Betrayed

He barely saw the back of her coat as she hurried from her favorite dinner place back to her apartment building, a nondescript brown bag clutched in her hand. It was unseasonably chilly in Pittsburgh that day and his need to wrap his arms around her and bury his face into her neck was overwhelming.

“Ma belle.” He called out, noticing her move her head just a bit, but pick up her pace as she moved even quicker, her heeled boots clacking loudly against the cement, making the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. She has never iced him out like this before, never ignored him in such a way. “Annabel, ma belle, please talk to me.” He wasn’t above chasing her, picking up to a light jog as she made it inside the front door of her all-glass high-rise.

Annabel Hoffman ignored the Flyer that was practically running her down, moving to the elevator and luckily grabbing one that had just arrived to the first floor. She pressed the button for the fifteenth floor and the doors had closed just as he entered the building. Her mind was racing as she bought herself a few moments alone in the elevator. She couldn’t believe he was already back in Pittsburgh. She knew what he was doing at her building, but she didn’t want to hear it.

“Bastard.” She hissed under her breath, stepping out of her elevator to see that the other lift that came to her floor was already halfway up. “Fuck, fuck.” She fumbled with the keys to her apartment, trying to balance her keychain in one hand with her purse and her takeout in the other. The feeling of dread in her stomach was making it even harder to focus.

“Annabel.” She just about froze, feeling her heart thumping in her chest as she finally slid the key into her doorknob.

“I don’t want to talk to you.” She said firmly, not turning to face him, but left the front door open as she stormed in, dropping her keys on the small table just inside her entryway. She stalked to the kitchen, dropping her bag of takeout as he stood like a ghost in the archway.

“Ma belle, please, I – “

“Don’t call me that.” She frowned, giving him a sharp look as she stepped out of her boots, unbuttoning her pea coat and unwinding the scarf from around her neck to reveal a warm looking cashmere sweater that clung to her in all the right places. Places his hands and lips had been before. “Just leave.” She gave him an all but pleading look. “I can hardly be in the same room as you.” She added.

“You won’t even give me a chance to talk?” He frowned, his dark eyebrows knitting together as his crystal blues eyes began to fill with frustration.

“I think you’ve said enough already, Max.” She said, braiding her long, luscious hair down one side of her shoulder. She knew how much he loved her thick brunette tresses, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of seeing her at her best.

“You haven’t talked to me in days, returned any of my calls, texts, voicemails. How could I have said enough?” He followed her from the kitchen to the back hallway to the small den/office she had created for herself. Grabbing an empty paper box, she began to go around the room, dumping all sorts of Talbot Penguins paraphernalia into after taking it down from her walls – the pennants, the posters, the photos – everything. “Come on, why are you doing this?” He asked, feeling his heart dropping into his stomach. She was removing him from her home and from her life it seemed.

They were never official. It started when they had bumped into one another at one of Max’s favorite restaurants. She was probably the most stunning woman he had ever seen and she promptly offered him advice on how to improve his forecheck. It started with a few dates over dinner – some out and some at his apartment in a refurbished funeral home. After the first few times they had sex, he knew he was in over his head. She was a rabid Penguins fan and he was rapidly falling in love with her.

When he was traded to the Flyers – she was devastated. They still weren’t official and carried no labels, but they had been getting together for about eight months and he considered her his Annabel. But he promised he was going to be the same Max, her Max, and she was going to try to make it work.

But this was too much for her. It started with interviews that were just a bit less friendly than usual – little jabs and backhanded comments about the Penguins administration. He said how he was happy to be at an organization that appreciated him and where he got real ice time. It broke her heart. Did he think she wasn’t going to see it?

Then came all the volatile games between the Flyers and Penguins – ones Annabel didn’t want to watch, but she couldn’t look away. It was more lackluster comments and aggression between Max and his former friends. She hoped for the best when she would see Max hugging Flower or goofing around with Geno and Sid, but everyone could tell that there was a shift in attitude. Max defended Sid against some of the Philadelphia press, but damage had been done and she was falling apart. Her loyalty to Max was not going to trump her loyalty to the Penguins.

“You’re not who I thought you were. You’ve changed.” She accused, going back through to her family room with the box, not letting him intimidate her as he stood in the hall. She even went as far as to let him get her one blaze orange and black accessory – a small pin resembling a Flyer’s jersey no bigger than a postage stamp. She kept it pinned to a corkboard in her kitchen where she posted up some of her hockey tickets and photos – some which featured Max.

“How have I changed?” He challenged, “I’m still the same guy I’ve always been.” He insisted, having enough of this chasing her around business as he finally blocked her way out of the kitchen.

“You don’t care where you’ve been anymore, you only care where you’re going.” She accused.

“Is going to the first line so bad? Is it so bad to not be a fourth line grinder who never got any time and got no recognition?” He asked, pink cheeked and furious.

“The people here loved you, the team loved you, Dan loved you! No one cared what line you played on! You were a hero!” She said, eyes welling with tears. “But that wasn’t enough for you! You wanted money.” She spit it out like a curse.

“Is that so awful? It’s not as if I haven’t been worth it! This is my career! There’s nothing selfish about wanting more from myself!” He countered.

“And what about all the shit circulating about you telling Laviolette about the boys, huh? Some friend. They would never pull that shit on you.” She turned her back to Max, not wanting him to see her cry – not wanting him to think he meant that much to her.

“Do you know what it’s like to have a team that you devoted your life to say they can’t go the extra mile? They can’t give you just a bit of a different contract or just a minute or two more ice time? They never needed me, they had their stars. When I left Pittsburgh, I left Pittsburgh.” He was nearly rabid.

“That’s right. You left.” She shook her head.

“I loved it here and they hung me out to dry. I hardly think that telling them a bit about Sid or Geno that the probably already knew made much of a difference.” He insisted, making her feel like her arguments weren’t worth his time.

“You’re some kind of work then. Pittsburgh is my home, I’ll never say a bad thing about the Penguins organization or my former teammates.” She mocked him. “Not to their face.” She shook her head again, wanting everything to disappear. She should have begged him to stay. She should have cut their relationship the moment he went to the Flyers. “Why are you here, Max?” She turned to finally look at him, seeing that he recognized the tears in her eyes. She caught him off guard. “I thought you loved Pittsburgh, you love Flower and Geno and Sid.” She searched his face for answers. “But you’ve burned those bridges.” She felt the weight of her words as they left her mouth. “So why are you here?”

Max’s insides were shaking as he faced down his final confession.

“They need me in Philly. They didn’t need me here. I like being guaranteed time every night. I like seeing my jerseys in the stands. I like the money I’m making and where I’m living. But I loved Pittsburgh – no one will ever tell me otherwise and I’ll never say different. I loved being a Penguin, living here, being a part of the group, and everything about my life here.” He took a step closer. “I love you.” He finally spit out. “And that’s why I’m here.” He added.

They were the words Annabel had been curious about – wondered if she’d ever hear. Months ago she would have killed for him to say them. Now, she wasn’t sure.

“So what am I supposed to do with that information? Are we going to live together in Philly and pretend that Pittsburgh never happened? You know I can’t do that.” She replied, making his heart thud in his chest as he felt rejection for the first time in a long time.

“I love you, Annabel – don’t you get it? I would do anything for you.” His accent came out much thicker with his deep emotion as he followed her back towards her front door. She opened the door, shoving the box of her Max Talbot memories into his chest, causing him to grip the bottom.

“I loved you, too. But I love my team more.”