One Shot Collections

“I don’t understand it,” I sighed and fiddled with a skate of mine. “Did I do something to him?”

“No I don’t believe you did anything,” Marian Hossa sat next to me on the player bench.

I let the skate drop to the floor. “Then why won’t he even look at me?” I hissed.

The player sighed and leaned back. “He’s a stubborn one, that Tomas Kopecky. You’ll find some way to break even his shell though. It’s in your nature to do so.”

“Yeah,” I said not too convinced. “All I want is to become friends with him and he can’t even give me the time of day.”

“Then push him until he has no choice. Come on Robyn. I know how you are, and you’re the kind of girl who would push the poor man until he backlashed you and told you why he was ignoring you. Are you really going to just give up on him?”

I sighed and picked up the skate. “Yeah, yeah I know. Tell Brent not to wait up.”

Brent Seabrook was my best friend since we were kids and when he got to the Blackhawks, I came with him. My parents were happily divorced and as long as someone had an eye on me, they didn’t care where I was.

“Why aren’t you waiting up?” Hossa asked me.

“Because I need to enlist the help of a few pros.”

The hockey player gave me a questioning look. “Robyn. . .” he said in a warning tone.

“Hey, you said it yourself. The normal Robyn would just bug the hell out of the stubborn Slovakian until he told me. So, that’s what I’m going to do. Peace out,” I flashed him the peace sign and headed towards the entrance, cell phone in hand. I dialed the number, hoping he’d pick up.

“Patrick Sharp here, how can I help you?”

“Patrick!” I exclaimed.

“Robyn,” he laughed. “What’s up? Aren’t you supposed to be skating around with Seabs or bugging Kopy until he yells at you in Slovakian?”

“Actually that’s precisely the reason I called you. I was wondering if you and Adam could do me a little favor.”

I could feel the grin through the phone. “You’re really going after him aren’t you?”

“Kind of. But I need some things.”

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I was always a very motivated girl and once I had my sights set on something, or in this case, someone, I wasn’t going to give up. And Tomas Kopecky had been in my sights for months now. At first, I didn’t really care that he brushed me off. I was a little shy at first and didn’t know anyone and they didn’t know me. But as I stuck around more, the more the players got to know me and love me and vice versa. But not Tomas. He continued to ignore me and little by little, I was intrigued and irritated.

“You got it?” I asked Adam as him and Patrick came strolling up to the United Center that next day.

“How is getting a hockey stick and a few pucks going to help you?” Patrick asked as he handed me my stick and the pucks.

“Yeah, practice isn’t even for another forty five minutes. How do you know he’s even going to be here?”

I pointed with the stick at his car and they stared. “Stalker. . .” Adam murmured.

I rolled my eyes. “No, I asked Hossa to ask him. He talks to him,” I said, irritation already setting through. “Anyways, thanks boys for this. I appreciate it,” I said, ambling off into the arena.

I walked onto the ice where Tomas was juggling a puck between his stick, skating in circles alone. I watched him for a few moments, mesmerized by his grace. They he moved with the puck and glided it into the net. It was so hypnotizing.

“What do you want Robyn?” his accent brought me back to reality. “Practice doesn’t start for another half an hour, so that means I have that long until you can annoy the shit out of me, eh?” That was the most he’d ever said to me in one day.

I swallowed down the breakthrough of some sort and forced myself to speak to him. “I decided to start a little early today.”

He sighed and continued skating around. I took that as an invitation. I skated onto the ice, leaving the hockey stick and pucks resting against the glass. I skated a foot away, turning when he did, and making sure I kept up with him.

“Stop following me,” he said, though he didn’t sound irritated. Just weary.

“No.”

“Robyn. . .”

“I’m embracing all of the words you’re saying to me.”

He stopped and faced me and I was met with his golden eyes. “What do you mean?”

“You’ve never spoken more than ten words to me in a week and I want to know why. I’ve tried to be your friend and you turn me away. It’s getting quite annoying, to the point where. . . .well this,” I gestured with my hands at us.

“To where you follow me?” he raised his eyebrow, out of amusement or confusion, I wasn’t sure.

“If it takes that much to tell me why you hate me, then so be it.”

He shrugged. “Then so be it,” he said and with that, he continued to practice and I continued to follow him.

For the next two weeks that was how life was. He’d leave his practice schedule up for me in his stall, I’d come, I’d follow him in his own practice until everyone else came and then I’d sit silently and patiently on the bench until he was done. Then I would follow him out to his car and we’d stare at each other for a while, until he turned on his car. There was no talking involved.

“And you’re not losing it yet?” Brent asked me as he drove us back to our home.

“Surprisingly no,” I said. “It’s different not saying anything or not bugging the hell out of him.”

“It doesn’t feel awkward or weird or anything like that?” my best friend asked.

I thought about it. “If I say no, does that mean I’m going insane?”

Brent’s lips turned upward into a knowing grin. “Some people would call it insanity, but most people call it love.”

He parked the car and left me sitting there stunned into shock. I thought back to the first time I started following him around. Those butterflies, the way I was mesmerized by his. . . well just by him in general. Oh my God. I fell in love with the man who didn’t love me back.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Okay,” I said the next day. I was following Tomas around on the ice before real practice started but I was still stuck on the fact that I was in love with him. I mean everything made sense in my head but not in reality. How could I love a man who didn’t feel the same about me? So, I stopped and he turned around waiting for me to continue. “I don’t get you at all Tomas Kopecky.”

He gave me a questioning look and skated up to me so that he was less than five inches away. “What don’t you understand about me?” he asked in a really, and I mean really sexy voice. I thought I was going to melt into a puddle of Robyn right then and there.

“I come here to Chicago with Brent and you ignore me. I get to know everyone and I seemed to be liked well enough, but you continue to ignore me. I finally get frustrated enough to come here when I knew you’d be alone, planning on beating you with a hockey stick and pucks until you told me why you hated me, but instead I end up doing something so out of the ordinary like following you without saying a word. And you let me! And you talked to me that day! And. . . and. . . I don’t know! This isn’t worth it!” I screamed.

“What isn’t worth it?” he asked, nearly whispered. He bent his down a little further so we were eye level. “Me?”

I didn’t break eye contact. “No. Love isn’t worth it, yet I’m still here, waiting for you to tell me why you hate me and won’t give me the time of day! It’s a two way street you know and if you do want to be at least be friends with me, you get your cute Slovakian ass moving down the road. Because, news flash! I won’t wait here forever for you.”

Something flashed through his eyes and I watched him as a smile started to form. “Well Robyn, I don’t know what to say.”

I groaned in frustration. “You never say anything! At least to me! Just tell me how you feel! Just this once, please?!” I begged, skating backwards away from him.

He followed me. I kept skating backwards and he kept on following me, never breaking eye contact. “I don’t know how I feel,” he finally said, breaking the silence. “I haven’t known how to feel ever since you showed up here with Seabs.”

“What does that mean?” I asked, skating backwards around the net.

“It means that I think I’ve fallen for you Robyn,” he said, his brown eyes penetrating my blue eyes.

“Well you’ve done a fantastic job of showing me,” I said, letting the sarcasm seep into my voice.

He wore a smirk over his cool features. “I wasn’t sure you felt the same and it’s strange feeling. . . .love. I wasn’t sure how to react to it. So, I chose to ignore the feeling and well. . . the person who was causing it: you.”

I stopped skating right by the blue line and he stopped right in front of me, looking down at me. “And now that you know I feel the same way about you?” I asked him.

He leaned down and his cool lips met my own and I leaned forward, wanting the kiss to go even further than it was. I wrapped my arms around him and he pulled me closer.

“Now that I know you feel the same,” he broke away and our foreheads touched together. “I’m going to love you forever. You?”

I smiled. “I’m going to keep on following you. You’re not getting rid of me now Mr. Tomas Kopecky.”

“I’d have it no other way,” he whispered.