Taking Florida By Storm And Other Catastrophes

“I'm gonna chase this whiskey with patron
I want a girl on my lap and a jagerbomb-”

“Hel-”

“WHERE IN THE NAME OF ALEXANDER OVECHKIN ARE YOU GUYS?!”

Mallory winced and held her phone at arm’s length as to save whatever was left of her hearing. Behind her the horns of irritated drivers blared loudly, she glared at them through her rearview mirror and flipped the guy behind her the bird.

“Well thanks Sam, I think my hearing’s been permanently damaged thanks to your big mouth.”

“You’re welcome. Now will you tell me where your ass is?”

“We’re stuck in traffic, geez keep your pants on.”

Sam cursed heavily under her breath. “Lovely, that means I get to wait here for like another hour.”

“I think you’ll manage to survive, we’re only 10 minutes from the park.” Mallory leaned out her open window to get a better look at the bumper to bumper traffic.

Sam sighed. “Fine. Is he behaving?”

Mallory glanced at the person in the seat next to her. “For the most part, the only big problem we had was going through security at the airport. Dumbass thought it would be funny to shove his car keys down his pants and walk through the metal detector like 80 times, pretending to have no idea why it kept beeping.”

Sam laughed. “Did they haul him off to search him?”

Mallory smirked. “Yep, I think he learned his lesson though. Right baby?”

Beside her Milan Lucic pouted unhappily as his girlfriend retold the horrors of what had happened to him at the Orlando airport. On the other end of the phone Sam was laughing hysterically, only causing Milan to become more frustrated.

“Aw come on! I didn’t think they’d actually do it, and now I’m scarred for life. I’ll never be normal again.”

Mallory snorted. “I don’t think you ever were.”

*10 minutes later*
“Oh thank the hockey lords, we’re finally here!”

Mallory stomped toward the entrance of one of the most popular theme parks in Florida: Disney World. As they approached the long line of guests waiting to enter the park, Mallory spotted two people jumping and waving their arms wildly. She smirked at Sam and Kris Letang’s attempts to get their attention, the guys exchanged a man hug as Sam tossed Mallory a cold bottle of water.

“So how was the airport Looch?” Sam smirked as the Bruins player glared down at her.

“Shut up!”

“What happened at the airport?” Kris asked, looking confused as he glanced between the other three.

“Well, smart kid over there thought it’d be funny to-” Sam began.

She was suddenly interrupted when the man in front of them let out an immensely loud sneeze, having turned his head back toward them and letting out one loud “AAHHHCCHOOO!” The four froze and stared at the man with shock and disgust written all over their faces. Mouth still hanging open in shock, Sam turned to the others and whispered harshly,

“What the hell was that?!”

Milan shook himself and shuddered. “Dude, I saw debris fly out. Just the way the light was hitting his face…ugh.”

Mallory glared at the man’s back. “God bless you.” She said loudly and slowly, it was basically her way of saying ‘next time, cover your fucking mouth!’

The man turned back to her, eyeing the group in amusement. “Excuse you but, I’m an atheist.”

Mallory just stared at him. “Well gosh mister I’m sorry, what did you expect me to say?! How was I supposed to know that you’re an atheist?”

He sniffed, still speaking in a very condescending tone. “Gesundheit would’ve worked just fine, you could offend someone like me the next time you say something like that.”

“Saying that makes me feel like I’m saluting Hitler, and I’m not going to say ‘Bless you’ because I can’t do that! I’m not the Lord, just a messenger for the big man upstairs.” Mallory pointed to the sky, giving the guy an irritated look. “Besides, what the eff do you say to an atheist who sneezes?”

Milan piped up from behind her. “When you die nothing happens!”

Mallory, Sam, and Kris burst into laughter while the man narrowed his eyes at Milan, looking offended and disgusted. He turned around fully to face them, ready to debate with four people who were close to half his age.

“Oh really? So what do you think happens after you die?” He asked furiously, glaring full on at Milan.

Milan stopped laughing and looked at the man cautiously. “Um, that I’ll hopefully end up in heaven and get to see my dead family members again. Like they’ll be there to greet me at the big pearly gates like at an airport or something.”

The man snorted. “Oh my gosh you actually believe that? That’s what you think happens?” He continued to laugh, causing Mallory to whirl back around and get in his face.

“Oh well please enlighten us on what you think happens, educate us ignorant young people.”

The man straightened, looking down his nose at Mal. “After I die, my body will become part of this earth. And then I will return as a great and beautiful tree!” He raised his arms up and smirked confidently, daring Mallory to laugh at him.

Sam, who had been quiet throughout the argument, smirked and rolled her eye. “You know what buddy, I’m going to laugh when you come back as a tree and are in the middle of enjoying your tree-ness when a big guy with an axe comes and chops you down. He’ll have to drag you through mud, then grind you down, pound you into paper, and then once you’re paper have the Bible printed on you.”

Mal and the two boys burst out laughing as the man stared in horror at Sam, terrified that his next life would end in that terrifying and extremely ironic outcome. He opened and closed his mouth multiple times but was unable to spit out any kind of retort; Sam chuckled and looked at him in exasperation.

“And next time you sneeze, if you at least won’t cover your mouth, just do that thing where you’re acting like you’re about to turn into a werewolf and try to wave people away from you.” Sam began waving her arms wildly and slapping Kris and Milan away from her in demonstration, making Mallory snort and roll her eyes at her friend.

The man quickly turned back around and stepped up to pay for entrance to Disney, Mallory and Sam made faces at his back while Milan and Kris watched in amusement. The man disappeared into the park, allowing the group to pay next and finally enter the theme park. Once inside Mallory looked around in excitement and threw her arms up.

“WELCOME TO DISNEY BITCHES!”

*Thunder Mountain Ride*
“AHH WE HAVE TO GO ON THIS ONE!”

Mallory bolted from where the group had congregated by a park bench, hoping to rest their feet for a minute or two, and full on sprinted toward her favorite ride in the entire park. Sam groaned, slowly pulling herself off the bench and dragging herself after her friend, who seemed to have a never ending supply of energy. As Sam joined her on the line, Mallory was bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet in excitement when she spotted four familiar figures getting off the ride.

“GET IN MY PANTS CAPUTI!”

Multiple turned to stare in confusion as the man paused mid step to turn and look at Mallory, recognizing her immediately. “Well, well, well fancy meeting you here.” He strutted over and pulled Mal into a bear hug.

“It’s a small world after all…” Sam sang out, looking around the park with mild interest.

Mallory shot Sam a look. “Thanks for serenading our reunion with a Disney song Sam.”

“You’re welcome!”

“Wow so you scream out obnoxiously for Luca, but don’t even bother to let go of him to say hi to me?” Caitlin asked in annoyance.

“Nope.” Mal answered, making the ‘p’ pop when she spoke.

Paul Bissonnette and Tyler Kennedy walked over and joined them. “What’s going on here?” They asked; gesturing to the fact that Mallory and Luca were still wrapped up in their reunion hug.

Caitlin opened her mouth to make a comment but paused and stared at something over Sam’s shoulder. “Where the eff did they get those things?”

“Say what now?” Sam looked back over her shoulder and began laughing.

Frowning, Mallory shifted Luca around so they were facing the opposite direction they had previously been in. “Oh god.” She slapped a hand to her face and peered out between her fingers at Kris and Milan.

The two had wandered off and bought matching Mickey Mouse ear hats, in addition to those huge ass, rainbow lollipops that are the size of someone’s head. Milan had also gone out and bought himself a gigantic stuffed Donald Duck that was almost as tall as he was; the two looked very pleased with themselves.

“What in the name of the hockey lords are you doing with all that overpriced crap?” Sam asked, poking at Kris’s hat and knocking it off his head.

Kris glared at her and shoved the hat back on his head, waving his enormous lollipop in her face. “We’re contributing to your state’s main source of incoming money; you should be thanking me that your taxes won’t be very high this year!”

Sam glared and snatched the lollipop from him, taking a lick. “Ha, it’s mine now.”

Meanwhile Mallory, Caitlin and the rest of the guys had continued moving up the line and they were the first ones at the gates for the next ride. Mallory had begun jumping up and down again and was swinging on the gate in her excitement.

“We have to go on this one like 8 times!” Mallory screamed, bringing even more people to stare at her and her group.

“Will you calm down?! People are staring!” Caitlin hissed, attempting to tug her friend down off the gate.

Mal snorted and rolled her eyes. “I don’t give a fuck!” She spotted a woman glaring at her and sneered, “What are ya lookin at lady?”

Caitlin groans and slaps a hand over her face. “I can’t take you anywhere! You always go and make a scene and if we get kicked out of Disney I’m taking my Brooks Orpik autographed puck back from you.”

Mallory turned slowly to stare at Caitlin. “You wouldn’t dare…..”

As those two squared off Milan was staring off into the distance, waiting for their turn to get on the ride. He sighed in boredom when he felt a tap on his shoulder, turning he saw a squadron of Disney characters standing behind him: Pooh Bear, Goofy, Mickey, and Pluto. Slightly creeped out by the characters, which were all waving excitedly at him, Milan gave a tiny wave back before turning back around. Two seconds later he was taped on the shoulder again, annoyed Milan whirled back around and glared at Pooh Bear. The large character had his arms spread open and was waving for him to come over and give him a hug, annoyed Milan shook his head and tried to turn back around again. Pooh grabbed Milan on the shoulder and spun him back around, attempting to yank him into a hug.

“Fuck off man!” Milan shoved the bear off, dropping his Donald Duck in the process.

The characters hands shot to their mouths at the sound of Milan’s cursing, they placed one hand on their hip and shook their fingers at him in unison. Looch groaned and rolled his eyes.

“I’m an adult! I curse all the fuck I want to! Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!” Milan screamed, pushing the characters back again; they had covered their ears and were shaking their heads furiously.

Pooh walked up to Luca, placed his hands on his hips, and snatched the Mickey Mouse hat off his head. He shook the hat in Milan’s scowling face and turned to march off with it. Looch finally lost his temper.

“POOH!” Milan charged the oversized bear and tackled him to the ground.

Caitlin whirled at the sound of yelling and gasped. “Mallory! Look at what your idiot boyfriend is doing!”

Mallory turned and stared in shock as she watched Milan getting beat up by the gaggle of Disney characters, her hands flew up to her face in horror. “Noooooo! My poor sex slave!” She charged over and jumped into the fray, trying to pull Milan out of harm’s way.

Caitlin stared after Mallory in wonder. “Sex slave?”

*20 minutes later*
“WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU MILAN LUCIC?!” Mallory grabbed Looch’s 6ft Donald Duck and began smacking him with it. “WHY DIDN’T YOU JUST GIVE THE DAMN BEAR A HUG?!”

Milan screamed and covered his head with his arms. “THEY WERE CREEPY AS HELL! THEY WOULDN’T LEAVE ME ALONE!”

As Mallory continued beating Milan with his stuffed toy Caitlin had pulled out her map of the park and had everyone else gather around to pick out where they would head off to next.

“Hmmm, where to next?” Caitlin asked herself quietly, running her finger down various places on the map.

“How about we do something where the guys can’t cause too much chaos? Like…that boat ride thing, where the park is made up to look like different countries?” Sam suggested.

“Aren’t there multiple boat rides?” Tyler asked, resting his head on Caitlin’s shoulder to look at the map with the girls.

“Let’s do the one in Norway, after that we can head over to the Mexico part for some food.” Sam traced the route they would be taking with her finger, tapping the ‘Mexico’ section lightly.

“That works.” Caitlin refolded the map and stuck it in her purse. “Okay you two; quit the foreplay and get your shit together. We’re headed off to the boats in Norway.”

Mallory and Milan froze where they were, which was in a double headlock; Mal smirked. “Foreplay?”

Milan frowned in confusion. “Norway?”

Sam slapped a hand over her face. “Oi veyh, their brains are on completely different levels from one another. How do they make it work?”

“Why are we going to Norway?! There’s nothing there!” Milan exclaimed, throwing his arms up and nearly hitting Mallory in the face.

“Not the actual country dumbass, Disney made up different sections of their parks to look like different countries; Norway, Mexico, ect ect. “

“Oh, cool! Let’s go!” Milan took off running in his excitement to see ‘Norway’.

Mallory placed her hands on her hips and stared after him in exasperation. “I wonder if he knows he’s running the wrong way?”

*Norway boat ride*
Mallory, Caitlin, and Sam all stood gripping each other’s arms tightly as the guys chuckled from inside the boat. The girls had taken a good five minutes to inch their way to their seats, having completely forgotten that this boat ride was the one where it constantly felt like the boat was going to tip over. Despite the fact that the girls’ extreme paranoia about the boat tipping over was amusing, the guys helped them sit down and soon enough they were on their way. About two minutes into the ride TK began singing,

“Don't rock the boat, rock the boat baby. Don't rock the boat, rock the boat over!”

Mallory, Milan, and Luca immediately joined in as Paul, Kris, and Sam laughed at their friends very off key singing; Caitlin was gripping the bottom of her seat, still convinced the boat was going to tip over, as she watched Mallory and the three guys belt out the lyrics to the song.

“Don’t rock the boat, rock the boat baby. Don’t rock the boat, rock the boat over!” The four began swaying in their seats, forcing the boat to rock from side to side, the boat began tipping even more as the singing continued.

“Oh god I’m going to be sick.” Paul groaned, putting his head between his knees and wrapping his arms around his stomach.

Kris groaned. “Just don’t throw up on me; I’ll kick your ass if you do.”

“DON’T ROCK THE BOAT, ROCK THE BOAT BABY. DON’T ROCK THE BOAT, ROCK THE BOAT OVER!”

Suddenly the left side of the boat went almost completely vertical and everyone had to scramble to keep their stuff from falling in the water while finding a way to keep their balance. When the boat finally crashed down so it was right side up again, no one moved for a moment before Luca looked around and laughed.

“Hahaha, we rocked the boat guys!”

TK, Mallory, and Milan giggled as Paul, Sam, and Kris stared wide eyed at them since they were still in shock of what had just happened. Sam buried her head in Kris’s chest, shaking her head as she laughed quietly at the stunts her friends managed to get away with, Kris wrapped his arms around her and mumbled a few curses in French under his breath.

“Hey where’d Caitlin go?” Mallory had finally gotten herself to calm down enough to look around the boat, noticing her friend wasn’t on it.

Before anyone could even open their mouth to ask what she was talking about, gasping and splashing from the side of the boat caught everyone’s attention. Mallory and Sam scrambled over to the side and looked down, jaws dropping when they saw that Caitlin was sitting in the water below them and glaring at them with enough heat in her eyes to cook hot dogs.

“Aw look you’re all wet.” Mallory said with an innocent smile.

Milan popped up next to her. “That’s what she said!”

Caitlin growled. “MALLORY!”

Mal turned back to her friend, batting her eyelashes. “Yes?”

“GET ME OUT OF HERE!”

*Lunch in Mexico*
“Wow, I can’t believe you fell in like that!”

“I can! What the fuck else was supposed to happen when the boat was being rocked by four psychotic people!?”

Caitlin shot a dark look toward Mallory, Milan, Luca, and TK who were throwing bits of food at each other at the table next to hers. Caitlin, Paul, Sam, and Kris had actually managed to eat their food and were waiting for the monkeys at the other table to finish when Milan spotted a few familiar figures walking by.

“IT’S THE RUSSIANS!”

Alex Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin stopped in their tracks and turned to stare at Milan, who had jumped to his feet and was pointing at the two with wide eyes and his mouth hanging open. In between them was Mallory’s friend, Kim, who snorted at Lucic and waved to her friends.

“Ovie!” Mallory jumped up and gave the Russian a big hug while slapping Geno a high five over his shoulder.

“Hello gorgeous.” Alex smiled down at Mallory, showing where he had a missing tooth in his mouth but making Mal giggle none the less.

Milan glared. “Hey! Watch it Ovechkin she’s mine.”

Alex smirked and wrapped his arms around Mallory. “She’d leave you in a second if I asked her out.”

Luca rolled his eyes. “Oh please, I don’t know why she even wants either of you in the first place when she can have me!”

The three men snarled at one another and stepped closer together, trapping Mallory in between all three of them. She looked overjoyed at the prospect of seeing three of the players on her secret ‘Lover’s List’ go at it in the middle of Disney World. A Mallory danced excitedly in between the three players everyone else had shifted away from the potential brawl to watch like it was an actual fight on TV.

“Я буду удар вашего осла.” Alex growled, getting in Luca’s face.

“Hey at least speak English Ovechkin, that way I’ll be able to understand you when you’re crying ‘Uncle!’” Luca snarled, shoving Alex away from him.

“Hey! This is between me and him, stay out of it Caputi.” Milan pushed Luca away and turned to face Alex, who was trying to get to Luca around Milan.

After a lot of shoving they guys had somehow ended up forming a triangle and were standing toe to toe, ready for someone to make a move so they could start swinging. Mallory had taken a seat and was watching with huge eyes and an excited grin, when nothing happened after a few seconds had passed in their stare down she frowned.

“Aw come on! You get in a sexy fight! You get in a sexy fight! You get in a sexy fight!” Mallory jumped up and pointed at the three players before whirling and pointing at the other players off to the side. “Everyone get into a sexy fight!” She concluded, throwing her arms up and smiling while looking between all the males who were now watching her like she had grown another head.

“Well that totally killed the mood, way to go Mal.” Kim kicked her feet up onto the table she was at and leaned back in her chair.

“Aw!” Mallory looked at the three guys, who were now standing awkwardly by themselves and refusing to look at one another.

“If you all are done acting like children now,” Caitlin stood and dusted herself off. “Let’s move on and head over to the great movie ride.”

“Fine.” Mallory sighed and followed the other girls out; the guys remained behind looking around at each other.

“Hold up a second guys; I have an idea.” Kris held up his hand and smiled at the other NHLers.

*Outside the movie ride*
“Where the eff did they go?” Kim scanned the crowd; hands cupped around her eyes like binoculars, and huffed in annoyance.

“Oh god we lost them in Disney World!” Sam slapped her hands up to her face in horror.

“Wait isn’t that them over there?” Mallory stood up on her tip toes, trying to get a better view of the large crowd of guys heading toward them.

“Where I don’t see-oh dear god!”

The guys had stayed behind in Mexico and all bought different colored sombreros, Alex, TK, and Milan had even bought maracas to go with their new hats. Kris and Looch had even gone as far as to place their Mickey Mouse hats on top of their sombreros, just so they would be able to keep both. The guys stopped in front of the three flabbergasted girls and just smiled at them, waiting to see what their reactions would be.

Sam walked up to Kris, tilting up the brim of his hat to look at him. “Well, at least you didn’t buy any maracas.”

Everyone laughed and began filing into the ride, ignoring the surprised looks other guests gave them and even the tour guide got a good laugh out of their outfits. A few moments after the ride began Mallory gasped and tensed up in her seat next to Milan, who looked down at her in confusion.

“What’s wrong babe?”

“Nothing! I just forgot that the Marry Poppins part of this ride scares the crap out of me.” Mallory craned her neck back to the side, trying to see where they were on the ride.

“Why?” Sam asked, leaning forward from the seats behind them.

“I don’t know, it’s just dark and creeps me out.” Mallory looked around in worry and wormed closer to Milan, who put his arms around in reassuringly.

:”Don’t worry babe, I won’t let anything scare you.”

Behind them, Sam and TK exchanged an evil glance. The ride continued on without a hitch, but as the group began inching closer to the Mary Poppins portion things got interesting.

“Wait so it just creeps out because it’s all dark and whatnot?” Sam leaned forward again to talk to Mallory.

“Yeah, I can’t really explain it. I just don’t like it.” Mal made a face.

“It’s probably because you can’t see everything around you, so you’d never know if something was going to jump and…”

“GETCHA!” TK jumped up from behind their seat and grabbed Mallory’s shoulders, giving her a small shake.

Mal screamed and jumped in her seat, bringing her arm back in reaction to being startled and punched TK without even realizing she had. Everyone else, including the tour guide, started at the sound of Mal’s screams and looked around in confusion. TK slumped down in his seat, groaning in pain as Sam laughed hysterically next to him and Kris. Caitlin snorted and rolled her eyes.

“Serves you right TK, for scaring Mal like that.”

Mallory looked down at TK in confusion. “Dude did I hit you?”

“Yeah.” Tyler moaned, clutching his crotch in agony.

Milan burst into a fit of laughter. “Oh my god did she hit you in the nuts?”

When TK nodded all the guys started laughing while the girls just smiled and shook their heads. By this point they had passed through the Mary Poppins portion of the ride and were continuing on their way, the tour guide smiling at the antics he got to witness whenever he worked on this ride in the park. Still hunched over in pain, TK glared up at his friends.
“Oh shut up you guys!”

*11:00 P.M. at the Sheraton Hotel*
“Well, that was an interesting day.”

“Ugh, an interesting and tiring day.”

Kim flopped down on one of the queen sized beds in the room, Caitlin and Mallory were lounging on the other bed as the guys wandered around the room like lost ducklings, unsure of where to put themselves in the limited space they had left. Kris was laying on the floor with his head in Sam’s lap; she was playing with his hair while they both were watching the movie Inception on the giant flatscreen that was centered on the wall in front of them.

“Dude this movie makes my mind want to explode.” Sam mumbled, twisting strand of Kris’s hair around in her hands.

Kris chuckled. “Don’t strain yourself trying to understand it baby.”

Sam frowned and gave his hair a firm yank. “Shut up.”

Eventually everyone found a place to crash for the night, extra pillows and blankets were brought up for the guys who got stuck in uncomfortable places like the bathtub or the floor, and Kim flipped the lights off so the TV was the only light source in the room. By midnight everyone was passed out, but around one in the morning a loud, obnoxious sound woke up a few of the guys. In the hotel parking lot outside, a car alarm was going off.

Kris’s eyes snapped open and he shoot straight up, his head snapping toward the window. “What the fuck?”

TK groaned and sat up with a big frown on his face. “Ugh, what is that?”

“Damn car alarm.” Milan grumbled, rubbing his eyes tiredly.

Looch glared at the window with half open eyes. “Maybe it will shut up soon.

*17 minutes later*
“Oh my god, let the hockey gods strike me down NOW.”

The car alarm had not gone off, if anything it seemed louder then ever now that it was keeping the three hockey players from falling back to sleep. Amazingly no one else had woken up due to the alarm’s excessive and never ending noise.

“Dude it’s like it’s saying ‘HEELLLOOOOOOO! I’M A CAAARRRRRR!’” TK groaned.
Looch laughed at his teammate’s impression of the car alarm. “GASOLINE MAKES ME RUN!” He suggested, his choppy English making the impression even funnier.

TK snorted. “Backseat, trunk space!”

Kris joined in. “HELLLLOOOOO! WANNA GO FOR A RIIIDDEEE?”

Milan began laughing. “OIL IS MY BLOOD!”

TK finished it all off. “Seatbelts, radio knobs!”

All three of them busted out laughing, rolling around on the ground clutching their stomachs as the rest of the group finally woke up. The girls sat up and looked down to see the three players laughing hysterically as the car alarm continued to wail outside.

“Geez what set them off this time?” Kim asked, rubbing her face tiredly.

“Eh, what the fuck is so funny?” Sam poked Kris, who just smiled at her and kept on laughing.

“Dear god will someone turn off that car alarm?” Mallory growled, grabbing the phone from the night table to dial the front desk. “Hello? Yeah listen there’s some loud ass car alarm going off in the parking lot, think you guys can manage to take care of that? Well I don’t care if you have to wake up the guy who owns it, it better be off in 5 minutes or I’m going to march down there and demand to speak to the manager. There are people up here who’re trying to sleep!”

“Huh, why didn’t we think to call the front desk?” TK wondered, watching Mallory slam the phone back down with mild interest.

“Because you guys are idiots, that’s why.” Kim reached over and turned the lights back off, making everyone sigh in relief when the room went back to being pitch black again.

“Wait how long has that alarm been going off?” Sam whispered to Kris, who had settled back into bed and was half asleep already.

“Almost twenty minutes I think.” As he answered the alarm was suddenly silenced and everything was quiet again.

Mallory flopped back down into bed, snuggling into Milan’s chest and relaxing immediately. “Finally! If one of you wakes me up again, I’m going to have to call the police to report a very violent hotel murder.”

*The next morning at check out*
“Aw well it was fun while it lasted, for the most part anyway.”

“I don’t think getting the crap scared out of you on one of the rides can be defined as ‘fun’ Kim.”

“Just because you’re scared of-”

“Hey! I never said anything about being scared; I said the damn ride-”

“GUYS!” Caitlin shoved Mallory and Kim apart and shot them both an irritated look. “Can’t we all manage to get along? For god’s sake the trip’s basically over anyway.”

Milan chuckled and wrapped his arms around Mallory. “You’re so sexy whenever you go in to fight someone.”

Mallory grinned stupidly at the huskiness of Looch’s voice, forcing Caitlin and Kim to roll their eyes in amusement at their behavior. The guys had all congregated in the sitting area of the lobby; for once they were acting quiet and were behaving like normal, mature adults. At the front desk, Sam finished checking out and rejoined her group of friends with a cookie in hand. Milan spied the half eaten desert immediately and closed in on the short girl.

“Where’d you get that?” He demanded, pointing to the cookie that was halfway to Sam’s mouth.

Kris bumped Milan away from Sam. “Why the hell are you so close to my-whoa is that a cookie?”

Sam looked at the two players with a blank expression, munching on the last bit of the cookie. “The front desk had a basket full of them, for free, there was only one left though.”

Kris and Milan froze, slowly bringing their gaze to look at each other before turning to look at the front desk. A whicker basket sat on the countertop, in it on the wax paper was one lone cookie. A second passed, and then both men took off racing toward the counter at full speed. They hit the counter at the same time, startling the woman behind the desk, and knocking the basket off the counter. The cookie bounced away out of their reach, leading for the two to become in engaged in a wrestling match on the floor in front of the check out desk. This went on for over a minute before the two rolled sideways and accidentally hit someone’s leg, looking up they froze in sheer embarrassment.

Mario Lemieux looked down at the two hockey players with his eyebrows raised. “Kris.”

Kris gulped. “Hey Mario.”

Lemieux turned to Lucic. “Milan.”

“H-hello Mr. Lemieux.” Looch stuttered, turning red and avoiding the former Penguin’s gaze.

Mario bent and picked up the cookie that had rolled to his feet. “Chocolate chip eh?” He took a small bite after dusting it off. “Not bad, not bad at all.” His gaze returned to the two hockey players at his feet. “Carry on boys.”

The girls craned their necks, mouth open in shock, to watch Mario step into the lobby elevator and disappear behind the doors after giving a brief wave to the star struck group. Kris and Milan picked themselves off the ground, brushing of dirt and dust as they made their way back to the group. Mallory was still staring at the elevators, waving slowly at the closed doors.

“Bye Mario…”

“Oh god’s she’s in shock.” Sam said, horrified.

“I got this.” Milan walked over and gave Mal a flat handed smack on the butt, making her jump and turn around to glare at him.

Before Mallory could speak her smart ass comment, Caitlin hauled her toward the exit and waved for everyone else to follow. As the group left the guys were horsing around in front of the girls, who were walking in step with one another and watching the NHLers make fools of themselves.

“Alright, describe this trip in one word.” Sam asked, looking toward her friends.

“Chaotic.” Caitlin laughed.

“Entertaining.” Kim said.

“Full of sexiness!” Mallory declared, throwing her arms up.

Kim frowned. “That’s two words dumbass.”

“And besides how was it ‘sexy’?” Caitlin asked bewildered.

“Those idiots!” Mallory gestured wildly to the group of guys in front of them.

“Oh come on!” Caitlin laughed. “Really? All of them?”

Mallory grinned and nodded. “Oh hells yeah!”

Sam shook her head. “I could see a couple of them that way, but not all of them. Kris basically defines the word ‘sexy’ though.”

Mallory snorted. “Psh your French Canadian hasn’t got jack shit on Looch.”

Sam cocked an eyebrow. “Well then what the fuck would you describe Lucic as?”

Mallory smirked. “He’s sex personified!”

“I’m what?” Looch looked up with a big grin on his face and opened his arms for a hug from Mal. “What did you call me?”

Mallory jumped into his arms. “Oh nothing.”

“Nah come on, tell me!”

“I don’t think we need to keep stroking that already to big of an ego you have Looch.”

Milan pouted and pressed his forehead against Mal’s. “Please baby?”

Mal gave him a quick kiss. “Nope.”

Milan shrugged and leaned in for a kiss anyway, Mallory pressed her lips eagerly against his and wrapped her arms around his neck. The kiss deepened as Milan nipped at her bottom lip and slid his tongue into her mouth, pulling her closer and pressing her back against their rental car. Mallory jumped up enough so that she could wrap her legs around Milan’s waist, he bucked his hips up and tangled his hands in her hair as she scratched her nails down his back while pressing her hips closer to his.

“Okay someone stop them before they get it on in the middle of the parking lot.”

Mallory pulled away from Looch and smirked at her friends. “What? I can’t help it, this man just oozes sex.”

Milan grinned proudly and pulled her face back toward him. “Thanks baby, you’re pretty damn sexy too.”

Mallory laughed. “How sexy?”

“You’re like my own little sex kitten, and I get you all to myself every time I get home.”

Kim rolled her eyes. “Oh good god, come on love birds you’re going to miss your plane!”

Mallory rolled her eyes but untangled herself from Lucic and unlocked their rental car, making a face at her group of friends as she climbed in. As Mal pulled out of the parking lot Looch spotted a pamphlet sitting on the car floor near his feet. Picking it up he saw that it was advertising all of Florida’s big theme parks: Seaworld, Disney, Bush Gardens, and Universal. He read over a couple of the deals and mentioned a few to Mallory,
“Who knows, maybe we can do Universal or Bush Gardens next time.”

Mallory smiled. “Maybe we can.”

After five minutes of leaving the hotel, Looch began fidgeting in his seat and sighing heavily. Mallory glanced over at him, cocking an eyebrow in question and waiting for him to just spit it out. Milan remained silent and tapped his fingers against the armrest of his seat; Mal rolled her eyes and put her hand over his tapping fingers.

“Will you quit? What the heck is wrong?”

Looch looked over at her with heated eyes. “Do you really want to see if we can make our flight?”

Mallory felt her heartbeat quicken and glanced at the clock on the car radio. “We’d never make it, but there are other flights back home…”

Milan looked up at the road. “There’s an exit coming up on the right, do you want to take it or head on home?”

Mallory smirked. “What a silly question Looch.”

Her smile grew as she jumped into the next lane and turned to the right.