Chelsea Dagger

While Patrick was at practice Chelsea was hard at work in his now fully stocked kitchen. Since Patrick was being so generous by letting her stay in his apartment she wanted to do something nice for him. The last thing she wanted was to seem like she was taking advantage of her friend. There wasn’t much she could do for him but she could manage this. She wasn’t a master chef by any means, but she could hold her own in the kitchen.

“Come on, just let me meet her,” Toews argued with Patrick over at the rink. Practice had let out and Patrick was trying to leave. It seemed that Jonathan had made it his mission to prevent that from happening.

“You’ll meet her when you meet her,” Patrick said. He knew Chelsea and Jonathan would have to meet eventually, but he wasn’t ready for them to meet yet. It might be selfish of him but he wanted to have as much time alone with her before he has to share her with others. Right now he could only manage to think of the worst possible situation. In this case it would involve him losing Chelsea while Jonathan Toews became her new best friend. The last thing he wanted was to be replaced by Jonathan Toews.

“Why don’t I meet her tonight?” Jonathan wasn’t giving up he couldn’t help but to be curious about this girl. As far as he knew Patrick didn’t just have friends that were girls. He tended to ruin any opportunities for that. Jonathan wanted to see this girl for himself and see what was different about her.

“Because I said so,” Patrick replied shortly.

“Just admit it then,” Toews ordered.

“Admit what?” Patrick asked. “You’ve lost me man.”

“Admit that you’re hiding this girl. You don’t want me to meet her.”

“And why would I do that,” Patrick said trying to hide his guilt.

“I don’t know. Maybe because you have the emotional capacity of a five year old.” Jonathan paused for a minute before he smirked. “Or maybe you’re afraid she’ll like me more than she likes you.”

Jonathan’s last statement hit a little too close to home for Pat. In an attempt to hide that fact from Jonathan he quickly blurted out the words he knew that would make his teammate shut up. “Fine you can meet her tonight. Just follow me to my apartment.”

“Now was that so hard,” Jonathan joked. Patrick just shrugged him off and the two boys made their way to their separate cars.

Patrick stayed calm until he was in his own car with the doors closed. “Fuck,” he exclaimed while hitting the steering wheel. He took a few deep breathes to calm him self and started the car. The drive back to his apartment was shorter than he would have liked. The moment where his two worlds collide was getting closer with each mile. He knew that eventually Chelsea would meet his teammates but he just wanted more time before that moment. He had managed to calm himself down during the ride. Then when Jonathan parked next to him his emotions flared up again. He took one more deep breath before getting out of the car.

The walk from the car to the elevator of Patrick’s building was slightly awkward, but it was nothing compared to the elevator ride itself. The two of them stood on opposite sides of the tiny space. The only noise was the low ding that indicated the floors they were passing.

Chelsea had just set the table in Patrick’s apartment when she heard the two boys entering. “Hey, scumbag, how was practice?” she called out while she walked towards the entrance to the apartment. She was caught off guard to see that he wasn’t alone.

“Yeah, scumbag how was it?” Jonathan teased Patrick.

“Shut up Toews,” Patrick said and shoved the Capitan.

“Don’t be rude, Pat. Introduce me to your friend.”

“Oh right. Chelsea, this is Tazer,” Pat said reluctantly.

“Nice to meet you,” Chelsea said directing her attention to Jonathan. She held out her hand to the man and he took it firmly in his own.

“The pleasure is all mine,” told her with a charming smile. “But please call me Jon.”

“Sure thing Jon.”

“So… what have you been doing while I was at practice?” Patrick asked. He felt like he needed to firmly insert himself back into the conversation.

“I made dinner,” she said proudly.

“Oh in that case, Tazer, you should probably be heading out then. See you later.” Patrick was practically pushing Jon out of the apartment with his mind. It probably would have worked too, but Chelsea spoke up before Jonathan even turned around.

“You’re more than welcome to stay, Jon. There’s more than enough food and I love to get to know you. It always nice to meet a friend of Pat’s.” The second after the last part was out of her mouth Chelsea scrunched her face up. “Ugh I sound like his mother don’t I.”

This caused Jon to chuckle, and Pat to just stand there awkwardly. This was exactly what he had wanted to prevent from happening. Jon and Chelsea were hitting it off and soon neither of them would need him.

“I’d love to stay. As long as you’re sure it’s not a problem,” Jon answered.

“Of course not. I’ll set you a plate,” Chelsea said with a smile. She turned around to go back into the kitchen and the two boys followed her.

“Are you sure about that, Chels? You might not know this but Tazer is kind of a fat ass. I mean just look at that thing.” He pointed to Jon’s butt in an attempt to reinforce his statement. It was Patrick’s last-ditch effort to get Jonathan out of his apartment. To his dismay though it was not successful.

“I am not,” Jonathan argued.

“It doesn’t matter. Even if you are there is an insane amount of food. I went a little bit overboard,” she admitted with a reassuring smile directed at Jon.

She grabbed an extra place setting and motioned for the boys to sit down. She disappeared one more time before coming back with a bowl of chicken and pasta with a pesto sauce.

“I know it’s not much,” she said sheepishly. “I just wanted to make something.”

“It looks great,” Jonathan reassured her with a smile.

“He’s right, Chels. Besides you don’t even want to know how long it has been since I’ve had a home cooked meal,” Patrick added.

“I can believe that, Pat.” Chelsea let out a small chuckle. This act relaxed Patrick a little bit. “You too should try it before you pass any judgments though.”

“You don’t have to tell me twice,” Patrick said. With that they the boys dug in to there food. Chelsea waited though. She wanted to know their verdicts before starting on her own food.

“It really is as good as it looks,” Jon told her. Patrick just nodded his head in agreement before shoving another forkful of pasta into his mouth.

“So, Chelsea what brings you to the windy city?” Jonathan enquired.

“I got a job offer and with Patrick here it just seemed to make sense. I a little hesitant to move out to the city, but since I knew somebody it didn’t seem so bad.” She smiled over at Patrick after explaining the situation.

“What do you do?” Jonathan asked.

“Right now I’m an assistant to a Photographer at “Chicago Social.” I know it’s not the most glamorous job, but I’m hoping that it could lead to my own photography job in the future.”

“Photography, that’s cool. When do you start?”

“What is this, Jon, 20 questions?” Patrick cut in.

“Pat,” Chelsea said with an eye roll. Then she turned her attention back to Jon. “Anyways, I start next week and I’m a little nervous.”

“I’m sure you shouldn’t be.” Jonathan smiled at the girl causing her to smile back. “A bunch of the guys usually go out after games; either to celebrate or blow off steam. You should go out with us on Friday to celebrate you last days of freedom,” Jon offered.

“That’s sounds nice,” Chelsea accepted.