Effortless

Two months later our first away game was in Jersey. I never liked New Jersey much, but we never saw much of the city, we saw more of the hotel. We arrived the day before and got situated. I was rooming with Alex and I was glad, he and I got on well. After we were all settled a bunch of the guys and I decided to go out to eat. The steak house was nice and luckily there weren’t any devils fans there to ruin the night.

“Let’s find some ladies, “Max joked to the table and some of the guys agreed. I rolled my eyes; we had a game tomorrow, none of them needed to be out late. I sat there drinking my water, just enjoying listening to my teammates. When we got back to the hotel, many of the other guys were on the other floor, but Sid, Max, Alex, Staal, and Engelland were all on the 6th floor.

“I’ll never get this, how am I supposed to learn this piece by tomorrow night?” I heard a girl’s voice.

“Listen, we wouldn’t have called you to fly in from California if we didn’t think you were good enough. You can do this, I’ll stay up with you until you know every step” a second voice came out.

As we turned the corner we saw two girls. Neither of them had shoes on just leggings that came down to their ankles and one piece leotards on. The one girl had leg warmers on and shorts covering her. She had a better body than the other girl. Fuller is the wrong word, more athletic, she was shorter and he body was more defined. I couldn’t help buy stare at her. It was okay to look right? But, when I got to her face I realized I recognized her. Dianna.

“Okay, let me show you one more time, and then you can try. It’s really easy, the only hard part is the jump, but it’s not like you haven’t done it before. I take that back it’s more of the transition into the jump.” And then she went, counting to 8, as she danced. It wasn’t ballet; it was faster and more aggressive, but fluid and strategic. I watched her body move, memorized. She was graceful and yet powerful at the same time. It’s like her body new where it needed to be and it went there and she trusted it to do so. I couldn’t tear my eyes away, but Max brought my ears to his attention.

“I told you we’d find some ladies” again I rolled my eyes.

I noticed that we were all kind of standing there watching and it wasn’t until the other girl posted us up on it that we all, embarrassed, made an excuse. The girl and Dianna just smiled at us and stepped back near the wall to let us through. I wondered if she recognized me at all. Not that I wanted her too, but usually people do. Not that I’m noticeable or anything, just because of the hockey and stuff, and I’m going to stop now. We all started to walk to our rooms when I heard.

“Kris, right?”

I turned to her and she, of course, was smiling and I couldn’t help but smile too.

“Yeah, how are you doing?” I asked, walking towards her.

“Really good, just here for a performance with the company, what about you, how’re you doing?” she asked. It was weird; she already answered a question that I was going to ask, like she already knew.

“I’m good, getting back from dinner with my team. I didn’t know that the studio traveled, “I replied and Max and Sid walked towards me.

“Yeah we do, a lot actually, but only during October through April. I didn’t know that you played hockey, I feel like such a dunce for not mentioning it when you picked up Reese, I’m sorry that was rude of me.” She smiled, and I smiled too. Damn it, why was she so contagious.

“Don’t worry about it, it was actually quite refreshing,” it was actually refreshing now that she wasn’t freaking out. A small cough came from my side. “This is Max Talbot and Sid Crosby, my teammates” I introduced them.

“Pleasure to meet you guys. My brother is going to be very envious that I got to meet all of you. He’s a huge fan. I already got Mr. Cooke’s autograph for him.”

“Mr. Cooke! Ha-ha, I’ve never heard Matt, be called Mr. Cooke before” Max laughed.

“Well, I feel weird calling him Matt because he is my client.” She said, laughing too. Her laugh was nice.

“Client?” Sid inquired.

She explained how she taught Reese ballet and how she and I had met. She then introduced her friend, Nora, who was from San Francesco. We chatted a bit longer, and Max definitely chatted up Nora, while Sid and I asked about why she was dancing in the hall way.

“Nora just flew in and she has to learn the one dance for tomorrow’s performance. So, I’m here to help her out” she explained.

“That’s very nice of you, “Sid said, and she smiled.

“Anything for a fellow dancer.”

I looked at her and I had to keep myself from staring. I understood what she meant. If you had to stay up until the wee hours of the night to help out a teammate then so be it. They were your family.

We finally let them get back to their dancing. When I got back to the room, Alex was already asleep. I decided on a hot shower. I needed to clear my head. I got out about 45 minutes later, and I felt better. I didn’t need any distractions right now, but it was hard when I could hear her voice outside in the hallway. I lay down in my bed, hoping that Alex’s snores would drown out her soothing voice of “5, 6, 7, 8,1,2,3, and 4, that’s it Nora, good job. See, you got this”

Finally, I felt myself drift off, and I was in that state right before you fall asleep. I was so comfortable and warm. This hotel bed seemed better than any of the others that I’d slept in. Then a nock came at the door. I groaned. I swear Max was always energetic; I got jealous sometimes because he always seemed to be bouncing off the walls. I didn’t bother to put a shirt on. Max had seen me in a lot less.

“Tell, Max I’m tired, and to go to bed.” I heard Alex mumbled. That’s what I liked about the team; we always seemed to be on the same page.

I threw open the door, “Seriously, Max, I think Gologoski is going to hand it to you-“ but I was cut off when I saw Dianna standing there. She had taken her hair down, and I could see a slight sheen on her skin from the dancing.

“I hope he won’t hand it to me, I’m no match for one of you hockey players.” She smiled.

“Ah, he would never, unless of course you’re max dressed up as Dianna, then maybe” I mentally kicked myself for the lame joke. Why couldn’t I keep it together around her?

“I know you probably have a game tomorrow so I don’t want to keep you or anything, I just wanted to ask you for your phone number.” She smiled and my head kind of went blank and I think my jaw must have slacked a little. Never, had a girl asked me for my phone number before.

“If you don’t want to that’s fine, I just thought it would be nice to get to know you better. “ and I liked that she was so innocently honest.

“No, no it’s fine. Um here let me get my phone.” I walked back into the room and went to pull my phone off the night stand. Alex was up and smiling at me. He mouthed, “nice” at me as I walked by. I grabbed a shirt and threw it on.

I gave her my phone number and she programmed it into her phone. She gave me hers as well.

“I’ll text you sometime. Maybe we can hang out when we’re back in Pitt.” She said.

“Yep.”

“Well goodnight” I guess my short response made her feel weird because she took a step back when she said this.

“Goodnight, Dianna. It was good running into you” I smiled at her. Hoping that she saw I was genuine.

She touched my shoulder, and rubbed her thumb. It was a nice feeling, it felt like her hand was still there as I watched her walk down the hallway.

So much for just a hockey year.