Status: One Shot and Done.
Date Night
Chapter 1
“Bring a date.”
“What? Why?”
“Max, If I see one more picture of you kissing some half-naked drunk girl in a club I’m making your curfew 8 PM for the rest of the season. Put a whole dress on someone and bring her as your date. Try to make it look respectable.”
I have to concentrate on not slamming the door as I leave Coach Bylsma’s office. I broke another curfew, missed another bus and did not play well in last night’s 3-1 preseason loss to Chicago. It was just a little hangover, a little exhaustion. Nothing a couple good nights’ sleep wouldn’t fix.
Jesus, to hear Dan talk you’d think I was tearing it up every night. It was just Chicago. And Toronto. Well, Columbus too but what the hell else is there to do in Columbus?
Now I need to find a date for this new Consol Energy Power Play dinner dance charity nonsense. This shit was not a problem last year when we played at the Mellon.
Okay, it should not be that hard to find a date. Someone respectable. Well, there goes half the list. Still, I page through my phone. Rebecca, nope I never called her back. Angie… the blond. Or is that Andrea? Shit, I called one of them by the other one’s name at an inopportune moment. Pass. Brandi looks like a hooker. Jessica, she’s smart. Jessica, Jessica – wait. She’s the married one. Paulette? Moved away. Kimberly? Is she the one with the tattoos?
Ugh, most of these girls hate me. The rest would be like wolves lose among sheep, possibly more trouble than I can cause myself. Guess I’ll have to find a new one.
____
“Oh no.”
“Yes.”
“Not at all. Not even a little.”
“I thought you were a big hockey fan! You should love meeting all these players. But you need to bring a date – this is a corporate event, not a bachelor auction. What’s the worst that could happen? You dance with someone, eat a rubber chicken and get to meet your idols. Another work dinner. Big deal. You’re coming and you’re bringing a date.”
Sophie goes back to her office and puts her head down on the desk. Shoulder length waves of brown hair fall around her face. So what if she hasn’t been on a date in a while? She’s been busy looking forward to this event for weeks instead.
I’m only 25, for Christ’s sake! Just because Alice was married with a kid by now doesn’t mean I should be. You’d think she was my mother instead of my boss. Why would I bring a date to an event full of hot hockey players? It’s been a long time and I don’t want to completely ruin my chances of getting laid.
She had better get a move on with this date since the dinner is only a week away. She thinks of guys she knows. Alex, Dave, Rusty… nope, they’re all friends with Connor too. Sophie is not asking one of the ex-boyfriend’s frat brothers to this event. The rest of the list gets vetoed quickly: Spencer is too annoying to spend three hours with, Neil talks with his mouth full. She needs someone fun who was just a friend, in case any of these guys look half as good up close as they do from the stands. But he also needs to be impressive, so maybe Alice will leave her alone for a while.
____
I walk through the shops downtown, stop for coffee, browse the bookstore. Nothing. I go to the mall – past the shoe stores and the handbag departments.
Where the hell to the respectable girls hang out? If I’m not supposed to go out, how am I supposed to find a date?
Four days later, I still haven’t asked anyone. I start thinking about the guys’ friends, their girlfriends’ friends. That’s dangerous territory – what if I hook up with them? I haven’t fished off the company pier before and I do not intend to start now. I cannot be that desperate.
____
“Find a date yet?” Alice asks before I’m even buckled into the front seat of her car.
“No, but I have three days left. I will,” Sophie wonders if it sounds confident. It certainly doesn’t feel that way.
“Maybe you’ll get inspired when you see these guys,” she says, pulling out of the lot and heading for the shiny new Consol Energy Center.
I don’t think that’s going to be the problem, Sophie does a mental eye roll.
They sit in the stands for the closed practice. It’s an optional Consol event, but the company put a ton of money into this arena and a lot of the office has turned out to watch the Pittsburgh Penguins in action. Sophie loves hockey and was excited when, during her second year with Consol, they put up the money to fund the new stadium. Free tickets and lots of perks, she imagined. Not yet, though. The season doesn’t start for another week and first she is going to have to find a date for their inaugural event.
Christ on a bike these guys are good looking. My date won’t have to ugly to look bad in this company. Focus, Soph.
“What about him?” Alice points openly at #87. She doesn’t have the faintest idea about hockey, but like most of the executives at Consol has quickly become a burgeoning fan. If only she knew anything about sports.
“Imagine if Superman were Canadian. And hotter. Then he might be as big a deal as Sid the Kid,” Sophie says.
Alice nods seriously, like she is filing away facts to use in conversation. Probably at this dinner. Sophie hopes she does, it would sound great coming from the mouth of her married, 45-year old, mother-of-two boss. And it would still be true.
“What about that one?” Alice picks #58 this time.
“Kris Letang. Yes, he is gorgeous. How can he skate with all that hair in his face?” Sophie can’t even eat without pulling her hair back.
Alice rolls her eyes. “The big guy?”
“Jordan Staal is about 15 years old. You don’t want me getting arrested, do you? Will you bail me out of jail?”
Alice laughs. She’ll probably use that line too. Good luck. The team breaks from their drill and the goalie comes over to the bench, near where they are sitting. He flips off his mask and Alice sucks in a breath.
“Ooh, he’s cute. Why is the cutest one wearing something over his face?”
“So he can keep his face looking like that,” Sophie suggests. “That’s Marc-Andre Fleury. If you like French accents, he is the man for you.”
“Will you point him out to me at the dinner?” Alice is completely serious. Bless her heart, Sophie thinks. I hope her husband knows he’s bringing a horny teenager to this event.
The practice lasts an hour and Sophie really enjoys it despite Alice’s endless dating invectives. She’s fascinated by the precision of the drills, doing the same moves over and over. It’s so quiet in the cavernous arena with only the shouts and whistles from the ice. A totally different, almost eerie experience compared to all the games she’d been to. She can hear the guys’ voices, hear the coaches instructions and corrections. When Crosby hits the post with a wrist shot the sound is magnified a hundredfold.
The players start wrapping up, hanging around the bench talking. Sophie watches them unabashedly – they must be used to being stared at. Alice’s running commentary fades away as Sophie window-shopped her way through the roster.
“Alice, Sophie, would you like to come on the tour?” Joe Benson, head of the Corporate Communications Department at Consul and Alice’s boss’s boss, asks. “Sophie I hear you’re quite the Penguins fan.”
“I am,” she says, standing.
“Then you’ll have a lot to teach us all this season. And I expect you’ll be the belle of the ball at this dinner on Friday.” He waits to usher them up the steps.
Maybe this hockey thing will get me a promotion, Sophie thinks as she takes a last look at the guys grouped around the bench. One of them is Max Talbot, the Pens resident personality player and ladies’ man. His on and off-ice antics in the media have made Sophie laugh many a time. She smiles to herself.
Well, there’s always Max, she thinks, looking at him again. He’d probably sleep with anybody. Not such a bad backup plan.
____
Did she just smile at me?
I did my best to focus on practice and not even notice the people watching. Just suits from the sponsor, nothing to see. And I knew I needed to shape up or Coach would have me on the bus to Wilkes-Barre by nightfall. At least that would solve this date problem.
I stop at the bench for a water bottle and notice a younger face among the spectators. Definitely younger and very pretty. She has wavy dark hair and wears a cream colored sweater against the chill of the empty building. Next to her, an older woman in a power suit points from one player to the next. I rejoin the drill, then another. But every time I circle past, I sneak a look at the girl.
Get your head in the game! This is the kind of thing that always gets you in trouble!
So I don’t look anymore, though thinking about not looking was just as distracting as actually doing it. When we are finishing up, I make sure to work right till the end. Then I skate to the bench where everyone is doing their usual bullshitting. And that’s when she smiles.
Did she smile at me?
____
“Coach, I’d like you to meet Joe Benson from Consol’s communications department. His team will be working with us this season on a lot of initiatives that Consol’s doing with the team and the building.”
Bill, Penguins’ Community Services Director, introduces Joe to Dan Bylsma.
“Nice to meet you. Beautiful place you’ve put us in here,” Dan says, shaking his hand.
“Glad to be working together,” Joe says. “This is Alice McKeon, director of our community services division, and Sophie Baxter, a manager in the department. Sophie is a big Penguins fan.”
Dan’s smile widens a notch. “Nice to meet you, Sophie. You teaching these guys about the game?”
“She’s trying,” Alice says honestly. “But she only seems to know the really good looking players.”
Sophie blushes, but cannot escape the slightly manic laugh that bubbled up inside. “She thinks I knew some big secret about Fleury because she couldn’t see his face under the mask. He doesn’t wear it all the time, Alice.”
Dan laughs too, and looks at his watch. “Well then, I think you should meet some of the guys. You know, in the interest of community relations and stuff. ”
Sophie puts a hand to her ever-reddening face. Great, he’s just like Alice. This is not going to go well. But no way is she passing up a chance to meet the Penguins. With a nod of defeat, Sophie agrees and Dan leads them down the hallway. When he gets to the locker room door, he puts his hand out for them to wait and sticks his head in.
“Civilians on deck. Everybody dressed?” A chorus of mostly unintelligible shouts come back. Dan pushes the door open. “Welcome.”
The first thing Sophie notices is that “dressed” means “wearing pants.” Or just shorts. At least half the guys are shirtless. There is also gear everywhere, piled indiscriminately in corners and heaped in the middle of the floor. And it smells like a locker room – sweat, hormones and Axe body spray.
Holy mother of Matt Damon, it is not safe for me to be in here. Sophie’s heart rate signals impeding medical emergency.
“Guy, this is Joe from the Consol communications department, and Alice and Sophie from community relations.” If nothing else, the Pens pay attention when Dan speaks. And they are now realizing that he has a pretty girl in tow.
“Hi,” Jordan Staal crosses the room in two strides of his giant legs. Mercifully he is wearing a t-shirt – Sophie doesn’t want to faint before she gets a word out. He shakes Joe’s hand, then Alice’s. When he gets to Sophie’s, he takes his time.
“Easy killer,” Dan says. “Sophie is already a big fan. No need to smother her.”
“I like fans,” Jordan says, making Sophie blush. “Look I made her blush!” He puts his arm around her shoulders and shows her off like a trophy. Which makes her laugh harder.
The guys start coming over to introduce themselves. Jordan stands next to her and shakes their hands like it’s the receiving line at their wedding. He even thanks them for the beautiful gifts. When Crosby comes up, Alice not-so-subtlely elbows Sophie in the side.
“Superman?” she asks.
Sophie nods and rolls her eyes. Crosby gives her a look that says ‘tell me later.’ Tell you later? Am I going to be seeing you later? Sophie’s brain is clearly on overload. Bad news since Kris is next in line.
“Ooh, Sophie, you were right. He is gorgeous.” Alice says right to his face while holding his hand.
“Oh. My. God.” Sophie looks quickly away, blinking furiously.
Jordan makes a huffing sound and puts his hands on his hips. “Already? We’ve been married like 6 minutes.” He pretends to storm off.
‘Sorry,’ Sophie mouths to Kris as he steps in front of her. He is even better looking than I thought. Kris shakes his head, silky hair falling over his face, and blushes himself away.
“That one’s Fleury,” Sophie says loudly and points toward the goalie, who is tying his shoe on a nearby bench. He turns his head, hat on backwards, and gives them a million dollar smile. Alice giggles, giving Sophie a moment’s distraction.
____
What?!
I hear a lot of talking and laughing when I come out of the shower, but that isn’t too unusual. Media, visiting players, it could be anyone in the locker room. Maybe it’s just Flower playing a joke or Crosby being a nerd. So I walk right out in my towel.
And there she is. The girl who smiled at me.
She’s with two other suits, probably her bosses by the differences in age. I see her eyes flick down my body – bare chest, slice of thigh where the ends of the towel meet. She wears dark gray suit pants over slender, strong legs and the off-white sweater I’d seen from the ice. She is nearly as tall as me so I sneak a look at her feet: at least two inch heels. Everyone is looking at me like I just walked naked into a school.
“Didn’t hear me ask if everyone was dressed?” Coach says, smiling.
“I… uh… no, sorry.” I turn to go back and get dressed in private, but the older suit stops me.
“Don’t worry about it, we’re all embarrassing Sophie anyway. I’m Joe and we’ve got to get going.” He shakes my hand then the other lady does too. That just leaves the girl: Sophie.
“I’m Max.”
“Hi,” she says, carefully not looking anywhere I’m naked. A smile twitches at the corners of her mouth – she’s embarrassed and I’m embarrassed, it’s taking a lot for her not to laugh.
“You smiled at me during practice,” I say. Because she had.
“Did I? ” She asks, but she smiles now. Hadn’t she?
Dan ushers them from the room in chorus of goodbyes and nice-to-meet-yous. The door is barely closed before everyone is talking about her, of course.
“Not bad, boys. I’m beginning to like this new Consol gig,” Jordan says.
“Uh, I think she liked Tanger,” Billy G chimes in. “She looked like she wanted to lick him.”
“Fucking Frenchies!” Jordan throws a shirt at Kris, who makes a what-did-I-do? gesture and tosses a pair of socks back. Before it can descend into a complete mess, Sidney cuts the flying objects with his voice.
“Smiled at ya, did she Talbs? You sure about that?”
That gets a howl from the boys. I mentally curse Crosby and hope there are a lot of long, lonely nights in his near future.
____
Bill and Dan take them through the weight room and sauna, trainer’s room, equipment room and even the lounge. Sophie is thrilled with the behind-the-scenes tour, but she will have to process that later. She’s still thinking about Max.
WOAH. No wonder women all over town lose their skirts around him. Has he always been that hot?
Sophie has never been into bad boys and Max’s reputation had never appealed to her. But his half-nakedness certainly did. So did his signature scruffy facial hair and those eyes. What color was that? And the half-smile that played on his lips, like he’d been caught undressed on purpose because he was completely aware that it worked like a charm.
I didn’t smile at him, but I wish I had.
“It was nice to meet you, I hope we’ll see you all at the dinner Friday night,” Dan is saying as Sophie comes back into the present.
Alice thanks them both and says, “We’ll be there Friday. And Sophie, if she can find herself a date.”
Sophie’s eyes go wide at the same time as Dan’s. Then he gives her a pat on the back. She’s had enough embarrassment for one day. When they are back in the car, Alice can’t help herself.
“Now you want to go to that dinner. Better find a date you really don’t like so you can have your pick of those boys!”
Sophie sinks into her seat, thinking exactly the same thing.
____
The next morning, Sophie hears Joe’s assistant shout into his office. “Dan Bylsma’s on the phone for you.”
Hi Dan! Sophie wants to yell. Because now she knows him. Cue fangirl freakout. She is thinking about the locker room again so she doesn’t hear Alice’s phone ring a minute later.
____
“Yes, just a second,” Alice closes her door. In the privacy of her office, she laughs as Dan lays out his evil plan. Ten minutes later, Alice knocks on the wall outside Sophie’s office.
“Sophie, I’ve decided you can go tomorrow night without a date. I wouldn’t want you to miss it, you’ll obviously have a great time. And now that I’ve seen those boys, I think I’m even a little jealous.”
Yahtzee! Sophie yells inside. Now I just have to figure out how to behave myself for a whole night, unchaperoned.
____
After the morning skate, Coach sticks an arm out as I am about to leave the ice.
Shit, now what? I haven’t been out in 4 nights. Didn’t know there was so much bad television. I’d even cleaned my house and done laundry, both of which I considered crimes against humanity when done after the fall of darkness. I was turning into Crosby. Soon I’d be making needlepoint pillows with slogans like “Grandma Loves Bingo.”
“Max, you’ve been working hard lately. I appreciate it. Have you found a date for tomorrow night?”
I shake my head. I am pretty much out of options.
“Don’t worry about it, just come by yourself. As long as you behave.”
____
“What? Why?”
“Max, If I see one more picture of you kissing some half-naked drunk girl in a club I’m making your curfew 8 PM for the rest of the season. Put a whole dress on someone and bring her as your date. Try to make it look respectable.”
I have to concentrate on not slamming the door as I leave Coach Bylsma’s office. I broke another curfew, missed another bus and did not play well in last night’s 3-1 preseason loss to Chicago. It was just a little hangover, a little exhaustion. Nothing a couple good nights’ sleep wouldn’t fix.
Jesus, to hear Dan talk you’d think I was tearing it up every night. It was just Chicago. And Toronto. Well, Columbus too but what the hell else is there to do in Columbus?
Now I need to find a date for this new Consol Energy Power Play dinner dance charity nonsense. This shit was not a problem last year when we played at the Mellon.
Okay, it should not be that hard to find a date. Someone respectable. Well, there goes half the list. Still, I page through my phone. Rebecca, nope I never called her back. Angie… the blond. Or is that Andrea? Shit, I called one of them by the other one’s name at an inopportune moment. Pass. Brandi looks like a hooker. Jessica, she’s smart. Jessica, Jessica – wait. She’s the married one. Paulette? Moved away. Kimberly? Is she the one with the tattoos?
Ugh, most of these girls hate me. The rest would be like wolves lose among sheep, possibly more trouble than I can cause myself. Guess I’ll have to find a new one.
____
“Oh no.”
“Yes.”
“Not at all. Not even a little.”
“I thought you were a big hockey fan! You should love meeting all these players. But you need to bring a date – this is a corporate event, not a bachelor auction. What’s the worst that could happen? You dance with someone, eat a rubber chicken and get to meet your idols. Another work dinner. Big deal. You’re coming and you’re bringing a date.”
Sophie goes back to her office and puts her head down on the desk. Shoulder length waves of brown hair fall around her face. So what if she hasn’t been on a date in a while? She’s been busy looking forward to this event for weeks instead.
I’m only 25, for Christ’s sake! Just because Alice was married with a kid by now doesn’t mean I should be. You’d think she was my mother instead of my boss. Why would I bring a date to an event full of hot hockey players? It’s been a long time and I don’t want to completely ruin my chances of getting laid.
She had better get a move on with this date since the dinner is only a week away. She thinks of guys she knows. Alex, Dave, Rusty… nope, they’re all friends with Connor too. Sophie is not asking one of the ex-boyfriend’s frat brothers to this event. The rest of the list gets vetoed quickly: Spencer is too annoying to spend three hours with, Neil talks with his mouth full. She needs someone fun who was just a friend, in case any of these guys look half as good up close as they do from the stands. But he also needs to be impressive, so maybe Alice will leave her alone for a while.
____
I walk through the shops downtown, stop for coffee, browse the bookstore. Nothing. I go to the mall – past the shoe stores and the handbag departments.
Where the hell to the respectable girls hang out? If I’m not supposed to go out, how am I supposed to find a date?
Four days later, I still haven’t asked anyone. I start thinking about the guys’ friends, their girlfriends’ friends. That’s dangerous territory – what if I hook up with them? I haven’t fished off the company pier before and I do not intend to start now. I cannot be that desperate.
____
“Find a date yet?” Alice asks before I’m even buckled into the front seat of her car.
“No, but I have three days left. I will,” Sophie wonders if it sounds confident. It certainly doesn’t feel that way.
“Maybe you’ll get inspired when you see these guys,” she says, pulling out of the lot and heading for the shiny new Consol Energy Center.
I don’t think that’s going to be the problem, Sophie does a mental eye roll.
They sit in the stands for the closed practice. It’s an optional Consol event, but the company put a ton of money into this arena and a lot of the office has turned out to watch the Pittsburgh Penguins in action. Sophie loves hockey and was excited when, during her second year with Consol, they put up the money to fund the new stadium. Free tickets and lots of perks, she imagined. Not yet, though. The season doesn’t start for another week and first she is going to have to find a date for their inaugural event.
Christ on a bike these guys are good looking. My date won’t have to ugly to look bad in this company. Focus, Soph.
“What about him?” Alice points openly at #87. She doesn’t have the faintest idea about hockey, but like most of the executives at Consol has quickly become a burgeoning fan. If only she knew anything about sports.
“Imagine if Superman were Canadian. And hotter. Then he might be as big a deal as Sid the Kid,” Sophie says.
Alice nods seriously, like she is filing away facts to use in conversation. Probably at this dinner. Sophie hopes she does, it would sound great coming from the mouth of her married, 45-year old, mother-of-two boss. And it would still be true.
“What about that one?” Alice picks #58 this time.
“Kris Letang. Yes, he is gorgeous. How can he skate with all that hair in his face?” Sophie can’t even eat without pulling her hair back.
Alice rolls her eyes. “The big guy?”
“Jordan Staal is about 15 years old. You don’t want me getting arrested, do you? Will you bail me out of jail?”
Alice laughs. She’ll probably use that line too. Good luck. The team breaks from their drill and the goalie comes over to the bench, near where they are sitting. He flips off his mask and Alice sucks in a breath.
“Ooh, he’s cute. Why is the cutest one wearing something over his face?”
“So he can keep his face looking like that,” Sophie suggests. “That’s Marc-Andre Fleury. If you like French accents, he is the man for you.”
“Will you point him out to me at the dinner?” Alice is completely serious. Bless her heart, Sophie thinks. I hope her husband knows he’s bringing a horny teenager to this event.
The practice lasts an hour and Sophie really enjoys it despite Alice’s endless dating invectives. She’s fascinated by the precision of the drills, doing the same moves over and over. It’s so quiet in the cavernous arena with only the shouts and whistles from the ice. A totally different, almost eerie experience compared to all the games she’d been to. She can hear the guys’ voices, hear the coaches instructions and corrections. When Crosby hits the post with a wrist shot the sound is magnified a hundredfold.
The players start wrapping up, hanging around the bench talking. Sophie watches them unabashedly – they must be used to being stared at. Alice’s running commentary fades away as Sophie window-shopped her way through the roster.
“Alice, Sophie, would you like to come on the tour?” Joe Benson, head of the Corporate Communications Department at Consul and Alice’s boss’s boss, asks. “Sophie I hear you’re quite the Penguins fan.”
“I am,” she says, standing.
“Then you’ll have a lot to teach us all this season. And I expect you’ll be the belle of the ball at this dinner on Friday.” He waits to usher them up the steps.
Maybe this hockey thing will get me a promotion, Sophie thinks as she takes a last look at the guys grouped around the bench. One of them is Max Talbot, the Pens resident personality player and ladies’ man. His on and off-ice antics in the media have made Sophie laugh many a time. She smiles to herself.
Well, there’s always Max, she thinks, looking at him again. He’d probably sleep with anybody. Not such a bad backup plan.
____
Did she just smile at me?
I did my best to focus on practice and not even notice the people watching. Just suits from the sponsor, nothing to see. And I knew I needed to shape up or Coach would have me on the bus to Wilkes-Barre by nightfall. At least that would solve this date problem.
I stop at the bench for a water bottle and notice a younger face among the spectators. Definitely younger and very pretty. She has wavy dark hair and wears a cream colored sweater against the chill of the empty building. Next to her, an older woman in a power suit points from one player to the next. I rejoin the drill, then another. But every time I circle past, I sneak a look at the girl.
Get your head in the game! This is the kind of thing that always gets you in trouble!
So I don’t look anymore, though thinking about not looking was just as distracting as actually doing it. When we are finishing up, I make sure to work right till the end. Then I skate to the bench where everyone is doing their usual bullshitting. And that’s when she smiles.
Did she smile at me?
____
“Coach, I’d like you to meet Joe Benson from Consol’s communications department. His team will be working with us this season on a lot of initiatives that Consol’s doing with the team and the building.”
Bill, Penguins’ Community Services Director, introduces Joe to Dan Bylsma.
“Nice to meet you. Beautiful place you’ve put us in here,” Dan says, shaking his hand.
“Glad to be working together,” Joe says. “This is Alice McKeon, director of our community services division, and Sophie Baxter, a manager in the department. Sophie is a big Penguins fan.”
Dan’s smile widens a notch. “Nice to meet you, Sophie. You teaching these guys about the game?”
“She’s trying,” Alice says honestly. “But she only seems to know the really good looking players.”
Sophie blushes, but cannot escape the slightly manic laugh that bubbled up inside. “She thinks I knew some big secret about Fleury because she couldn’t see his face under the mask. He doesn’t wear it all the time, Alice.”
Dan laughs too, and looks at his watch. “Well then, I think you should meet some of the guys. You know, in the interest of community relations and stuff. ”
Sophie puts a hand to her ever-reddening face. Great, he’s just like Alice. This is not going to go well. But no way is she passing up a chance to meet the Penguins. With a nod of defeat, Sophie agrees and Dan leads them down the hallway. When he gets to the locker room door, he puts his hand out for them to wait and sticks his head in.
“Civilians on deck. Everybody dressed?” A chorus of mostly unintelligible shouts come back. Dan pushes the door open. “Welcome.”
The first thing Sophie notices is that “dressed” means “wearing pants.” Or just shorts. At least half the guys are shirtless. There is also gear everywhere, piled indiscriminately in corners and heaped in the middle of the floor. And it smells like a locker room – sweat, hormones and Axe body spray.
Holy mother of Matt Damon, it is not safe for me to be in here. Sophie’s heart rate signals impeding medical emergency.
“Guy, this is Joe from the Consol communications department, and Alice and Sophie from community relations.” If nothing else, the Pens pay attention when Dan speaks. And they are now realizing that he has a pretty girl in tow.
“Hi,” Jordan Staal crosses the room in two strides of his giant legs. Mercifully he is wearing a t-shirt – Sophie doesn’t want to faint before she gets a word out. He shakes Joe’s hand, then Alice’s. When he gets to Sophie’s, he takes his time.
“Easy killer,” Dan says. “Sophie is already a big fan. No need to smother her.”
“I like fans,” Jordan says, making Sophie blush. “Look I made her blush!” He puts his arm around her shoulders and shows her off like a trophy. Which makes her laugh harder.
The guys start coming over to introduce themselves. Jordan stands next to her and shakes their hands like it’s the receiving line at their wedding. He even thanks them for the beautiful gifts. When Crosby comes up, Alice not-so-subtlely elbows Sophie in the side.
“Superman?” she asks.
Sophie nods and rolls her eyes. Crosby gives her a look that says ‘tell me later.’ Tell you later? Am I going to be seeing you later? Sophie’s brain is clearly on overload. Bad news since Kris is next in line.
“Ooh, Sophie, you were right. He is gorgeous.” Alice says right to his face while holding his hand.
“Oh. My. God.” Sophie looks quickly away, blinking furiously.
Jordan makes a huffing sound and puts his hands on his hips. “Already? We’ve been married like 6 minutes.” He pretends to storm off.
‘Sorry,’ Sophie mouths to Kris as he steps in front of her. He is even better looking than I thought. Kris shakes his head, silky hair falling over his face, and blushes himself away.
“That one’s Fleury,” Sophie says loudly and points toward the goalie, who is tying his shoe on a nearby bench. He turns his head, hat on backwards, and gives them a million dollar smile. Alice giggles, giving Sophie a moment’s distraction.
____
What?!
I hear a lot of talking and laughing when I come out of the shower, but that isn’t too unusual. Media, visiting players, it could be anyone in the locker room. Maybe it’s just Flower playing a joke or Crosby being a nerd. So I walk right out in my towel.
And there she is. The girl who smiled at me.
She’s with two other suits, probably her bosses by the differences in age. I see her eyes flick down my body – bare chest, slice of thigh where the ends of the towel meet. She wears dark gray suit pants over slender, strong legs and the off-white sweater I’d seen from the ice. She is nearly as tall as me so I sneak a look at her feet: at least two inch heels. Everyone is looking at me like I just walked naked into a school.
“Didn’t hear me ask if everyone was dressed?” Coach says, smiling.
“I… uh… no, sorry.” I turn to go back and get dressed in private, but the older suit stops me.
“Don’t worry about it, we’re all embarrassing Sophie anyway. I’m Joe and we’ve got to get going.” He shakes my hand then the other lady does too. That just leaves the girl: Sophie.
“I’m Max.”
“Hi,” she says, carefully not looking anywhere I’m naked. A smile twitches at the corners of her mouth – she’s embarrassed and I’m embarrassed, it’s taking a lot for her not to laugh.
“You smiled at me during practice,” I say. Because she had.
“Did I? ” She asks, but she smiles now. Hadn’t she?
Dan ushers them from the room in chorus of goodbyes and nice-to-meet-yous. The door is barely closed before everyone is talking about her, of course.
“Not bad, boys. I’m beginning to like this new Consol gig,” Jordan says.
“Uh, I think she liked Tanger,” Billy G chimes in. “She looked like she wanted to lick him.”
“Fucking Frenchies!” Jordan throws a shirt at Kris, who makes a what-did-I-do? gesture and tosses a pair of socks back. Before it can descend into a complete mess, Sidney cuts the flying objects with his voice.
“Smiled at ya, did she Talbs? You sure about that?”
That gets a howl from the boys. I mentally curse Crosby and hope there are a lot of long, lonely nights in his near future.
____
Bill and Dan take them through the weight room and sauna, trainer’s room, equipment room and even the lounge. Sophie is thrilled with the behind-the-scenes tour, but she will have to process that later. She’s still thinking about Max.
WOAH. No wonder women all over town lose their skirts around him. Has he always been that hot?
Sophie has never been into bad boys and Max’s reputation had never appealed to her. But his half-nakedness certainly did. So did his signature scruffy facial hair and those eyes. What color was that? And the half-smile that played on his lips, like he’d been caught undressed on purpose because he was completely aware that it worked like a charm.
I didn’t smile at him, but I wish I had.
“It was nice to meet you, I hope we’ll see you all at the dinner Friday night,” Dan is saying as Sophie comes back into the present.
Alice thanks them both and says, “We’ll be there Friday. And Sophie, if she can find herself a date.”
Sophie’s eyes go wide at the same time as Dan’s. Then he gives her a pat on the back. She’s had enough embarrassment for one day. When they are back in the car, Alice can’t help herself.
“Now you want to go to that dinner. Better find a date you really don’t like so you can have your pick of those boys!”
Sophie sinks into her seat, thinking exactly the same thing.
____
The next morning, Sophie hears Joe’s assistant shout into his office. “Dan Bylsma’s on the phone for you.”
Hi Dan! Sophie wants to yell. Because now she knows him. Cue fangirl freakout. She is thinking about the locker room again so she doesn’t hear Alice’s phone ring a minute later.
____
“Yes, just a second,” Alice closes her door. In the privacy of her office, she laughs as Dan lays out his evil plan. Ten minutes later, Alice knocks on the wall outside Sophie’s office.
“Sophie, I’ve decided you can go tomorrow night without a date. I wouldn’t want you to miss it, you’ll obviously have a great time. And now that I’ve seen those boys, I think I’m even a little jealous.”
Yahtzee! Sophie yells inside. Now I just have to figure out how to behave myself for a whole night, unchaperoned.
____
After the morning skate, Coach sticks an arm out as I am about to leave the ice.
Shit, now what? I haven’t been out in 4 nights. Didn’t know there was so much bad television. I’d even cleaned my house and done laundry, both of which I considered crimes against humanity when done after the fall of darkness. I was turning into Crosby. Soon I’d be making needlepoint pillows with slogans like “Grandma Loves Bingo.”
“Max, you’ve been working hard lately. I appreciate it. Have you found a date for tomorrow night?”
I shake my head. I am pretty much out of options.
“Don’t worry about it, just come by yourself. As long as you behave.”
____