Beauty and the Beast

Today Elle Johnson was going to begin her work at the Boston Herald writing a weekly column of the things she experiences as a new person in the city of Boston. During her lunch break she was supposed to meet Dennis to go over his new work. To say the least she was a nervous wreck. Not knowing what to wear she decided to call her newfound friend Katy. “I don’t know what to wear!” Elle said walking around her room still in her pajamas.

“How about a white blouse and pencil skirt?” Katy replied as Elle rapidly was going through her clothes. She didn’t want to unpack her suitcases just yet in case by some miracle she would move back home. Elle found a wrinkled white close along with an even more wrinkled pencil skirt.

“Thanks, Katy. I wasn’t sure if I should have wore it but I will now. Listen I have to go, Milan made breakfast and I don’t want to deal with his yelling.” Elle said hanging up her phone and opened her door to find Milan standing right outside. It looked like he was just about to knock on her door. He was wearing a simple white shirt and his boxers. Nothing was said between the two as Elle followed Milan to the dining area.

“I wasn’t sure what you wanted to I just made some bacon, eggs, and some toast.” Milan said as he carefully watched Elle’s face. He didn’t want a repeat of yesterday so he was desperately seeking her approval. She just nodded her head as she took the seat next to him. Milan was sitting at the head of the table as Elle was sitting to his right. As Milan was eating he would keep sneaking glances at Elle still watching her.

Elle couldn’t finish all of the food on her plate. The bacon, eggs and toast were piled high as Mount Fuji filling up Elle as fast as a bullet train. She felt bad that she couldn’t have finished all of the food that Milan cooked for her but it was just simply to much for her to handle. Taking the last sip of her coffee that she added sugar and milk to she felt as if Milan would have to roll her out to her office. “It was good, thanks.” Elle said standing up to take her dishes up to the sink so she could wash them.

As Elle’s back was turned to Milan he started to shovel the food in his mouth. His mother taught him manners that he practiced only in front of a girl. Plus he felt like he needed to impress Elle for some reason. But Milan figured it was because she was so beautiful. Certainly the most beautiful girl he’s ever had a conversation with and being a hockey player he’s had conversations with really pretty girls before.

“Oh, sorry.” Elle responded almost colliding with Milan. She turned around after washing her dishes to find him standing really close to her. The two did the awkward dance when someone goes one way but you go the same way as them. Soon Elle was able to get passed Milan and head to her room. It was 7 o’clock and Elle had to be at her desk by 8.

After borrowing an iron from Milan which was still in it’s box never been opened Elle changed into the outfit she picked out. Milan knocked on her door letting her know that the latest they could leave was in 15 minutes, or 7:30. Elle was running around her room trying to get ready and make sure she put everything in her bag. Checking herself in the mirror quickly she grabbed a pair of black pumps. As Elle stumbled into the living room she saw Milan sitting on the couch in jeans and a shirt with his duffle bag sitting next to him.

Getting onto the road the two realized how bad traffic was. But with the help of Milan’s crazy driving they made it to Elle’s office with 5 minutes to spare. Before Elle jumped out of the car and ran up to her desk, Milan told her that she needed to call him when she was done so he could pick her up. While Elle was working Milan had to head over to Wilmington for practice.

Elle found out that she had to report to her office once a week on Thursday’s so she could turn in her column for Friday. Other than that she didn’t need to come but if she ever needed a quiet space to work she had a place in her office. Of course at office Elle felt like she was being judged already. From the men she could feel the stares of lust something that always scared Elle and from the women she could feel the stares of hate. They only believed that she got the weekly front page column because she probably screwed the editor.

Practice started at 11 so the team was dressed and skating for fun by the time 11 o’clock came around. Milan wasn’t sure if he should go over and talk to Seguin or just let it go. Well if he talked to Seguin he wasn’t sure what he would say anyway. “So apparently I missed some stuff” Marc Savard asked Milan as they stood inline for a shootout.

“The girl Elle I was telling you about, well we got into a fight I guess. And then she went to go get some frozen yogurt with the kid.” Milan gritted through his teeth at the ending part. He still didn’t like the fact that Seguin had taken her to Pinkberry right in front of him. Milan also didn’t like the fact that Elle enjoyed her time with Seguin. He didn’t understand how nice she could be towards him but when it came to Milan she was just a plain bitch.

“Well it’s not like you called dibs on her. Plus he’s just a kid, four years younger than her I highly doubt she’s the cougar type.” Marc Savard told Milan as they watched Tyler go for a shoot out. He scored of course pissing off Milan even more, he scored on Timmy, he asked the girl he wanted to ask for some yogurt and every girl loved him. Practice soon ended and everyone headed to the locker rooms.

Elle couldn’t believe that she had met Dennis and he handed her his newest piece of work. It was titled ‘Moonlight Mile’ which was going to be the 6th book of Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro series. Elle still couldn’t believe that she was chosen to read this piece of work before everyone else. The day was winding down and Elle was completely bored at her office.

Hi Milan, um, I guess whenever you’re ready to pick me up you can. K, bye. Was the voicemail in his voicemail box. Milan just finished practice and still hasn’t talked to Seguin. He figured he would once the locker room started to get empty, he was going to talk in the parking lot but the fans would see. It wasn’t like Milan was planning to punch Tyler its just that he didn’t want the fans getting into his personal business.

“Look, I know you’re mad at me for asking Elle to get some yogurt but trust me I don’t want to date her or anything like that. I find it so weird that she’s like 4 years older than me.” Tyler said finally breaking the little tension between him and Milan. Marc gave Milan the look of ‘give the boy a break’ so Milan did. He told Tyler that it was okay, she needed some friends here in the city anyway.

After leaving Milan the message she soon found herself in a conversation with one of guys who was covering the hockey section of the newspaper. She could tell that he was surprised that she started to fire questions about the Boston Bruins. As the guy asked her why she was interested in the Bruins Elle knew she simply couldn’t reply ‘Oh, because I’m living with one’ so she just played the ‘I’m Canadian’ card.

“You should walk down in like five minutes.” Milan said putting Elle on the speaker phone. He was again weaving in and out of traffic with Marc Savard and Patrice Bergeron in his car. The two didn’t live to far from Milan so after they dropped their cars off Milan picked them up. As they saw Elle walk out of the building Milan realized that he needed to buy her new clothes. It wasn’t that her clothes were torn or anything like that it was just on the faded side.

“How was your work?” Milan asked after Elle got into the passengers seat. She let out a big sigh and gave him brief details of her boring day. Elle vowed that never again was she going to spend a full day in the office, hence the reason she called Milan to pick her up at 3 instead of the normal time of 5. She couldn’t handle another 5 minutes in there less alone 2 more hours.

Instead of making the right Milan was supposed to at the traffic light he went straight. Confusing everyone in the car he explained that he was going to go shopping. The guys got out their phones to tell their girlfriends to met them at the mall. Elle started to fidget a bit in her seat, she didn’t have money and now Milan wanted to take her shopping. If the guys wasn’t there Elle would have simply turned down the offer but she couldn’t. Plus she was a little scared to get Milan mad while he was driving.

“I don’t want to go shopping.” Elle whispered to Milan as they trailed behind everyone else on the way to Nordstrom. He just looked at her like she grew three heads or something. Milan remembered that Brittany, loved shopping. He shuddered at her name and the fact that maybe she loved shopping a little too much. Elle then started to explain to Milan that she didn’t have any money that she could spare at Norstrom. When Milan replied that he was willing to pay for her, Elle exploded. She didn’t want to be his charity case, that she didn’t want a pity shopping day because he noticed that her clothes were a little old.

“Guys, Elle isn’t feeling good so we’re just going to head back to the apartment.” Milan said calling out to his friends in the front. They all wished Elle to feel better and Katy said that they should go shopping some other time. On the car ride to the apartment Elle was quiet and Milan felt bad. As he turned to face her he saw the silent frustrated tears escape her sky blue eyes. He hated how Elle didn’t even need to tell him that she was mad at him to make him feel bad. Milan just knew that he fucked up this time, again.