A Strange Arrangement

A week had passed since Kris had given me the necklace. I loved it so much I rarely took it off. As soon as I showed it to Sara she said “I told you”. I tried to tell her it didn't necessarily prove anything but she proceeded to roll her eyes and walk away from me.

Valentine's Day was two days away. I tried to keep focused on my assignments but I couldn't get away from the fact that Versteeg had something planned for someone. No matter what Sara said, I was hesitant to say with certainty that it was for me.

I had become quite skilled in the past few days at avoiding Eric. I couldn't quite grasp what his fixation was with me when I was repeatedly trying to let him down. Perhaps my approach was too passive. Either way, my attempts were failing so I had resorted to simply just ignoring his existence. On this particular day, however, it seemed as though I wasn't going to succeed in ducking him.

“Knock, knock,” Eric said as he poked his head into my office.

“Hey!” I said with as much feigned excitement as I could manage, hoping he couldn't tell it was just for show.

Eric entered with Niki trailing behind him. I was genuinely happy to see her. We hadn't seen much of each other since the day of the film festival.

“What are you up to?” he asked.

“Working on this article about the 14 love songs you should listen to on the 14th of February.”

“Really? Well I know a few. Maybe we could listen to them together that night?” Eric suggested.

I nervously laughed like I always did when I didn't know what to say.

“I'm actually having a girls' night with my roommate. Sorry!”

“Hey, she can join us. The more the merrier.” he laughed.

“Eric!” Niki slapped his arm and glared at him.

“Ouch.” he yelled rubbing his arm where Niki had hit him. “I'm kidding, but if anything changes let me know.”

“Will do,” I nodded.

“Niki and I are going to get sushi. Want to come?” he asked. “I'm buying!”

“Very tempting, but I've got to narrow 250 songs down to 14. This is probably going to take a while.” I explained.

“I haven't forgotten that you said you were going to make up for ditching me at dinner last week,” he pointed his finger at me accusingly. I couldn't believe that he remembered that. I definitely hadn't.

“Yeah, I know and I will. Promise.” I said unsure of whether I was lying or not. In a way I felt stupid about continually rejecting Eric. He was successful, moderately funny, and strikingly good looking. Maybe if I weren't already in a mental relationship with Versteeg I'd accept one of his offers. Just maybe.

“Alright. See you later, Lex.” And with a quick wave from him and Niki, they left.

-x-

My Valentine's Day article was written which was one less aggravation on my mind. Now all I wanted to do was go home, order pizza, and sit on the couch while watching the Penguins game on Versus.

I walked in the door and, much like the previous week, the smell of food hit me right away.

“He cooked again?”

“Hello?” I called.

“Hey, come here!” Kris replied.

I set my things down by the door and walked towards the living room. I was surprised when I looked to the right and saw Claude Giroux and Danny Briere sitting at the dinner table with Kris surrounded by Chinese food.

“Oh, hey.” I said taken aback by their unexpected presence.

Claude and Danny gave me acknowledging head nods while Versteeg beckoned me over.

“Come on. Sit. I got you some bourbon chicken and shrimp fried rice.” he told me while pointing to the containers on the table.

“At least he got my order right.” I thought as I took a seat in between Briere and Kris.

“The guys don't have a game for a few days so I invited them over. I know you haven't seen them since the night you got here so I figured you guys could give it another shot without Pronger around.” Everyone laughed a little at the thought of our awkward first encounter. I grabbed the box of bourbon chicken and dug in.

“This is way better than pizza.”

“So, how do you like Philadelphia?” Danny asked me.

“It's been nice. You know, it's a beautiful city. And I love my job. Yeah, I work with some great people. So overall, it's been really great.” I explained as I realized I hadn't really experienced what the city had to offer. I just went to work, went home, and ordered take out. There were the handful of shows and events I covered for the Inquirer but other than that I led an incredibly boring life.

“Nice. Made a lot of new friends?” asked Briere.

“Yeah, you know, work friends. That's it really. I guess I'm kind of miserable at meeting people.” I admitted. I was desperate to get the attention off of myself. “So, how are you guys? You're on a bit of a win streak I see.”

Briere nodded his head. “We've been doing pretty well. Giroux over here has gotten some pretty great goals, eh, Roo?” he said playfully elbowing his teammate. Giroux smiled and shrugged his shoulders.

“Not much of a talker, I guess.”

“Ah, you're just being modest.” Briere said turning his attention back to me. “So are you excited about Valentine's Day?”

“I hadn't really given it much thought other than when it came to writing about it in my articles,” I lied. “I've never been much of a celebrator of Valentine's Day because I've never had a valentine.” I said regretting the statement the moment it came out of my mouth. It made me look desperate and vulnerable.

“You could've just stopped at 'I hadn't really given it much thought' stupid.”

“Ah, well I don't think that will be the case this year,” Danny said smirking at Kris. I looked at Danny confused and then immediately shifted my gaze to an angry looking Versteeg.

“Thanks man.” Kris said to Danny sarcastically. He looked at me and said “I was going to mention to you later that you should leave your schedule open on Monday night because I may have a little surprise planned for you.”

“Really?” I said trying to suppress the smile forming on my face. “What surprise?”

“I can't tell you that just yet. You'll have to wait and see.” he grinned.

And at that point the nagging thoughts in my head eased. Whatever it was, it was in fact for me.

“Sara is going to lose her mind over this.”