You Had Me at Hello

The next morning I woke up and got ready for practice. When I got to the locker room I started getting ready. A little while later, Sasha walked in and sat down next to me and began getting ready for practice. He asked me about Morgan and what we ended up doing yesterday and I told him about spending the afternoon and evening with her and how much I enjoyed it. Then it was time for practice and I could tell that this was going to be a great day for hockey. I was really on and so was the rest of the team. I couldn’t wait till the game that night. After practice I took a shower and answered some questions for the press and went to get lunch with some of the guys.

After lunch I went home and got everything ready for the game then went to take my pregame nap. I thought about how lucky I was to be able to be living my dream. I fell asleep quickly and woke to my alarm going off feeling refreshed. I walked out to the kitchen to see that my mom had made me my pregame meal and I gladly sat down with her and dad to eat before I had to head to the rink. I always loved it when my parents came to visit, which they do for a month or two at a time throughout the season.

When I got to the rink I started to get ready and a few minutes before we went out for warm ups, my phone buzzed with a text. I opened it and smiled, it was from Morgan. “You are amazing and wonderful, thank you soooo much for everything. Kick some Cryer ass tonight! :-)” I sent her I quick text back saying that she was welcome and that I was planning on it. I then lead my team out to get ready for the game. As I came out onto the ice I took a minute to glance over to behind the penalty box where I knew Morgan and Jen would be sitting and smiled and waved at them. I was pleased to see that Morgan and Jen had put on the shirts that I had left for them.

The game began and the Cryers were hitting hard and playing dirty but no matter how hard they were trying they just couldn’t touch us that night. Our whole team was playing better tonight then we had in a while and I was leading the charge. With ten minutes left in the third we were on a power play after Scott Hartnell tripped Mike and was given a minor.

While he was being taken to the penalty box I heard Jen freaking out on him and smiled. I looked over and saw that Morgan was shaking her head at her friend and seemed to be enjoying the fact the Hartnell was dumb enough to make dismissive gesture toward Jen who just started freaking out more.

When the reff dropped the puck Nicky won it and sent a pass to me and one minute into the power play I scored my third goal of the night and I got pelted with hats. I smiled and hugged my teammates and looked over to see Morgan cheering her heart out smiling at me. The game ended with us winning 7 to nothing.

We made our way back to the locker room to deal with the press, a necessary evil in this business. When that was done I got a quick shower and went to meet Morgan and Jen in the family lounge. Mike walked out with me and we had decided along with Nicky, Sasha and a couple of the other guys to go out to a club to celebrate. When I walked into the family room I was happy to see that Morgan and Jen were talking to some of the WAGs and seemed to be enjoying themselves.

When I walked over and tapped Morgan on the shoulder she smiled and gave me a huge hug and a kiss on the cheek then whispered “great game” in my ear making me blush a little. I’ve had a million people tell me the same thing over the years but for some reason it felt different when she said it.

When Morgan and I separated I looked over at Jen and smiled. Yesterday Morgan had told me that Jen had a crush on Mike all through college but made me swear to not tell anyone. When I looked over and saw Mike and Jen standing next to each other looking at Morgan and me with amused expressions I make up my mind that Mike and Jen would get to know each other better. By this time everyone that was coming out with us was there and Jen, Mike, Morgan and I piled into my car with me sitting next to Morgan and Jen and Mike sitting together in the back. After introducing the two I saw Morgan wink at Jen and had to stifle a laugh.

When we got to the club I asked what Morgan and Jen wanted to drink and was surprised at first when they both asked for Pepsi but then remembered that Morgan had said that neither her nor Jen liked to drink and decided to only have one drink that night instead of drinking as much as normal.

For a while the group just sat and talked about the game. After a while Morgan was able to drag Mike, Jen and I out onto the dance floor. I saw Jen shooting daggers at Morgan which caused Morgan to laugh. We danced for a few songs and had a ton of fun. None of us were great dancers but Morgan’s silliness helped make it fun. The only problem with dancing together in a club was that with as close as I ended up dancing with Morgan, she was pressed up against me a lot and let’s just say I was thinking about wanting to do more than kiss her but from our talk yesterday I knew that she believed in no sex until marriage and I respected her for that. I couldn’t figure out what was about her that made me like her so much. I don’t know if it was the fact that she was a fan but didn’t seem to want to be with me because of my job, or something else. I only hoped that I would have time to figure out what it was before she left.

After we got done dancing we decided to head home. On the way back I noticed that Jen and Mike were holding hands and looked over at Morgan and sighed. She looked at me questioningly and I just smiled. Then I reached over and took her hand in mine and laced our fingers together. I took Mike back to get his car and upon finding out that Jen and Morgan had taken the bus to the game said that I would take them back to the hotel. After Mike got out we headed back to the hotel and I offered to walk them to their door. They agreed and Morgan and I followed Jen up to the room. When we got there Jen went inside after saying good night.

I pulled Morgan into my arms and took a chance and placed my lips on hers. I just meant to give her a peck on the lips but when I went to pull away she refused to let her lips leave mine. Soon our lips were moving together and the kiss seemed to go forever. When we pulled apart for air I put my forehead to hers. After a few moments she went up on her toes placed a kiss to my cheek and whispered “that was for getting a hat trick tonight since I forgot my hat at home.” She then pulled away and smiled, said good night, and went into her room. I stood in the hall for a few minutes trying to wrap my head around what just happened. I then went home and fell asleep for the second night in a row with a smile on my face.