The Hardest Thing

“Jay? Do you have a minute?” I asked my boss as I walked into his office the morning after Jon left for Winnipeg. By the time he got back to Chicago, I wanted to have everything planned out. While I was dreading staying in the same house as his mother, I knew this was important to him.

“Oh Audrey, come on in,” Jay responded, “what can I do for you?”

I sat down at the chair across from his desk and prepared to tell my boss more information than I ever thought I would divulge.

“I wanted to request a couple of days off in the middle of August, I know I just took time off, but I was looking for maybe a Thursday, Friday, and Monday.”

“Audrey, you’ve never asked for time off before and I’m sure you have some vacation and sick days, but can I ask why?”

“My boyfriend really wants me to see where he grew up and he has to be back in Chicago for training camp in the middle of August, so he wanted me to go the weekend before.”

“What kind of training camp?”

“Chicago Blackhawks…I’m dating Jonathan Toews.”

I had never seen Jay Parker’s jaw drop so quickly. He knew that I wasn’t much of a hockey fan, but he just stared at me in shock. I ended up explaining to him that Jon and I were neighbors and met outside of the realm of hockey. In exchange for taking the sick days, I had to promise that I would get him a couple of tickets when he wanted them; I knew that wouldn’t be a problem. It was actually funny that I was taking a bribe from my boss. I couldn’t wait to tell Jon that I had the time off and I was finally going to get to see Winnipeg. From what I had seen, it was a beautiful city and my boyfriend was the royal prince.

“Well, I can’t deny you that chance.”

“So I can have the days off?”

“You can. I’ll have to look at how many days you’ve taken and figure out whether you’ll get paid for it, but I think that’s a good reason to take days off.”

“I’m lucky my boss is a Blackhawks fan, aren’t I?”

“Oh yeah,” he responded.

I went back to my desk and looked at my calendar; I started at the day I was leaving and wrote out the numbers to countdown to my trip to Winnipeg. Jon would be back in a week and was planning on spending the summer in Chicago…with me. I started thinking that one year earlier, Jon and I were just friends; we talked at the mailboxes, texted, and once in a while would just hang out in one of our apartments. We hadn’t kissed yet and our relationship hadn’t started. He was happily with Laurie and would talk about moving her to Chicago. So much had changed in just one year.

Kylie came over to my desk and looked worried that I hadn’t been there fifteen minutes earlier when she came by. She started going on about wondering where I was and thinking I was missing work and I’m not really sure what else she was saying; sometimes when she babbled, I just smiled and nodded. She was right though, we needed to catch up. I hadn’t talked to her much since Jon left. We decided that a girls night would be in order for Saturday and it would just be one of our wine and movie nights, we’d have time to talk and relax.

---

Saturday came after such a long week. I ended up catching up on a lot of sleep since my only school work was online and Jon wasn’t keeping me up at night. Not that I minded having Jon keeping me awake, but it was nice to get some sleep. I missed him, of course, but we still talked every night before bed. I bought a bottle of Chardonnay for myself and a bottle of Merlot for Kylie; just as our personalities differed, our taste in wines did as well.

Kylie showed up with Chinese takeout because we were that kind of girls; we also drank the wine straight out of the bottle reminiscing about our days in college. Kylie started telling me about a guy she met and her date the night before. I was happy to hear that she met someone, especially after her one night stand with Kane. He was a cute kid and all, but Kylie could be high maintenance and I didn’t think that was Pat Kane’s way.

“So why are you going to Winnipeg if Jon’s spending the summer here?”

“He wants me to see where he grew up.”

“What about his parents?”

“I don’t know. He said that he would make sure his mom knew that I was coming and take care of things before then. It’s still two months away and he’s there now. His dad loves me.”

“What about…”

“I don’t know. He hasn’t mentioned her since he’s been up there; I don’t think that he’s even seen her.”

“What if you run up to her?”

“I have time to figure that out.”

Kylie knew exactly what I was thinking. Of course I was worried about going to Winnipeg because everyone up there was used to Jon being with Laurie. I loved Jon and I knew that he loved me, but in Winnipeg, I would be an outsider. Instead of thinking about it, I turned Kylie’s attention to the movie that we were watching. We started to make stupid jokes about the movie and laughing to each other; it was nice just having a relaxing night with Kylie. Ever since I started my MBA program, I didn’t get too much time to just do nothing.

A couple of hours later, my phone rang. I looked at it and saw that it was Jon. He had called that afternoon, but Kylie and I were busy, so I didn’t really want to ditch her to talk to him. I was always afraid of being the girl that chose her boyfriend over her best friend and especially with Kylie, I didn’t want to do that. I knew that I had to answer this time though because he was getting ready for bed and I wouldn’t get another chance to talk to him again. Kylie told me that she didn’t mind if I went into the other room to answer the phone.

“Hey baby.”

“Hey Aud, can you talk now?”

“For a little, yeah. What’s up?”

“I went to the community centre today and just surprised a bunch of kids, it was so much fun.”

“That’s great, Jon, you sound so happy.”

“It made me feel better about losing, to see that the kids still look up to me.”

“They have every reason to.”

“You’re just saying that because you love me.”

“I love you because of all of those things.”

The conversation just continued from there and I loved hearing Jon so happy. On the other hand, he was going on for a while about kids. We were too young to think about kids and I hoped that he wasn’t hinting at anything for the near future. I knew that he was great with kids and loved being a role model. When he had the community centre named after him, I remember him telling me about all of the kids who wanted autographs and told him they wanted to grow up to be like him. He was adorable when he talked about it and that made me happy. After he finished, I told him that Kylie was over and he said that he was going to let me go.

I went back into the living room and Kylie told me that she heard part of the conversation and made fun of me for being so cutesy on the phone. I threw a pillow at her and we laughed about it. In the years that we had known each other, I was never the girl who talked baby talk to her boyfriend or repeated how much I loved him…but I truly think that I was never in love before.

---

A few days later, I was walking past the United Center during my lunch break when I ran into Patrick and Abby Sharp. They greeted me with hugs and kisses on the cheek and asked how I was doing and they asked about Jon. Pat told me that he knew Jon was in Winnipeg and asked when he was coming back. It was a pretty nice conversation, I always liked them and it was nice to know that they liked me even when Jon wasn’t around.

“Hey Audrey,” Pat started, “are you doing anything tonight?”

“Not really, no, why?”

“We’re having some people over for dinner…Kaner, Seabs, whoever else is in town, I know Tazer’s not around, but do you want to join us?”

“We’d love to have you,” Abby added.

“Sure, that sounds nice,” I found myself responding without thinking. It would be fun to do something other than sitting in my condo by myself, watching TV and writing a paper for class. He told me how to get to his house in the suburbs and told me the time to be there. I had to get back to work so I said goodbye to them and said that I would be over later.

After work, I went home and called Jon; I told him about dinner at Pat’s and he told me not to worry about anything. I had no idea what to wear or what was going to happen when I was there. To be completely honest, I agreed that I would go because I knew that it would make Jon happy if I hung out with his friends. The tone of his voice told me that he was thrilled that I was making an effort to get to know his teammates. I decided that a denim skirt and blue t-shirt would be appropriate because Jon told me that they were very casual people.

It took me about 45 minutes to get to Pat’s house in the suburbs and I was greeted with a very warm welcome. Seabs and his girlfriend were there as well as Kane; it was just going to be the six of us, but it seemed like it would still be fun.

“Audrey!” Abby greeted me, “I was just telling Dayna about the nursery we finally put together, do you want to come upstairs and see it?”

“Sure,” I agreed. I followed the other two upstairs and listened to Abby gush about being pregnant and how great Pat has been to her. The reason they moved to the suburbs was so that they could raise the baby away from the city.

“Why did you guys stay here for the summer instead of going home,” I asked.

“We wanted to get the house set up for the baby and I don’t want to travel too much since I past the six month mark. We just thought it would be easier to stay here; our families are going to come here and with Pat having time off, we can get a lot done.”

“That sounds nice,” I responded.

“Yeah, when’s Jon getting back into town?”

“Next weekend, he’s spending some time with his family, then we’re going back at the end of the summer.”

“Have you ever been to Winnipeg?” Dayna asked.

“No, I’m excited. Jon wants to show me his lake.”

Both girls laughed and then we headed back downstairs to where the guys were waiting for us. Pat made a few jokes about the nursery and how he’s becoming so handy around the house.

“Audrey, where’s Kylie tonight?” Kaner asked.

“On a date,” I responded, “you didn’t leave much of an impression on her.”

“That’s rare, I guess I just need another chance with her.”

“Good luck with that.”

“Luck has nothing to do with it; see this smile,” he started pointing at his face, “it gets me whatever I want.”

“Yeah, okay, Kaner,” Pat said.

“C’mon Sharpy,” Seabs started, “let the kid think he has game. I can’t wait for the day a girl slaps him across the face.”

“You mean that hasn’t happened yet?” I responded.

“Oh zing for Audrey,” Dayna said.

“Told you I liked this girl,” Abby added.

The rest of the night was a lot more relaxing. I was no longer worried about fitting in; they all seemed to accept me and actually like me. Jon told me that his friends would, but I had to see it for myself. When he was around, everyone except his mother was always nice to me.

When I got home that night I called Jon and told him all about the dinner. I could hear how happy he was in his voice. Then he told me that he was coming back into town on Wednesday instead of Saturday because he missed me. I felt myself blushing and glowing at the same time. I couldn’t wait to be with him again. As crazy as the last few months had been, I felt like I was in an absolutely perfect place.