Higher Than Hope

Irina rolled over in bed and slowly opened her eyes as a thin sliver of the sunset came in through a gap in the draped. She tossed the covers off of herself and stretched, feeling a lot better now that she had slept off the jetlag. Irina took a quick shower and wrapped a plush blue robe around her slim body before going into the kitchen and looking inside the refrigerator. She frowned when she saw just a few Tupperware containers of macaroni and cheese, potato salad and tuna, closing the door and looking through the cupboards.

There was a knock on the door and she went to answer it, seeing two young men on the other side. "Privyet, sirs", she said.

"Uh, privyet to you too, miss. Is Nail here?", asked the shorter man. He was slightly under six feet tall with wavy brown hair and kind blue eyes, a slight gap between his two front teeth.

"Are you Nail's sister, he mentioned his sister coming over", said the taller one, a flirtatious look in his blue eyes. He had an air about him that was very confident bordering on cocky, his sandy blond hair falling across his forehead and his muscled arms exposed by his Windsor Spitfires t-shirt.

"Da, I am Irina, Nail's sister. Are you his friends?", she asked.

"Sort of, we're his teammates on the Oilers. I'm Jordan Eberle and this is my roommate and friend Taylor Hall", said the brown-haired boy.

"Very glad to meet you, Mr. Eberle and Mr. Hall. Where is Nail?", she asked.

"Just call me Taylor and him Jordan, or Hallsy and Ebs if you like. Yaks went out with his chick and Nuge is with his chick. You wanna crash with us until they come back?", asked Taylor.

"Where do you live?", she asked.

"We live just down the hall, Miss Yakupov", replied Jordan.

"Da, okay", she agreed.

Taylor just winked at her as he led them down to their apartment. "Welcome to Chez Hallsy and Ebs, Miss Irina. Hope it's not too much of a pigsty", he laughed as he opened the doo.

Jordan turned on the light and set up the TV and XBox, glancing up as Taylor led her around the apartment. He just sighed as he set up Call of Duty, seeing Taylor work his charm on her. Of course, Hallsy's always got game, he thought with a sigh.

"I hope you don't mind the game, we're big into Call of Duty. We're going to order something later", said Taylor with his most charming smile.

Irina giggled, her green eyes dancing with amusement. "Da, that sounds good. What sort of game is that?", she asked.

"It's a game where you're a soldier and you shoot guys on the other team, a lot of the guys play it", explained Jordan.

"Okay, that not my thing. But I watch", she replied.

Both boys started playing Call of Duty while Irina settled in to watch. Jordan tried to control the blush coming up his cheeks when he felt Irina sit above him on the couch. He tried to concentrate on the game as he turned his attention to the screen, him and Taylor joined by others on the XBox network.

An hour later, there was another knock on the door as Jordan let Magnus and Jonesy inside, the others looking at her curiously. "Guys, this is Irina, Nail's sister. Irina, these are my teammates Magnus Paajarvi and Ryan Jones", said Jordan.

"Hallo, Miss Yakupova", said Magnus.

"Hey, welcome to Edmonton, ma'am. Just call me Jonesy, since there's three Ryans on the team it can get confusing", laughed Jonesy.

"Very glad to meet you, Mr. Jones and Mr. Paajarvi", she replied graciously.

"Hah, Mr. Jones makes me sound old, everyone calls me Jonesy. And don't call him Mr. Paajarvi, we all just call him Maggie", laughed Jonesy.

Magnus and Jonesy joined them on the couch as they all started playing Call of Duty. Irina quickly grew bored and took out her phone, logging onto Facebook and playing Angry Birds. "Hey Ebs, the lady is bored. They didn't each you manners on the farm?", teased Jonesy.

Jordan blushed furiously as he logged out of the game and got up from the couch. "Uh, I'll show you around a bit, Miss Yakupov. Do you want some wine?", he asked shyly.

"Da, spasibo", she replied.

Jordan still had the blush on his cheeks as he led Irina towards the kitchen. He reached into the wine rack and took out a bottle of Pinot Grigio, pouring the white wine into two glasses and handing one to her. "Uh, my aunt is Italian and she says this is a good before-dinner wine", he explained shyly.

Irina nodded and took a sip of wine. Jordan blushed even more when he caught himself staring as she drank the wine, hastily taking a big gulp from his own glass. "Uh, I got some books in my room. I need something to do on road trips", he said.

"I am still learning to read in English, but I am getting better", she replied.

"That's cool, I can't read anything in Russian so I guess that makes us even", he chuckled.

Jordan rinsed out their glasses and put them away as he led her to his room, turning on the light switch and saying a silent prayer of thanks that he had made the bed that morning. It was a plain room with beige walls dominated by a large king-sized bed covered in a black comforter and matching pillows, the nightstand and dresser made of the same black wood. Across from the bed was a wall-mounted plasma TV with a cable box and a wi-fi box, its remote control on top of the nightstand along with a clock radio and a white Mac Book. A bookshelf ran along the left side of the room along with another shelf full of CD's with a small CD player sitting on a chair, the CD's almost all country music.

"That's my stuff, I'm just a hick from Saskatchewan who grew up on a farm. But I have a lot of books, it's something I started doing when I played in the WHL during juniors, they have these really long bus rides and it was either that or learn how to play guitar", he chuckled.

Irina looked at the books on the shelf, carefully reading the titles. "Yeah, I read a lot of cowboy novels, Louis L'Amour, Zane Grey. There's a lot of cowboys in Saskatchewan", he said with a little laugh.

Irina took out one of the books and carefully read the title and glanced at the back. "That's Zane Grey, he's one of my favorite Western writers. He writes mostly about the Southwest and Texas, he does these novels about good guys but also the settlers and ranchers, the good guys are usually outlaws who are trying to avenge themselves. All his stuff is good", said Jordan.

"May I borrow a few?", she asked.

"Sure, we're just down the hall. Uh, the guys are going to order dinner", he said as he led her back towards the parlor.

"Ebs, you want Nail to kick your ass?", laughed Taylor as Irina giggled and Jordan flipped him off.

"Dude, don't tease the Saskatchewan yokel here, he's turning red as a tomato. Anyways, I got a hankering for some Chinese food", said Jonesy, getting a Chinese menu from the drawer.

"Is that all right, Miss Yakupova?", asked Magnus.

"Da, karosho", she replied.

"English here, ma'am. I totally suck at languages, I'm just a dumb Canadian redneck", laughed Jonesy.

"This is why I'm trilingual, it can really come in handy", said Magnus dryly.

Magnus placed the order and the group went back to playing Call of Duty. Irina glanced up at the screen but then looked down at the book and began to read it, The Last of the Duanes by Zane Grey. The old-fashioned English gave her a bit of trouble at first but then she was hooked as she devoured the work. The story of the wronged reluctant outlaw Buck Duane and his vengeance against the gang who had killed his father engrossed her as she barely noticed the game on the screen.

"The food's here", said Taylor as the doorbell rang.

Irina was momentarily startled at his voice as Jordan smiled knowingly. "I know, that's a great book. That's the original version, it had to be redone because people back then thought it was too violent. The rest of his stuff is just as good", he said as Taylor paid for the food.