Goodnight, Beautiful.

“You’re hung over.” Bristol folded a pair of pants and placed them neatly in her own duffel. Daniel, who was sprawled out in bed, rolled over and complained about the bright sunlight. His head pounded and spun just by lifting it up.

Groaning, Dan rolled over and covered his face in one of Bristol’s feather pillows. He went light headed just catching a whiff of her perfume on the pillowcase. “I haven’t been hung over since I was like, eighteen.”

“That’s what you get for drinking too much. I do not envy you right now, that’s for sure. Having fun flying.” She laughed.

“Fuck you.” He was always cranky when he had a headache. Bristol called him a pussy whenever he cried to her about the pounding ache. To her, he hadn’t felt true pain and discomfort until he experienced menstrual cramps. “I took like half a bottle of Tylenol and the headache still hasn’t gone away.”

Crawling onto the bed, Bristol nestled herself beside Dan and draped an arm across his back. Brushing the hair out of his eyes, Bristol kissed his lips. Had she closed her own eyes, it wouldn’t have been Daniel’s face she saw, it would be Danny. The feelings of his soft hands and lips were permanently tattooed on her flesh. She was scared of getting caught, of hurting Daniel. Yet, the guilt of her actions last night with Danny weren’t there. Bristol didn’t feel bad and she didn’t know what she was most afraid of. The absence of guilt—and constant smiles brought on by reminiscing—or, getting pinched.

“Are you going to be able to fly?” She asked. Bristol’s flight left in two hours for Pittsburgh, and Daniel had to be at the arena in three to load the team bus for the airport.

Daniel pushed Bristol’s thick bang behind her ear. “I have no choice. Besides, it’s only a forty-five minute flight.” Bristol sighed in relief. She had predicted it to be an hour. “Do you have everything you need?”

“Yep,” she licked her lips and held herself up on her elbows. “I have all my flight information in the side pocket of my purse, I made hotel reservations last week and I’m not too sure who’s jersey I’m going to wear.”

Daniel opened an eye and looked at Bristol. She smiled. “Fine, I’ll wear yours. The boys gave me a customized one for my birthday so I might wear that one.”

Caelan, Carson and Cameron had gotten her a Flyers sweater with her last name and ‘48’ on the back. “Do you have your ticket?”

She nodded. “Yep. I’ve got everything. No need to worry.”

“I know, but I still do.”

“Well,” Bristol looked at the clock sitting on the night stand and rolled off the bed. “If I want to make my flight, I’ve got to get going.”

Leaning down, she kissed Daniel goodbye and slung her duffel over her shoulder. Bristol turned to the side, gave a small wave goodbye, but was stopped when he grabbed her wrist. “Have a safe flight. I love you.”

There was slight pause. Bristol gripped the thick strap of her duffel with her fingers. “I love you, too.”

It was hard for Daniel to tell whether she meant it or not. The ways words slipped from her lips made it seem like Bristol genuinely meant then. But even so, Daniel didn’t know if it was guilt, or impulse leading him to suddenly slip the l-word.

---

To Bristol, Pittsburgh was just like any other city. She followed the directions the lady at the front desk of the hotel had given her to Consol Energy Center and with the amount of black and gold sweaters she had spotted, Bristol had her Flyers one folded up and tucked into her purse. She would put it on once in the arena. She wasn’t in the mood to deal with Pens fans booing the crest on her chest.

She followed the flow of the mass of people as they all filed in to the arena. It had been almost a day since she had seen any of the guys. When the team plane landed and they showed up at the hotel, Bristol claimed she had a headache and wanted to stay in her room the rest of the night. Daniel had offered to stay the night with her, but Bristol declined. She couldn’t shake the odd feeling she felt sleeping next to him. Her head really had ached at the time, and she needed a room to herself to clear out her mind.

Halfway through the night, Bristol had contemplated texting Briere and seeing if she could sneak down into his room. But, with Claude being the next bed, she decided against it.

She was the only one in the suite when Bristol got up there. Leaning over the railing, she examined the ice and the people as they filed in. Orange sweaters easily stuck out in the sea of black and gold. Bristol would have much rather been down in the section with the other Flyers fans.

They had grown on her. She no longer considered them to be obnoxious sports fans but fans who felt passionate about their team. They were fun to hang around with and when visiting other arenas, Bristol knew they had each others backs if a crazy home fan started trouble.

Tossing her bag on to a seat, Bristol pulled her phone out. She sent a few messages of good luck to Daniel, Briere and Kris. They would need all the luck they could get if they wanted to win tonight. On her back how rested a Briere sweater. Bristol accidentally packed it yesterday instead of Dan’s.

She was instantly surprised to see other Flyers girlfriends strut into the suite just as the guys had taken the ice for their warm ups. Bristol had begun to wonder if anyone was going to show up. She had been informed that it was a tradition for them all to come out to Pittsburgh and cheer their boys on.

Kayla and Anna—current girls of Richards and Carter—gravitated towards Bristol after leaving a blonde haired woman with Allison. Bristol had become good friends with Kayla and Anna; she was still trying to convince Kris to dump Allison. The three girls mixed themselves drinks and sat down to watch the game after the anthem and player intros. Bristol took notice to the other blonde woman she had yet to introduced to. The jersey on the new girls back was black with the name and number which belonged to someone rather close to Bristol.

Carcillo.

Leaning in to bring her mouth closer to Kayla’s ear, Bristol nudged towards Allison and mystery girl. They were lounging on the sofa and paying no attention to the game. “Who’s the new girl?”

“No one you need to worry about.”

If she’s nothing to worry about, Bristol thought, then why is she wearing my boyfriends old home sweater?

Bristol nodded, sat back in her chair and took a long sip of her diet coke and rum. It was going to be a long night.

Midway through the third, most of the girls had begun to pack up. With the score 5-2 in favor of their boys in orange and white, there defiantly be some sort of celebration. A bottle of liquor, music and Carter’s hotel room sounded nice to them.

The clock on the jumbotron counted down from five minutes. Bristol stood at the railing with her arms crossed over her chest watching Kris out on the PK. Carcillo had taken a two-minute high-sticking penalty and Bristol could see him anxiously waiting to get out of his office. He had played rather well tonight, averaging two minutes more on the ice than he did in a usual game.

Smiling to herself, Bristol cheered Daniel on as he skated out of the box and chased after a loose puck. The new girl stood beside Bristol and cheered along with her. “Danny has a lot more talent than he gives himself credit for. He tends to focus a little too much on his fighting skills.”

Bristol couldn’t help but agree. “I’m sorry; I didn’t catch your name earlier.”

“Brittany,”

Bristol was taken back. It felt as if all the oxygen had been sucked right from her lungs and her head was almost spinning. She took a shot in the dark; the answer was already in front of her but she had to ask. “Are you Carcillo’s cousin?”

Brittany said sourly. “Cousin? No, I’m his ex-girlfriend. We were dating up until mid-February when he met someone else and broke up with me over my fucking voicemail.

“I mean, who does that? I was with him the entire time he played in Pittsburgh and when he was traded to Phoenix I went with him. When he was traded again to Philly I came with him like a good girlfriend but, I had to go come back to Pitt because my grandma got sick about two months ago.”

“He broke up with you over voicemail while you were spending time with your sick grandma?” Bristol wasn’t sure how exactly to feel. She just hoped Brittany didn’t notice her change in behavior.

“Yeah. We were together almost nine god-damn years. While I was gone he met this other woman in Philly who recently moved out there. Apparently she’s a friend of a teammate and—I quote—they just really hit it off one night at a bar after a game and all of a sudden he’s head-over-heels for this dumb bitch.”

Bristol had never felt so bad in her life—coming between Danny and a girl who have been together for nine years.

She wanted to slap herself for being so stupid. Dan wasn’t cheating on her but rather, she was the other woman. Now her own guilt trip set in. The only reason she had slept with Danny was because she thought Dan was cheating. What better way to get back at him—fucking one of his teammates.

“You may think I’m pretty damn crazy for getting all worked up about this and showing up here, but I went to visit him in Philly and see if we could get back together and get my stuff from his place. I mean I loved him…I still love him. It hurts to see that he can just move on without any problem. He said there was no chance we would get back together.”

If it weren’t for the fact she was so intrigued and interested in what Brittany had to say, Bristol thought she would have thrown up. She didn’t know if she should be angry, show sympathy or tell her side of the story.

“He left me for some chick named—“

“Bristol.” She finished for Brittany. “I’m Bristol.”