Deep End

Twenty minutes later, Kris is working his way slowly through a plate of scrambled eggs and toast and Skylar has tucked into a stack of strawberry banana pancakes, eggs, toast and sausage.

“There’s no way you eat all that.” She looks up at him and raises a brow, taking a very slow and deliberate mouthful, shaking her head.

“Oh, how you don’t know me at all. Just you watch.” She says confidently. She then proceeds to polish off the entire plate. As she soaks up the last of her maple syrup with a last piece of pancake, she looks up and grins at his look of exaggerated astonishment.

“Told you.” She tells him, shoving the entire bite into her mouth.

“Impressive.” He laughs. He insists on paying the bill and when he returns to the table, Skylar has laid her arms across it, her forehead resting atop them.

“Coming?” he asks and is answered with a groan.

“I can’t move.” She moans, rolling her head sideways and clutching her stomach with one arm. “Proving you wrong was a very bad idea.”

“Most people find it is.” He agrees, “I am almost always right.” He reaches down and wraps his fingers around her wrist, giving her a gentle upward tug.

“Ugh,” she groans again, lifting her head, “You’ll have to roll me out to the car, I swear.”

“I will carry you.” He promises, tugging on her wrist again. It is only when she stands up and his grip on her wrist forces her to stand within six inches of his chest that he realizes this is the first time he has actually touched her intentionally, in the light of day. He tries to be casual about releasing his grip, but he’s pretty sure he fails because he drops her wrist like she’s burned him and shoves his hand deeply into his jean pocket.

In a split second, Skylar makes a decision. She has always been a very touch-y person and he has made a move, opened a door. She sees no reason why she can’t rush head long through it like a lion smelling blood.

“Well, if you insist.” She grins and then before he can think, she has her hands on his shoulders and has levered herself onto his back, leaving him no choice but to bend and grasp behind her knees and hoist her up.

“Seriously?” he grunts and pretends to stumble, which earns him a hard swat over the head. He retaliates by tilting sideways and removing his left hand from her leg, threatening to tip her off. But, as he should have expected by now, she fights back by wrapping her arms in a vice grip around his neck and they both go stumbling sideways for several long strides before Kris manages to right himself.

He makes a hasty exit out to the parking lot when they receive several looks from disgruntled customers. He doesn’t stop walking until they are at the car and even when he sets Skylar down she is still cracking herself up, bent over at the waist, shoulders shaking with silent laughter. She reaches out to flatten her palm against the side of the car and leans on it heavily, fanning her face. Kris regards her for several moments, shaking his head.

“You are crazy.” He tells her, but his own cheeks hurt from smiling.

They are in the car on their way back to the motel when his phone rings from its place on the center console. Skylar reaches over to pick it up and looks at the screen.

“It’s Sid.” She tells him, then slaps a hand over her mouth, “Sid...like Sidney Crosby?” She turns to gape at him, then shakes her head, clearing away the glaze in her eyes. “Sorry. Sometimes I forget who you are.” She laughs, “Of course you talk to Sidney Crosby, you’re Kris Letang.” He doesn’t miss how she is sure to put the same emphasis on his name as Sid’s. He also doesn’t miss that she really has thought of him as Kris and not Kris Letang.

“You can answer it.” He offers. When she returns his look with a wily grin, he starts to regret his offer, but she is already holding the phone up to her ear.

“Hello?” She bites her lip to stop from laughing.

“You’re looking for who? Kris? No, I’m sorry, we don’t have any girls named Kris at The Bunny Ranch.” Kris nearly chokes on his laughter as he hears a flurry of panic from Sid’s end of the line and Skylar stomps her feet on the floor to stop from laughing.

“Give me that!” he demands light-heartedly, reaching for the phone, “Before you give the poor kid a heart attack, thinking the whole of Canada is going to know he called a whore house.” Skylar only resists for a moment before her laughter overtakes her and she thrusts the phone at him, clutching at her stomach.

“Sid?” he holds the phone up to his ear and Sid is still bumbling around on the other end of the line, trying to panic his way out. “Sid!” he calls louder.

“Kris?” finally, Sid’s rational voice sounds from the other end, “What the hell asshole!?” he snaps, then “Wait. Who was that? It was a girl. Are you with a girl? Kris, fuck, is it Bridget?”

“No, you fuckface.” He tries to refrain from snapping, tries to keep his voice sounding light hearted for Skylar’s sake. “Her name is Skylar. She is...” he trails off, looks over at her, pressing the palms of her hands to her cheeks.

“Oh my god. My cheeks, they hurt so bad.” She laughs, then notices his worrying gaze, “What?”

“What do I tell him?” he tries to hold the receiver away from his mouth and speak quietly.

“I don’t know, that you’re at the Bunny Ranch?” she grins, “Or that I’m your girlfriend. Or that we met yesterday in the candy aisle. Tell him whatever you want.” She shrugs.

“Kris? Kris!”

“Dude, my ears.” He complains into the phone.

“Well then quit ignoring me. Who’s Skylar?”

“It’s complicated.” He starts, Skylar hisses the word ‘cliché’. “We met yesterday. At a rest stop, in Pittsburgh. She is my date to the wedding.”

“Oh, well don’t tell him that!” she yelps, “That sounds pathetic. Tell him about the Bridget thing, it’s the only way to make it less pathetic.”

“What Bridget thing?” Sid asks in his ear at the same time Skylar finishes speaking.

“Bridget was at the rest stop, with a guy. She saw me. We talked and she wanted to know who I was coming to the wedding with. I lied and said I was not coming alone and then she wanted to meet who I was coming with and then Skylar overheard and stepped in and pretended to be my fake girlfriend, only then Bridget wanted us all to drive to Montana together, so Skylar and I had to keep being in a fake relationship, so she is coming to Montana to be my wedding date.” He blurts out the entire story in what feels like one long sentence, without even taking a breath. There is a long pause.

“Well, shit.” Sid deadpans, then laughs. “You seriously got a complete stranger to drive to Montana with you? And Max says you don’t have game.”

“It’s not like that.” Kris explains, “She is not like that. She’s a friend.”

“A saint!” Skylar calls from the background.

“A saint.” Kris agrees into the phone.

“You sure?” Sid asks, “I mean, you don’t think it’s weird? You meet a girl in a rest stop and suddenly she’s driving across state lines with you? You sure she’s not in this for some other reason? I mean, she knows who you are right?”

“It’s not like that.” Kris insists, “I know it’s not.” He hears Sid sigh.

“Alright. If you’re sure.” Sid resigns, knowing the tone of Kris’ voice has indicated this conversation is over, “So...is she hot?”

“You know what?” Kris says abruptly, “I have to go, I’m trying to drive.”

“She is!” Sid crows, “She’s hot!”

“Goodbye Sid.” He hangs up the phone with Sid still howling in the background.

They are mostly silent as they pull into the parking lot and climb the stairs to the room.

When they reach the top of the stairs, Skylar stomps down the hall, practically jumping up and down.

“What are you doing?”

“I-” she says, turning to him, still stomping, “-am making my presence known. After what we were subjected to last night, who knows what they’re doing in there.” She jerks her thumb over her shoulder to indicate their hotel room, “And I for one, would prefer not to walk in on another....performance.” She raises a brow at him. Kris coughs loudly, scraping his room key against the doorknob several times before putting it in the lock.

“Good choice.” Skylar tells him over his shoulder.

When they enter, Bridget and Adam are curled up together on the bed – thankfully, fully clothed.

“Where have you guys been?” Bridget asks with a forced smile.

“We went for breakfast.” With each passing day, hour, minute, Kris finds himself growing stronger and more able to resist Bridget’s presence. He finds it far easier now to dodge her backhanded questions.

“Oh, we were just about to do the same.” Bridget eyes them up and down and Kris falters.

“We would have waited, but we figured you’d need all the sleep you could get after you had such a long night last night.” Skylar pipes up and Kris knocks his foot against hers. “From the driving,” she hastily adds, “A long night of driving.” Kris nods his agreement.

“Well, I suppose that was nice of you.” Bridget concedes, though it sounds more like an accusation.

“You could get breakfast now.” Kris offers, “We will wait.”

“That sounds great.” Adam interjects before Bridget can open her mouth again. “Come on babe.” He pulls her off the bed and over to their shoes.

“You know,” Bridget says as she slips her flats on, “I was just telling Adam about the last time I stayed in a hotel. It was that weekend we all went down to Atlantic City, remember?” she turns and flashes Kris a brilliant smile, “We ordered that chocolate fondue and it ended up all over...everything.” she rakes her eyes over Kris’ chest when she says ‘everything’ and Skylar nearly gags.

Adam practically drags Bridget out the door, and Kris fiddles with the television while Skylar regards him from where she is sitting cross-legged on the bed.

“Did you end things or did Bridget?” she asks abruptly. Kris lays his palm flat on the top of the television and speaks without turning to face her.

“She did.” He says, “But I knew it was coming. If she hadn’t done it, it would have happened eventually.” He settles on a channel and turns to cross the room, settling beside her on the bed. “Why?”

“She still likes you.”

“What? No, she doesn’t.” He shakes his head.

“Uh, yeah, yeah she does.” Skylar nods in the same emphatic way. “She was clearly eye-sexing you.” She gives him the ‘duh’ look and shoves his knee.

“Eye-sexing?” he laughs.

“Shut up, it’s a thing!” she shoves him harder and he rocks sideways and back upright.

“You know,” he says with exaggerated thought, “if I didn’t know any better, I would say you are jealous.” He has known her less than 24 hours and for the majority of hours he has known her they have been asleep – but the thought that she might actually be jealous sends a rush of hot blood through his veins. She actually squeaks in indignation.

“I am not jealous.” She makes several emphatic gestures with her hands, “I just think you are in denial about the fact that she clearly still has feelings for you, which is something you clearly don’t want to admit to being interested in, even though you are.”

“I am not.” He points a finger as though that will enhance the truth of his statement, even though it is in fact quite a lie. Skylar is right. He is interested in the idea that Bridget might still have feelings for him, though he’s not sure it’s because he still has feelings for her or if it’s mere curiosity over why she would still have feelings for him.

Skylar scoffs and he huffs and they stare each other down before she finally turns away, directing her attention at the television.

“Seriously?” she points at the television, “We’re seriously watching Cops?” she leans across him and commandeers the remote, leaning back against the headboard.

“Feel free to find something better.” He mimics her leaning against the headboard and poses the challenge.

She gives him a playful shoulder bump and flips through the channels at a speed Kris finds insane, until she crows in excitement and throws her hands up in success. Kris widens his eyes in astonishment.

“Okay, now you can’t be serious.” He tells her, “It’s called Extreme Couponing. I don’t even know what that is.”

“Oh, you are in for a treat. These people are insane I’m telling you. Oh! Look, this guy! He’s about to buy six hundred dollars worth of groceries for six bucks!” she slaps his leg like she can’t even believe what she’s saying.

“You’ve seen this? Why are we watching it if you’ve seen it already?” He laughs, “Wait...six bucks, really?”

“See!?” she nods triumphantly, “It sucks you in!” He holds his hands up in surrender and she sighs contentedly, settling down into the bed and turning to face the television.

Kris shakes his head and spreads out beside her, letting the outside edge of his right foot rest against hers.