Lightweight

I don’t think my morning could have gone worse. I set my alarm for 7 in the morning, and of course I didn’t hear it so I woke up an hour later courtesy of loud noises downstairs which I ignored because I figured it was just Pat making a mess of the kitchen trying to make breakfast. That was probably a miracle in disguise, I thought to myself as I booked it to the bathroom for a quick shower and put on clothes in record time. I quickly put my hair in a neat ponytail since I really didn’t have time for anything else and ran downstairs to grab a cup of coffee before I had to leave for work.

I made my way down the stairs and almost had a heart attack when I saw none other than Jonathan Toews sitting on one of the stools at the counter, drinking coffee and looking over some papers. I cleared my throat and he turned around almost choking on his drink, “Good morning, Mia” He said with a grin after he wiped some coffee that was dripping down his chin.

“I don’t mean to be rude, but, why are you in my house?” I raised an eyebrow as I grabbed a mug from the cupboard and poured myself to some coffee. I must have really been in a hurry because I almost didn’t realize how hot it was until I my throat starting burning.

He shrugged and looked down at his clothes which consisted of a pair of compression shorts and a grey tank top, “Pat and I went running this morning, and now he went to get breakfast, if you’re hungry”

I shook my head ignoring my stomach begging for food and checked the time on my phone 8:25, “I really can’t. I have to be at work by 9” I smiled sheepishly, “I’m guessing it was you who caused the loud noises this morning. If it wasn’t for you, I’d probably still be sleeping, so uh, thanks”

A blush crept up onto his cheeks and he rubbed the back of his neck, clearly embarrassed, “Yeah, I’m sorry. I was trying to get the coffee pot, but I ended up pulling out a couple of pots and things with it” I smiled, “but hey, if it got you up, then I guess I’m not that sorry” What a charmer.

I finished the rest of my coffee in complete silence except for Jon shuffling some papers around which I guessed were hockey plays for practice. When I was done, I looked at the time again, 8:35. Jonathan must have noticed my uneasiness because he looked back up at me, “Look, do you want a ride? Pat’s probably stuck somewhere, and you have less than a half hour to get there”

I blushed, “You really don’t have to do that, Jon. It’s no big deal, how much longer could he be?”

He gave me a look clearly seeing how nervous I was getting, “If he’s not here in 5 minutes, I’m driving you. No if’s and’s or but’s” I smiled and nodded. After 5 minutes, Jon grabbed his keys off the table and motioned for me to follow him. I hesitated for a couple of seconds before realizing my only options were being late for work, or being on time. I opted for driving with Jonathan and be moderately safe of getting to work on time.

“So, I feel like I need to explain something to you” Jonathan said after complete silence for the first 5 minutes of our trip, he ran a hand through his hair, and when I gave him a confused look, he began to speak again, “The other day? At lunch?”

I shook my head and started blushing, “Jon, you have nothing to explain to me, it wasn’t your fault. It was mine, I wasn’t watching where I was going and I’m the one who ran into you causing you to get drenched”

He shook his head keeping his eyes on the road and looking anywhere but me. Although, I couldn’t really tell where he was looking for sure, because my eyes were on everything possible except the man sitting next to me, “I know that. But it was my fault for blowing up at you” Okay, so he had a point. “I feel like I should explain myself. The guys were giving me shit for being such a tough captain on them-”

“Because you want them to be the best, right?” I didn’t mean to cut him off, but I figured I’d make him feel better about the situation a little bit. For the first time that whole car ride, we looked over at each other and he smiled and nodded, “Yeah, pretty much. But I was getting so frustrated because I tried explaining that to them, and I guess I bottled my anger so much that I was going to blow up at the next person I came in contact with, so I decided to go to my car and cool off for a bit, but you kind of became that person I exploded on. So, I’m really sorry for that”

He didn’t really have to apologize, but I suddenly gained a new respect for him as a person and as a captain. I surprised myself with the next words that came out of my mouth especially after Pat told me so much about Jonathan as a captain, “You don’t give yourself enough credit. You want what’s best for your team, and from what I’ve seen of the games, you’re doing a good job. The guys should be proud to have you as a captain, and they are, well at least I know Pat is. They’re so hard on you because they don’t realize that the hard work they put in pays off” When I saw we pulled up in front of the office, I looked over at him and smiled, “Next time, don’t bottle up your anger so much. You might end up with iced tea on you again. But, thanks for the ride Jon. I’ll see you tonight”

_________________________

“Good morning, Mia!” Whitney smiled brightly from behind her desk. I smiled and walked over to her, “Morning, Whit. Can I see Anna? Or is she busy?”

She shook her head and stood up walking over to me, “Actually, Anna’s out on a meeting right now, so she asked me to show you to your office. You ready?”

I nodded and followed her down the hallway I walked down a couple of days ago. Whitney lead me to the office right next to Anna’s and opened the door allowing me to walk in first. The office was identical to Anna’s just a little bit emptier. I smiled and sat down at my desk, Whitney sitting across from me on the little sofa that was in front of the desk, “So, Anna told me you can personalize it any way you want, paint the walls since in my opinion they’re a boring white. You can add anything you want. In Anna’s words “your home away from home” I’m sure you’ll treat it that way” I nodded in satisfaction, still unable to comprehend how I landed this job, “As for appointments today, you have 3 lined up. 10:30, 1, and then at 4. After that, you’re free to go home. Now that work’s out of the way and Anna’s not here” She smiled mischievously, “What happened after I left?”

I rolled my eyes and began taking notes on my computer, taking down the times when clients would be coming in, “Nothing. The guys were being guys and played Xbox, I cleaned up the kitchen since I knew Pat wasn’t going to do it, and then said goodnight to the guys and watched TV in my room...by myself. But it’s fine, I need some Mia time” I sighed, figuring I’d have to tell her sooner or later, “Jonathan did drive me to work this morning. If it wasn’t for him, I probably would have been late” I bit my lip, waiting for her reaction.

Her eyes grew wide, shining a bit, “Captain Toews ditched his captain duty to drive you to work? Spill”

“He wasn’t on “captain duty”, him and Pat went for a run, Pat went out to go get breakfast and Jon stayed at the house to make coffee and go over some plays I’m guessing. I came downstairs almost having a heart attack after I saw him, got some coffee, told him I was going to be late for work and well, he drove me” I rolled my eyes and how interested she was in this story, “Then he explained to me what happened at lunch that day, the guys were giving him shit for being so hard on them as a captain, and I guess I made him feel better by lifting his spirits saying he’s a good captain and the guys are proud of him and stuff”

I shrugged coming to the end of my story and Whitney leaned back and crossed her arms over her chest, “Huh, go figure. Well, I for one am very excited about the party tonight, I don’t know about you. Should be interesting with you and Jonathan” She teased.

“And you and Pat” I teased back, mimicking her, sticking my tongue out. She blushed and I knew I had won, “What are you wearing tonight?”

She shrugged, “I was thinking just a dress, nothing fancy like ball gown Cinderella status, but not a casual dress either”

I nodded, “Okay, good, I was thinking the exact same thing” I looked at the time realizing it was almost time for my very first appointment, “I have to get to work! Get out! I’ll catch up with you for lunch, okay?”

She nodded and stood up about to walk around of the room, “Don’t overwork yourself Mia, you’re going to do fine. I’m sure Anna will be in here later to check up on you. See you later!”

I watched her close the door behind her and I sighed, I can do this, I’m going to be completely fine. I calmed my nerves just in time for there to be a knock on my door and Whitney poking her head in, “Hey, Mi. The Connor couple is here to see you, you ready?”

I nodded and she opened the door wide enough to let the couple in, “After you’re done here you can come to the front desk to make your next appointment” They nodded and thanked her and she closed the door behind her. I stood up and walked over to shake their hands, “Hi, I’m Mia. It’s very nice to meet you guys”

They were a pretty young couple, maybe 2 or 3 years older than me, and very good looking. The woman was a little on the shorter side with long blonde hair and hazel eyes, she probably could have passed for a model minus the height. Her fiancee was much taller than her which I felt complimented each other very nicely with dark hair slicked back slightly and dark eyes with a kind smile. Clearly someone liked their men tall, dark, and handsome. “Hello Mia, it’s nice to meet you too. I’m Rachel, and this is my fiancee Ryan”

I motioned for them to sit down as I sat back down on my own chair and grabbed a pen so I could write down notes, “Okay, so I don’t know if you know how this works, but I can have whatever part in the wedding planning that you want me to. As much as possible, or as little. Whatever you need, I’m here to cater to you. So, do you have any idea what you would like?”

Rachel nodded and smiled, “Well, I was wondering if you could help me pick out a venue for the wedding and reception since we’re trying to stay within a budget” I nodded and asked her to tell me the budget, “Well, for the venue it’s $5,000. I figured one place for both would be the easiest. Somewhere romantic, flowers everywhere, green grass, maybe a view of a lake, hanging lights from trees” I nodded as I wrote down all of her requests, and this girl definitely had a lot of them. Ryan just sat there allowing his fiancee to talk about what she wanted for her dream wedding. I thought it was sweet how he let her talk without interrupting her realizing that it was her special day and holding her hand the whole time. “If you could also find a caterer for me, that’d be great, I’m not really familiar with any, so I figured I’d leave it up to the experts. Nothing too fancy, chicken, pasta, salad. Simple things, I just want it to be really good. One last thing, the bridesmaids are going to need dresses, and I know if I go with them, it’s going to be much more difficult and stressful for me and them” She pulled out a picture from her bag and handed it to me, “That’s my dress, it has a lavender bow around the waist, so I want the colors to match that, and short dresses since it’s going to be an outside wedding”

I nodded, trying to keep up with her requests, rushing through these notes, “I actually think I got all that. So, when’s the wedding?”

“April 16th” Ryan spoke for the first time, and I saw Rachel squeeze his hand and smile. I nodded and wrote down the date, “Okay, great! Whitney can schedule your next appointment so we can go over venues, caterers, and then after that I’ll meet with the bridesmaids. Whenever is the most convenient time for you. Now that business is out of the way, I usually always like to ask my clients what their stories are, how they got together, how he proposed, if it’s too personal we can just skip that”

Ryan looked over at Rachel and when she nodded, he started speaking, “Well, we met back in college. I always thought she was one of the most beautiful girls in our class, if not one of the most beautiful girls I’ve ever seen” Rachel started blushing, “Well, me and my friends decided to pull a prank in their dorm which was probably really stupid of us looking back on because her and her roommates hated us for a while before they came around and started laughing about it with us. After that, we all became best friends and I decide to ask Rachel out. We dated on and off for 6 months before we became official. After 4 years of dating, I took her back to her dorm room where we pulled the prank courtesy of one of my sisters best friends who was in Rachel’s old dorm, and proposed to her there. She’s the love of my life, I don’t know what I’d do without her” After Ryan finished the story Rachel leaned over and kissed his cheek, and I couldn’t help but smile and feel the love between them. These are the things that made me love my job.

After Rachel and Ryan left I realized I became more comfortable with working here and getting used to the way everything works. After my second appointment today, Anna stopped by and looked over my notes satisfied and saying that the clients were very please with the service they received she couldn’t be happier. Finally it was time for my last appointment which only lasted for 15 minutes since the couple didn’t want me to have much of a part and finally I was able to go home. “Hey Whit, can you give me a ride home?” I asked when I saw she was packing her stuff up ready to go home. She looked over at me and smirked, “Why what’s wrong? Captain can’t come pick you up?”

I rolled my eyes, “I hate you, so much. He was just being a nice guy”

“Oh yeah, a nice guy. Okay Mia, is that always your excuse? Because it’s a shitty one. Anyone would have to be blind to realize that the boy isn’t crushing”

My heart stopped and caught in my throat, “He isn’t. He just met me, we’ve had a total of three conversations, one of which didn’t end too good” I followed her outside to her car wanting to drop the conversation, but she obviously had other ideas.

“Because all guys would volunteer to drive you to work at 8:30 in the morning when he could have just stayed there sitting on his ass drinking his coffee and going over his hockey plays. He ditched hockey plays and captain duties for you”

I rolled my eyes and shook my head, ignoring her the whole way to my house, but she kept going on and on and wouldn’t stop. Finally when we reached the house, I bolted out of the car, “See you in a bit, Whit!” And rushed inside the house before she said anything so she couldn’t try and stop me to try to convince me further, but it’s not like she could anyway.

_____________________

“Pat, do I look okay?” I asked, walking down the stairs trying not to fall in my heels. He turned around, his jaw falling to the floor and shook his head, “You are not meeting my teammates wearing that.

I frowned and looked down at my outfit, I put a lot of effort into it and thought I looked good, “Why what’s wrong with it? Do I look bad?”

He shook his head, “No of course not, Mia. You could never look bad. You look great, that’s the problem. I don’t want then being horny bastards and trying to get in your pants” I raised an eyebrow at him, “What! Don’t look at me like that, it’s true! Hockey players can be very persuasive and charming. I mean look at me” He stuck out his chest and I rolled my eyes, smacking him lightly.

“You’re an idiot. I’m a big girl Pat, I can take care of myself. I know what to do when it comes to assholes and “horny bastards” I’ll be fine, I’ll probably be with Whitney the whole time, unless you plan on stealing her away from me”

He grinned and winked, “No promises, but let’s just say you might not see your friend for a while”

We were interrupted by the doorbell but before Pat could go over to answer it, I stopped him, “Look, you’re my best friend in the whole entire world. But treat her right, okay? She’s a good girl, not one of those puck bunnies you usually bring home” He rolled his eyes and nodded finally going to answer the door. Well, let the fun begin.

2 hours later, the party was in full swing. There were drunk guys dancing or face first on the ground, several guys playing Xbox, hanging out talking to one another, or in the kitchen mixing some kind of concoction of a drink. There were so many people in the house with more to come, I couldn’t tell who was coming and who was going, everyone started looking the same.

I was sitting on one of the couches with Patrick, Whitney, Jonathan, Patrick Sharp, and his girlfriend Abby. I really liked Abby, she was one of the sweetest girls I’ve ever met and told me and Whitney one day we’d go for a girls day which made me thankful I could have another girlfriend here. Unfortunately, Patrick and Abby were all cuddled up together, Whitney and Pat were getting pretty cozy, and then there was just me and Jonathan, sitting there in the most awkward situation with the couples. I think he sensed this too because he sent a nervous smile in my direction and I tried my hardest to return it.

“Uh oh” Pat spoke up, looking in the direction of a crowd of girls. I followed his gaze, confused as to who he was looking at, “Jon, you might want to know that Marisa is here” Jonathan’s eyes widened as he jumped up trying to follow Pat’s gaze to see wherever this Marisa girl was.

I looked between Pat and Jonathan and then to Patrick and Abby who were equally as clueless, and then at Whitney who was looking over at me with an unreadable expression on her face. As if on cue, Marisa excused herself from the group and began to walk over to us. I didn’t like this girl already, but she really was pretty, she looked like a Victoria’s Secret model or something. Don’t tell me this girl was his girlfriend. Why do you care? Stop, Mia. It’s not a big deal. A nice guy should have a girlfriend. Not her!. My brain started fighting with each other, but unfortunately, neither side won as she stopped right in front of Jonathan and put a hand on his shoulder.

“I miss you, Jon. How have you been?” She smirked and started to play with his tie and the way he was gawking at her made me want to throw up. I stood up, rolled my eyes, and walked into the kitchen. I couldn’t watch Jon keep making a fool out of himself just gawking and that girl obviously trying to take advantage of the situation. I smiled when I saw Viktor and Brent mixing some drinks and walked over to join them. Brent smiled when he saw me and threw an arm around my shoulders, “Mia! You finally came to join the real party!” He was obviously very drunk, but at that point I didn’t care.

“Yeah” I shrugged and smiled at Viktor who smiled back, “I couldn’t stay in there any longer with that” I pointed in the direction of where Jon was standing in the same position as before with Marisa and Brent sighed and shook his head, “That’s Marisa. Jon’s ex girlfriend. We’ve been trying to get him to cut all ties with her since last season, and it works for a while, but just like right now she comes and sucks him right back in and well, I guess it works” He shook his head and removed his arm from my shoulders, “I’m gonna go see who’s winning on Xbox, I’ll be back in a little bit”

I sighed and leaned up against the counter where Viktor was pouring something in a shot glass, he slid it over to me, and I smiled taking the drink and downing it. It burned my throat going down, but I didn’t even notice because I downed another one, “You like him”

I looked up at Viktor and almost choked on my saliva, “What? Who?”

“Jonathan” He rolled his eyes as if stating the obvious, “It’s obvious”

“I don’t like him, that’s crazy. I don’t even know him” Why the hell did everyone think I liked this guy? What was so great about him?.

“You’re jealous” He looked over in the direction of Jon and Marisa now getting comfy on the couch and I followed his gaze for a quick second, shook my head, and looked back up at Viktor, “I’m not jealous. I just don’t see how such a nice guy can get stuck with that.”

He nodded, downing a shot of his own, “She’s only in it for the fame, you know. She likes the spotlight. All she cares about, never Jon or his feelings”

I didn’t understand how such a sweet guy could end up with a girl like that. Granted, I didn’t know anything about the girl, but from the way she acted the 5 seconds I was around her plus the way the guys talked about her, I didn’t like her at all. I looked back over at the couple who’s faces were now inches away from each other surrounded in their own little world as if no one else was in the room. I whipped my head back around so fast I got whiplash, but I didn’t even care. I looked up at Viktor, “Pour me another one, keep them coming”