The Beginning

The elevators doors close and Mike stood in front of them with his mouth hanging slightly open. He blinked a few times, closed his mouth and looked around quickly to see if people were watching.

"Holy shit," he thought, "Wayne fucking Gretzky is her father."

"Shit," he said aloud as he walked into his apartment.

"I slept with Gretzky's daughter though," he continued to talk aloud, "that has got to get me some points right?"

Mike plopped down on his couch and turned on the TV flipping through for the NHL network. It was 7:30pm on a Wednesday night and he was eager to spend it at home, alone.

***

The doors shut leaving Ellie inside alone thinking about what she revealed. She walked into an empty apartment knowing it would be empty for a while seeing as Abby had left with Brooks.

Ellie threw her clothes into the hamper pulled her hair out of its bun and stepped into her large shower that was connected to her room. Her new apartment was spacious and beautiful and Ellie couldn't be more happy. She let the hot water roll off her shoulders and she simply stood under the shower head letting the day's events run through her head.

Things between her and Mike weren't as simple as a one night stand and that was becoming more and more clear. There was a connection between them when they smiled at each other and they caught each other staring all day. Dinner was a bit awkward as was the car ride, but he was trying to make the best of it.

After her shower Ellie pulled on an oversized Rangers t-shirt, some boxers, put her glasses on and crawled into bed to read a book. Before turning off her lamp light Ellie thumbed through her phone looking to talk to her dad.

"Hey champ," her father said on the other line.

"Hey Dad."

"How was work?"

"Great, and thank you so much for everything obviously.

'No problem kid, anything for you, you know that."

"So Dad..."

"That's never a good way to start a sentence," he said chuckling on the other end.

"Right, well I told Mike Green who I was today."

"So? You can tell anyone, I know you have this thing about being treated the same, but I'm sorry it won't happen. You can't just hide your last name kiddo."

"Yeah I know, I guess I just wanted to let you know."

"Fair enough, get some sleep you sound beat."

"I am, love you dad."

"Love you Elle."

Ellie turned her lamp off and snuggled into bed hearing nothing but the wind outside.

***

Mike awoke abruptly still on the couch from the night before. By now the channel he had been on was showing the morning news and he noticed it was nearly 9:30, he had twenty minutes to get to practice.

"Ah, fuck me."

Mike quickly got dressed in sweats and a t shirt and ran out the door. He clicked the elevator button probably 20 times willing it to get there faster, he saw it stop on the 7th floor and groaned. After making it to his floor he rushed on running into a young woman.

"I am so sorry," he began slowly looking up, distracted by the woman's legs.

"Save it for someone who isn't running late," Ellie said.

"Oh, you."

"Yeah, me, and we're both late!"

"Wanna carpool," he said adding a wink at the end.

"No."

The elevator hit the bottom floor and the two rushed out almost racing each other to the parking lot.

"Beat you there beautiful."

Ellie was pulling her door open at the same time Mike was and stopped. She looked at him batting her eyelashes and said, "Aw, stop it, you think I'm beautiful."

Catching Mike off guard she stood there coyly looking at him and he fumbled his keys dropping them while at the same time trying to reply to her question.

"You you, yo, you..." he stuttered.

"Sucker."

Ellie hopped in her car and pulled out before Mike was even in his Maserati.