, she looked down to see several animal crackers piled in her lap and on the tops of her legs. Another one came flying over the back of her seat. She sat up and looked over the seat to see Vlad and David smiling up at her, holding crumbled animal cracker packets. She grabbed all the crackers they had dumped on her off her seat and threw them back. "You woke me up!"

"We got bored and there was no one else to mess with.”

"Well don't take out your boredom on me.” She sunk back into her seat and looked up to see Milan return.

"How come you weren't here to stop these morons." She gestured with her hand over her head towards Vlad and David. Milan slid into his seat and said

''I was in the bathroom, you have been asleep for a few hours, we're actually flying over Czech right now. It’s three in the morning here." Raina finally felt well rested after two days of little sleep. She began to doze off in boredom, and a short time later felt herself being gently shaken awake. ''Hey Ray, wake up, we're landing.” Raina opened her eyes to see Milan looking aback at her.

''What?'' she said stretching herself out.

"We're going to be landing soon.” Raina buckled her seat belt as she began to feel her ears pop because of the air pressure. She hated he feeling and as a child would have fits about it whenever she flew. She looked out her window to see the city of Prague sparkling below; the plane grew closer and closer every second. Soon, instead of looking down and being able to see dots of light crowded together, she was able to spot individual buildings. With a few small bumps, they had landed on the runway. Raina began getting her carry-on bags together as the boys returned the empty bottles to the bar table. The door of the airplane opened and people were allowed to leave. It seemed like the whole team got up at once to leave. Milan was ahead of her and she grabbed his hand so she couldn’t get separated from him in the crowd. He still held her hand tightly as they made their way to the door. When the two entered the airport she expected to have a crowd of fans flock up to them for autographs which would often happen at an American airport, but no one even glanced at them twice. It made Raina feel a little more relaxed. They got their luggage and the team headed on over to the airport’s car rental with the trams.

To Raina, it felt overwhelming to be in a foreign place where she couldn't understand any of the language around her. David and Vlad looked overjoyed and instead of talking in English they were having a full conversation in Czech.

When they arrived at the car rental Raina was happy to find out the employees there spoke English. Everyone on the staff and team had been given an English translated GPS of Czech that already had the location to the hotel they were staying at pre-set.

“Hey wanna come in my car?" said Milan. Happy to have more time with him she said

"Sure, my dad is only getting one car for the two of us so I don’t have a car to drive for myself." Milan was one of the first to rent a car and pay for it so the two of them headed out into the parking garage. The employee drove the car up and gave Milan the keys. They got into the car and were soon pulling out of the garage into the street. He turned on the GPS and set it up onto the dashboard. Raina looked up at the buildings around them from the window.

“This is a really big city."

"Ya, it's a lot bigger than Boston." They kept quiet most of the ride because they couldn't stop looking out at the city amazed and interested in its different culture and size. They were still about 20 minutes away from the hotel when Milan decided to see if there were any good restaurants in the area with the GPS. As he took it from the holder up on the dashboard it slipped from his hand accidentally and landed on the floor of the car face down. Milan picked it up and to his horror saw that the screen had been badly smashed in. Raina was still looking out the window, watching the city go by, and not noticing what had happened. Shit, he thought to himself. 'Shit, shit, shit! What was the name of that hotel?!' He hadn't even bothered to look at the name because the GPS had already been set up. He thought of calling Claude or one of his teammates but they hadn't gotten the cell phones that worked in Czech yet. He looked around at the street signs desperate for direction but was frustrated to see everything was in Czech. Damn it if he had only waited to follow David or Vlad.

"Raina we have a problem," She looked up at him and said

"What?"

''The GPS smashed,"

''What? How?!"

"It fell and the screen smashed."

"Well don't you remember the name of the hotel?”

'''No, do you?"

''No,'' they stared at each other for a few moments and then Raina said "So what do we do now?"

''I don't know, um, just let me think for a minute." Milan pulled the car over onto the curb in a legal parking spot. They discussed what they were going to do for the next ten minutes.

“There really isn't anything we can do, tomorrow I'll pickup Brittany in the morning, and we'll go to practice and tell them what happened. They’ll probably wait until then to see if we show up."

"All right, well where are we gonna stay until tomorrow?"

"Let's find a hotel." Milan and Raina drove around the city until they saw a building that looked like a small hotel. They pulled into the entrance, took out their luggage and let an employee who thankfully spoke basic English, drive Milan’s car around to where they kept the guests cars. They went into the lobby and up to the front desk. The first thing Milan said to the lady behind the desk was

"Do you speak English?"

"Yes, I do,” she said with a very thick Czech accent. After booking a standard room the two rode the elevator up to the 3rd floor. Raina expected to open the door and see two queen sized beds, a TV, a desk, and a regular bathroom. But instead Milan pushed open the door to reveal a smaller room with one queen-sized bed, a small TV, and a bathroom.

''I thought we got a standard room?"

"I did, this must be what's considered a standard room here."

'"Wonderful." said Raina sarcastically, stepping into the room and throwing her bags down.

"We could ask for a bigger room?"

"I just want to go to sleep and forget this whole mess."

''Alright, I'll take the floor if you want."

"No it's ok; I'll sleep on the floor.”

''It's fine, I'll just-”

"You have practice tomorrow; you need to be more rested than I do."

"Are you sure you don't want it?"

"I'm sure."

"Alright," He gave her two pillows from the bed, the sheets, and a blanket that had been
rolled up at the end of the bed. Raina went into the bathroom to change into her pajamas which were the usual, a white tank top, with pink plaid bottoms. She opened the bathroom door to see Milan standing with his back to her, stripping off his shirt, leaving him with only boxers on. She backed further into the bathroom and peeked out at him from the doorway. He put on a pair of dark blue pajama pants and then began to straighten out the covers on the bed. Her cheeks reddened, and felt like a young teenage girl again. She came out of the bathroom a few minutes later after the redness had left her face. He shut off all the lights except for the bathroom light so they could somewhat still see. "Are you sure you don't want to sleep on the bed?"

"I'm good,” She got underneath the covers and made herself comfortable.

"Alright." he sighed. She heard him roll over in the direction away from her. It took him about 15 minutes to fall asleep but it took Raina over an hour. She listened to his soft breathing and soon fell asleep herself.

Raina awoke an hour later feeling terribly cold. She sat up looking around. It had been warm when they had gotten into bed. On the wall next to the light switch there was a small panel with the heat controls. A small light on it indicated if the heat was on or off. It would be green if it was on. And red if it was off. It was currently red. She flicked the switch back on and walked back to her self-made bed on the floor. She heard the bed shift as she walked past.

"Why is it so cold?" she heard Milan say in a groggy voice.

''The heat shut off,"

"Come sleep with me.”

''Are you sure?"

"Ya its freezing in here." She grabbed her pillows off the floor and laid down to the right of Milan. Raina would taken advantage of the situation and been flirtatious but she was only half awake. What really alerted her senses was when he grabbed her waist and pulled her gently into his chest. He quickly fell asleep, breathing softly onto the back of her neck. She smiled to herself and felt his body heat warming her up. She too was soon asleep.
It was Milan who awoke first that morning, and it he was the first notice that Raina had rolled over in her sleep and tucked her head into his chest, all curled up. He vaguely remembered waking up last night feeling extremely cold. The room had reheated over the night. He felt happy about having her under his arms when he woke up. But his emotions changed when he remembered the situation they were in. He had to pick Brittany up at 2:00 and it was already 12:30. He let Raina sleep a bit longer while he got dressed.

When he did wake her up, she felt confused to where she was. Everything that had happened came flooding back to her. She hoped her father wasn't going to send out a search party and instead wait it out until practice to see if they showed up. Raina smiled when she remembered last night.

"So how’d you sleep?"

"Good until I woke up freezing, thanks for letting me into the bed."

'"It was no problem, I wanted you to." Milan grabbed his toothbrush from his bag and went into the bathroom. Since he had left the door open and was just brushing his teeth Raina joined him to brush her hair, looking at herself in the large mirror. As she was working on getting out a particularly tough knot Milan said "Doesn’t that hurt you?"
She laughed and said

"Sometimes if I'm to rough with the brush." Milan watched her for the next minute and then said

“Let me try."

“You want to brush my hair?"

''I've never done it, I grew up with two brothers you know." she laughed and handed him the brush.

"Brush the side I've already done." Raina had long curly brown hair that reached a little past her waist and could be a pain for her to brush out when it got really knotted. She felt a shiver run down her back when he gently took a thick strand of her hair and brushed it from the top to bottom. She felt him take a step closer to her as he brought the brush down again. He took another step closer so she could now feel his thickly muscled thigh lightly pressing onto her. She felt his hot breath on the back of her neck. He wasn't even brushing her hair anymore; he was playing with it, running his fingers slowly through it.

''Your hairs so soft," he said fighting the urge to put his face into her hair and inhale the fruity scent of the shampoo she used. He had to remind himself yet again he had a girlfriend at home, and they had a limited time until he had to go pick her up. "I think we should hurry up, we still have to eat before we leave." He set the brush onto the bathroom counter and walked out, leaving Raina confused. He had totally just changed the atmosphere in a matter of seconds. Debating whether she should follow him out or not she picked the brush back up and began to finish getting the last knots out of her hair.

Once they were both ready they went down to the hotel’s restaurant. Instead of being seated and ordering something they both headed off to the restaurant’s small cafe in the back. Raina got a blueberry muffin, and Milan got a plain donut. By the time they were done eating it was 1:30.

''Brittany's flight is expected to land at 2:00, we better get going." As much as Raina wanted to say no and keep him all to herself she agreed and they went back up to their room to get their things and check out. In the car they passed some of the same buildings they had seen before when they had been coming from the airport. They all looked the same to
Raina except they seemed a lot bigger in daylight. By the time they had reached the airport it was already 1:55. They found Brittany's gate and waited for her to come out. People started to come out and from behind a small group Brittany walked out beaming.

"Milan!" she yelled running up to him. He grinned back and she jumped into a hug.

"I missed you!" he said into her neck as he hugged her back. The whole situation made Raina’s heart sink and she went to sit dejectedly in one of the benches as the two reunited.
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Hey sorry I didn't post last week. I've been really busy getting ready to go back to school so I might not be able to update as frequently. I take English honors and I still have to do my whole summer book report. I can't guarantee a chapter every week but I'll try my best.

My next story is going to be about Sidney Crosby, I'll post the first chapter once I reach chapter 15 in this story.

I recently made a Formspring account so if you want to ask me anything you can here.

Thanks for reading :)