If We Ever Meet Again

Spending most of Thursday, which also happened to be Tim’s birthday, touring the shopping district of the city and then getting ready for a club to celebrate, there was no real surprise that the gang was feeling pretty under the weather the following day. They hadn't made it back to the hotel till the early hours of the morning – it was more morning than it was night – and none of them had fallen asleep right away once they actually made it back to their rooms.

Most of the day had been used to nurse hangovers and ingest large quantities of unhealthy foods, but when eight o’clock rolled around, they found themselves out at the Steel Arena once again, headaches be damned. Dressed in yellow and blue they watched their boys beat France four nil in a rather laidback affair.

Deciding against continuing the party at some club, considering that it was Maggie’s birthday just the following day, they slowly made their way back towards the hotel. It was a surprisingly warm night and they’d shed sweatshirts or jackets as they wandered the streets that were slowly becoming familiar to them.

Walking through the doors of the hotel they all agreed on rounding the night off with at least one drink in the bar so instead of heading towards the elevators they walked across the lobby and towards the restaurants. Ordering a round of beers they found themselves sitting at the very same table as the previous time they’d been there and glancing around the place, Ellie couldn’t help but feel a sense of déjà vu.

Her eyes landing on a pair of eerily familiar blue ones, she blushed bright red and quickly averted her eyes to the table top.

There was always a downside to having one-night-stands…

Even if she felt slightly distracted she managed to keep up with her friends’ banter and she laughed at the right places, sipped her beer every now and then and added in her own two cents when it was appropriate.

But she couldn’t keep her eyes from ending up at the handsome man who had quite literally rocked her world a few nights prior. He too was sitting at the same table as when she’d last seen him though she didn’t know if he was with the same group of guys, to her all of them sort of looked alike…

The third time he caught he glancing at him, she suddenly felt stalker-like and would have contemplated leaving if he hadn't smiled slightly and nodded towards the bar. Lingering for a moment, still looking at him, a small smile spread across her lips and she nodded once.

“I guess someone’s getting lucky tonight too,” Pontus rolled his eyes with a teasing smile as he caught her looking across the bar, he too recognizing the man sitting there.

“Then I guess you better get some earplugs this time,” Ellie mock-glared at him as she picked up her glass and stood up from the table before walking across the bar. They’d apparently all heard her nightly escapades a few nights earlier – honestly, she hadn't thought she was being that loud – and they hadn't stopped teasing her about it for even a second.

“She’s in way over her head,” Tim stated knowingly, and after all, he was the groups reigning bachelor without a single thought of settling down.

“She’s smart,” Tessa felt the need to defend her best friend since kindergarten. Even if it meant that she was bunking with Tim once again, not something she was looking forwards too.



Slowly making her way through the small crowd by the counter where the bartender was currently standing, Ellie couldn’t keep from smiling softly as her eyes landed on Jack leaning slightly against the bar. He was looking better than any man should be allowed to…

“Hi,” she smiled timidly as she reached him, suddenly feeling like a shy school girl again.

“Hi,” he replied with a smile, sounding a lot more confident than she was feeling right then.

“I'm sorry about the…” she trailed off, knowing that it was probably not something he wanted to talk about, “the game,” she finished quietly.

“You saw that?” he asked quickly, sounding strangely surprised as he looked at her.

“No,” she shook her head. “Well, we caught some of it on TV before we had to head off to the arena,” she explained, missing the way his shoulders relaxed slightly. “But I heard the result when we were there, and I'm sorry,” she smiled softly as she looked up at him.

“Don’t worry about it,” he had to force himself to shrug and appear all nonchalant about it. “It’s not like you could have won it for us, our guys should have stepped it up a notch and they didn’t,” he was talking about himself when he said that.

“True,” she had to give him that. “But it always suck to lose it in the shoot-out, something about it just never feels really fair,” she shrugged slightly, taking a sip of her beer as she recognized that she was nervous in his company. Something she hadn't felt the last time she was with him…of course, then she’d been on top of him, naked…

“You really are a hockey fan,” he smiled at her, happy to learn that it hadn't been a ruse.

“Guilty as charged,” she said evenly. It was a reaction she’d gotten before, many of the guys she met and revealed her genuine interest in hockey to usually didn’t believe her, till she proved them wrong at least.

“I like it,” he stated honestly before placing his glass down on the counter and erasing the space that was between them, gently taking her face in his large hands and pressing his lips against hers.

Her lips…it was the only thing besides hockey he’d been able to think about in the last 30-40 something hours. The way they felt against his own, against his skin…

Barely managing to put her own beer glass without creating a big mess, her hands found their way up behind his neck and into his short hair all on their own as she pressed the rest of her body against his.

No words were exchanged between them, but soon they found themselves back in the same elevator as two nights prior, heading down the very same hallway and tangled up in a mess of limbs in the same bed once again…




- x -

Her head already – or maybe still – pounding dully as they traveled up to their floor, Tessa’s less than structured thoughts strayed to her supposed-to-be roommate on the trip. The two of them had gotten know each other when they were young, in kindergarten already and the five of them had met back in elementary school, but it wasn’t till Junior High that they had really become the slightly strange and somewhat awkward quintet they still were.

Anyway, she knew Ellie like the back of her own hand, but watching the numbers slowly ticking by; she couldn’t help but think that maybe her friend was in over her head…

There weren't any particular roles in the group, but like in most friendships certain characters had sort of crystallized during the years, and Ellie was neither rash nor stupid… She didn’t have one impulsive bone in that gorgeous body of hers, as long as you didn’t count that one time when she – drunk – had come along to a tattoo parlor that the rest of them had wanted to visit and ended up leaving with a tiny little heart forever painted onto her left wrist.

Closing her eyes for a second as she leaned back against the cool metal of the elevator, she reminded herself that whenever they all went out in high school, Ellie had been the one their parents called to make sure that they weren't out doing God know what when the clock struck two and they weren't home yet… That Ellie was the one who’d after a unanimous vote had been made designated driver during the season of the graduation parties… That Ellie was the responsible, sensible one out of the five of them…

The soft ping causing her to open her eyes once again, she followed the others out of the elevator and down the hall, walking past the doors where no strange sounds were heard and into the room that Tim was supposed to have all to himself. He was after all the most enthusiastic bachelor of them all…

And she was the ditzy one, Maggie was the crazy, always-on-the-go one, Pontus was the shy one with a wild-streak the size of Texas, and Ellie was the grown up…

At least that’s the way it had always been. But flopping down on the unmade bed, not even bothering to shed her shoes or change out of her clothes she had on, she couldn’t help but wonder…was Tim right?

Was Ellie really in over her head on this one…?




- x -

The following morning went pretty much like the only other they’d spent together and Jack cursed morning meeting and practices as he watched Ellie shuffled around the room wearing only the bed sheets. He was already dressed and ready to go but what he really wanted to do was shed his clothes and take her straight back to bed.

Instead he settled for reaching out and taking her hand, pulling her over to him and pressing her up against the wall. Trapping her with his body, he groaned into her mouth as she moved one of her legs and wrapped it around his hip, pulling her even closer to her warm, wet center…

A moan emitting from her, Ellie ran her fingers through his soft hair and tugged him closer before they had to break apart, in the need of air.

“I probably won’t see you again,” he breathed softly as he looked at her, still trapping her against the wall, her leg wrapped around him and his blue eyes darker than normal.

“Probably not,” she agreed softly, surprising herself with the slight regret and disappointment that appeared within her as the words passed her lips.

Not saying anything more, he simply kissed her once again before he really had to go.

Remaining where she was, leaning back against the bare wall, Ellie took a deep breath before forcing herself into a cold shower so she could get dressed.

After all, it was Maggie’s birthday and she was going to be celebrated in style. Like always, with presents and breakfast in bed…