Reunited

He paced back and forth in front of the arrivals screen. It had been half an hour since he arrived. Glancing at the screen again, he noticed that her plane had landed. Pulling his ball cap further down, he made his way over to the arrival gate with everyone else that was waiting to pick up a loved one or friend.

She didn’t know he was going to be there. They hadn’t talked in at least a day, but he could remember every detail she had given him about the day that she would arrive.
Fighting the urge to remove his cap so that he could run his fingers through his damp hair, he watched the people as they walked through the door, hoping to spot her as soon as she was visible.

It seemed to take forever for the red haired woman to walk through the door, but when he spotted her, he began to feel nervous. As he walked toward her, he wondered whether she would be happy to see him there.

“Simone?” he said once he was close enough to speak.

She turned to him with a raised eyebrow. “That’s me. Can I help you?”

“I hope you don’t mind, but I took the liberty of picking you up. You know, to save you from having to get a cab.” He watched as the woman studied him beneath his hat.

“Jordan? What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be at the rink or something?”

“I could be, but all they are doing is skating and going over plays and stuff. There isn’t really any reason for me to be there since I’m not playing yet,” he explained. “Anyway, I talked to Coach and it was alright with him if I missed practice for the day, so I decided to pick you up. I hope that’s not too creepy.”

“No, well, it kind of is, but I’m alright with it,” Simone smiled at him. “I’ll just grab my bag and then we can be on our way?”

“Sure.” Jordan followed her to the luggage belt that was already going around with bags on it. “What does your stuff look like?”

“I have one bag,” Simone explained. “It’s a golden yellow color. Honestly, it sticks out like a sore thumb.”

“Like that one?” Jordan asked, pointing to the only yellow bag on the belt.

“That would be it.”

Once the bag was close enough, Jordan hauled it off of the moving belt and placed it beside him. “Are you ready?”

Simone nodded and reached to take her bag from him.

“I’ve got it,” Jordan said, pulling the bag as they headed for the door. “Where are you staying? I know you told me, but I can’t remember.”

“Mayfield Inn and Suites,” Simone read from a paper that she had pulled out of her purse. “It says I have the bi-level suite. That’s kind of neat. I didn’t know hotels had bi-level suites.”

“That sounds nice though,” Jordan admitted as he led her to the parkade. “Nice sweater by the way. I meant to say something earlier, but I wasn’t sure if you would be alright with me being here. It’s weird for me to be here, right?”

“Thanks and it’s not that weird,” Simone assured him. “A little creepy, but not weird because I believe that any of the guys I know in Pittsburgh would do the same thing.”

Jordan nodded and stopped behind a grey Chevrolet Equinox. “This is me.”

“An Equinox, very nice,” Simone admired. “But it’s not black.”

“Why did you expect it to be black?” he asked as he placed her bag in the back of the SUV. After closing the door, he made his way to the driver’s side and got in.

“I don’t know,” Simone shrugged as she slid into the seat beside him and buckled her seatbelt. “I guess because all of the hockey players I know have black or white vehicles. Well, almost all of them. Jordan, the guy you talked to on the phone the one day, his rental BMW is silver. He said he would have preferred black, but all they had for him was silver in a BMW.”

“Can I just ask is that Jordan Staal you are talking about?”

“It sure is. He’s a pretty sweet guy.”

Jordan just nodded and started at the tail lights of the vehicle ahead of them as they waited for the light to turn green. “Do you know the entire Penguins team?”

“Of course, but they are the only hockey players I know. Not including you.”

“Are you going to come to the game tonight? I was going to ask you earlier, but I figured I would just wait until you got here.”

“Uh, yea, sure, I can make it. What time is it at?”

“Seven.”

“Cool. Will I be sitting with you or all alone in a huge Edmonton crowd?”

“You can sit with me. I’ll be in a box with whoever else won’t be able to play and probably some important people like our GM and our owner, if he comes.”

“That’s alright. I’ve met the important people from Pittsburgh, like Mr Lemieux. I have never had the chance to sit in a box with him, but Jordan has forced me to go to his house.”

“Forced you?”

“Yea, when it comes to going out with the team, I don’t really get a choice. Jordan or Max or Evgeni usually have no problem talking me into joining them. I like to think that it is hard to persuade me to do things, but those guys seem to know all of my weaknesses.”

“Like marshmallows or Hawaiian pizza?”

“Yea, but how did you know that?” Simone asked, giving him a curious look.

“Lucky guess,” Jordan shrugged. He still didn’t know who the girl next to him was, but he thought he was getting closer to her identity. After Jeff told him about his friend in high school, he couldn’t stop thinking about things that she liked or things that she did.

“What are you thinking about?” Simone asked.

“Just a friend of mine,” he admitted, pulling onto a different street. “You remind me of her. That’s the reason I guessed marshmallows and Hawaiian pizza.”

“Tell me about her. You know if you want.”

“I don’t know,” Jordan said, giving the woman a sideways glance. “She’s not really in my life anymore. We were friends in high school and she was super cool.”

“Really? Just super cool?” Simone chuckled. “That’s nice of you, but why isn’t she in your life anymore? Did she pass away?”

“Um, no,” Jordan shook his head lightly. He steered the SUV into a parking spot outside of a large hotel. “This is your stop. Do you need any help?”

“Sure, you can help. Do you want to see my room? I think a bi-level suite would be different to see.”

Jordan froze, unsure of what to say. He wanted to talk to her more, but her offer to see her room sounded like something he should decline.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean it in a creepy way. You don’t even have to stand near me if you don’t want to.”

“You know what? It won’t hurt to go inside. It’s not like I have to be anywhere.” He pulled her bag out of the vehicle and followed her into the hotel. As he walked through the door, he pulled his cap down on to his head a little further. The last thing he wanted was to be noticed going into a hotel with a ‘mysterious girl’. The headlines running through his mind were not pretty to say the least. “Do you have any meetings today?”

“I have one short lunch meeting in a couple of hours and then I have nothing until tomorrow,” Simone told him as the lady behind the desk tapped on her computer. “It’s strange that I am here for three days, but I’m not really doing anything here. I spend three days in New York as well, but those three days are packed with things that have to be done.”

“Excuse me, miss,” the receptionist interrupted. She held her hand out to the red haired woman. “This is your room key and if you need anything else just call and I’ll send someone to help you out.”

“Thank you,” Simone smiled and led Jordan away from the desk and to the elevator. “Anyway, it’s nice to know someone in at least one of the cities. That is if you consider this to be me knowing you.”

“I would,” Jordan nodded as they travelled the short distance in the elevator. “You seriously don’t know anyone in any of the other cities you’re going to be in?”

“I met a guy, who used to play hockey with Jordan, while I was in Dallas,” Simone explained. “Other than that, there is just you.”

“You haven’t met the other Staal brothers?”

“Nope, Jordan won’t let me meet them. I don’t know why, I’m not that embarrassing.”

“I doubt that he thinks you are embarrassing, Simone. He probably just doesn’t want them to steal you away from him. I hear girls talk about how gorgeous they all are.”

“They really are, at least that’s what their pictures say. Plus, Jordan and I aren’t together, so I can’t be stolen from him.”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean anything by that. I just assumed that you were since he answered your phone that one day and you said you were going for lunch.” He watched the girl unlock the door with her card and followed her in. “Wow, this is incredible for a hotel room.” Jordan looked around at the surrounding room and noticed that there was no bed. “The bed must be upstairs?”

“I hope so. If not, I guess I’ll be sleeping on the couch for the next two nights.” She grabbed her bag and headed to the stairs.

Jordan watched her, unsure what to do next. He felt that going upstairs with her was inappropriate since he had yet to learn what her true identity was.

“Are you coming up to investigate or are you just going to stand there watching me?” Simone asked from the bottom half of the steps.

Jordan nodded and quickly walked over to the staircase. He couldn’t help watching her pull her luggage behind her. Her movements were smooth, as if she was used to carrying heavy items. He noticed that her fingernails had been painted a pastel purple causing him to wonder if her toenails matched. He smiled as her ponytail bounced with each step that she took.

When they had made it to the top, Simone threw herself down onto the bed. After a few seconds, she propped her body up with her elbows and looked at Jordan. She patted the spot next to her, encouraging him to sit down.

Without thinking, Jordan took the offer and sat down. He looked the girl up and down, taking in the small diamond earrings she wore and the outfit she had picked for her long plane ride.

“Will you tell me more about your friend from high school?” She asked, breaking his concentration.

“I suppose I could. It’s not like I told you a whole lot before.” Jordan stared at the wall in front of him as he allowed memories of high school to fill his head. “I met her when I started school in Regina. In case you didn’t know, I played for a team in Regina. Anyway, when I met her, I found her different. No not different, unique. She had red hair, like yours, and liked to keep it about the same length as yours, if not a bit longer. She used to tell me that her eyes were the dullest thing about her because they were just simply brown. I don’t know why, but she didn’t think there was anything special about brown eyes.”

“That’s because there isn’t,” Simone smirked.

Jordan looked at her, a confused expression upon his face. Then he realised that her eyes were also brown. “How could I forget that you had brown eyes?” He watched the girl shrug and continued his story. “She never missed a single game for any reason except work. It was like I could count on her being there if everyone else decided the team was shit. She sat in the same seat every game, too.”

“The fifth row up from the ice behind the home team’s goaltender.”

“Yea, exactly. How did you know?”

The redhead gave him a dumbfounded look. “After all of this time talking, you really need to ask? Come on, Jordan. Have I changed that much that you don’t recognise me?”

“I’m sorry, what?” Jordan stared at the woman. He didn’t know what she was talking about. In the back of his mind, he had always guessed that this girl was the same girl from his past, but he never expected to be right. Now he found himself wondering if his subconscious has been correct this entire time.

The girl sighed and shook her head. She glanced at the clock beside the bed before letting her arms slip out from under her torso. A puff from the duvet sounded in the silence as her body fell onto the bed.

“Samo?” There was a sense of urgency in Jordan’s voice that caused her to look over at where he was sitting.

“I haven’t been called that in years,” she told him.

Jordan opened his mouth to comment, but was stopped by the ringing from his phone. He held up a finger and looked at the caller id. “It’s just Sam. I’ll call him back later.” He raised his head to look at the woman next to him. “I can’t believe it’s you. I mean I was hoping it would be, but to know that it is, wow, I’m just wow.”

Simone chuckled and shook her head. “You know, I wasn’t planning on telling you. I figured it might be better just to go on living our lives as if we had never met before. Then you figured out my name and you knew I was Canadian and I guess I assumed you would have figured out who I was by now.”

“I don’t think I would have fully made a connection if I hadn’t talked to Jeff,” Jordan admitted. “He’s the one who reminded me that your name was Simone. I think once I started calling you Samo and it stuck, I just pushed your real name to the back of my mind.”

“Jeff? Like Jeffy Jeff?”

“Yea, like Jeffy Jeff,” Jordan laughed, shaking his head. He was interrupted a second time by his phone ringing.

“Oh, Mr Popular, I see.”

“It’s Sam again.”

“Take it, I’ll wait.”

Jordan nodded and hit the green button on the left side of his phone. “Sam.”

“Dude, how could you be so mean to my cousin? She told me what you said. I can’t believe you called her a whore. Taylor is going to flip when she tells him.”

“Yea, sorry about that, Sam. It kind of just came out. I was planning on letting her down easily, but everything fell apart when she got angry with the way I described our relationship.”

“You mean when you said that there was a lack of a relationship? She told me that too. Really, I didn’t think you had the balls to totally tear someone apart.”

“Again, Sam, I’m sorry. I really can’t talk right now.”

“You with another girl already? Man, you work fast. I didn’t expect that either.”

“Sam,” Jordan’s voice held a warning tone. “I’m with an old friend from high school. I’ll bring her down after the game, if she wants, and introduce her to the team, or at least Taylor.”

“Just Taylor? Come on, man. I’m an important part of your hockey existence too.”

“Whatever helps you sleep at night, buddy. I’ve got to go. I’ll see you after the game.” Jordan hung up before Sam could respond and looked over at Simone. “Sorry, I didn’t think that would go on for so long. He just wouldn’t shut his mouth.”

“No worries,” Simone said with a wave of her hand to dismiss the apology. “But I feel the need to ask, this girl you are taking downstairs after the game tonight, who might she be?”

“Well, I’m hoping that she will be you. If not, I’m going to have to find some random girl in the stands that would make for an old friend.”

“I bet that would go over really well,” Simone joked. “Was Sam one of the guys you were with the day we met at the bar?”

“Yea,” Jordan nodded. “He is really excited to meet you. Once he realises that you’re the red head from the bar, he might be a little, uh, intrusive.”

“That’s alright,” Simone smiled. “I’ll just have to be prepared. Is it ok if I kick you out for a few minutes while I change for my meeting? You can go downstairs and watch some TV or whatever. Make yourself at home.”

“Thanks,” Jordan said, getting up from the bed. “And it’s good to have you back, Samo.”