Beside You

It had been two days since Dan had come home from the hospital. Ever since the kiss that we shared, things have been off. I thought, at most, it would be a little awkward, but not like this. When we would sit on the couch to watch TV, he would sit as far away from me as he could. Sure, Chief took up some of the room on couch, but the puppy wasn’t that big.

I thought that the kiss meant something to him, especially since he was the one to kiss me, but my mind was now running wild. I was thinking of all the things I could’ve done differently, to make this situation better, but couldn’t think of anything.

While getting ready for work, I could hear Dan’s footsteps shuffling along the floor. I quickly got dressed, and ran out my door just in time to see him shut the door while leaving the apartment. I let out a heavy sigh and leaned against the wall.

“What the hell did I do?” I said to myself. I slumped my shoulders and walked back into my room. I quickly finished the last minute touches on my hair and make-up before leaving my bedroom. I put my headphones in my ear, seeing as it was such a nice day and I was planning on walking to work. I sat down on the bench that’s right beside the door to put my shoes on. I placed my phone beside me, just in case. I had to reach my legs over Dan’s hockey bag, but I didn’t want to move it on him. That would just be one more thing that would cause him to flare up at me at any given moment, not that I knew what was bothering him now in the first place. I didn’t quite finish tying the first one, when Dan came barreling through the door. I jumped as I heard the door slam shut, causing my phone to fall off but I didn’t bother looking for it. He clearly didn’t see me when he walked in since he threw his coat on top of me, hoping it would just land on the bench, where it would normally go. I scoffed and stood up.

“Well, good morning to you too, sunshine.”

I picked up my second shoe and walked over to the chair in the living room. Dan turned around with wide eyes.

“Oh Gretch, I’m sorry. I didn’t see you there.”

I rolled my eyes. “I noticed. You haven’t ‘seen’ me for the last 48 hours.”

He raised his eyebrow at me. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

I sat down on the chair and looked over at him. “I mean, that ever since you came home from the hospital and we kissed, you’ve been distant.”

Dan ran his hand over his face and walked over to me. “Gretch…”

I put my hand out in front of me. “You know what, I’m gonna be late for work. Can we finish this conversation later?”

Dan scoffed. “What? So you’re just going to leave being mad at me?”

I got up from the chair, and looked at Dan. “I’m not mad, Dan. I’m annoyed and frustrated. I’m going to go to work and try and think of what I did wrong.”

As I reached the door, Dan lightly grabbed my arm.

“Gretch, please don’t leave like this.”

I rolled my eyes. “Dan, I’m only going to work. I’ll be back later today. Besides, you have practice to go to.”

Dan sighed. “Okay, I’ll see you later then.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Arriving at work, I saw Charli going through paperwork in her back office. The store hadn’t opened yet, so I thought I would sit down and try and get some advice. I lightly knocked on her door. She looked up at me with a smile on her face.

“Hey girl, it feels like it’s been forever since you’ve been here.”

I smiled lightly. “Yea, a lot has been going on.”

She nodded. “Yea, I bet. How’s Dan feeling? And why are you here so early? We don’t open for another half hour.”

I shrugged my shoulders. “Dan’s alright, I guess. He’s just got a few bumps and bruises. I actually came in early to see if you could give me some advice.”

Charli’s face fell a little bit. “Oh dear, what’s wrong? Sit down. This paperwork can wait. Hell, it’s been waiting for the last 2 years.”

I gave her a small smile and sat down. I proceeded to tell her everything that she’d missed. The conversation started with meeting Claude and went all the way to this morning. Charli’s face showed a string of emotions as I told the story, by the time I finished, her jaw dropped.

“So, what do you think I should do?”

Charli thought for a moment. “Well, you have to think about certain things first.”

I nodded. “Okay.” I began to think, “and just what am I supposed to think of first?”

Charli got up off of her chair and walked out of her office. I raised an eyebrow and got up off the chair that I was sitting in. Just as I was about to exit the room, Charli stopped in front of me and handed me what was in her arms. I looked at it, a little confused. Glancing back up at Charli, a little smirk grew on my face.

“A bouquet? Charli, what is this for?”

She chuckled. “Oh wow, you really need to think about things. Read the card.”

I turned the bouquet around in my hands and pulled the card out. Reading it my mind began to race and I finally realized what Charli meant.

“Claude?” I whispered to myself, but not quiet enough that Charli didn’t hear me.

“Yes, Claude.”

I turned towards Charli, who was back sitting in her chair behind her desk.

“When were these delivered?”

Charli’s jaw dropped. “Really? You’re gonna stand there and think about when they were delivered? Nothing else?”

I raised my eyebrow at her, getting more confused by the second. “Well, what should I be worried about?”

Charli sighed and ran her hand through her hair. “Oh, I don’t know, Gretch. Maybe you should think about who exactly the flowers came from.”

I sat down in the chair and thought about Charli’s words for a moment. “So, you’re saying that I shouldn’t be accepting flowers from Claude?”

She shrugged her shoulders. “That all depends. Do you love Dan?”

I sat and thought about Dan. It didn’t take me long to come up with an answer, and a smirk appeared on my face. “Yeah, I think I do.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dan’s POV

I walked into the locker room for practice with slumped shoulders. I wasn’t happy with the way that Gretchen and I left things before she left for work. I sat down in my stall and ran my hands through my hair, letting out a long sigh. Someone sat beside me and put their hand on my shoulder. Looking up I saw the small smile of Patrick Sharp.

“Hey, what’s this I hear about you being in an accident?”

I looked back down at the floor. “Yea, I don’t really wanna talk about it right now, Sharpy. I just wanna get back out there.”

He smiled. “Okay, bud. Well, if you need anything, you can come to me, you know that, right?”

I nodded and gave him a small smile. “Okay, thanks Sharpy.”

He walked away and I let out another sigh. I decided to shrug off all the feelings that I had when leaving the apartment and put my game face on. I stood up and put my gear on, hoping that my game face would hide what I was feeling inside. I reached my hand into my hockey bag to pull out my deodorant, when I felt something else. My eyes widened when I looked at the object in my hand. How the hell did Gretch’s phone get in my hockey bag?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Gretchen’s POV

After the store opened, I began to stock the new records that were shipped in. I was still haven’t a hard time wrapping my head around the conversation that I had with Charli. I confessed that I loved Dan. I didn’t know that it would be that easy. I guess I had known it for a long time, but the kiss that we shared after I brought him home, concealed it. Now, all I needed to do was get Dan to open up to me. I couldn’t go home and feel like I’m living with a stranger anymore. Getting the Beatles records sorted out, I decided to move on to the Stones. Walking to the back room, I decided to check my phone to see if I had any text messages. I dug through my purse. I couldn’t find my phone. I started to freak out a little bit, but then I thought back to the last place I had my phone. Upon remembering, my eyes grew wide. Oh no! …Dan’s bag

I didn’t let it bother me at that moment; I had work to get done. I went to get the Stones records and went on with the rest of my shift. I was hoping nothing else would go wrong today. Boy, was I in for a surprise.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The store had been dead for quite a while and Charli and I had decided to have a little dance party to ourselves until closing. We said that if I customer came in, we would stop the music and tend to them. It just didn’t seem to make sense to sit around doing paper work for the last hour and a half of our shifts if we had a store full of great records.

We were dancing to the Beatles album “A Hard Day’s Night.” I was dancing with the broom as I swept the floors, while Charli was dusting the counters and shelves. Suddenly, we heard the bell go off, signaling that a customer had come into the store. I turned my head to see who it was. My jaw dropped and so did the broom I was holding. Charli came up behind me.

“Well hell’s bells, aren’t you going to help the customer?”

I couldn’t remove my eyes from the person in front of me. I was frozen in my spot.