Let's Get Carried Away

If there’s one thing that I can’t stand about hockey players, it’s their silly superstitions. Every game, bus ride, trip, always has to be the same. God forbid they skip a pre-game nap, sit on the bus or plane in different seats each trip, or room with different teammates each night on the road. Then, everything would be shot to hell. Sure, none of the Vancouver guys have an extensive list of superstitions as Sidney does, but it still bugs the crap out of me.

Now, I didn’t mind sitting by myself on the bus to and from games. On an airplane, the one thing that terrified me more than anything, however, I was less than thrilled to be all alone and secluded from the rest of the team. Damn them and their need to give into their stupid superstitions.

We had been in the air for nearly an hour and I couldn’t stop fidgeting. I got stuck in the very back of the plane, seemingly the smallest seat that it had to offer. Flying always made me nervous. There’s so many things that can go wrong; engine failure, the plane catching fire and plummeting a bazillion miles an hour into a mountain that was hidden by fog, or the roof tearing off piece by piece are all plausible. Of course, only the extremes were rushing through my mind, but I couldn’t help it. I stared out of the window and watched as the wing of the plane fluttered and vibrated. My palms became clammy and I let out a shaky breath. That is not normal.

“Are you alright?” It took a second for me to register that someone was actually talking to me. I shook my head, in an attempt to shake away my thoughts about the plane falling apart piece by piece, and looked up at the person who took it upon themselves to plop their body down on the seat beside me. Mr. Goaltender himself. The plane jolted and almost immediately my gaze dropped to my lap, staring intensely at my fingers. Roberto let out a soft chuckle and placed his hand on my shoulders. Somehow I knew that he understood. “There’s an open seat next to me.”

Thank god. I grabbed my backpack off of the floor and followed Roberto to the front of the plane. A group of guys were all turned around facing each other, with cards in their hand. They looked up briefly as I passed by and then resumed their game without a word. I would have made some sarcastic remark about their impressive skills at gold fish, had I not felt like I was about to project my breakfast all over their make-shift card table. Roberto suddenly stopped his pace up the aisle and motioned for me to slide in to the window seat.

“Thank you,” I forcibly whispered as I took a seat. Even with that small utterance, I could feel the bile slowly rising in the back of my throat. Great, just what I need. Make myself look like a complete fool in front of everyone by throwing up everywhere. Roberto patted my shoulder and then went to sit with the other boys who were pretending to be masters of Blackjack.

“Deal me in,” I heard him say. I leaned my head against the headrest and let a heavy sigh pass through my lips. I was just starting to get comfortable when we suddenly hit some turbulence, causing the plane to bounce around. The seat belt sign came on and I felt slightly better knowing that Roberto would return to his seat and keep me company. Relief came quick when I felt the seat next to me sink in, but I wasn’t expecting him to wrap his arms around me and pull me into his side. Breathing in and getting a whiff of a familiar cologne, however, it was obvious that it wasn’t Roberto at all, rather my newest partner in crime. Somehow, I found comfort in his arms and soon the impending doom of crashing was long forgotten.

“You don’t like to fly.” It came out as more a statement than question, but I shook my head nonetheless.

“Not really,” I mumbled and snuggled closer into his side. He began to run his hand slowly and comfortingly up and down my arm.

“Go to sleep. By the time you wake up we’ll be there.” The vibrations of his chest alone were enough to push me to edge of consciousness.

“You’re really warm Max.” Leave it to me to say something completely stupid. Feeling sick and tired did not make a good combination and ultimately made me loopy.

“I could make a joke out of that, but I won’t,” I heard him say, no doubt with a smirk on his face. My eyes started to become heavy and when he started to run his fingers through my hair I knew that I was a goner.

“Faites de beaux rêves de princesse," he huskily whispered.

Soon enough, I was lulled to sleep.



I was secluded once again when we arrived at the hotel and this time, I didn’t mind at all. I was around loud, rambunctious men all of the time back at home and for once it was nice to have a quiet place of solitude to myself.

“Chelsea, why is your room so far away from mine?” Max whined as I skipped down the hall, glancing up at every room number I passed by.

“Because I’m tired of being around you all day,” I joked. I looked down at my key card and came to a stop in front of Room 242. I turned towards Max, who was in front of his own door at the opposite end of the hall.

“Leave the door unlocked,” he called out. A few snickers rang out throughout the hall and some made comments about Max and I “getting it in”. I rolled my eyes and slid in the key card to open the door. I walked in and before I closed it, I turned the knob for the deadbolt and left the door slightly jarred for Max to creepily slip into the room when he pleased. Throwing my bags onto the sofa chair, I fell onto the bed and pulled out my cell phone. It was only six o’clock. The night was still young and there were plenty of things I could do to keep myself occupied. This place was my home after all. The Twitter app was then opened and the most recent tweets of the people I follow popped up on the screen. One tweet stood out amongst the others.



Perfect.

I quickly hopped to my feet and dug through my suitcase to find something better to wear than the sweats I was currently in. Leggings and an overcoat seemed classy enough, so I settled with that and hurriedly changed my clothes before one of the guys started to snoop and peek through the door. I wasted no time pulling out my curling iron and make-up bag, setting them on the vanity that the hotel so graciously provided. I let the curling iron heat up for a bit, and in the meantime set up my iPod dock and set my iPod to my favorite playlist.

Just as I was about to start curling my hair, Max sauntered into the room, clad in a pullover, mesh shorts, and slippers.

“I didn’t realize that we needed to dress up for a movie night,” he commented as he flung himself onto the bed.

“I think I’ll take a rain check on that,” I coolly replied. I glanced up at Max in the mirror and he started to pout.

“Why?”

“I’m going out.” He narrowed his eyes, almost as if he were saying ‘duh, I figured that much’.

“Well, have fun then.” He pressed himself even further onto the bed and buried his head into the pillows. By the time I was half way done curling my hair, he was staring up at the ceiling, sulking. I let out a sigh and looked over my shoulder at him. Since I moved to Vancouver, he’s been nothing but accommodating and has included me in pretty much all of his daily activities. It only felt right to include him in my plans for the night.

“If you go put some clothes on, you’re more than welcome to come with.” I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone shoot up and race out of the door as fast as Max did. He happily reentered the room not even five minutes later. I had expected him to change in the confines of his own room, but he walked in with his change of clothes in hand instead.

“Why are you— ” I abruptly stopped talking when Max lifted his sweatshirt over his head, exposing his toned body and defined abs. I stared at him a bit longer than I should have, only looking away because the heat of the curling iron was starting to burn my finger. I busied myself with finishing my hair, trying my best to ignore the half-naked hockey player dressing a few feet from me. And boy, was that hard.

“How do I look?” Max questioned just as I turned off the curling iron. I gave him a look over and scanned his body. Polo shirt, dark pants, and flashy shoes; the outfit suiting him quite well, accentuating his broad shoulders and muscular arms. He must have noticed me gawking at him, because he drew even closer. He stood behind me and steadied his arms on my shoulder. I busied myself with taking the contents of my make-up bag out, in an attempt to regain some composure.

“You know, we’d look good together.” Always the cocky one.

“We do look good together,” I automatically replied without really thinking twice. When his hands fell from my shoulders, slid down the length of my arms, and rested on my hips, however, I realized that I had a completely different interpretation than what he had actually meant. He pressed his body closer to mine, so close that I could feel the body heat radiating off of him.

“Maybe we can go out to dinner when we get back home. There’s this Italian restaurant that the guys keep talking about and I thought that you might like to try it,” Max pondered. I’m sure by now my eyes had widened and my jaw went slack. There’s no way I could do this all over again.

“You’re not a one woman kind of guy,” I shakily responded. He raised his eyebrows.

“What if I want to be?” he challenged.

“Do you?” I immediately shot back. If he really wanted to do this, I needed to know that he was done with the random hook-ups in every city he passed through.

“I don’t know, maybe going on a date will help me figure that out.”

“You just want to sleep with me.” At this point I was just scrambling for things to say. Max lifted one hand and brushed a few strands of my hair out of my face.

“I won’t deny that you’re beautiful Chels, but you’re not that kind of girl.”

Silence captured the room as I picked up my tube of lipstick and ran it across my lips. I moved onto putting on my blush, and I would look up at him every so often in the mirror. Every time, he was staring intently at me with a faint smirk toying on his lips. As I put my make-up back into the small travel bag, I thought about his offer. It’s not like I wasn’t thinking about it the entire time I was putting myself together, because I was. I said I wouldn’t do this again and fall into the same situation I found myself in a little over a year ago, yet here I was contemplating whether or not to say yes. There’s no way that I could deny my attraction towards Max, but I was still skeptical.

Do it Chelsea.

Don’t do it Chelsea, say no.

Two opposing voices taunted me in the back of my mind. Out of impulse, I went with my gut. I looked up at Max, who still had his eyes trained on me. We made eye contact and I sighed.

“One dinner.” Max’s smirk turned into a full blown smile and he leaned over to kiss my cheek.



The cab ride was relatively quiet, save for a few comments here and there from Max about how beautiful the houses we passed were. When we finally arrived at our destination, Max kindly offered to pay the cab driver.

“Don’t get out yet,” he hurriedly pushed out before quickly exiting the cab. In a matter of seconds he was opening my door and holding out his hand for me to take.

“Such a gentleman,” I praised as I got out. I took a look around the neighborhood and not one thing had changed. I started up the driveway and Max fell in step behind me.

“Who lives here?”

“A friend,” I grinned. Max caught up with me and we walked side by side up the walkway.

“Is this supposed to be a party or something?” I turned my head towards him and shook my head.

“No, why?” He pointed back towards the street.

“There are a lot of cars parked along the curb.” I shrugged my shoulders and thought nothing more on the matter. The neighbors were probably having a get together or something of that sort. Both Max and I stopped in front of the door and I pressed the doorbell. I started to tap my foot against the pavement in anticipation. I heard muffled voices and prepared myself to jump onto the person who opened the door. When the door finally opened, however, I didn’t move an inch. I had to remind myself to continue breathing and the person who greeted me seemed just as shocked as I was. As if he seemed nervous, he quickly looked over his shoulder and then back at me.

“Fuck Chels, you picked the wrong night to come.” His eyes moved over to Max and with a small smile and a shake of the head, he turned back to me.

“Who at the door Tanger?” I heard a deep voice bellow from within the home. The Russian accent completely gave away who the voice belonged to. I started to panic and knew that I had to somehow get out of here before everyone else saw me.

“We need to go Max.” I grabbed his hand and tried to pull him with me, but he seemed too stunned to move. It was like he had suddenly become glued to the asphalt. “Maxim, move your fucking feet and let’s go!”

“Chelsea?” I closed my eyes and mentally cursed Max. I looked back up at the door and half-heartedly smiled at Geno. He squinted his eyes and then widely smiled. Geno then noticed Max standing beside me and when his gaze fell to our now intertwined hands, that smile of his instantly turned upside down.

“You should probably come back another time Chelsea,” Kris advised, but Geno loudly objected and yelled out a decisive ‘no’.

“Chelsea here and she going to stay.” With that he motioned for me to enter the house and because Geno never takes no for an answer, I felt obligated to. I tugged Max along with me as I followed behind Geno, who had taken it upon himself to lead Kris, Max, and I through the house. As we approached the living room I could hear loud shouts and laughs and I had no doubt in my mind that a good chunk of the team was in there. Geno rounded the corner and several people called out his name, like an invitation of sorts to join their conversations. Every part of me wanted to turn around and walk out, but Max pressed his hand against the small of my back and pushed me forward. I sheepishly walked into the room and heads automatically turned our way. The laughter ceased, the smiles were gone, and the room became eerily silent.

I cleared my throat and rubbed the back of my neck with my free hand, the other still intertwined with Max’s. My voice was weak and sounded rather scratchy. “Surprise.”

Em, of course, was the first to react and jumped off of Sid’s lap and bounded towards me. She practically threw herself at me and gave me a bone-crushing hug. Her only whispered response was, “You should have called!”

Over Em’s shoulder, I took a look around the room. Relief washed over me when I noticed that one particular man was missing from the group. The guys that were present, however, didn’t seem quite as pleased as Em did. Different hints of emotions were evident on each of their faces; shock, surprise, hurt, but there was a different emotion that I just couldn’t read. They all seemed like they were on edge and it wasn’t until Em pulled away and I felt a tug at my hand that I realized why. They weren’t glaring at me, but rather at the man standing next to me.

“Hello again Max,” Em greeted and gave him a hug. Sid was now glaring daggers at the poor guy.

“Nice to see you Emmerald.”

The room became silent once more, all of the guys giving each other ‘what the fuck’ looks. That is until a guy whom I hadn’t met before spoke up. He looked oddly familiar, but I couldn’t quite place his name.

“Well, this is awkward.” When I heard his voice it suddenly clicked. James Neal. That was all it took for the guy’s laughter to start up again and just like that the room became lively again. Questions were thrown my way inquiring as to how the Vancouver boys were treating me and how I was coping with living in a brand new city. Max seemed to be forgotten for the moment.

“Did the organization already have a place set up for you live?” Automatically, I shook my head and then cursed myself for doing so.

“So where did you stay?” Fleury followed up. The golden question I had been trying to avoid throughout the entire conversation. If they weren’t upset with me now, they would be.

“I uh. I’m actually staying— ”

“Sid, dude, your fucking house is like a god damn maze!” A voice echoed down the hall. I froze midsentence and my eyes widened, along with everyone else’s. Obviously they had forgotten about him altogether or else someone would have mentioned that he was here. Fuck my life.

Then there he was, in all his glory, walking through the doorway.

“You guys are so quiet, what’s up?” Then his eyes fell on me and I felt like I couldn’t breathe. I let go of Max’s hand almost instantly and let it fall to my side. A new type of tension overtook the living room and it was stifling.

“Che..” he weakly started, but cleared his throat and said my name again with far more confidence.

“Hi Jordan,” I breathed out just above a whisper. This was against every plan I had set for myself months ago. No talking, no texting, no contact. Yet here I was, defying every promise I had made not only myself, but Em. But how was I supposed to know that he’d be here, standing before me looking better than ever? It was so tempting to run up to him and throw my arms around him and it took nearly everything within me to restrain myself from doing so.

Heads bobbed back and forth between Jordan and I. Months of working hard to forget him was shattered in a matter of seconds. Like the rest of the guys had done, his face hardened when he noticed Max. He then turned on his heel and walked back out of the room, disappearing down the hall once more, and when I heard the front door slam shut I knew that he had left.

The guys whispered amongst themselves and Em shot me a look of pity. Max leaned in a bit closer and his hot breath was suddenly on the back of my neck. “You’ve got so much explaining to do.”

What a nice way to be welcomed back, eh?



I think it’s safe to say that my second day in Pittsburgh started off far better than the first. Em picked me up from the hotel I was staying at early this morning and we had breakfast at one of my favorite diners in town. We enjoyed each other’s company for a few hours, catching up on the latest gossip. The topic of what happened the previous night went unmentioned, something that I was grateful for. After breakfast, we both headed to the arena for practice. It felt really strange walking back into the arena and sitting in the same seats I had all last season. The boys, some in black jerseys and the others in white, took the ice just as we got situated. Out of habit, the first person I looked for was Jordan. When I finally spotted him, he was already looking at me. We held each other’s gaze for a few seconds before I looked away. A few guys waved and then they all started skating around the rink. I snapped pictures here and there of the guys doing drills, but for the most part I talked to Em.

“So, last night was pretty interesting,” she began. I slowly nodded my head.

“I thought it would be nice to surprise you, and what do you know? It all backfired on me.” Em giggled.

“Well, I think you definitely surprised everyone. But Chels, I have to ask, what the fuck were you thinking bringing Max?” It was my turn to laugh this time.

“Because I knew if it were just you and Sid, it wouldn’t have been that big of a deal.”

She shook her head and sighed. “Well, he and I had a nice yelling match last night after everyone left because of it. He said something along the lines of me ‘fraternizing with the enemy’. For fucks sakes, the Canucks and Pens don’t even have a rivalry!”

“I don’t see why everyone thinks that Max is a bad guy.” I defended him. “Sure, he might taunt people on the ice, but away from the rink he’s not like that at all.”

“Everyone on the team thinks that you’re his newest conquest.” For guys who I thought knew me pretty well, I didn’t think that they would think that low of me.

“You and I both know that it’s nothing like that. We’re friends Em. I’m not some kind of puck bunny, thanks.” Friends that just so happen to be going on a date in a few days.

“Friends that live together?” she retorted and turned to me. I don’t know if I was more surprised by her question or the fact that she had somehow found out. I opened my mouth to explain myself, but was cut off. “It’s none of my business and I’m not going to get involved with whatever you’re getting yourself into. He seems like a nice guy from what I’ve heard, but I just think that it would be wise if you were a lot more cautious this time around.”

And that was the last we talked about it. We moved on to other topics, but the conversation ultimately ended with us talking about Jordan. Surprise, surprise.

“I know that you told me not to speak about him around you, but after last night how can I not?” she exclaimed. “I’ve wanted to tell you so many times about how often he talks about you. He constantly asks me about you and it sucks, because I’ve promised you that I wouldn’t say anything. He even resorted to calling your parents. Though, it wasn’t surprising when he told me that even they didn’t know where you were.”

“Em.” I tried to stop her, but she kept talking on and on about how much Jordan beat himself up over me leaving. Every word weighed heavily on me and I couldn’t take it anymore. “EM!”

My outburst shut her up, thankfully. “Maybe it’ll help if you just talk to him Chels. What’s the worst that can happen? You two have a lot of unsaid business.”

I stayed silent and glued my eyes back to the ice below. The boys were wrapping up their practice and when they started piling into the locker room, Em said that she should go down and meet Sid.

She grabbed her things and stood up. “I’ll see you tonight at the game right?”

“Same seats as always?” She nodded her head.

“I’ve got some groveling to go do with Sid,” she said loudly as she started making her way back up the stairs. “I’ll see you later Chels!”

Not long after, the Canucks boys took to the ice for their own practice. When they spotted me, the shot pucks up to the glass and some even went as far to make silly faces towards me. I happened to snap a few photos of them for the game-day blog and spent the rest of the practice taking various shots. When it was over, I made my way through the arena and down towards the locker room. I slowly sauntered down the hallway only to have a hand suddenly latch onto my arm, a hand that was far too large to belong to a girl. Out of instinct, I balled my fist and spun around ready to punch whoever was holding onto me. I was set on swinging my arm, but it fell limp when I came face to face with Jordan. He was clad in only his spandex under armor. We stared at each other for what felt like eternity, neither of us uttering a single word.

“I’ve missed you Chelsea,” he murmured at last. He loosened his grip on my arm and took hold of my hand instead. It felt like my hand was suddenly set on fire and I couldn’t help but stare and how perfect his hand looked in mine. But in the back of my mind I knew that his hand would never be something that I could call mine. I shook my head and tugged my hand out of his.

“Don’t Jordan, don’t do this.” He groaned and ran his hand over his head.

“So what, I can never speak to you again? This is ridiculous!” The way his face frowned tore me to pieces. Sure, I wanted to throw my arms around his shoulders, but I couldn’t. “Why didn’t you tell me that you were moving when we spoke at your graduation? You at least owe me some sort of explanation.”

The floor became a lot more interesting to look at than him. “I knew that you would convince me to stay.” Whether that was actually audible or not, I had no idea.

“You’re damn right I would have! Chelsea, you don’t understand how much it fucking hurt to get a simple good-bye in a letter!” His voice kept rising and I knew that it was only a matter of time before someone wandered out of the locker room to see what all of the commotion was about.

“I—I just thought it was for the best.”

“You just thought that it was easier to run away from your problems instead of facing them. You should have told me how you felt Chelsea! God, I wish you would have,” his anger seemed to die out towards the end and he moved closer to me. With every step he took forward, I moved one step back. When my back hit the wall and he trapped me with both of his arms. “I can’t let you leave again. I’ve made that mistake once and I’ve been kicking myself for it ever since.”

The lump in my throat started to burn and at any second I expected tears to start crawling down my cheeks. I didn’t know what to say and I hated the feeling of being cornered. I made a hasty decision to duck under his arms quickly and I started to walk away, picking up my pace with each step.

“Chelsea.” There was so much desperation in his voice. Every part of me wanted to keep walking, but I couldn’t resist the urge to turn back. It all seemed to happen so fast after that. Jordan closed the gap between us and suddenly his lips were on mine. I froze at the contact and it was like my brain had turned to mush. My lips began to move together with his and I melted into the kiss. Years of pent up tension, anger, and passion were all forced into this one kiss and it was far overdue. He was the first to pull away and he cupped both of my cheeks with his hands.

“I won’t let you go without a fight.” He kissed my forehead and then walked right past me, leaving me standing alone in the hallway wondering what the fuck had just happened.