Islands

December 2, 2010 Capitals 1 @ Stars 2
December 4, 2010 Thrashers 3 @ Capitals 1
December 6, 2010 Leafs 5 @ Capitals 4 (SO)
December 9, 2010 Panthers 3 @ Capitals 0
December 11, 2010 Avalanche 3 @ Capitals 2
December 12, 2010 Capitals 0 @ Rangers 7
December 15, 2010 Ducks 2 @ Capitals 1(OT)
December 18, 2010 Capitals 2 @ Bruins 3
December 19, 2010 Capitals 3 @ Senators 2
December 21, 2010 Devils 1 @ Capitals 5
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“Why can’t I go with you?” Jaden whined.

“It’s past 10 o’clock, honey, way past your bedtime. And remember, I told you it’s a grown-up party.”

We were finally on the way to Rochelle’s house after the Capitals won their game against the Devils in a blowout. In the early goings of the second period, the Devils tied the score at 1-1. After that, the home team went to work and scored four unanswered goals. It was their second straight win after finally ending their losing streak at 8 games by winning in Ottawa after a meltdown loss in Boston. It was also their first win at home since the first week of December.

The crowd at the Verizon Center had been in high spirits, and Jaden was there to experience the whole thing. I thought he would be worn out after three periods of live hockey and getting up to celebrate five goals, but it was quite the opposite. He was wired on the win the way teenagers got wired on energy drinks. It also helped that he’d taken a 30 minute power nap in the inner bowels of the Verizon Center.

Both my nephew and I saw places inside the Verizon Center we’d never thought to think about before. Rochelle had dropped us off before the game, and to get Jaden home after, he and I had to get to Nicky’s car in the players’ lot. It involved a lot of showing my ID to a handful of arena employees that were stationed at various posts in different hallways under the stands of the lower bowl. Jaden and I had sat corner goal 12 rows from the glass, and Nicky had made sure I was on a certain list that got us access from our seats right to the hallway that led to the right lot.

At each post, my name was announced to someone else via a walkie talkie, and the arena employee would point down the hallway, telling me where to turn next. Eventually we were out of hallways—or rather, in the right hallway—and told to wait. There were others there, friends and family of the players, waiting just like us. It had taken us about twenty minutes to get to the right place, but the players still had media duties and showers to attend to. I played Words With Friends on my phone while we waited, avoiding drawing attention to myself, while Jaden napped on my lap.

A few of the Caps players came out into the hall in their suits and eyed us curiously as they walked by, but they didn’t ask questions. When Nicky came out, Jaden was up from his mini slumber, afraid he was going to miss seeing the guys walking by. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that some already had. Nicky touched my elbow but held Jaden’s hand as he led us to the players’ lot, the two of them recapping the game.

In Nicky’s car, Jaden was loud and restless. Instead of the big SUV that had lulled Jaden to sleep previously, we rode in a sleek black sports car that probably cost about as much as my tuition for four years at Georgetown. I felt stiff. Nicky blended into the scenery in his game day suit – expensive.

I didn’t think Rochelle would be happy that her 6-year-old son was all wound up hours after bedtime even if it was winter break. When we got to the house, I told Nicky to give me 10 minutes. I reunited Jaden with his mother and returned her Washington Capitals scarf that I’d worn to the game so that I could be a part of the Rock the Red movement. It also gave me a chance to shed the flats I’d worn to the game and put on some fancier shoes, ankle boots with a nice heel, wedged so that they were easy to walk in. I thought that they made my outfit look a little fancier too, black skinny jeans and a simple button down shirt under my pea coat. At the very least, I wouldn’t look too underdressed standing next to Nicky when we got to the party.

It was past 11 when we crossed the Key Bridge into Arlington. There were cars parked all along the side of the street of where Nicky lived, but there was one untouched spot waiting for us in the driveway of his grand house. I could hear a faint bass tone as we walked up to the front door, but the neighbors’ houses were far enough that I doubt they’d ever filed any noise complaints.

Nicky rang the doorbell to his own house and held my hand while we waited for someone to answer.

“Um, don’t you have keys?” I asked skeptically.

He shrugged. “The bell will be faster.”

It was his brother that answered, and suddenly the bass tones I’d heard through the door were just part of a romp of techno music. “Hey! Come on, come on! We started without you!”

He made room for us to step through the threshold and Nicky introduced us. “This is my brother, Stoffe.”

“Hi,” I spoke instantly.

“This is Erin,” Nicky gestured at me, looking at his brother.

Stoffe and Nicky didn’t share much but blond hair and similar build. Stoffe was maybe an inch taller than Nicky, with groomed facial hair and blue eyes to go with his Swedish blond hair.

“It’s nice to meet you,” I said as I shook his hand.

“I heard lots about you, Erin.” His accent was thicker than Nicky’s, too.

The brothers spoke a few words to each other in Swedish and I took my first look around. There was a good mix of men and women from what I could see, still standing in the foyer. I was just starting to appreciate the living room, when I locked eyes with a familiar face. He gave me a lopsided grin and excused himself from the conversation he was having, strolling over.

“Hey,” he directed at me, giving Nicky a little nod. “Erin, we finally meet.”

“Hi Mike.” I shook hands with Mike Green just as I’d shaken hands with Stoffe moments before.

He gave me the elevator eyes and spoke again, “You’re taller than I thought you’d be.”

I laughed. In my wedged booties I was three inches taller than my bare feet 5’6” height. “Sorry to disappoint.”

He smirked and looked to Nicky who was watching us. Stoffe had already disappeared. “Bro, why don’t you take your lady’s coat and hang it somewhere while I take her to find a drink?”

“Sure.” Nicky didn’t protest. He waited while I shrugged my jacket off and asked, “Will you be okay?”

“I—”

“She’ll be fine,” Mike interrupted me. “I’ve got your back, Nicky.”

Mike was leading me toward what I assumed to be the kitchen before I could get a word in to Nicky. I looked back at him, offering a sincere smile, as if trying to let him know that I would try and find him as soon as I could. I’d been talking to Nicky since the morning but the thirty minute drive from Rochelle’s house to the party was the only time we’d had to ourselves all day.

It was good of Mike to meet us at the door when he saw me though. I probably would’ve still been standing in the foyer holding Nicky’s hand if he hadn’t. Nicky didn’t strike me as the type to throw a party for a game, two days away, that would be under media scrutiny. He didn’t strike me as the type to go around and introduce me to all his friends either. It confused me that he was hosting a party yet had also shown up fashionably late with me at his side.

“You know I’m not really his lady,” I said to Mike as we passed the dining room.

“Right.”

“Why do you sound skeptical when you say that?”

“We’ll see how long that lasts,” Mike answered, “your non-exclusivity.”

“He’s hasn’t even known me for three weeks yet,” I countered.

We didn’t end up in the kitchen. We were in some sort of entertainment room with a pool table, a foosball table, and posters on the walls. There was no mini bar in the corner of the room; it was a full-on Irish pub. There were bottles of liquor lined up neatly, with various cups next to a drink shaker and shot glasses. Cans of Coke and beer were immersed in a bucket of ice.

“Listen, Erin, I don’t want to insult your intelligence because I’m sure you know a fair amount about the game of hockey,” Mike poured a double glass of whiskey for himself. “But here’s the thing, as players, our team is…our team is our second family. Out in the city anything goes. But girls don’t get invited to these small, private parties if a guy doesn’t want his teammates—his family—to meet her.”

I checked the labels of the beer cans as Mike spoke, looking for one that I liked best.

He continued, “You being here right now says something to me about the way Nick sees you.”

I’d never even thought about it that way until Mike laid it out for me. Maybe it was something Nicky would never be able to tell me himself. In a couple of weeks I’d become someone significant. I mattered. We had yet to put a label on what we were to each other, but this was a wordless message that he did want me to be part of his life. It was okay that I was falling for him, because maybe he was falling for me, too.

“You’re a really good friend to Nicky,” I told Mike as I opened a can of Tecate.

Mike was comfortable to be around. Even during the conversation we’d had on Skype while the Caps were in Boston, I’d felt comfortable talking to him. He had a certain swagger without being overly cocky. He hadn’t come off as condescending when he was telling me about the family aspect of a team. It was as if he was one of my own good friends giving me careful advice. I knew that at the root of it all, he was thinking about Nicky. He was looking out for his brother.

“I know,” Mike replied. “He’s been a really good friend to me, too.”

We left the entertainment room and returned to the heart of the party. People were drinking and chatting in small groups. There were even people dancing in the floor space between the living room and the dining room. Nicky’s house had one of those centralized sound systems where a console on the wall could play music in several rooms throughout the house with built-in speakers wired into the ceilings.

Mike introduced me to the people he knew, some of them teammates and some of them local friends. Two people I met were even associated with my alma mater: one a Georgetown graduate and one a senior like me. Nicky had mentioned his Georgetown friends to me in passing, but I didn’t know any of them since it was such a big school. And since I had been in the dorms for so long, first two years with roommates, and now a school year and a half as an R.A., most of the friends I had were people I’d met somehow through Res Life.

Eventually I wound up in the kitchen talking to Eric Fehr’s wife. Mike heard his voice from the other room when we got to the kitchen, and he said he’d be right back, though I knew he was gone and never to be heard from again. I was okay with it because Eric Fehr’s wife, Rachel, was a total sweetheart.

I was telling her about my plans to take a year off after graduation and then hopefully get into grad school, when Nicky entered the kitchen. He appeared beside me with a mostly full bottle of beer in his hand. He didn’t interrupt my conversation with Rachel, politely waiting for us to acknowledge him once I was finished with my string of speech.

“I been looking for you,” he told me. “What happened to Mike?”

I shrugged. “I think he got bored of babysitting.”

Rachel laughed. When Mike had left she was confused, wondering if I was his date and if he had just ditched me to catch other tail. I told her that Mike had actually taken me aside because he wanted to make sure I was good enough for his Swedish friend. That made sense to her. She said they were in a bromance.

“I kinda like this song,” Nicky commented on the music. “Will you dance with me?”

I didn’t know what song it was. Most of the songs that had pounded through the speakers so far were techno. It wasn’t bad by any means. I was just more into rock music myself. But there was a constant sample throughout the whole song. I wouldn’t have any trouble adjusting. I was also curious to see what moves Nicky had – he’d told me before that he wasn’t a good dancer.

“Do you mind, Rachel?” I wondered, feeling weird about leaving the first person at the party that I’d actually spent more than five minutes talking to besides Mike.

“No! No, not at all!” she remained sweet. “By all means, you two have a good time.”

“Let’s go,” Nicky grabbed my hand and started pulling me to where the music was loudest.

I looked over my shoulder at Rachel before we exited the kitchen. “It was really nice meeting you. See you later. Maybe.”

Nicky made a different turn once we were in the main hallway. A few people nodded at him or patted his shoulder as we passed.

“I thought we were going to go dance,” I said.

He squeezed my hand. “Detour.”

We were at the end of the hallway past the kitchen, on the opposite end of where the party was happening. Nicky pushed a door open and flipped the light switch on with his hand that was holding a beer bottle. It was a moderately sized bedroom, I guessed one of many guest rooms in his house because I’d seen stairs that led to an upper floor. There wasn’t any music playing.

It would be a lie to say that he pushed me up against the wall and took me right there. I didn’t imagine he would ever even try something like that. It didn’t seem like his style, and besides, he hadn’t closed the door. But he did lead me into the room, out of sight. He pulled free of my grasp on his palm and set his beer down on the night stand, then held my face in his hands before he leaned in to kiss me. It was delicate and lingering.

He didn’t let go of my face as soon as it ended and I kept his hands there, my hands encircling his wrists. “What was that for?” I asked.

“10 minutes ago I realize that I haven’t even kissed you all day,” he replied. “So I wanted to now.”

He was constantly surprising me with his actions. He didn’t need to tell me how he felt about me because he wasn’t shy about showing me with his kisses and his handholding and his date ideas. I felt closer to him, like I knew him even better, standing in that room because of what Mike had told me. It was ironic that I felt closer to him because of a conversation that he hadn’t even been part of.

I looked around the room. We were standing in between an open closet, empty, and a four poster bed that looked like it’d never been slept in.

“How many bedrooms do you have?”

“Um, six. And eight bathrooms.”

“Wow.” My blue eyes widened. “Always nice to have extra room when half of Sweden visits, right?”

He chuckled and took a seat on the bed, reclaiming his beer and taking a sip. “We’ll be a full house for Christmas. My brother is already here and some friends from back home in a few days.”

When I took a seat beside him, he switched the beer in his hands and put an arm around my shoulders. He put his chin on my shoulder that was closest to him again, like he’d done when we were at the Spanish Steps.

“We’re missing the party,” I said, putting my arm to his back. “Aren’t you supposed to be hosting?”

“No, is not really my party,” Nicky answered.

“What?” I raised an eyebrow.

“My house but is my brother’s party. Not my idea,” he explained. “Last chance for a real party this year, he said. My parents will be here tomorrow and HBO cameras are coming for our dinner on Christmas Eve.”

“How come Ovi isn’t here?” I wondered. “Isn’t he the life of the party?”

It may not have been his party but I did meet a handful of his teammates. Mike had introduced me as Nicky’s friend to the likes of Karl Alzner and Marcus Johansson, but the eccentric team captain was notably absent.

“This party’s not loud enough for him,” Nicky pointed out.

I smirked and placed a kiss on his cheek. Of course we had shown up to the party late—it wasn’t actually his party, a fact he hadn’t mentioned when Mike told me about it on Skype. And of course he passively let Mike take over and do the talking while he’d made his obligatory hellos. Party or not, he was still the same Nicky, reserved and quiet.

“I wish there was somewhere we could be alone,” he said quietly, sitting up from my shoulder and shifting in his seat.

I knew what he was hinting at. We were alone in the room but with a house full of guests. The dynamic was much different than when it was just the two of us. It wasn’t long after he said ‘alone’ that I came up with an idea.

“How much have you had to drink?” I asked. If it wasn’t his party and he wanted to be alone with me, then we could go. My idea involved a bit of a drive, but I wouldn’t want us to go through with it if he wasn’t fit to take the wheel.

Nicky looked at the beer in his palm and then at me. “This is my first one. Been too busy going around to greet people. Why?”

“C’mon.” I jumped down from the bed and pulled at his free hand, encouraging him to follow suit and get up. “I know just the place.”