An Unexpected Something New

CH 12

I never would have thought twice about that stupid thing. I would have thrown it in the trash and not cared, hell I would have forgotten about it all together…but that card. That business card had the name of the woman on it that had hit on me at the masquerade party and I knew she made Hannah jealous. If Hannah was going to mess with my emotions and get back with Derek leaving me feeling like a piece of shit, then I was going to stick it to her any way I could.

I didn’t feel good about myself making that phone call, and if it weren’t for Hannah and the blatant discomfort she felt towards that girl I wouldn’t have done it. Each ring felt like an eternity and made my heart pound harder. When I finally heard the female voice on the other end I couldn’t believe what I was doing; that I was actually going through with it. “Hello?”

I felt like a jackass as I introduced myself, reminding her of how she had given me her card and heard how giddy she was through the phone though I had to be honest that I wasn’t paying attention to anything she was saying. I knew I was building her up only to let her down but then I saw Hannah in my mind. I saw her kissing Derek and did what I set out to accomplish. “Robyn, do you want to go out with me tonight?”

“I’d love to. Just tell me where to meet you.”

The thing was I knew she had every intention of sleeping with me. She wanted to have the gratification of telling her friends I found her hot enough to take to bed and if I wanted it, it was going to be there for me to take. The problem was I didn’t want to sleep with her. The only girl I wanted was kissing her ex fiancée only a few minutes ago and it broke my heart.

I’m not sure how I did it, but I made definite plans with Robyn. I felt numb doing it but once I hung up that phone I knew there was no turning back. If Hannah could do what she did, then I was fine doing what I was doing.

*****

When I walked through the club’s doors and saw Jordan I felt a tad ashamed. I saw the way he immediately looked behind me and at Robyn then back at me with confusion on his face. She had me by the arm as I lead the way dreading having to answer the inevitable questions that were going to come my way.

“Hey Staal.”

“Crosby,” he greeted as he stood in front of me in an authoritative way as if to imply that I wasn’t getting by him without telling him what he wanted to know.

“Hi!” Robyn squealed as she clung onto me. “I’m Robyn,” she said as she stuck her hand out for Jordan to shake.

“Jordan,” he shook it begrudgingly without taking his eyes off me. I could tell by his tone that he wasn’t thrilled with me and couldn’t care less about Robyn.

“Hey,” she turned to me, “I’m gonna go to the bathroom. I’ll be right back okay?”

I nodded my head, “Okay.”

As she walked away I turned towards the bar to order our drinks but Jordan didn’t take too kindly to that. “…The fuck?” he had his arms out as he sarcastically looked at me waiting for me to explain what was going on.

I didn’t want to but I finally looked at him. “What?” He could see through me and I knew it but I didn’t want to care.

“Who’s this girl and why is she hanging all over you?”

The bartender came over and I ordered two beers then turned back to Jordan in the most nonchalant way possible. “Her name is Robyn, we met at the masquerade thing the other night.”

“You mean the thing you went to with Hannah, who by the way is suspiciously missing from the equation tonight.”

“Yeah, and?” I turned back to grab my beers and throw down some cash. “I don’t know where you get off having a moral conscience all of a sudden.”

“Dude,” he grabbed my shoulder and made me turn to see the seriousness in not only his voice but his face as well. “This isn’t about me. What happened?”

I didn’t want to look him in the eye. I didn’t want to talk about it to begin with. “What’s there to say? She took him back.” I could only hope he didn’t see the pain on my face at the admission of that.

“You know that? For real?” shock was plastered all over his face and I couldn’t blame him. After what Derek had done to her and the way she and I had been together, I couldn’t understand why she’d give him a second chance.

“I saw her this morning and she went to meet up with him. She gave in to his begging and I went to see how she would react to him, so I watched him kiss her like a jackass. I don’t know how else I’m supposed to feel about that. He still loves her, he told me so last night.”

“Wait. What? You talked to him?” Jordan was clearly a little out of the loop and trying to catch up quickly before Robyn came back.

“Yeah, it was a long night. Long story short, he still loves her. He told me why he didn’t show up at the wedding and surprise, surprise, it’s because he cheated on her and wasn’t man enough to tell her the truth.”

“Did you talk to her? She told you she took him back? Wow…dude I’m sorry.”

“No,” I shook my head. “I just don’t want to be in this anymore. It’s a twisted little love triangle and it isn’t worth it.”

“It’s not? Cuz I could have sworn that you’d fallen in-“

“Don’t say it,” I cut him off defiantly. “Don’t. I don’t want to hear it.” I didn’t. I didn’t want to admit that I had fallen in love for the first time in my life, fallen completely in love with her, and had my heart ripped out. I took a huge swig of my beer and hoped he would just drop it. I admitted it once and it got me nowhere, I wasn’t about to do it again. It was my own fault. I should have known better than to fall in love with a girl that had been left at the altar by someone she promised to marry.

“But you did, right? You are?” I knew what he meant and what he was asking and being honest at that moment would have destroyed me.

“It really doesn’t matter anymore, does it?” I spat back angrily.

“It does, Crosby. What are you doing with this Robyn girl then?”

“Forgetting.” I downed my beer and realized I was almost out. It was going to be one of those nights and I quickly ordered another.

“So you’re gonna fuck this girl to try and get over the only girl you’ve ever loved instead of talking to her and fighting for what you want.”

“Looks like it,” I said quickly as I saw Robyn approaching. I gave her a fake smile and handed her a beer as she snaked her arm around my waist.

“Mind if I steal him away,” she smiled at Jordan as she sexily pulled me by my shirt onto the dance floor. I glanced back to see him shaking his head at me in disapproval before letting her smash her body up against mine and reuniting my lips with the fresh beer in my hands.

*****

After trying to get in touch with Sidney all day, Hannah gave up. She couldn’t figure out why after the moment they had shared earlier that morning why he wouldn’t take her calls or get back to her. She’d had enough waiting around, she needed to talk to Sidney and she decided to take a more proactive approach knowing where he and his friends would be.

When she walked through the doors of the club she had gotten way too drunk in the night before she shuddered. All she wanted to do was talk to Sidney and she was anxious to finally see him, figure out why he hadn’t gotten back to her. That wasn’t like him though, she thought, he would never ignore her without having a damn good reason. The first person she saw was Kris. She walked up to him and flashed a charming smile as he gave a little giggle and greeted her with a hug. “Feeling alright today?” He had been her dancing partner for a portion of the previous night and reminiscing on that made her blush.

“Yeah,” she laughed. “I’m fine. It’s just been a long day. Hey, have you seen Crosby? I haven’t been able to get a hold of him.”

Kris wrinkled his brow and cocked his head. “You’re here to see him?”

“Yeah,” she nodded her head confused by his response. “Is everything okay?”

“Um, yeah. Everything is fine,” she could tell something wasn’t right and felt her heart begin to pound. “He’s over there,” Kris pointed onto the dance floor where a drunken Crosby was grinding up on some girl that looked familiar. “He’s with that girl.”

Hannah felt her smile begin to fade but didn’t want it to be known that she was upset.
“He…he what?”

“Yeah, he brought her with him tonight. It kind of surprised all of us.”

“Oh… that’s nice,” she said devastated. “Good for him.” She felt the tears build up, her throat tighten and her stomach flip-flop. Seeing Sidney with that girl made her heart sink.

“Hey Hannah,” Jordan came up to her and Kris almost like he’d been waiting for her. He studied her face as she watched Sidney dance with the girl she had watched hit on him only a few nights earlier. She wanted to run out of there and weep but she couldn’t be that obvious that she was mortified.

“Hi Jordan,” she forced the best fake smile she could. “How are you?”

“I’m good, thanks. I hear congratulations are in order.”

“Oh?” The confused look on her face told Jordan more than he needed to know.

“Yeah, Crosby said you and Derek are back together.”

Hannah froze at what Jordan had just said. As the words sunk in she squeezed her eyes shut forcing back tears and felt like the room was spinning. “Uh huh,” she nodded her head with pretend enthusiasm. “Thanks.” She just needed to make the room stop spinning…

She stared at Sid and this slut that had hit on him a few nights earlier. The longer she watched them the more she wanted to throw up. “Hey Jord I’m still recovering from last night. I’m going to go home. It was good seeing you though.” She pulled her eyes off of Sid and immediately spun to run out the back entrance without even glancing at Jordan.

When she got to the door and felt the cool air hit her face she couldn’t hold back her tears anymore. She broke down and sobbed, but not before she felt a hand grab her wrist and gently spin her around. “Hannah,” Jordan pulled her into a hug. “Stop crying. Look at me.”

Hannah looked up at Jordan trying to figure out what he was going to do next and felt ashamed that he’d caught her crying. “You never got back with Derek did you?”

“If Crosby says I did, then I guess I did.” Her attempt at holding it together was pointless but she tried anyway.

“Be honest with me. You never got back with him did you? If you did, you wouldn’t be here looking for my buddy in there, and you wouldn’t be out here crying. Now tell me the truth. You aren’t back with Derek are you? You were never going to be.”

Hannah looked down at the ground and took a deep breath before finally looking Jordan in the eyes. “No. I’m not with him Jordan. I never even thought about it. I don’t know why Sid thinks that but he’s clearly with someone else, and boy did that happen fast, and I’m the idiot out here crying.”

“I knew it,” Jordan shook his head in anger and clenched his jaw thinking about how stupid his friend was. “I knew you didn’t get back with him, it just didn’t make sense. That idiot shows up rambling on about how you took Derek back and he’s gonna get over you by sleeping with this slut…”

Hannah’s eyes popped open and her jaw dropped. “He said that?” She was so hurt that she didn’t even know what to think.

“He’s drunk Hannah. I’ll deal with him.”

“No. No, listen. Jordan, you need to do something for me, okay.”

“What Hannah? Go kick Crosby’s ass? Cuz I can do it if you want.”

“No. Let him do what he wants to do. Just do me one favor. I know he’s your friend and your loyalty is to him, but I need you to promise me you will not tell him the truth. Do not tell him that I’m not with Derek. Let him think what he wants.”

“What?” he couldn’t believe what she was asking of him.

“I mean it. Please, please don’t tell him,” she sincerely begged. “I can’t handle this. I can’t. If he wants to sleep with that girl, let him. Just let me move on quietly; let him think what he needs to think in order to leave me alone. Okay?”

“Hannah…are you sure? If he knew the truth he’d drop that girl like a hot potato.”

“I am. Promise me,” she looked up at him with big doe eyes. “Please. If he can’t trust me long enough to not sleep with someone in one day, then what’s the point? I mean, I know we never really established anything other than being friends, but I mean how could I tell him how I felt about him when I had my ex pestering me. I wanted everything to be perfect, I wanted to do things the right way and now I just feel stupid. It’s probably better, I just need time on my own.”

“And how do you feel about him?”

Hannah looked at Jordan unable to get the right words out. “It doesn’t matter anymore. Besides, I can’t tell you before I tell him…and it looks like that’s not gonna happen. Geez…to think I wanted him so badly,” she looked down at the ground and shook her head. “I should have known better. I should have learned my lesson with Derek—don’t get involved with a professional hockey player.”

“I don’t know Hannah…Crosby’s my friend and I know he cares about you more than you know.”

“Yeah, well, he’s sure got a funny way of showing it. Just, please, Jordan I know you’re going to tell him at some point but he’s a big boy. He needs to make his decisions on his own tonight and if he cared about me he wouldn’t be here with that girl, he wouldn’t want to bring her home. He’d trust me enough to know how I felt about him even though I never told him. I know I have a hard time talking about and being honest with my feelings…but I didn’t think….” She sighed as she trailed off. “Just please…promise me. I need you to not tell him.”

“I know he’s an idiot Hannah, but he’s never felt for someone the way he feels for you. I know it.”

The tears started to well in Hannah’s eyes again as she looked up at Jordan. “Please.”

“I-I promise.” He didn’t want to, but he knew it wasn’t a secret that would be kept long. They still had to play Buffalo the next day and Crosby wouldn’t be able to keep his mouth shut.

Jordan didn’t have the greatest track record when it came to girls, hell, most of his nights ended with a different girl in his bed, but he’d never felt the way for one of them the way he knew his friend felt about the girl standing in front of him now, and as much of a douche bag as he could be he knew he had to keep his word. At least for tonight. Tomorrow was an entirely different ball game, and he was hoping Crosby would find out without him having to tell him first. But then again, if he went though with sleeping with Robyn, it wouldn’t matter when he found out because his relationship with Hannah would be over before it ever had the chance to start.

Hannah thanked him and turned to go home as Jordan jolted back into the bar. He promised he wouldn’t tell Sid Hannah’s little secret, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t try and persuade him to go home by himself and get him away from Robyn. Jordan felt his adrenaline pumping through his veins and immediately searched the crowd for his drunk, stupid teammate.

“Where’s Crosby?” Jordan asked Kris as he scanned the room.

“He just left a few minutes ago.”

Jordan swallowed the huge lump in his throat. Already knowing the answer to his question, he asked anyway, “He left with that girl didn’t he?”

“Yep.” Kris nodded his head as he paid for his scotch and threw some cash down on the bar.