Last Kiss

The room was plainly furnished, which came as a surprise to me. Marc-Andre clearly had more than enough money to elaborately decorate his home, and the rest of the apartment reflected his wealth. Yet this spare bedroom contained little furniture, no wall adornments, and beige wallpaper. Truly it was the complete opposite of what I anticipated.

I didn’t have time to ponder the mystery for long, however. I had been invited into this room for the sole purpose of talking to the man who now stood in front of me. I struggled to avoid his intense gaze, instead glancing around frantically to find a non-existent painting on which to comment. My eyes paused briefly on the bed, the closet, and the desk before I reluctantly turned to study the man in front of me.

His dark eyes burned holes through the very core of my being, and I fought the urge to cringe. He wore simple, yet elegant clothing. A white button up shirt covered his obviously toned chest, contrasting starkly with his long, deep brown hair. He wore black slacks matched with black shoes. Before I could ponder what style of shoes he wore, I realized that I was staring at his body, and I quickly looked up to meet his eyes again, turning pink.

Luckily for me, it was obvious that he was too distracted to notice. Swallowing slightly in an unsuccessful attempt to wet my dry mouth, I took a long breath and carefully said, “So…?”

Kris Letang bit his bottom lip in annoyance, clearly planning out what he was trying to say. “What exactly were you trying to accomplish by smashing Max’s car?” he replied slowly, as though calculating the effect each word had on me.

This time, I did cringe. “How…did you know it was me?” I said softly, suddenly scared of the repercussions of my actions. I knew I had acted in a fit of fury, and although I had relieved my frustrations, what I had done was inflict thousands upon thousands of dollars worth of damage—thousands of dollars that I did not have. The thought of jail quickly jumped to the front of my mind, and I shuddered slightly in fear.

“Vous êtes très stupide!” Kris said rapidly, shaking his head. “I saw you from the window--what else? Three floors off the ground is not enough to not be able to make out facial features.”

I frowned a little. I didn’t know a lot of French; not by a long shot. But Violet had taken twelve years of the language, so I knew the basics. And I knew, without question, that Kris has called me stupid. Disregarding the fact that I actually had been acting like a fool, I was blatantly offended.

Recalling every single French word I knew, I quickly shot back, “Je suis très stupide? C’est vrai, mais vous êtes impoli!” Crossing my fingers behind my back, I hoped wholeheartedly that I had conjugated those stupid verbs correctly.

Kris blinked at me for a moment, before breaking out into the smallest of grins. “Vous parlez français?” he queried, suddenly forgetting his anger.

“Non, je ne peux pas parler français,” I replied, shaking my head a little. “My best friend speaks it though, so I know some basic stuff.”

“You are actually very good,” he said, nodding slightly. “A lot of people try to speak French to me, but just end up failing completely. I thought you might be Canadian for a moment.”

I couldn’t help but laugh slightly. “Maybe I am Canadian. Not all of you speak French, you know.”

A full grin spread across his face. “Yeah, but all the important ones do,” he said shrugging slightly.

I shook my head a little, smiling in response. “So you’re saying that Staal isn’t important?” I asked teasingly, walking over and taking a seat on the edge of the bed.

Kris paused for a moment before answering, then walked over and sat next to me, “Jordan can speak French by now. He’s hung out with Max, Dupper, Flower, and I enough that he’s basically fluent. He just doesn’t like to admit it. Which brings me back to my original topic; why did you smash Max’s car?” Kris turned to look at me, but unlike before, there was no longer any trace of anger in his eyes—simply curiosity.

I suddenly remembered why Kris had brought me into this plainly decorated room, and I looked down to my feet in shame. “I dunno,” I mumbled, trying my best to keep from crying. “I just…he was being a jerk. And I decided that enough was enough, and I just…” I trailed off, letting my unfinished sentence hang in the air.

“So you smashed up his car,” Kris said softly. I could see that he was nodding slightly in my peripheral vision, then I heard him emit a long sigh. “Why didn’t you just let him sleep with you and get it over with? That’s what all the other girls do.”

“Because I have self dignity,” I grumbled darkly, which drew a laugh from Kris.

“So you’re saying you don’t want to sleep with a gorgeous hockey player?” he asked, raising one eyebrow.

I shook my head vehemently, looking up to meet his gaze. “Absolutely not,” I began, “just like I wouldn’t sleep with a hobo. I don’t know where either of them have been. Hell, the hobo is probably cleaner!”

Kris stared at me for a moment before erupting in laughter. Once it had subsided into the occasional chuckle, he lightly nudged me with his shoulder. “Vous êtes une bonne personne,” he said seriously before shaking his head once again. “I truly am sorry that Max got to you like this.”

Letting out my own chuckle, I shut my eyes. “Kris, in case you haven’t noticed, good people don’t generally go around smashing windshields and scratching up hoods of people’s cars.”

“They do if they have good enough reason,” Kris said with a shrug. “Plus, you’re funny, you’ve got respect for yourself, and you speak French. And on that note, I’d like to offer to pay for the damage.”

My eyes snapped open and locked onto his, searching frantically for the joke that wasn’t there. Finally, I managed to choke out, “I…I couldn’t let you….you do that…”

“Oh, but you can,” he replied. “I have more than enough, and I’m gonna take a wild guess that you don’t. Look, it’s not a problem. I’m glad to help out.”

My mind raced frantically at the proposal. Part of my mind screamed to let him pay for it. Being a poor college student, I knew that I didn’t have anywhere close to enough to pay for the damage. I also had no desire to go to jail, and I knew that hockey players made more than enough. Kris would barely notice the missing funds.

However, another, stronger part of my mind begged me to refuse. I knew that a part of me would always feel as though I had taken advantage of him by making him pay, and I certainly didn’t want that. Plus, I had barely met Kris but 20 minutes ago, and now he was offering to pay thousands of dollars for me? Something didn’t seem quite right.

“Why?” I asked simply, and was rewarded with him looking awkwardly away.

“The truth?” he asked softly, and I nodded in response. “You saw that brunette that Max was making out with, right? She’s my…er, ex-girlfriend, now. I guess…part of me is happy that you smashed Max’s car, because it’s kinda revenge for me, too.”

My eyes widened briefly, then I quickly regained my composure. “I’m…so sorry,” I said gently. “That’s always a tough situation. I’ve had friends date my exes before, and it’s just a bowl of awkward-sauce.”

Kris chuckled bitterly. “Oh no,” he began, “they’re not dating. If she’s lucky, Max will fuck her a couple times. Then he’ll drop her like he does with all of the other girls he meets. That’s just the way he works.”

I frowned lightly before resting one hand reassuringly on his shoulder. “Hey, if she’s the kind of girl who would let herself be used like that, then you deserve better. I mean, I barely know you, but you seem like a nice guy,” I said soothingly.

He shut his eyes and lightly sighed. “You’re right, you know,” he said softly. “I just..it’s especially hard because she only broke up with me tonight. Here, nonetheless. And now she’s all over Max already, and it just…hurts.”

I frowned deeper before standing up. “I’m not gonna lie to you Kris; I’m not good at this whole ‘everything will be okay’ and ‘things will get better’ bullshit. But I do know that you deserve better, and I know that someday, you’ll find it. You just have to have faith.”

Kris looked up at me before slowly getting to his feet as well. “My mind knows you’re right,” he began, “but my heart is arguing in protest.”

“I know,” I said gently, “and in time, your heart and head will agree. Until then…just fake a smile and pretend like everything is absolutely fucking perfect. It’s the best revenge; I promise.”

Kris let out a very quiet laugh, and we stood in the cool moment of silence that ensued. Neither of us said anything, but we both knew that there was nothing that really needed to be said. It was enough to simply be lost in thought, comfortable in the presence of each other.

A fair amount of time had gone by before Kris finally cleared his throat. “You should…probably get home,” he said in a rough whisper. “I’m sure you just want to forget this night ever happened.”

“Pretty much,” I replied, just as quietly. “I want to shower, curl up into a ball in my bed, then wake up tomorrow morning and move on.”

“How are you getting home?” Kris asked, pulling out his phone to quickly check the time. I noticed that the glaring screen read 1:58, and I wondered how it had gotten to be so late. “Didn’t Max bring you?”

I groaned a little, realizing that he was right. Since asking Max for a ride home was clearly out of the question, I knew that I had to come up with another plan. “I guess I’ll call a cab or something,” I said reluctantly. “My car is at Consol right now.”

Kris instantly shook his head. “Let me drive you,” he said, digging around in the back pocket of his fancy black pants. A moment later, he pulled out a jingling pair of car keys and shook them around for emphasis. “It’ll be easier, cheaper, and Consol is on my way home.”

I bit my lip for a moment. “Are you sure?” I asked, not wanting to inconvenience him any further than I already had. Plus, a part of me couldn’t trust him. I had trusted Max, after all, and that had ended in despair.

Kris nodded. “It’s the least I can do. You listened to me moan and complain about my ex, which is more than any of my friends can say.” Without a word, he walked to the door and carefully opened it. “Please let me do this little thing for you?”

With doubt in my mind, and an odd twinge in my heart, I slowly nodded and walked towards the door.