I'm Coming Home for Christmas

Jordan stood with his overnight bag on his shoulder and sighed as he watched the last of the flights on the list flash red, telling him they had all been canceled. I'm not going to be making it home this year it seems, he thought to himself as he walked away from his terminal to the help desk, getting on the line of more than twenty people.

His mind wandered as he waited to move, eventually landing on the window behind the help desk, the constant fall of snow intriguing him as he quickly became bored and impatient.

This line needs to move already, if I leave now I could probably still get home and just hang out with the guys.

"Are you sure there is absolutely nothing you can do? Not even a hotel room," was heard from the front of Jordan's line, the woman in front speaking rather loudly. She was drawing attention to herself and he hoped no one would recognize him; he was already in a low mood, not being able to make it home to see his parents, two sisters, and brother.

"Ma'am, please quiet down. Now, you can stay in the airport, as everyone else will be. The roads are closed, all flights are cancelled, and all of the hotels have been booked. There is a blizzard warning out and we are required to not let anyone leave the building." The people in line let out a collective groan and began to disperse after overhearing the clerk at the desk.

Jordan walked away, figuring he would find somewhere to eat dinner and call his family to tell them the bad news. At least I won't be receiving any ugly sweaters from mom this year.
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Annemarie was upset. She had gotten to the airport late and went right to the help desk after seeing that her flight had been cancelled. All she wanted to do was catch her flight home to D.C., but no, there had to be a blizzard the one day she had had a crisis at home. Usually she was all for the concept of a White Christmas; snow covering the roads and cars to the point where it looks like a Winter Wonderland outside, however today she wished all the snow would burn in hell.

After having spoken to the clerk at the help desk and having the rest of the people on line behind her find out that they would all be sharing the same fate tonight, she ventured to find a bathroom where she could do her business and then try to make a few phone calls.

Making her way through the mall like area of the airport, Annemarie found herself faced with the dilemma of most women when looking for a public bathroom, each restroom she passed had at least two to three people waiting outside of the door for a chance inside, and she didn't have the patience at the moment to deal with that.

Continuing her walk she found a restaurant with not many people in it, assuming most were attempting to find their way out of this dreaded airport somehow, and decided she could have dinner there, and that since the restaurant was mostly empty the women's bathroom was more than likely the same.

Entering the restaurant she approached the maitre' de and asked where the bathroom was. He told her that the bathrooms were only for paying customers and that in order to use it she would have to buy something. She tried to explain to him that she was going to use the restroom and then have dinner here but he refused to believe her, thinking she would just use the facilities and leave.

She internally groaned, people were really starting to irritate her today and she was going to hurt somebody very soon if she couldn't make this phone call in privacy.

"Fine, I'll just buy one of the desserts on display, will that make you happy?" She asked the man and he gave her a smug smile followed by a nod. She wanted to slap him and see if he would still be smiling after that but knew he had the power to refuse her service and kick her out of the restaurant.

She found herself walking over to the display case smiling. If there was one thing that could make her happy it would be all the little things people do for the holidays, one of which was baking sweets.

Annemarie loved sweets, she wasn't a size zero type of girl and she had never come across a baked good she didn't like, so when she looked into the display case and saw a lineup of cupcakes (her favorite kind of sweet if she may add) she found her tummy rumbling. Licking her lips and looking at the man behind the display case she pointed to the four little cupcakes in the front, each different but all going together. One had a snowflake on it, and then two others helped spell out 'Merry X-Mas' followed by one with a Christmas tree. They looked beautiful to her; she would feel no guilt in eating them and would definitely still be eating her dinner.

She stood, admiring the other sweets as the man behind the counter boxed the four cupcakes that she had happily paid for.

Grabbing the wrapped box she told the maitre 'de to hold a table for her then proceeded to the back of the restaurant where she assumed the restrooms were. Arriving there she noted the line of three girls outside the door, each holding a baggie or box with the restaurants symbol on it and figured she wasn't the only person who had this idea. She sighed, getting on the line when she looked back down the hall she had come, noticing that no one was coming into or leaving the men's room.

Suddenly the light bulb went off in her brain. Why couldn't she use the men's room if no one else was using it? She checked to see if anyone was looking her way, and made sure the women in front of her didn't notice as she slowly backed away from them, keeping her heels off the floor as she tip-toed to the men's bathroom and then walked inside.

"Hello?" She called, her head sticking out around the door.

No one was at the urinals and all the stall doors were open. The coast is clear, yes!

She walked in, picking one of the stalls in the middle, then closed and locked the door before doing her business. After all that walking around she had to pee, the empty bathroom was just a plus side to her having to make a call she didn't exactly want anyone else to hear.

After doing her business she left the stall, washing her hands and checking herself in the mirror. Not too shabby for someone who was running around like a chicken without a head all day. Too bad Mike doesn't seem to like it anymore. Soulless bastard.

She sighed, looking down at the engagement ring on her finger, feeling the tears start to well in her eyes. She was hoping that Mike was just anxious about the Winter Classic against the Penguins and that he didn't really want to break up with her. If he had proposed to her after dating her for three years he wouldn't be able to just dump her over the phone like that, right? She comforted herself with half-truths, telling herself that he was just stressed out more than usual with the losing streak and being followed around by HBO cameramen all the time. Yeah, he was just anxious and stressed, plus he didn't have enough time to go home and see his family this year so he must be a little upset about that too. I'm sure he'll take it back and this will just be a little glitch we look back on when we're old and wrinkly with our grandchildren sitting on the porch of our house.

Taking her phone out and dialing Mike's number she listened to it ring six times before it was forwarded to his voicemail.

"Hey Mike, it's me, Annemarie. I was just hoping that maybe we could speak about what happened before, I know you're stressed out but that doesn't mean you have to take it out on our relationship, okay? I hope to hear from you soon, I'll be up all night since I'm stuck in the airport, and make sure you let Plague out; he needs to do his business even if you don't want to walk him," she sighed, "I-I, I hope you change your mind. Talk to you soon. Maybe. Bye."

For a few moment's Annemarie contemplated calling Alex and checking to see if Mike was with him, but decided against it. She may have made friends with him during her relationship with Mike, but if Mike was serious about this break-up then there was nothing Alex could do to change his mind, even if he was his best friend.

Annemarie was about to leave the restroom when somebody could be heard outside of the door. Oh shit.
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Jordan walked into one of the only restaurants in the airport where he hoped to grab some dinner, that wasn't fast food, and call his family. He had put on his baseball cap earlier, after someone had recognized him and asked for an autograph. He really didn't want any more attention drawn to him so he had put it on and was walking hunched over a little bit, hoping no one would notice his wide, six foot tall frame.

Without picking his head up he told the maitre' de that he was going to use the restroom and then would be back for a table. The man was about to refuse when Jordan picked up his head, flashing the man a smile and showing him who he was. The man spluttered a bit and then agreed right away, telling Jordan exactly where the restrooms were, though Jordan figured he could have found that on his own.

He walked towards the hallway where the bathrooms were, seeing a line for the women's restroom and instantly gave his appreciation for being a man. He opened the door and heard what he thought was the sound of heels on the tile floor as he walked up to the sink and looked at his reflection. Time to break the bad news, he thought to himself as he dialed his parent's phone number. After two rings someone picked up.

"Hello?" His mother, Lisa, answered the phone; he could hear pots clinking in the background along with the sounds of his sisters bickering and his brother trying to break them up.

"Hi, ma."

"Oh Jordan is that you honey? Hold on a second," he could hear her pull the phone away from her mouth, "Darren! Jordan is on the phone!"

He heard another phone line being picked up and then was greeted with his father's voice. "Hey son, how're you doin'?" Jordan's father, Darren, asked him.

"I'm good dad, I just have some bad news."

He heard his mother gasp, "You aren't hurt are you? Because we missed the last few games, but we didn't get any calls from family saying you were hurt. How could you not call us and let us know that something happened? Oh my gosh, that's it, I'm coming down there, you see Darren I told you he was too young to be living alone in some city with all these men influencing him and the roughhousing that goes on during those hockey games. I never did agree with it. How could I ever let you talk me into letting him play hockey now, let alone when he was younger, I mean-"

"Ma, Ma! I'm not hurt, okay? I just can't make it home. There's a blizzard warning out here and I'm stuck in the airport. All of the flights have been cancelled already and I'm going to have to spend the night," he told her, getting a little sadder. He really wanted to visit his family, he hadn't seen them in a little over three months and his homesickness was growing. One of the hardest parts of having a job that traveled this much was having no one to come home to, especially when you don't even live in proximity to your family.

"Aw, really son? That's horrible, maybe it'll just pass by and you can make your way here some other way, I mean tomorrow's only Christmas Eve," his mother commented, the sadness in her voice obvious even over the phone.

"There's no way I can make it there on time, plus even if I got there tomorrow I would have to leave the day after Christmas and only spending a day and a half with you guys isn't long enough. It'll just make it worse for me to leave."

"It's okay son, we know it isn't something you can control. I hope you're safe and that you have a Merry Christmas. Make sure you call us when you get home. Love you," his father said for the both of them, making Jordan feel a little better.

"Thanks dad, love you too. I love you, mom and tell Ashley, Whitney, and Dustin I love them, alright? I'll make sure to send all of you guys your presents in the mail." His parents agreed and they all hung up, saying their goodbyes and wishing each other a Merry Christmas.

Jordan leaned against the sink and ran his hands through his hair when he noticed a pair of heels underneath the only closed stall in the bathroom. Had someone been eavesdropping on him? He loved all of the fans that were putting up with the horrible season the Oilers were having this year, but sometimes it was a little annoying when he couldn't even have some privacy to talk to his parents.

He quietly walked over, and then pulled the door open revealing a woman not much shorter than him in a pair of heels, black dress pants and a clingy sweater. Her slightly tanned skin looked flawless from what he could tell and her gray eyes looked at him wide and frightened, a piece of her dark brown, slightly wavy hair hung in her face as she regarded him. There were track marks going down her cheeks and the little bit of mascara she was wearing made the tear tracks run black, making it even more obvious that she had been crying.

"Hi…" Came from her mouth and he couldn't help but laugh.

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Why is this guy laughing at me? Annemarie asked herself as the man in front of her began to laugh.

She stormed passed him to the sink, running the cold water and wetting a paper towel. She had to clean her face, get this mascara off because all it was was proof of tears spilt over Mike Green and a relationship she had deemed dead while she was hiding in her stall from this man who sounded like he wasn't having any better of a day.

He was still laughing when she was done which aggravated her slightly, what the hell did this man find so entertaining about a crying woman?

"What is your problem?" she asked him, causing the man to stop laughing abruptly.

"I just-and you were-the mascara-," he tried to catch his breath before starting again, "you looked so scared when I opened the stall, like I was going to beat you up for being in the men's room, I just couldn't help myself. I apologize for being so rude, but it's not everyday you find a girl in a stall in the middle of the men's bathroom."

"Yeah, well, you caught me by surprise. I thought you were leaving," she told him then started to make her way towards the door, her heels clicking loudly in the bathroom.

"Hey wait," he caught her arm, "let me make up for scaring you, would you like to have dinner with me?" He asked her and she was about to say no, I'm engaged when the thought crossed her mind. No, actually, you were dumped this morning by your ex-fiance.

Just then she felt her phone vibrate in her purse and saw the name 'Mike' pop up on the screen. She ignored the call and looked up at the man patiently waiting for her reply. Fuck Mike, if he wanted to end it let him end it. I'm not somebody's toy, he can't just end our engagement and then expect me to come crawling back if he changes his mind.

"Sure," she told him and stuck out her hand, "I'm Annemarie."

"Jordan," the man replied.

"Well it's a pleasure to meet you Jordan, are you ready to eat or would you rather spend your time with me in this bathroom?" He smiled at her and shook his head.

"Sweetie, I'm always ready to eat, let's just hope you're ready to protect your plate from me."

"Oh, don't worry, I'll be finishing my dinner, and desert is on me," she added, grabbing the forgotten box of sweets that had gone unnoticed by Jordan during his conversation with his parents. Oh good, he thought, a girl with an appetite.

He watched her walk in front of him to the door, swinging her hips the way only women seemed to be able to do, and figured that if he had to spend a night in the airport he was glad he had found someone interesting to spend it with.