Brave the Storm

“Can you just talk to me and not walk away?” Mike pleaded to Kailyn as he followed her on her trek to the home team’s locker room. She didn’t want to speak to him, but he wasn’t taking no for an answer. Kailyn just wanted him to go away, she had nothing to say to him and she was just waiting for him to realize it. Things were going great for her. So much so, that she rarely ever thought let alone missed Mike anymore. She would only ever consider giving him another chance if it was the convenient thing to do or the safe choice. She was completely content with her life. She didn’t need a man at the moment, but if the chance ever occurred she felt confident she could be comfortable with the idea now. Carolina had been good to her and she hoped it had a wonderful man in store for her as well. She even dared to hope it was possible since the months had passed.

“Aren’t you seeing someone by now? Or even more than one someone?” She asked as she looked back at him for a moment with a raised eyebrow while she continued her journey to her locker room. Mike didn’t answer but just the guilty look on his face confirmed her question for her. She knew Mike’s facial expressions from spending so much time in his company. He could not hide things from her because she could read him so well. He was certainly getting around, that much was evident. “See? There you go. You don’t need me and I don’t need you. You have nothing further to say to me and I have nothing to say to you. Have a good life Mike; I would appreciate it if you would stop trying to get back in my pants.” With that she entered the locker room, leaving a very stunned Mike Green on the other side of the door. She grabbed her shower supplies and made her way into the shower area not at all surprised to see a towel clad Eric Staal dripping wet from his shower.

“Staal,” Kailyn said in a forced calm voice, “Why is it that every time I try to be the last one in the shower, you are always in here with me?”

Eric merely shrugged, “I try to be the last one too. Every time I think you are done, you come in just when I get out.”

Kailyn tried to avoid looking at his towel clad body. She crossed her arms over her sports bra clad chest and raised an eyebrow at him. She was getting too used to seeing Eric in only a towel. That wasn’t something she wanted to repeat, but she had a feeling that Eric was all too fond of these encounters. She could tell just from the smirk on his face at the moment—the very same he had given her when they had first run into each other like this. It could also be the fact that they had ran into each other like this for the past week.

Not that she didn’t enjoy the view, she certainly did. He gave the show so feely that Kailyn felt that it was only polite to indulge him. She especially liked his hair when he came out of the shower. It became a soft copper color and he used an Axe body wash that made him smell incredible. She almost didn’t mind that he insisted on letting her check him out because of that wonderful smell, but she still minded that she had to pretend not to be looking when they both knew she was. And this is why she was annoyed; she didn’t want to give Eric any ammo in their flirtation war to tease her with. She didn’t like to be reminded of her faults, then again who did? She didn’t care about a little jab here and there, in her line of work they were hard to avoid, but Eric Staal was also a pro in finding a weakness and exploiting it. This she did not like one bit. Sure it was all in good fun, she still didn’t care for it.

“We have to stop meeting like this,” Eric told her, speaking exactly what was on her mind.

She simply rolled her eyes at his joking tone and tried to make her way past him. He took a step to get out of her way. His feet slipped from under him on the excess water that leaked from the shower stall. His forward steps caused him to crash into Kailyn and take her down to the floor with him. He landed on top of her on the cold, gray tiled floor.

Kailyn groaned and glared at him straight into his caramel eyes. “The one uncoordinated thing you do just had to be this, didn’t it?”

Eric smiled, “I don’t know, it seems to be working out for me.” He moved his right hand to her waist.

She groaned and pushed him off her causing his towel to slip. She immediately slammed her palms over her eyes. This was the most embarrassing situation known to man, it just had to be. She had only ever seen one man naked and she was now divorced from that one man. She was completely certain not just her cheeks but her whole entire body wreaked humiliation. And then he said it, the comment that made her wish the floor was lava so she could just die in that moment, “Wow Kailyn, if you wanted to see me naked all you had to do was ask.”

She would never be able to erase these moments from her mind. She felt like they had violated all the friend rules in that instant. She and Eric were doomed as friends. She would never be able to make it work when they were both trying to fight their feelings for each other. Harmless flirting was fine, but this, this was hardcore flirtation and she didn’t know what to do and in the next moment she panicked. She scrambled to her feet and quickly made her way into the shower to avoid any more being said.