Just a Kiss

Jon stepped outside of his condo and closed the door, locking it in the process. Turn to head to the elevator; he paused momentarily as he stared at Emily’s door. It had been a couple days since he had kissed her. The two hadn’t cross paths since then. He debated on knocking on her door but chose not to. There wasn’t much time for him to get to the arena for practice.

“You okay Toews?” Patrick Kane asked as they sat down after practice. He could tell that his teammate and friend was a little distracted today and not his self.

“Yea, I’m fine,” Jon replied as he started to strip from his gear. Pat knew that Jon was anything but fine.

“Are you sure?” he inquired. Jon looked over at Pat and thought for a second. He knew Kane didn’t have that great of a track record with girls but he also knew that the kid was a good listener. It also helped that he had three sisters and knew how girls handled things.

“I sort of did something foolish a couple days ago.”

“Foolish as in something I would do?” Pat asked. Jon let out a snort and chuckle before shaking his head at Pat.

“No, nothing that bad.”

“So what did you do then?” Pat asked.

“You know my neighbor, Emily?” Jon asked. He of course didn’t really need to ask Pat that question. He had been over to Jon’s place plenty of times when Emily was there. She had met most of the guys and pretty much got a long with all of them.

“Yea, what about her?”

“I sort of kissed her,” Jon said. He stopped what he was doing and looked over at his teammate for his reaction. Pat had no initial reaction to the news. It looked like he was taking it in and processing it.

“Why is that foolish?”

“I did it while she was asleep,” Jon replied quietly.

“You kissed her while she was asleep?”

“Yea, she came over after the game and we watched a movie. She fell asleep so I carried her back over to her apartment and but her to bed. Something came over me and I kissed her,” Jon explained.

“What did she do?”

“I don’t know. I thought she was waking up so I bolted.”

“Have you talked to her since?” Pat asked.

“No, I feel like she is avoiding me.”

“Just go talk to her and see what she says,” Pat replied.

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Emily let out a sigh as she heard Jon’s door open and closed across the hall from her. Leaning against the door she waited until she heard the ding of the elevator to let her guard down.

“Woof.” Emily nearly jumped twenty feet when she heard Ella bark. She clutched her chest and looked down at her yorkie, who was looking at her curiously. Ella was holding her leash in her mouth.

“Ella, you scared me,” she cooed before bending down and taking the leash from her dog. She hooked Ella up before grabbing her keys. With Jon safely out of the building, she could leave her condo and take Ella for a walk.

It’s not that she was avoiding Jon completely. No, wait, she was avoiding Jon completely. The other day after she had went over to his place she had a dream that Jon kissed her but it felt so real that it was possible that it was not even a dream. She woke up with her lips tingling and in her bedroom without any recollection of how she got there. Since then she had been internally debating whether or not to bring it up to him. If it was a dream, it would be rather awkward. If it wasn’t a dream, it would be awkward too.

Jon was charming, sweet, and not bad to look at. He made her laugh and the two of them got along amazingly well. It was the cliché thing to say that she didn’t want to ruin a perfectly good friendship but it was true. Saying something could put it all on the line and she didn’t want to do that.

Who was she kidding though? She knew the feelings were there. The sudden bursts of happiness she got whenever she was around him. The way the two of them could hang out for hours on end without really doing anything. The fact that his family absolutely adored her. It all was pretty much spelled out for her. She had fallen for him pretty hard. The real question, the thing holding her back, was if Jon felt the same way about her.

It was still warm in Chicago in early October, so Emily walked Ella for a rather long time. When she arrived back at her condo, she wished she had paid attention to her time. Jon was just returning from his practice and she knew there was no way to avoid him.

“Hey Emily,” Jon said quietly as the two stepped into the elevator. Emily bit down on her lip before looking over at Jon with a small smile on her face.

“Hey,” she said quietly. Ella let out a yelp wanting some attention for herself. Jon let out a chuckle before leaning over and petting her.

The ride up to their floor was quiet and rather awkward. Both of them had something to say but neither of them took the initiative to start talking. When they got to the floor, Jon gestured for her to go out and followed after her. She tried to move down hall as quickly as she could.

“Emily.”

Taking a deep breath she turned and looked over at Jon. He quickly approached her and stopped in front of her. It was apparent that he was studying her reaction to being around him again.

“What’s up?” she asked finally breaking the silence.

“Are you avoiding me?” he asked. Emily let out a sigh before shifting Ella into her left arm so she could run her fingers through her hair.

“Can we go talk in my place?” she asked. Jon nodded his head at her and followed her into her condo. Emily set Ella down on the floor while Jon set down his bag on the ground.

“So are you avoiding me?”

“Yes but you’re going to laugh if I tell you why,” she said.

“No I won’t.”

“Did you kiss me the other night?” she asked quietly. She watched as the color drained from his face and he gulped rather loudly. In almost an instant she regretted even asking him. She immediately started to babble.

“I had a dream that you kissed me and it felt so real that it couldn’t have been a dream. Just forget I even said any.”

Emily couldn’t finish her sentence because Jon cut her off by cupping her face in his hands and pressing his lips to hers. Her heart started to race and she didn’t know what to think anymore. Jon was kissing her and her mind was racing. She felt the butterflies erupt in her stomach. Her lips were tingling. Slowly, Jon pulled away and opened her eyes. He gave her a sheepish smile as he rubbed his thumb gently over her cheek.

“You weren’t dreaming,” he said quietly.

“I wasn’t?” she whispered. He continued to smile at her while shaking his head.

“No, you weren’t. You fell asleep after the movie and I carried you back over here. Before I left something came over me and I just had to kiss you.”

Emily smiled at Jon. She could hear the nervousness in her voice but she didn’t care. It gave her the courage to do what she knew she had to do. Leaning up as best she could, she wrapped her arms loosely around Jon’s neck and pulled him down into another kiss. His arms wrapped around her and he deepened the kiss. When they pulled apart for some air, they both wore smiles on their face. Jon pressed his forehead to hers and they just stood there wrapped in each other’s arms. With just a kiss the two managed to explain everything that needed to be explained