The Fear Is Paralyzing

Quinn didn’t know how she got stuck on the plane seat that she did, between two of the highest profile players on the team, while Mario was up in the front with the coaches, but somehow she did. She was in the middle of the plane squeezed between Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, just staring straight forward, with neither of them saying anything to her.

So she was surprised when she heard her name being said in a thick Russian accent, and she turned to look at Evgeni. “What?” she asked him, not having understood his words the first time.

“What you use to make hair shiny?” he repeated his words, slower this time, and Quinn just stared at him, wondering if this was all a joke. She opened her mouth to ask him when she heard Sidney begin cracking up.

She spun around to look at him before looking back at Evgeni, who was now staring a Sidney with a scowl on his face. “What?” he questioned his teammate. “Her hair shiny!” he said, reaching out and touching Quinn’s blonde locks. Sidney kept laughing, shaking his head at his Russian friend. Evgeni looked back at Quinn. “How so shiny?”

“Um, I don’t know,” Quinn said with a nervous laugh, not really knowing how to respond. “I guess lots of conditioner?” she said, it coming out more as a question than a statement. She reached up, playing with the ends of her hair nervously.

“So, you excited to go on this trip with us?” Sidney asked, taking the attention away from Evgeni. Quinn looked up at him, surprised he was talking to her, but she nodded her head nonetheless.

“Yeah, I am,” she admitted. “I haven’t seen you guys play on the road. Well, not in person,” she corrected herself.

“So, you didn’t grow up around hockey, right?” Sidney asked, and Quinn shook her head. “How is that possible with your dad being who he was?” He didn’t ask it in a mean way, but Quinn still didn’t really want to answer the question. She wasn’t in the mood to talk about her father. But, she knew she needed to respond either way.

“I didn’t grow up around my dad, so I didn’t grow up around hockey,” she said. She didn’t want to get into the details of what had happened with her father. Not too many people knew about him abandoning her and her mother, and she certainly wasn’t about to tell one of the players on the team that she had barely talked to before now. “But, I’m learning,” she added. Sidney gave her a side glance, and she knew he didn’t really believe her. She didn’t expect him to. He had only known her as the bumbling girl who was given a hockey team. He didn’t know how much time and effort she had put in to learn everything. “You don’t believe me, do you?” she asked, cocking her head to one side and looking up at him, a small smile forming on her face.

“Um…” he trailed off, obviously not wanting to answer her.

“I believe!” she heard Evgeni pipe up from the other side of Quinn. She turned around and smiled at the Russian.

“Thank you,” she told him, really happy that she had someone who had faith in her. She spun her head back around towards Sidney. “Test me,” she said, almost as a challenge to Sidney. She hadn’t known it before, but the look on his face showed just how competitive Sidney Crosby was, and he wasn’t going to lose, even a silly game like this.

“Name the teams in our division,” he said, starting her off with an easy question. Quinn pretended to think about it for a minute, not letting him know that she really did know this question. In fact, it was one of the first things Kris had taught her, right after the basics of the sport. Sidney started to get a look of triumph on his face, thinking he had stumped her already, but it quickly faded as Quinn opened her mouth to answer.

“Rangers, Islanders, Devils, Flyers, and the Penguins,” she spouted off, a look of accomplishment on her face as she finished.

“That was just an easy one,” Sidney quickly shook off, moving forward to a more difficult question, which Quinn also answered correctly. The entire plane ride consisted of Sidney asking her questions, with Evgeni joining in occasionally. Quinn didn’t get them all right, but she got more than even she thought she would.

As the plane touched ground, Sidney looked over at her. “You know, you’re not so bad,” he said casually. Quinn was sure he didn’t really mean anything by it, but it really touched her. She was glad that she was growing on the team, and it made her especially glad that she had decided to go on the road trip with them.

As she followed the rest of the guys off the plane, she caught up to Mario, he smiled at her. “How was the flight?” he asked her.

“Good,” she said, nodding her head. They talked the few minutes it took them to get on the bus and go to the hotel, and she followed him in, waiting as the guys all got their keys to their rooms. After the last guy had gotten through, she walked over to the table, grabbing the envelope that had her name written on it. She opened it up, seeing that she was in room 917, and she got into the elevator with Mario, who pressed the button with a seven on it. She assumed he was on the same floor as the rest of the guys while she was on a different floor, but she couldn’t be sure. She didn’t think too much of it as she pushed the button for the ninth floor and they rode in silence, listening to the elevator music.

“Have a good evening,” Mario spoke as he got out of the elevator, and Quinn nodded in reply as the doors shut behind him and she continued up to her floor.

As she walked in her room, she was surprised by how big it was. It was a suite, something Quinn thought was unnecessary since they were only staying there for one evening before leaving, but she wasn’t going to complain about it. Looking around, she wondered if it was bigger than her entire apartment. She looked at the king size bed, and she smiled, not able to wait to jump in, happy that she didn’t have to sleep in her old twin size bed for one night.

As she laid back in the bed, she smiled at how comfortable it was. She could have lived here if they would let her. She closed her eyes, letting the moment sink in. She couldn’t believe how far her life had come in such little time. To think that just a few months ago she was just trying to figure out what to do, having just graduated with her MBA. And now, she was the partial owner of a professional hockey team. It wasn’t just her professional life that had changed, though. In that same amount of time, she had dumped the loser she had been dating and was now dating Kris, someone that made her so happy.

Her thoughts became jumbled as she felt herself drift off to sleep. She could have slept forever, had it not been for the knocking on her door. She jolted awake, trying to orientate herself to where she was. She looked at the clock, wondering if she had slept through the night and it was the maids coming in to clean her room. However, she saw that it was only nine that night, and she was curious as to who was at the door.

The knock sounded again, and she finally got out of bed, going to the door. She slowly opened it, and when she saw Kris on the other side, she opened it fully. “What’s up?” she asked him, allowing him to come in the door. She looked down the hallway, making sure no one saw him come to her room. The last thing she needed was for someone to accidentally see him go into her room and the word to spread like wildfire.

“I hope you don’t mind me coming up here,” he said.

Quinn shook her head. “Not at all. But, how did you know this was my room?” she asked. She hadn’t talked to Kris since she had first boarded the plane that morning.

“I may have peeked at your room key,” he admitted. “I thought it might be good information to know,” he added with a wink. Quinn bit her lip slightly before flashing him a full smile.

“Shouldn’t you be out with the guys or something?” she asked him, raising one of her eyebrows at him. She wasn’t sure what exactly took place during a road trip, but she was sure the guys must hang out at night or something.

Kris sat on her bed, bouncing it just a little bit. “We all went out to eat, but we’re back now,” he spoke, realizing immediately that he had just informed her of something very obvious. “Tyler’s in our room talking to his girlfriend, so I’d rather not be in there right now,” he said. When he saw the look Quinn was giving him, one that asked for more information, he elaborated. “They talk for hours on end. And it wouldn’t be bad if I didn’t have to hear his end of the conversation of them arguing over who loves who more,” he explained.

Quinn couldn’t help but chuckle at this information. “Sounds like they’re happy together. You can’t fault them for that,” she defended Tyler and his girlfriend.

“They are happy. But I could do without having to hear his hours long conversation every night on the road. Though that’s better than when she surprises him on the road. Then I get stuck sleeping on the floor in someone else’s room,” he muttered. She knew he wasn’t mad at Tyler himself, but he was instead frustrated at the situation he was put in.

“Too bad you don’t have a girlfriend that surprises you on road trips and sends Tyler to another room,” she joked.

“No, but I do have a girlfriend who’s on this road trip with me, and she’s got a room of her own that I could crash in,” he said with a smile. However, when Quinn didn’t say anything right away, his smile faltered. “Quinn, I didn’t actually mean I’m staying here tonight,” he said, trying to save himself. He wasn’t sure what he had said to upset her, but he hadn’t done it intentionally.

“Sorry,” she said, snapping herself out of her haze. “This is going to sound really stupid,” she said, shaking her head.

“I bet you it won’t. Why don’t you just tell me and let me decide?” Kris asked.

“It’s just…you just referred to me as your girlfriend. You haven’t done that before. I like the sound of it,” she told him with a smile, causing him to smile even bigger at her. Without saying a word, he stood up, grabbing her by the waist and pulling her close to him, and kissed her on the lips with a sense of passion Quinn hadn’t recognized before.

When he pulled away, she was speechless for a minute. Instead of trying to think of something to say, she instead kissed him again, letting her hands travel up behind him, eventually settling behind his neck. Their make out session continued a little while longer, but Kris didn’t let it get too far. Now was not the place or time for their first time together, and he was going to make sure it didn’t get too out of hand.

Eventually, they settled on the bed, laying side-by-side. “You know, if you really don’t want to go back to your room, you can stay here for the night,” Quinn said, looking up at the ceiling. She was scared for his reaction, as she wasn’t normally this forward with him.

Kris turned his head to look at her. “Yeah? You wouldn’t mind?” he asked.

“I’ve got this whole bed to myself,” she said, motioning towards the bed underneath her. “I think I can spare some of it for you,” she smiled at him.

Instead of replying, Kris pulled her into his arms, the two of them laying there, cuddling, in a comfortable silence.