Wonderful Tonight

“Hello?”

It was three o'clock in the morning and his phone had been ringing since two fifty. It took him a minute to wake, four to realize he wasn't dreaming, two to try to go back to sleep, and three for the phone to ring again.

“Ry,” he heard on the other line. Of course it would be Amelia calling him. He shouldn't have expected anyone else. “Ry, I need you.”


He had known her since they were five and had loved her since they were six. At the time, he didn't know that's what he was feeling, he just knew that if someone in their kindergarten class used Amelia's pink glitter crayon without her permission he would make them pay for it. His protectiveness over her grew as they did and by the time they were twelve it was common knowledge that if you wanted to go to the mall with Amelia, you wanted to go to the mall with Ryan. Over his dead body would anything hurt her.

They spent sixteen out of the twenty four hours in a day together from the time they were seven until they were fourteen. The town they grew up in was small enough that they were in the same class for seven years in a row, calling each other in the middle of the night to ask for the answer to a homework problem. When Ryan began playing hockey, Amelia would skate out on the local pond with him to help practice his drills and at times would even act as a goalie. She was terrible at it and it didn't help improve his skill at all but they both enjoyed it too much to have her stop. She attended all of his games and packed all of his gear for him, carpooling with he and his parents to get back home. At age sixteen, Ryan got his license and began driving them to and from games without his parents, paving the way for road trip traditions like “guess what song I'm humming” and “would you rather?” games.

It was obvious to everyone around them that Ryan was in love with her. He couldn't do anything about it, though, because every time he tried to bring it up Amelia would change the subject and refuse to listen to him. He didn't push it and let her ignore the feelings making a home inside his chest but during their Junior year of high school, things changed on her end.

Amelia met Shawn in her AP History class during a group project in which they had to design a country of their own, including creating a successful economic system and explaining why their country would be superior to all other, preexisting, countries. They were placed into groups of four and the two other members of their group chose not to actively participate. Suddenly, it wasn't Ryan who Amelia was spending her afternoons with out on the ice. It was Shawn. But instead of on the ice, they spent their time in her bedroom studying. Even after the project was over it became apparent that Shawn was taking Ryan's place when it came to Amelia's free time. When Ryan called her out on this, they had their first real argument.

“Am I not allowed to have friends?” she questioned him angrily. “Am I supposed to spend all my time with you, helping you with your goals? What about my goals, Ryan?”

He knew he was in trouble when she called him Ryan. Amelia never, ever, called him by his whole name unless she was laughing hysterically at him or angry with him. It was always Ry. Always.

“Of course you're allowed to have friends, Mia! Just... Just not him. And no! It's never been about helping me out with hockey. I thought you liked doing that.”

“I do like helping you but I have things I want to get done, too, you know. I have goals set for myself. And Shawn is one of those goals. I want a boyfriend, Ryan. I want someone to go to the prom with me and to take me on a date. I want a valentine. I want to spend one Saturday at somewhere other than a hockey rink watching you push someone into the boards. I want to make-out in the back of a car at a drive-in. I want to make dumb decisions and have to deal with the consequences. I want you to stop trying to control my life!”

He didn't say anything after that, he simply walked out of her room, out her front door, down the driveway and into his crappy car. He had mastered how to hide his love from Amelia long ago and it was coming back to bite him in the ass. Being in love with your best friend was one thing, but being in love with your best friend and trying to keep it a secret was a job nobody should have to apply for.

The last person he expected to see at his door the next morning was Amelia but she always found a way to surprise him. Opening the door, he was greeted by her scent of lemon and cherries and a plate of chocolate chip cookies being pushed into his chest.

“I'm sorry,” she said with a pout on her face.

“I'm sorry, too,” he responded and pulled her in for a hug.

Amelia and Shawn officially began their relationship in October of their Junior year in high school. To avoid her constant talking about homecoming and finally having a date to the lame game and even lamer dance, Ryan was constantly at the gym or on the ice. Somehow he even managed to avoid dress shopping with her, something she desperately wanted him there for. When homecoming passed and spring break eventually rolled around, Amelia and Shawn were still together. While the two had spent vacation visiting his family in Vancouver and taking trips to New York City, Ryan stayed in Ontario and pushed himself harder and more diligently than ever, mentally preparing himself for what was about to come: the National Hockey League. He'd been playing in the Juniors for a little over two years, pushing school to the back-burner just as Amelia had done with him. His hard work and dedication to hockey paid off.

Amelia was at work (she took a part-time summer position at the rink where she and Ryan would skate when they were younger, figuring she knew everyone already and was a shoe-in for the job) when she heard the news that Ryan had been drafted to the Colorado Avalanche. She knew the day would eventually come, what with him working himself to the core and pretty much dropping out of school, but she expected to at least be informed that her best friend in the entire world had made it to the big league before it actually happened. She didn't even know that he'd left for Quebec.

When he got home, he had one month to spend with his family and friends before heading off to Colorado. Almost instantaneously, things went back to the way they were before Shawn came into the picture. He was still there, much to Ryan's dismay, but knowing that he was leaving made Amelia want to spend as much time as she could with him until he did. Shawn respectfully understood and didn't mind that Amelia was back to spending sixteen hours a day with the boy she grew up with, something that made Ryan hate him even more. Amelia was obviously in love with him, he could tell from the way her face lit up when she spoke of their time in Vancouver and Manhattan. He tried as often as possible to not have his name brought up in conversation because it killed him too much to see her face light up for anyone but him.

The day finally came for him to leave and it was the saddest day of Amelia's life. Her best friend was leaving her for another country, another life. Would he forget about her? She didn't know. So she made him make a promise as they hugged goodbye at the airport, his dad urging him to hurry up or he'd miss his flight.

“Promise me something,” she demanded.

“Anything,” was his reply.

“Promise me that you'll come home and take me to prom.”

“Isn't that Shawn's job?”

“I want you to take me to prom, Ry. Promise me you will.”

“I promise.”

It was a promise that he was never meant to keep. By the time prom rolled around, Ryan was busy in the playoffs. He had a killer start to his season, making history for the Avalanche and starting a promising career for himself in the NHL. He called to tell Amelia the news three weeks before the big day and she understood, she'd been watching his games. They kept in touch by email, text, and Skype throughout the entire season but things began to flicker out around April. She was busy preparing for graduation and he was busy becoming a superstar. Unfortunately, his dreams of having his name engraved on the Stanley Cup would not come true that season as his team lost in the quarter finals to the San Jose Sharks. Two days after losing, Ryan was on a flight back to Ontario, where Amelia was waiting with open arms.

She met him at the airport in her cap and gown, running at him at full speed when she saw him approach the gate. He caught her and spun her around, his arms holding her tightly as he never wanted to let go. Eventually, though, he did, and when he did she planted a kiss directly on his lips.

“I missed you so much!” she said excitedly, taking his hand and leading him towards baggage claim.

It figured that as soon as he thought he was close to ignoring the feelings he held for her she would do something to make them ten times worse.


They drove to his apartment in silence, Amelia fiddling with her thumbs in the passenger seat. After hanging up with her, Ryan headed straight for his laptop and purchased a plane ticket for later in the day. It cost him an arm and a leg because it was so last minute and the only seats available were in first class but Amelia was worth it. She would always be worth it. It was six o'clock by the time she got herself settled in and her stomach was growling, filling the almost awkward quiet that had taken over the apartment.

Amelia had always called Ryan to vent about her problems and to cry away her hurt. He hated when she did this because he hated to hear her cry, knowing there was nothing he could do about it but listen and tell her that everything was going to be okay. She called him for the little things, the big things, and all the things in between, but never before had it been so bad that she needed to leave Ontario. She decided while she was on the plane that she was going to, at all costs, avoid telling Ryan why she needed to leave. The truth would kill him and she knew it.

“Are you hungry?” he asked with a laugh after hearing her stomach speak.

“If I said 'no' would you believe me?” she replied, stuffing a few pairs of underwear into his top drawer next to his boxers. That's where they had always gone when she visited him; Amelia refused to live out of a suitcase even if it was only for three days at a time. This visit would be extended, he just didn't know it yet.

“Definitely not.”

Half an hour later they were seated at The Kitchen, a cozy and warm feeding ground in downtown Denver. On the way there they had passed a restaurant called Wild Ginger and they would have stopped had it not been for Amelia's immature laughing at its name, vowing to call Ryan that from then on.

“When is your next game?” Amelia asked with a mouth full of bread.

“You're disgusting,” was Ryan's reply.

“And you didn't answer my question!” she laughed, breaking another piece off and offering it to him. He shook his head and she shrugged, nonchalant.

“I have a game tomorrow night against Ottawa.”

With a playful smile Amelia replied, “Ooohhh. Hometown team. Bet everyone back home is gonna call you a hotshot sell-out.”

“Oh, please. Most people back home are Leafs fans.”

“You'd be surprised at how many people dislike you when you play against us, Mr. Wild Ginger.” With a wink in response to the middle finger he gave her, Amelia continued. “No but really. I've heard some pretty mean things said about you and your brother whenever your games are on. And they're always on, believe me. I can't go to a bar without seeing your ugly face on TV.”

He threw a straw at her, “Go home. I don't like you anymore.”

Batting her eyelashes and putting the straw into her cup of Sprite, she shook her head with a smile. “You're a terrible liar.” And he was. He always would be when it came to Amelia.


The next night Amelia was one of the three people at the Pepsi Center wearing a Senator's jersey instead of an Avalanche one and she was damn proud of it. Ryan was her best friend, sure, but the Sens were her boys, her hometown team. Being booed at and threatened by the crazies in Colorado was better than being a traitor. Ryan had gotten her seats near the home team's bench and she took every opportunity given to her to make obscene gestures at the teammates she'd been previously introduced to. She even went as far as making a sign that read I play like a girl with an arrow on it pointing down and holding it against the glass every time Matt Duchene sat in front of her. Her goal was to make it on to the jumbo tron and by the end of the game she succeeded.

“You're a brat,” Matt said to her in the locker room after the game. She was there waiting on Ryan to finish getting dressed – he took more time than she did to get ready to go.

“You love it,” she replied, sending a wink his way.

Amelia held no guilt over her shameless flirting even though, when she looked back on it, she realized she probably should have. She had been doing it for so long that it came naturally to her. It started back when she and Ryan were kids and she knew he had a little crush on her. To get him to do things for her, she would bat her eyelashes and put on a cute pouty face. It worked like a charm every time. As time went on she began to feel bad about manipulating her best friend and playing off his feelings, so she stopped cold turkey. She didn't want Ryan to get the wrong idea about her feelings towards him: there weren't any. Romantic ones, anyway.

Then came Shawn. He was her first in everything that Ryan wasn't. Her first real boyfriend (there was a time back in the second grade that she and Ryan were “dating”). Her first kiss. Her first time...you know. Amelia used Shawn as an excuse to distance herself from Ryan's feelings. Going to the states and Vancouver over the summer was mainly for a distraction – she didn't anticipate actually having fun. She also didn't anticipate that they'd be together for as long as they had been. They got together at seventeen and were still together at twenty one.

But things were different now. A ring, packed away in the closest corner of Amelia's makeup bag, would either make or break her relationship with Ryan. Within the first year of him leaving, Amelia realized that she was meant to be with Ryan. Romantically. Forever. She didn't know if he still felt the same way and it was the fear that he didn't that kept her with Shawn. In a way, she was playing them both, and she played Shawn too well. He proposed on the football field at their high school, the site of their first date. He got a job offer in Vancouver and didn't want to leave without Amelia, thinking that the best way to ensure her accompaniment was marriage. She asked him to let her think on it for a night and he agreed. She called Ryan and left the country instead.

“You should come out with us tonight,” Matt suggested.

“Where are you going?”

Matt shrugged, “Some bar downtown. I think Elliot picked the place. I don't know. I'm just going.”

“That's very safe of you,” said Ryan as he walked to his stall from the shower area, a pair of briefs the only thing covering his goods. “We're not in,” he added, tugging a shirt over his shoulders.

“We're not?” Amelia asked with a frown.

“We're not,” Ryan confirmed. Amelia's frown deepened and Matt laughed before Ryan continued. “I have a surprise for you tomorrow and you need to be energized for it.”

At the word surprise, her eyebrows raised but she didn't question it. Knowing Ryan, the surprise could have been anything. The fact that he was surprising her was a surprise in itself.

“Don't forget about the --” Matt started but Ryan cut him off with a shut up. “Ohhh-kay, then. Never mind.”



“Ry,” pleaded Amelia as they laid cuddled on his couch watching South Park. It was almost noon on the day of her surprise and she couldn't take the anticipation any longer. “Please tell me.” His laugh vibrated throughout her entire body.

“No. That ruins the whole aspect of a surprise.”

“Please?”

“No, Mia.”

“A hint?”

He laughed again, “No.”

“Ry, how am I supposed to know what to wear if I don't know what I'm doing?”

Because she was on her stomach laying on top of his chest, he had to crane his neck to look into her eyes. He narrowed his eyes at her and sighed deeply. “Fiiiiine,” he drawled out, giving up. “Wear a dress. And heels.”

“Ry!” she quickly sat up, nearly kneeling on his intimates. “I didn't bring any dresses! You butthole!” Scrambling off the couch and into his room, she came back three minutes later dressed and ready to go downtown. “Where are your keys?” She rummaged through the junk on the kitchen table and came up empty handed. “Come on, come on,” she mumbled as she looked.

“Mia, you don't even know your way around. I'll drive you,” he said. He went to stand up and she pushed him back down on the couch.

“No,” she said. “You're surprising me, let me surprise you.”

“But you don't even know where you're going!”

“Doesn't your fancy car have a GPS?” He nodded. “That's all I need. Type in shopping and wha-la! I'm good.” She kissed his forehead, “I'll be back.”

Two hours later, as she was standing in a small boutique, Amelia stopped everything she was doing and called Ryan in a panic.

“Hello?”

“Long or short?” she asked.

“What? Mia, come on, I'm about to get in the shower...”

“Long or short? Answer the question!”

“What am I even answering?”

“The dress, you idiot. Long or short?”

“Are you kidding me?”

“If you don't answer then I'm not going,” she threatened.

“Long,” Ryan answered and hung up.

If she wore a long dress, he concluded, Duchene wouldn't be able to stare at her legs the whole night. It would be one less thing for him to worry about, one less thing to lose Amelia to.


Ryan waited in the living room as Amelia finished getting ready. He'd been waiting for this night for years. He was going to tell her that he loved her and not let her change the subject. But before that, he was going to complete a promise he'd made to her and never got the chance to fulfill by doing it the only way he knew how: with the help of a hockey team. He heard Amelia clear her throat from the hallway and turned his head to look at her.

Incredible, fantastic, and amazing were all words to describe how she looked. But when she asked for his opinion, his mind blanked. She wore a pale green dress in the style of a Greek goddess with a gold, beaded belt just under her bosom. A long and thin silver necklace ended just before her cleavage and only added to her beauty.

“Wonderful,” he finally replied. “You look wonderful tonight.”

Amelia smiled and bit her lip to keep a comment about his choice of language. He sounded like he was eighty. Instead of letting her honesty speak, she fiddled with the clutch in her hands.

“Can we go now?” she asked. “I'm too excited and I don't want to pee because peeing in this thing is going to be a bitch.”

Ryan laughed boisterously and nodded his head, leading her out the door. As they drove they played an old favorite, guess what I'm humming. Amelia won by humming an old Britney Spears song that he remembered but couldn't name. Her brow furrowed in confusion when Ryan pulled over on an empty side street.

“Did you get me dolled up and drive me out here just to kill me?” she asked jokingly.

“Amelia, if I wanted to kill you I would have done it years ago.” Like when she took his heart and put it through a shedder by dating Shawn. He reached into the glovebox and pulled out a blindfold. “Put this on,” he told her.

“Ry,” she groaned but took it anyway. She slipped it over her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. “How long do I have to keep this stupid thing on for?”

“Until I tell you to take it off,” was his reply.

He put the car into drive and sped off, headed for their destination: a hotel overlooking the snow covered mountains of Colorado. When they arrived, he helped her out of the car and handed his keys to the valet. It was then that he noticed her heels – shiny, sexy, heels. God help me, he thought. He led her into the banquet room, constantly telling her to shut up because she kept making comments about he was leading her somewhere to kill her. He positioned her in the entryway so she could see the entire room and told her to take the blindfold off.

“Are you serious?” was the first thing she said after taking in her surroundings.

“As a heart attack.”

Amelia felt her heart swell in her chest and knew that she made the right decision by telling Shawn she needed a night to think about marrying him. Ryan loved her. He'd always loved her, it just took her a little while to accept and return the feelings. In front of her was an Avalanche fund raiser set up to look like a high school prom.

“How did you...?” she began but the words in her brain failed her. Amelia Capulet was speechless for the first time in her life.

“When you called me and I ordered your ticket, I couldn't go back to sleep because I was thinking about why you needed an emergency escape. I knew that you'd be staying for a few days and I knew that we had a charity event coming up so I made some calls to the head of public relations and asked them to make it look like a prom. I need to make Senior year up to you, I promised I'd take you to the prom and I couldn't keep that promise. Until now.”

“Ry,” she looked at him with tears in her eyes. They didn't get the chance to embarrass her and fall, though, because by the time she reached for his hand to pull him into an emotional hug Matt had made his way over to the twosome.

“May I have this dance?” he asked Amelia, bowing like an idiot and holding his hand out for hers.

Amelia looked over at Ryan and he laughed, nodding. “Go, have fun. This is your night,” he told her sincerely.

She stood on her toes (because even in three inch heels she was still much shorter than him) and kissed his cheek. “Thank you, Ry,” she whispered in his ear before being whisked away by his teammate.

Later in the night, after the dinner service and silent charity auction began, Ryan and Amelia danced slowly in the middle of the dance floor to a song that neither of them had ever heard before. Her head rested on his chest and his hands were on the small of her back, drawing circles and other symbols to distract himself from the fact that this was actually happening. He was actually slow dancing with Amelia and she was actually letting him. Amelia, too, was in a state of disbelief but for completely different reasons: she and Shawn were officially over. She had taken a bathroom break before dinner and called him to reject his proposal. Luckily they'd never lived together and her things were still at her parent's house so she wouldn't have to deal with that awkward situation. She also couldn't believe that Ryan had fulfilled his prom promise. Granted, it wasn't actually a prom but it was the best he could do and the gesture alone was enough to remind of her of why she loved him.

They danced until they were the last people in the banquet room. His teammates had left hours ago and the hotel staff had finished cleaning in what seemed like minutes. They were dancing with no music, simply enjoying each other's company. It had been years since they'd been able to do so without any distractions.

The lights went from dim to brighter than the sun with the flick of a switch and Amelia pulled her head off Ryan's chest.

“Guess it's time to go,” she laughed and began leaving to collect her purse.

“Wait, Mia...” he started, pulling her back to him. She looked at him curiously, squeezing his fingers with her palm.

Please say it, she thought.

“I...” he shook his head, “never mind.”

Dammit, they both thought.


By the time they got back to Ryan's apartment they were both too tired to follow through with what their hearts and pushed for them to say for the entire night. Amelia slipped into the bedroom to change out of her dress and Ryan went to the kitchen to make himself a Jack and coke. A little liquid courage never hurt anyone. His suit jacket had been draped over a chair the minute he walked in the door and his tie thrown next to it. He stood facing a window in just his black pants and white long sleeved shirt, wondering where his confidence from earlier in the day had gone.

“Drinking already?” Amelia asked when she walked back into the living area. She wore a pair of Ryan's sweatpants and a tank top she found stuffed at the bottom of one of his drawers. It was clearly a woman's tank top and that hurt her – she'd never considered the idea that Ryan was sleeping with other girls while she was in Ottawa. Not that he didn't have the right to, with all things taken into account, like her relationship with Shawn. “Did you really have that bad of a time at the prom, Ry?” she laughed, only halfway joking. He had been acting weird all night, keeping to himself at all times unless she managed to pull him out on to the dance floor.

“Headache,” he answered with a cringe as he downed the last of his drink.

Pouting, she walked towards him and wrapped her arms around his middle so they both faced the window. Her face pressed against his back, she breathed him in. After sixteen years of knowing him, Ryan still smelled the same and the only way Amelia knew how to describe it was like boy. Ryan smelled like boy and she wouldn't want him to smell any other way.

“Did I do okay?” he asked her. “With the surprise, I mean?”

Because there's no way I did okay with my actual intentions of the night.

“You did wonderful,” she said, laughing because she was finally saying something about his choice of language from earlier that night. “You did wonderful tonight, Ry.”

Better than I did.

He turned around and draped his arms on top of her shoulders. “You're a brat,” he told her.

“You love it.”

“I do,” he confirmed. Amelia looked into his eyes and smiled, standing on her toes for the second time that night. Only this time, instead of whispering in his ear, she kissed the corner of his mouth then quickly fled to his room. Confused, Ryan didn't chase after her, instead standing still in front of the window and barely breathing. By the time Amelia's actions set in and he gained enough bravery to follow her, she had already fallen asleep, taking up more than half the bed. Ryan shook his head, sighed, and grabbed a pillow to head for the couch.

It figured that as soon as he thought he was close to facing the feelings he held for her she would do something to make them ten times worse.


He awoke to Amelia shaking him frantically. It couldn't have been later than four in the morning and for that he wanted to kill her.

“Ry,” she said. “Ry, wake up.” He opened his eyes in a daze and looked at her expectantly, speaking more with his facial expression than he could with words. “I love you,” she said quickly and then repeated herself. “I love you. I love you I love you I love you.”

It was four o'clock in the morning and he had been awake since three fifty nine. It took him three seconds to open his eyes, ten to speak with his eyes, fourteen to process Amelia's words, and thirty three to stand, lift her over his shoulder, and carry her back to his bedroom where he planned on showing her just how much he returned her feelings.

He shouldn't have expected her to wake him for anything else.