Leaping for Your Dreams

***Mari’s POV***

It took us about 15 mins to gather ourselves fully. Then we looked at the schedule and I sung into action. This wasn’t the first time I’d taken over an event in the final days and that practice now served me well. “Stace, Here’s the file for Saturday’s party, Make sure everything is filled out. If there is something _not_ done, call them and ask.” I handed Moka the next one. “Moka, this is Sunday’s event, so the same. I’m going to handle the one a week from now, which I can almost bet he did nothing with.” With things divvied up by ability, I went into now my office and began working. I started by calling Troy Polamalu, no I started by _Googling_ the name cause it sounded really familiar and I didn’t know why. “Do prdele!” I stood up and open my office door. “Does anyone know anything about the NFL?” I was flying blind. Now if it was the CFL I’d be golden, but I never did get into American Football.

Stace looked up from her file. “I know a bit, my honey loves the Steelers. Why?” I walked over to her and laid the new file on her desk.

“Cause apparently at least one of them will be in Suite 66 next Wednesday to root the guys on while they play the Ducks.” I pointed to the contact person. Stace stopped breathing.

In the midst of Stace and my’s freak out Sid and Geno came in. It wasn’t too surprising and yet it was _horrible_ timing. “Hey Mari!” Sid called out as they came in. “What’s up?”

That seemed to kick both of us mentally in the ass. Stace sucked in a huge breath. “You do it, I can’t!” She squeaked out, she then firmly planted her nose in the first file I’d given her.

Picking up my file, I turned to the guys. “Well, I was late today, watched my predecessor get fired and personally escorted to HR by Mario and now I find out I know _nothing_ about American Football!” I sounded a bit hysterical, but better on these two than over the phone. “How’s your day gone so far?”

The boys looked at each other and then again at me. Geno stepped forward. “Football great, what you need to know?” It figured I’d know someone who knew a lot, I just didn’t expect it to be Geno. I showed him who the contact person was for this event. He grinned. “He great guy, no worries. You be yourself, things be good.”

Sid spoke up then, “Geno’s right Mari. You’ll have whomever it is eating out of your hand by being yourself. You add in that you _know_ what you’re talking about with hockey and can make everyone in there feel like they’re with an expert. Pretend it’s a playoff game Mar, forget the nerves and just go do it.” I couldn’t help but smile. There, large as life, was Captain Crosby, not my friend Sid. Cheering me on just like Aleks would have been.

I took a deep breath and Geno laid a hand tenderly on my shoulder. “Thanks man, I needed that. It’s been a weird day so far and is gonna get worse before it gets better. I’ve got meetings at 10 am and 2 pm for other events for later this month. I’ve got to figure out where we are for this week’s events. Trial by fire that’s for sure.”

Geno was standing behind me and pulled me close, nuzzling my neck. “You do great, I know you do.” Moka came out of his office looking between the guys and me. Geno saw him and greeted him. “Hey! Moka! Come, tell Mari she do great. She nervous about this file.” He flicked the edge of the file.

He came over. “Let me guess, you got the local NFL guys event. Who’s the contact this year?” Taking a peek he chuckled. “Listen to the Captain, Mari. Take a deep breath and just do it. You’re a pro; you can do this. This feel weird having to hype up the boss.”

That made me laugh. I laughed so hard I was glad Geno had a hold of me. When I finally collected myself, I looked up to see my 10 am meeting here early. “Oh hello. You must be Mr. Voyner.”

He smiled and nodded. “I am. Should I be worried that two of the players are up here?”

That made me laugh all over again. “Oh no! The guys are welcome here anytime they want. I think you can let go now Geno. I’m not going to fall over right now.” Geno made sure I was fully on my feet, gave my backside a subtle pat and let go of me. I looked at the clock, and winked at my boyfriend. “You weren’t due for another half hour, is something wrong?”

Mr. Voyner smiled and flushed a bit. “No everything’s doing great. I just wanted to make sure that everything was going well on this end. I was surprised when I got the call on Monday. When I first booked this, I was told that I wouldn’t be spoken to until the week before.”

I nodded, this wasn’t the first time I’d heard this. “Believe me sir, the old way this office was doing things has been thrown out the window. Stace, get the folder for Mr. Voyner to look through please.” She looked up from her folder and nodded.

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After my early meeting I was _finally_ ready to make the call I’d been freaking out over. I dialed the number and waited for the call to be answered. “Polamalu residence, this is Theodora how can I help you?”

“Good morning, this is Michaela Krejci. I’m calling about the event that Troy has contracted Suite 66 for next Wednesday.” So far so good, it was professional so far. I had to treat this like a breakaway, just breathe and don’t take your eyes off the puck.

Mrs. Polamalu smiled into the phone. “Hold on, I know he’s been looking forward to this.” She covered the receiver and called for her husband.

I kept on breathing and watching for the deke. “This is Troy.” There it was. I kept watching and continued.

“Good Morning sir, I’m Michaela Krejci from Suite 66. I’m calling this morning to see if we can meet and finalize everything for your event next week.” I could see my glove moving to catch the puck in my head. “Is there a possibility that I can meet with you either today or tomorrow?”

I heard pages turning. “Um… I’ve got something tomorrow. Do you have any openings for today?” Fortunately I knew my schedule.

“In fact I do, I have a meeting at 2 pm today for another event but I’m free both before and after that. Which would you prefer?” I looked at my day, I knew that the guys might want to go out for lunch but work came first.

I heard some discussion going on between two people on the other end. Then Troy came back on. “Would you be willing to meet over lunch? It would give me a chance to make sure I know who is coming and such.”

I mentally sighed, there went lunch with the guys. “Of course if that’s when you have free. Just to warn you I may not be alone on my end, my boyfriend might invite himself along.”

“Ms. Krejci I don’t think that’s very professional.” Oh yeah I could see myself missing this easy catch if I didn’t fix this fast.

I chuckled. “Normally I would agree Mr. Polamalu, but when your boyfriend is Evgeni Malkin, that kind of makes things a bit different. You spend whatever time you can together.”

He laughed. “So he _finally_ got rid of the Ice Queen. Alright Ms. Krejci. I’ll meet you at noon at the CEC in your office if that’s good.”

“That sounds great. I’ll see you then.” We hung up and I saw the leather flash in my head. I’d made the big save.

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A couple hours later I was make sure my menus were set for everyone I already had when there was a knock at my open office door. “Yes?” I called out, not taking my eyes off of the pages I was looking over.

“Mari, your noon appointment is here.” It was Moka so I looked up. “I now understand why you were trying hard not to freak out this morning.”

I laughed. “Thanks Moka, Triple check me on these would you. Looking through the menus we already have and making sure we’re ready.” I got up and handed him the pages I had been looking at.

“No prob. He’s sitting in the outer office; Stace is trying to remember to breathe.” He giggled at that. GBFF, yep!

I walked out to the outer office and leaned over my secretary. “Breathe Stace.” I said quietly in her ear, which she followed by gasping. I straightened and shaking my head went over to greet my guest. “Nice to meet you Mr.”

He stopped me there. “Please call me Troy. Sorry for making her do that. I have that effect on people here.”

I smiled. “It’s the second time today she’s done it. Although she’s going to have stop doing it or else I won’t be able to keep her, she’ll die from lack of oxygen.” I was teasing her, and thinking if she survived today she might make a good expert. Yep I was re-titling my people too.

TK came sliding, literally into the offices. “Mari you gotta save me!” I turned and saw that he had Geno’s pants in his hand. I raised an eyebrow and took in his panicked expression. “I swear I didn’t take them! I found them in my locker! Please Mari!”

Troy was trying hard not to laugh. “Excuse me a minute.”

“He’s not a rookie is he?” Troy asked, TK looked offended so I rubbed salt into that wound.

“Unfortunately not. At least _that_ would make sense.” I took Geno’s pants from TK and rifled the pockets. I found a scrap of paper that, upon opening it, had a Fleur-de-lis on it. “Either Flower did this, or someone wants him to take the heat.” I said to TK, then turning as his eyes went wide.

There was Geno, and he was angry. Now normally I would put this down as a prank gone wrong, but something told me this idea was wrong. “Geno, killing TK is a _bad_ idea.”

He growled at me, literally growled. So I took off my platform boots and then turned back to face him in all my 5’6” glory. Well aware I had a client in the room and trying to keep TK from dying, I spoke again. “Do you really think TK did this? I don’t even think it was Flower either.” I handed him his pants. “Use my office and finish getting dressed.” He didn’t look like he was going to do it at first. “Now Evgeni!” I said forcefully. That got him moving. TK slid away carefully as well.

Troy stood there with a grin on his face. Once Geno was in my office and the door was closed, he laughed. “That was impressive. Got him to back down and saved the other one too. You ever play organized sports?”

I smiled. “I’m a goalie. Trust me, no one _ever_ ran me without being run over by _someone_ shortly after, usually me. I don’t let anyone intimidate me either. This was more than a prank gone wrong, I’ll do some digging and find out what happened.”

Geno came out of my office dressed. He actually looked ashamed too. He leaned over and whispered into my ear. “I sorry Misa. Not mad at you, just wanted pants back.” I leaned back into his chest a bit, letting him know I wasn’t mad either.

Troy looked on approvingly. “Keep this sista, if she handles stubborn clients like she just handled you, she’s worth it.” He looked at me. “Do you think we can get going on what you need for this? I don’t know about you, but I’m starved.”

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The rest of my day went a lot smoother. Funny how that happens… Troy was able to give me a detailed list of the players he expected at this event and promised that I’d have a final tally by Friday. So now I was going through that list before going home. Mike Adams, Adrian Robinson, Ryan Mundy, LaMarr Woodley, Jason Worilds, Doug Legursky, Ziggy Hood, Brett Keisel and himself. Some of those names I recognized from college but most were a blank to me.

The entire day was wearing on me. Instead of the 3 events I had planned on using to get my feet wet during, I was now the boss in truth. Moka had told me that while I was with Troy at our lunch meeting (yes Geno tagged along), Tyrone had been escorted in to get his things, watched while he was getting them by Moka and escorted back out. The Tyrant was well and truly gone.

Stace stuck her head in my door. “It’s 5:30 do you mind if I get out of here?” She’d changed out of her work apparel into something more edgy. I still liked it though.

“It is, crap. Geno has the car. Yeah go ahead. I’ll make sure everything’s locked up.” I put down my papers and began sorting through what I needed to take home. I was busy doing that when I heard another knock on my doorframe. “It’s ok Stace, go on home.”

“Guess again.” Said Geno as he came in. “Time to come home pretty lady.” I sighed and thought about packing my briefcase. “No work tonight, today was crazy enough.” I had to agree with him. It’d been the Whirlwind from Hades and I didn’t feel like doing more when I got home.

“No making me late tomorrow. If I work 8 to 4 it means I can get home sooner.” I was trying to be stern but it was coming out tired.

Geno chuckled and held out my coat. “I could not wait to do that in our bed, not sorry you were late. Will try not to make you late again though.” He dropped a kiss on my temple as we walked out of my office. I locked it behind me and knocked on Moka’s doorframe.

“I’m outta here Moka! Go home!” I could see that he was also thinking about taking work home. “Don’t take it home Mok, Give Angel a break from this place and how odd today was.” Instead of planning a menu with Troy he said that he would trust my judgment for what was right, provided that I remembered that they really didn’t know the game and that they were also pro athletes. That meant a lot of being in the kitchen with Angel and Dom making sure we had everything we needed.

We all gathered what we needed only and headed out. The day was over and no one wanted to take extra stuff with them. We said goodbye outside in the parking garage and went our separate ways. Time to go home and relax.