You Had Me at Hello

I still couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that I was dating Alex Ovechkin and that I was missing four months’ worth of memories which now that I thought about it would have included my whole final golf season, student teaching, and graduation. Well shit, I thought. I wonder what else I’m missing… oh fuck…did Alex and I have sex? I know that’s not the most important issue right now but it is kind of a big deal. Fucking eh… this concussion is making my thought process even more random than normal and that’s saying something.

“Umm… Alex?”

“Yeah?”

“Can you tell me some of what I’ve missed?”
“Of course, maybe something will trigger a memory,” he replied before taking a second to gather his thoughts. “Well we started dating while you were on spring break, you got so mad at me because you thought that I had a girlfriend already.”

“Oh shit!”

“Yeah, we were laying in my bed and you asked what I was going to do for the rest of the day and I
told you that I was going to hopefully spend it with my girlfriend. You of course flipped out until I explained that I was hoping that you would be my girlfriend.”

“Oh… yeah. I can see why I would have worried. And awwwww! One question… why were we in your bed? Did I really sleep with you after only knowing you a few days? Oh gosh… I don’t do that. Shit, you probably thought I was such a puck slut,” I begin to ramble again (I seriously need to work on that) before Alex stopped me.

“Morgan we haven’t slept together. Well we have slept in the same bed, so I guess we have SLEPT together but we have never made love. I haven’t even seen you naked. You told me you want to wait until marriage and I respect that so we haven’t done more than make out. Promise.”

“Oh, well at least I haven’t become a total slut or anything… although how the hell I haven’t jumped you yet is beyond me,” I said before realizing I said that out loud and blushing. “Oh and I probably told you I wanted to wait until marriage to give you an out and to give myself time to be sure. What I really have always intended on doing was just waiting until it felt right. I know I dated a couple guys for a while but it never felt right.”

“I understand and I will continue to wait until you are ready.”

“Thank you, Alex.”

“Of course, Morgan. I love you,” he said before standing up and, before I realized what he was
doing, placing a light kiss on my lips. I let out a quiet gasp while I felt a spark go through me. I’m pretty sure that if I wasn’t in a hospital bed, my foot would have totally popped! I could tell just from this kiss that we loved each other and I hoped that I would get my memories back soon. As much as I would have loved for it to be like a fairy tale where “True Love’s Kiss” broke the spell and all of my memories came flooding back, that simply did not happen. After my gasp, Alex did take the opportunity to deepen the kiss though and I sure as hell wasn’t complaining.

I did learn a valuable lesson that day though… if you are going to make out while in the hospital, be prepared for nurses to come running. I had forgotten that I was hooked up to a heart monitor and let’s just say that something about kissing this crazy hot Russian hockey superstar who apparently loved me made my heart race enough to cause some concern. When the nurses came in, I hid my face in Alex’s shoulder and I’m pretty sure my whole freaking body blushed.
Alex explained what happened to the nurses and after they all laughed about it, the nurses left us
alone again.

“Whoops,” I whispered still blushing.

“I’m sure they have walked in on worse.”

“But still. I just still can’t understand how we started dating. Like you could have almost anyone, why the hell did you choose me? I’m a just a random fat chick from a tiny town in PA. Our relationship couldn’t have been easy between you playing and me finishing school. I just don’t get it.”

“First off, you are not “just a random fat chick” you are beautiful in every way, both inside and out. I saw it the first day we met. You went out of your way to help me and my buddies out and didn’t recognize us until after you had helped. You are always helping other people out, you are one of the most caring and forgiving people I know. My whole family absolutely loves you. Hell when we broke up this spring, I know for a fact that at least half of my teammates were more worried about you than me, plus a couple of guys from the Penguins threated to beat the shit out of me if I didn’t make it right. Three of your friends did beat me up because I hurt you. That week was the worst of my life but you forgave me. Babe, I’ve seen videos of you in the classroom and the kids love you. You show so much compassion in everything that you do. You make me want to be a better person so that I can at least try to deserve you. I would choose you again and again because in our four months together, you have made me the happiest I have ever been. I know you can’t remember it right now, but we are so, so happy together and we will continue to be. I love you Morgan.”

At this point, I had tears streaming down my face. As far as I know, no one has ever said something that nice about me. The last relationship I remembered was with Stefan and after our first couple months together, I only heard about how fat and ugly and how much of a bitch I was. Prior to our relationship, I had been in a pretty good place when it came to my self-esteem but there are only so many times you can hear derogatory things about yourself before you start to believe them. That’s why I had stopped eating the first time. I figured that maybe if I were skinnier, Stefan wouldn't have an excuse to call me fat and maybe I could make him happier. I would eat just enough to get by and drink tons of water but that was it. Near the end of our relationship, I had actually passed out once because my blood sugar was so low. Thankfully, I was with Jen when it happened so she got me to the hospital and I got everything straightened up. I shudder to think what may have happened if I was with Stefan when that happened. To this day Jen still doesn't know why I was admitted or how serious the problem was. After Stefan and I had broken up, I started to feel a little better about myself but it still surprised me that someone as wonderful as Alex would think, let alone say, such nice things about me. I really wanted to know what had happened to make me feel like I needed to not eat again.

“Why are you crying?” Alex asked with concern.

“I’m just not used to someone actually saying nice things about me. I know that some people think them but not many people say nice things about me.”

“Well what can I say? I speak the truth about my girlfriend, the woman who in four short months has
completely stolen my heart and left me ruined for all other women. In our short time together, I have felt more love, trust, compassion, and optimism than I have in any of my other relationships combined. I can’t imagine my life without you and I was so afraid that I was going to lose you. Morgan, even if you don’t get your memories back, I will fight every day to win your heart again.”

“Oh Alex, my heart is screaming that it loves you so, so much but my head is telling me that I barely know you!” It was also telling me that there was no way that I was good enough for this man and that he was a really good actor, but I shoved those thought away and pulled Alex back to me for another toe curling kiss. After kissing for a little while longer, (we made sure to keep it less intense than last time so we didn’t draw attention to ourselves) I convinced Alex to come and lay with me on the bed.

Once Alex climbed into bed with me, I snuggled as close to him as I could and he wrapped his long, strong arms around me. I knew that I had been in this position many times and even though I couldn’t remember everything and I was halfway around the world, I felt like I was home.
Laying in this familiar stranger’s arms, I felt myself slowly falling asleep. I snuggled closer to Alex and let myself drift away. As I slept, I had a dream that Alex was Gordon Bombay from The Mighty Ducks and he was talking to Mr. Ducksworth. Before long, Alex started quacking at his boss and walking around flapping his arms that suddenly took on the appearance of wings. I was nervous that Alex would break something if he kept quacking and flapping. Because he was making such a racket, I literally had to yell to get Alex to hear me.

“ALEX! LET’S GO! STOP QUACKING AT YOUR BOSS!”