You Had Me at Hello

Saturday night the guys had another game and both Jen and I had been invited. The game went into overtime and the energy in the arena was electric. When Patrick Kane scored the winning goal you could feel the disappointment of almost everyone in attendance. This was the first time since meeting Alex that the Capitals had lost and I wasn’t sure how he would react or if he would want to see me but since this was potentially the last time I would ever get to see him other than on T.V. or through the glass since we were leaving the next day, I wanted to at least say goodbye.

Jen and I walked to the family room to wait for Mike and Alex. Not too much later the players started coming out of the locker room to collect their loved ones. Mike came up to us and asked Jen if she wanted to head out and she agreed. She seemed reluctant to leave me at first because Alex still wasn’t out but I convinced her that I would be fine, that if he wasn’t out soon I would just take a cab to the hotel and see her later.

Soon everyone else had left and there was still no sign of Alex. I figured that I would give him some more time because I knew that as captain he would take the loss hard, even if the guys played well. I sat on the couch and decided to check my email and to play a game. Five games of solitaire later, Alex finally walked in. When I looked up from my game I saw Alex standing in the door looking relieved and confused to see me still sitting there. I stood up and walked over to him and pulled him into a hug and after a second felt him return the hug. I heard him whisper in my ear that he was glad that I was still there.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” I asked confused. “I told you I would meet you after the game.”

“I know but I ended up taking a lot longer than I meant to getting ready and trying to figure out what went wrong. It’s something that I always do after a loss; I sit and try to figure out what I need to do better the next game.”

“I understand. I do the same thing with golf. I realize that it’s not the same because I don’t have as many people depending on me but I can sympathize and that’s why I waited. That and I figured that this may be the last night that we can hang out so I figured that I had to at least say good bye.”

“I’m glad that you are here. It’s hard going home not having someone there for you after a loss. I see the other guys going home to their wife and kids and it makes me lonely sometimes. I mean I have my parents at home when they visit but it’s not the same.”

“I’m glad to be here and I can imagine that would be hard,” I said squeezing him tighter.

“So do you want to do something tonight?”

“Sure, what do you want to do?”

“Well I would like to get some food but I don’t really feel like dealing with people, you know?”

“I understand how about we go back to your house and I’ll make us something to eat?”

“Sounds good to me, then maybe we could watch a movie or something?”

“Perfect,” I said smiling. He led me out to his car and opened my door for me. Once he climbed in, Alex pulled me into another hug and gently kissed my lips. “I am really glad that you are here.”

“I am too,” I said before he took my hand and we were on our way to his house. When we got there I went to the kitchen to see what to make and decided to make steak and fries. When it was done, Alex walked into the kitchen in a pair of sweat pants and a tee shirt looking comfortable and said that it smelled really good. I put the food on plates and we sat down to eat after grabbing drinks.

I waited until Alex had taken a few bites before taking a bite of my own then asked him what he thought. He looked up and said, “I think this is the best steak that I’ve ever had.” I smiled at the praise and told him that I was glad that he liked it. During dinner we talked about random things. He asked me what I planned to do when I graduated college in a few months and I told him that I was looking for a job and was still waiting to hear back from a few places. I asked what he was doing during the summer and he told me that he wasn’t sure yet but he planned to go home to Russia for a while at least. After dinner, we cleaned up the kitchen together but I could tell that he was still upset from the game and decided to try to get him to relax.

I told him to go into the living room and lay down on the couch face down. Once he had I told him to relax and I started to rub his shoulders. After a while I could feel him relax and moved to his neck. After a while I went back to his shoulders and then began to rub the rest of his back. Within five minutes Alex was asleep and after letting him sleep for a few minutes I gently woke him up and told him to go to bed.

“Sleep with me?” he asked sleepily. I hesitated and he could tell that I was about to say no when he realized how it sounded and after remembering a conversation that we had earlier in the week concerning my opinion of sex before marriage he quickly added, “just sleep, nothing else. Promise.” I sighed and agreed. He took my hand and led me up to his room. When we got there I asked if he had a pair of sweat pants that I could borrow and he quickly found me a pair and I went to change. While I was changing, I sent Jen a quick text telling her that I would not be home and for her to not worry. She quickly texted me back that she wasn’t planning on going back to the hotel tonight either. I walked out of the bathroom and over to the bed and climbed in beside Alex. I lay on the edge of the bed, leaving a lot of space between us in Alex’s huge king size bed. Before long I felt Alex wrap his arm around my waist and pull me closer to him.

“Just because we not have sex not mean we not cuddle,” he whispered. I laughed at his broken English and snuggled closer to his side. He kissed the top of my head and wished me sweet dreams. I kissed the underside of his chin and wished him the same. I relaxed into him enjoying the feel of his hands moving up and down my back in a soothing rhythm, the next thing I knew I was awaken by Alex kissing my forehead. I was surprised that I had slept through the night because every other time that I had slept beside a man I had woken up several times throughout the night and normally didn’t sleep well. When he noticed that I was awake, Alex asked what time I had to be back to the hotel. I told him that my plane didn’t leave until 9 that night but I had to be back by 10:30 so that I could make sure that everything was packed so that the hotel could send my bags to the airport. He said that worked out well because he had practice at 11. I asked him what time it was and was surprised when he said that it was 7 a.m. I shook my head and snuggled tighter to him. He laughed and asked if I planned on getting up soon.

“Nope. I’m staying here forever.”

“You are planning on staying in my bed forever?”

“Yup. What do you have to say to that?”

“I say that as nice as it would be to be able to know that there is always a beautiful woman in my bed I think that you would get bored quickly.”

“Fine. Then I’ll just stay here for a little longer.”

“I hope by a little bit longer you mean a few hours.”

“It means that I’m staying for a little while longer.”

“Fine. Then I will just have to make the most of it.”

“Oh really? And how do you plan to do that?” I asked, laughing.

The next thing I know I am being kissed deeply and Alex’s arms are around my back. After a few minutes of kissing, Alex started to kiss along my jaw and down my neck. He worked his way back up to my lips and kissed me hard. After a while we just decided to cuddle for a little while before we had to leave.

“What are you doing after you check out?”

“Not sure yet, there is still a lot that Jen and I haven’t seen so we will probably try to see as much as we can before we have to go to the airport. What are your plans for the day?”

“Well… I was hoping to spend a little time with my girlfriend.”

“You have a fucking girlfriend?!?!” I exclaimed trying to get off his bed. But he held me tighter.

“That depends.”

“On what?”

“Morgan, I know that I have only known you for a week and it will be hard but will you be my girlfriend?”

I stopped struggling and froze. ‘Was he serious? Could we make this work? Could I really trust him when we were so far away from each other? Why me? When would we ever get to see each other? I can’t afford to be buying plane tickets all the time.’ These and a million other thoughts flew through my mind in a second.

“Are you sure?” I asked and when he nodded I said, “I would be proud to be your girlfriend, Alex.” He smiled and pulled me into a hug and kissed me, if possible, with even more passion than he had before. After what felt like hours we pulled apart and went downstairs to make breakfast. It took much longer than it should have due to the fact that he kept distracting me with kisses and I would be lying if I said I minded. After we finished eating, we sat together on his couch and watched some T.V. and soon it was time to leave. He dropped me off and gave me a kiss and promised to call me when practice was over.