Lightweight

The sunlight peered through the windows and I instantly winced and groaned. I kept my eyes closed the whole time well aware of the hangover I had. I stretched and counted to 10 before I opened my eyes, instantly regretting not counting to 20 when I opened them. I shot up in bed making the headache worse as soon as I realized I was not in my room. Where the hell was I and what the hell happened last night? This definitely did not look like Pat’s room or any other room in his house, so he couldn’t have taken me home. Who was the only other person I was with last night? Viktor. My heart dropped to my stomach and I had to quickly calm myself down before I threw up all over his clean white sheets.

“Mia?” Viktor asked poking his head in. When he saw I was awake he pushed the door all the way open and walked towards me holding a glass of water and two asprin.

“You’re a life saver” I smiled weakly and accepted the relief for what would go down in history as the worst hangover I’ve ever had, “Thanks Vik”

He sat down on the edge of the bed and waited until I finished the water, “Look Mia, I think I should explain what happened last night. We didn’t do anything, don’t worry” I was finally able to breathe again, “but you were pretty bad last night”

I buried my face in my hands and groaned, “Do I even want to know?”

“I think so. Marisa and Jon were on the dance floor and all of a sudden you got insanely jealous and started downing shots like it was nothing. Pat was no where in sight so I had to be the one to take you home. When I tried to get you to leave, you begged me to dance, and I said no because shit, you could barely even stand. So I went over to tell Jon I was leaving, and I’m one hundred percent sure you tried to make him jealous. I thought Marisa was going to jump on top of you and claw your eyes out at that point”

I started to feel nauseous again and I fell back onto the pillow, “I’m really sorry I ruined your night, Vik. I didn’t mean to, I don’t even know why I got jealous. I guess it’s because Jon was so set on inviting me to the game, and when I saw her at the game and then on top of him the whole night I got a little frustrated”

“You didn’t ruin my night, the couch wasn’t exactly as comfortable as the bed, but I’ll manage. You guys are friends, it’s perfectly acceptable for him to invite you to a game, Mia. You don’t even know why Marisa was there, maybe he didn’t invite her and she took it upon herself to show up”

“You slept on the couch?” I asked in disbelief, “You let me have your bed?”

He blushed and nodded, “Really? That’s all you take out of that whole entire statement? But yeah, I figured you’d want to be comfortable when you woke up from that awful hangover, and I didn’t want to make you feel awkward or anything”

“Wow, that’s really sweet. Thank you” I smiled at him and lightly kicked his leg, “But, what are you saying? I like Jon or something, because everyone’s been saying that lately”

“Do you? I didn’t say anything about that. Do you have feelings for him?” He had a smirk on his face and I rolled my eyes, regretting even bringing up the topic.

“No!” I covered my hands with my face, “I don’t like him! I honestly don’t think why everyone thinks that, I’ve barely talked to the guy, we hung out once and that was only because he wanted to see Pat but he wasn’t home!”

“Mia, relax. You’re going to give yourself more of a headache. If you don’t like him, you don’t like him. I believe you, everyone else is just trying to play match maker”

“Thanks Viktor, you know you’re a really good friend. I don’t know what I would’ve done if it wasn’t for you last night”

“Trust me, I don’t know either” He laughed, “You probably would have had a lot of explaining to do”

After showering at Viktor’s really quick and grabbing a coffee and a breakfast sandwich from Starbucks I headed home to let Patrick know I was still alive and perfectly fine from last night, even though he was probably too busy with Whitney to care or notice.

“Pat? Are you home?” I yelled closing the door behind me and throwing my shoes somewhere in the corner.

“In the kitchen!” He called back. I headed towards the kitchen and smiled when I saw Whitney sitting at the table drinking coffee and Pat cooking pancakes on the stove.

“Wow, what’s going on here? Are you actually being domestic for once in your life?” I laughed and took a piece of bacon off Whitney’s plate, “Momma Kane taught you well”

“Shut up” He muttered waving the spatula at me, “Where have you been the whole night?”

“At Viktor’s?” I asked raising an eyebrow, “I thought Jonathan told you, or at least was supposed to tell you”

“He didn’t tell me anything. He left with Marisa 10 minutes after you left, they were arguing about something so I guess he was kind of distracted” He shrugged and turned back to the pancakes, “Can’t say I blame the guy though, she can be a lot to handle”

I rolled my eyes and took a seat next to Whitney who smiled at me, “How was your night?”

“Good, you know we should start going to these games more often, Pat can get us tickets and then we can hang out with the guys after. I had a lot of fun”

“I’m glad you had fun” I muttered darkly, “I sure as hell didn’t”

“Aw, Mia. What happened?” I knew she knew exactly what happened the night before, but she wanted to hear it from my point of view considering she only heard it through the grape vine.

“Well, first of all you guys ditched me” She gave me an apologetic look and I just waved her off signaling that it didn’t matter anymore, “Then I got piss ass drunk thanks to Patrick giving me only God knows what. I begged Viktor to dance with me and then when he pulled me away to go home, he stopped to tell Jonathan we were leaving and to let you know, and apparently I got really jealous and tried to make Jon jealous”

“What do you like him or something?” Pat asked and put down the plate of pancakes on the table and sat down to put some on his plate. When he noticed the look on my face, he sighed “Sorry, I need to stop doing that. It’s a habit, really. But come on, why else would you be jealous?”

I looked to Whitney for help but she was stuffing her face and drinking her coffee in hopes of avoiding getting involved Thanks Whit. “Because he invited me to the game and then all of a sudden Marisa comes out of no where and is basically having sex with him on the dance floor”

“You know Marisa wasn’t invited, right?”

“Wait what?” I was confused, why would she show up if no one invited her? Why would Jon even dance with her if he didn’t invite her?

“She just showed up, no one was expecting her to be there. I don’t even think Jon was, he was so thrown off guard he didn’t know what to do. He didn’t invite her Mia, I would know. As far as I know, you’re the only one he invited”

“Okay, fair enough. Then why was she at the club? Someone obviously had to tell her about that unless she was a stalker and stalked our every move and just followed us there”

“If you remember correctly, she was there when the guys were talking about it” Now she speaks!

“Thanks, Whitney. Now you decide to say something” I shook my head, “You guys are making too much sense for me. I still have a little bit of a hangover. Answer this question smart ones, why didn’t Jonathan call me and explain himself? Or call you and explain himself?” I asked, pointing at Pat.

“He probably has as much of a hangover as you do considering the amount of alcohol he had to consume to even tolerate Marisa. Besides, it’s Jon, he doesn’t really think of these things, and I’m sure he doesn’t even know you’re mad at him”

I groaned and put my head on the table, “I hate her”

“You don’t even know her” Pat pointed out with a laugh.

I brought my head up and blew the hair out of my face, “Exactly. I don’t know her because I hate her, I don’t want to know her. She looked like she wanted to kill me when she saw me last night at the game and at the club when I was leaving”

“Of course” He said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, “She views you as competition. Don’t give me that look Mia, you know damn well I’m right. Tazer obviously wanted you at that game and she probably found out about it”

“She’s going to kill me in my sleep” I groaned well aware of the fact that Pat was probably right.

“Sleep with one eye open” Pat said with a grin trying to stop himself from laughing at his own stupid joke.

“You’re an idiot. I’m going to put some clean clothes on and wash off whatever is left of last night. I don’t even want to remember it”

________________________

“Hey” Whitney smiled walking into my office on Monday morning. She sat down in a chair and made herself comfortable.

“Hey” I smiled back and finished typing up my notes, “What’s up?”

She shrugged, “Not much. I came to talk to you about what happened the night of the game”

“Whitney” I groaned, “You were there when I talked to Pat! Were you not listening? I don’t want to remember that night at all”

“But Mia I’m your best girl friend! You have to talk to me about it! It’s girl code, I can’t talk to you about your real feelings in front of Pat. It’s not like you’d admit them in front of him anyway”

I sighed, “I don’t know, I’m kind of frustrated that he invited me and apparently wanted me there so bad that he contacted me so many times and then went out of his way to send me a letter. Then all of a sudden she shows up. We talked before the game, and it was great! We agreed to be friends, but then after that it didn’t seem like we were friends at all”

“Do you think he’s attractive?” She grinned, “Because I do. If I was you Mia I’d be all over that by now”

I laughed, “Good, you can have him then. I’ll be sure to break the news to Patrick. But yeah I find him attractive, that’s normal, right? Friends can find friends attractive”

“Do you find Pat attractive?”

“Ew! Gross” She smirked and leaned back in her chair and I blushed, “Okay that’s totally different, you can’t compare them! I’ve known Pat since forever, he’s practically my brother. That’s a really bad example”

It was silent for a moment before she sat up in her chair properly, “Listen, I know you’re going to kill me for not starting off with this when I walked into your office, but you have a client, her name’s Alissa and she’s here for dress shopping”

“Whitney!” I shot up out of my seat and grabbed my bag and keys off the desk, “Are you kidding me? You denied work to talk to me about Jon?! Of all places and times?”

She frowned and followed me out the door, closing it behind her, “I’m sorry! I had to get it out of you somehow and I didn’t want to forget to ask you! Plus I knew you wouldn’t want to talk about it with Pat or any of the guys around! She’s only been sitting there for not even 10 minutes”

I scoffed and rolled my eyes, “You’re going to drive me crazy one day. I don’t know who’s going to kill me first, you or Pat”

She put a hand over her heart and sighed dramatically, but I ignored her when I saw Alissa sitting there patiently typing away on her phone, “Alissa! How are you?”

She looked up from her phone with a smile, and stood up to give me a hug, “I’m great, Mia! How are you? It’s so nice to see you again”

“I’m great, it’s good to see you too. I’m really sorry about the wait, Whitney and I were discussing some important details”

She waved me off, “Oh no, don’t worry about it. I’m sure you must be busy. So, are you girls ready to go?”

I nodded, “Do you mind if we take your car? I’m still new to this place and I don’t exactly know where anything is”

“Of course, I made an appointment at one of the local bridal boutiques around here, so we don’t have to go far. But after the appointment I was wondering if you girls wanted to go to lunch, my treat. As a thank you for helping me with everything”

“That’s really nice of you. We should be on our lunch break by then so everything works out perfectly” Alissa smiled and lead us out the door to her car, “Good that means we can spend some girl time talking about Jon”

I groaned and Whitney muttered in my ear, “Look, even if I didn’t say anything, you still wouldn’t be off the hook”

_____________________

“What do you guys think about this one?” Alissa asked coming out of the dressing room in a strapless lace mermaid dress, “Personally I can’t stand it” She shook her head and turned her body to get a better view of it in the mirror.

We’ve been here for an hour already and she’s already tried on 20 dresses and hasn’t even come close to finding her dream dress, “I don’t like it either” I agreed, “This is not a princess dress, none of the dresses you’ve tried on were even close”

“Guys, I give up” She sighed and Whitney went over to undo the zipper for her, “I’m clearly never going to find a dress at this rate”

“Do you mind if Whitney and I look around for you?” I offered heading over to the racks of dresses, “No offense, Alissa, but your consultant isn’t exactly consulting”

She nodded in agreement and walked back into the dressing room, “Yeah sure, go for it. I’m sure you girls can definitely do a better job”

Whitney and I started rummaging through the ball gowns and pulled out a couple of different ones for her to try on. After we handed Alissa the dresses we sat back down and waited for her to come out and show us the new choices. My phone began to vibrate so I pulled it out of my bag and my heart jumped up into my throat. Whitney noticed the look on my face and looked at the phone over my shoulder. “Please tell me you’re going to answer that”

New text message: Jonathan- Hey, we really need to talk about the other night, I’m sorry. Can we meet up somewhere?

I put my phone back in my bag and shook my head, “No. I’m not going to give in so easily! I’m still pissed about him ditching me for her at the club”

Whitney rolled her eyes, “Oh come on Mia! You heard Pat this morning; Jon didn’t invite her! He didn’t even invite her to the club”

“Are you guys talking about Jon?” Alissa asked walking out of the dressing room. My jaw dropped to the floor at the dress she was currently wearing, it was probably the most beautiful dress I’ve ever seen in my entire life. It was a ball gown designed for a princess; the bodice had flowers and rhinestones, and the skirt was scattered with the same flowers that were on the bodice. “Mia?”

“Alissa, you have to get that dress! It’s gorgeous!” I gushed trying to steer her away from the subject and focus on the reason she’s wearing the dress.

She smiled and looked at herself in the mirror, “I look like a princess, don’t I? I love this dress!” She did a little twirl and clapped her hands happily, “This is the dress! Thank you guys so much for helping me”

After Alissa picked out a veil, she paid for her purchases and set up a date for a dress fitting and her bridesmaids fittings we headed off to lunch.

“So Mia,” Alissa broke the awkward silence after our waiter brought our drinks to the table, “How has Jon been?”

I shook my head and took a long drink from my iced tea, but when I was done, Alissa was still waiting for an answer, “I’m guessing he didn’t tell you what happened the night of the game”

She shook her head, “I haven’t talked to him, I assumed you two were too busy hitting it off or something, at least that’s what it seemed like when I saw you guys that night”

“His ex girlfriend showed up at the game, stared me down the whole time, and then decided to come to the club with us after the game”

Alissa rolled her eyes, “Are you talking about that bitch Marisa? Listen, I served them the first time they came into the restaurant and she was not a friendly person and completely high maintenance if you ask me, she nearly had a heart attack when I told her the only kind of water we had was tap”

“Whatever, it doesn’t matter anyway, we’re just friends and he can hang out with whoever he wants to”

Whitney and Alissa exchanged glances and looked over at me with devious smiles on their faces, “Why the hell are you two looking at me like that?” Before Alissa could explain, I put a hand up to stop her before she even started, “If you guys are going to tell me I like Jon or that Jon likes me you are both completely delusional. We’re just friends, we established that last night and that’s the end of it. Maybe Marisa woo’ed him with her supermodel looks and now they’re happily in love with each other”

“Yeah, she’s happily in love with his money, not him” I shrugged, I knew Whitney was right but I wasn’t going to even think about that possibility. They could be happy together, and Jon and I could be friends. A guy and a girl can just have a completely platonic relationship despite what anyone tells me.

After I dropped Alissa off and scheduled another appointment to meet her and check out venues, Whitney and I drove back to work so we could finish up some last minute details on appointments we have coming up. When we stepped into the office, Whitney nearly stopped dead in her tracks and before I got to ask her what was wrong, I spotted no other than Jonathan Toews sitting on one of the couches with a bouquet of roses in his hand tapping his foot impatiently.

When he noticed the two of us standing there frozen in place, he got up and began walking over to us, “Hey, guys” He rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand and reached out to me to give me the flowers, “These are for you, Mia. Listen, we really need to talk about last night.”

Whitney finally came back to life and let out a little squeal in the back of her throat when she turned to face me, “I’ll take care of everything here, Mia. You guys can go in the office and talk privately” She pushed me a little and before I stumbled to the floor, Jon grabbed my arm and I smiled up at him.

“Thanks” I mumbled and began walking to my office, signaling him to follow. I unlocked the door and turned the light on while Jon looked around, “This is a really nice work space, Mia”

I shrugged my shoulders, "Probably not your cup of tea being a hockey player and all but I love it" I sat down motioning for Jon to sit. A few minutes of awkward silence passed before I let out a long sigh, “So, what did you need to talk about?” I smiled at the flowers that were sitting on my desk, “Thanks for the flowers by the way, they’re beautiful, you really didn’t have to”

“They’re my way of apologizing for everything that happened last night. Look, I didn’t invite Marisa last night despite how she made it seem, I actually dreaded her being there to be honest” He let out a nervous laugh, “I know she was death glaring you outside the locker room and I’m sorry about that”

“You came all this way to bring me flowers and just to tell me that?” I asked in disbelief, shaking my head at how incredibly insane he was.

“No,” He blushed, “I also wanted to apologize for not talking to you at all last night, you know since I invited you and everything”

I laughed, “It’s okay Jon, I knew your hands were a little tied. Just don’t do it again, I was incredibly bored being given God knows what kind of alcohol by Patrick”

“You and Stalberg seemed to be having a lot of fun, what’s going on there?”

“Oh my God, Jon, you thought we had-” I didn’t even need to finish before he nodded, “No! God, no! We’re just friends! I was piss ass drunk and he took me back to his house and he slept on the couch”

He looked a little relieved and smiled, “Oh, well you know I was just making sure, Patrick would probably kick his ass if you did and he found out about it. Just a friend looking out for a friend”

Silence filled the room once again before Jon spoke up, “So, are we cool now?” He outstretched his hand and I smiled and took it, “Friends. Nothing more, nothing less”