If Only You Could Love Me

Getting ready for my first night as a club hostess proved itself more difficult than I had assumed. I'd always been on the girlier side of the spectrum, but I had also seen Maisie in person. It made me look at my chipped nailpolish with mild disgust. It's why I found myself sitting in my bathroom scrubbing it off furiously five minutes before I had to leave. I couldn't show up with chipped nailpolish.

I stared in the mirror. Looking back at me was someone who was me, but somehow didn't look like me. I usually never wore a lot of make up, just some concealer, powder, mascara, a bit of blush and bronzer maybe. I had curled my hair into bombshell perfection, or whatever you would have liked to call it, and I'd somehow gotten into the spandex shorts again. Really, the outfit was quite ridiculous. But somehow cute at the same time. Revealing, definitely. It's not like I walked around in black spandex shorts with seafoam green sheer camisoles tucked into them everyday.

"You can do this", I tried to mentally motivate myself, but ended up grimacing, "Merde."

I pulled a pair of sweatpants over my bare legs as to not freeze to death in the February weather, grabbed my heels in one hand, put on my coat, bag over the other shoulder, and then I was off into the sunset. Or rather, darkness seeing as it was nine at night already.

The moment I stepped inside through the back entrance of Sea, Maisie was there pushing a Boston Bruins jersey in my face.

"Oh my god", She looked quite horrified, like something bad had happened, "I completely forgot that we're doing a Bruins night tonight."

"A what?", I furrowed my eyebrows at her, probably looking like a deer caught in head lights.

"The Boston Bruins, they are our NHL team-"

"Yeah, I know who the Boston Bruins are. I practically am a neighbor to the TD Garden."

"Well basically what we do is that if they play a game on a Thursday or a Friday and win, we'll do a Bruins themed night the next night", She explained while pulling me along to the changing rooms in the far, far, far back of the club, "We do shit like give you discounts on drinks depending on how many goals they scored, play Kernkraft 400 so many times I am humming it by the end of the night, and that sort of stuff."

I nodded, "Okay I get that, but why the jersey?"

"It's just part of the outfit that we wear on Bruins nights. I completely forgot to tell you earlier, so I brought you one of my jerseys to wear", She answered, "We do shorts with thigh highs, heels and a jersey. I am currently praying to God that my jersey isn't too big for you."

I wondered to myself if Maisie was always a neurotic wreck when things didn't go exactly as she had planned. It would turn out I was completely right. She became a blabbering mess, but at least she got stuff done. It was both admirable, and sort of scary.

"I'm sure it's fine", I smiled at her and sat down on the bench in the changing room, "Do you ever get any players in here from the Bruins?"

I pulled off my sneakers and the sweatpants I'd worn on top of the spandex shorts. Apparently they were called disco shorts. What a ridiculous name. She threw me a pair of white athletic socks with black and golden yellow stripes on top. I guess that would be the thigh highs then.

"Yeah we get a bunch of them in pretty frequently", Maisie said with a proud grin, "And they usually hang out a lot in the VIP booths so that's basically how I got the entire team's autographs one by one."

I chuckled, "I've never been much of an ice hockey fan. My cousin plays in my hometown team. We had two Americans playing there during the lock out."

"Where did you say you were from again?", She inquired and sat down next to me while I changed.

"Biel-Bienne, it's pretty much on the border between France and Switzerland. The team's called EHC Biel."

Maisie's eyes quite literally lit up with excitement at that.

"That's totally where Segs played!", She exclaimed, "I'm sorry. Tyler Seguin. He's a Boston Bruins player. Total cutie too."

I nodded. I remembered the brief conversation I'd had with Patrick Kane two months ago when he had been having dinner with Jean. He had mentioned a Tyler when I'd asked him about where his other hockey playing friend was. I supposed that would be Tyler Seguin then.

"Cool", I said, "I met Patrick Kane once during the lock out. Nice guy, I guess."

I pulled up the thigh highs as far as I could, they fit perfectly. So did the jersey. It was surprisingly warm. I hoped I wouldn't get sweaty. As a final touch on the outfit, or rather... costume, I stuck my feet into the high heeled black pumps I had brought.

The club opened up twenty minutes later at ten. Apparently Sea was a pretty popular club because there was a line already then. Or maybe it was because of the whole Bruins night thing. As soon as the club opened, things started to get a bit busy. I had been under the impression that the VIP booths were only for people like celebrities, or I guess hockey players. I'd been wrong. I guess it was for anyone who could afford it.

It was stressfull, but I hadn't messed up so far. And the jersey, which was adorned with the captain Zdeno Chara's number and name on it, fit like a glove. It left just enough space to show that I was wearing pants, well shorts, and not walking around naked under it. With the athletic socks and the black pumps, I'd had to say I looked pretty darn good. Even though I was showing more skin than what I was used to.

At some point Maisie came up to me with a grin on her face, "I just got a call that Brad Marchand requested a booth. Looks like we're going to be overrun by Bruins after all."

I had absolutely no clue who Brad Marchand was, but by the rest of her sentence, I assumed he was a player for the Boston Bruins. As Maisie had instructed me, I cleared out one of the empty VIP booths by sweeping the table, refilling the mini fridge if I needed to, that sort of thing. Made sure there were snacks on the table.

The Sea VIP booths were pretty darn cool. They were like little circular nooks in the walls with a big couch lining the wall that probably fit at least ten people if you squeezed. There were cool lights in the ceilings, a mini bar, a table in the middle, speakers, and of course sheer curtains that kept everything a bit concealed, exclusive, and private.

Things got even more hectic as time went on. But it was a fun hectic. People were nice in general, sometimes a bit drunk, but no one had been rude so far.

"Is it always this crazy?", I asked Maisie as I passed her when she was carrying a tray of drinks sometime after midnight. I had yet to see the hockey players, because I'd been so busy.

"Pretty much", She laughed, "Usually it's a bit better because tonight we're only two hostesses. I don't know why we're only two, especially since you're new... Really making it one. I'm going to talk to Johnny about it, because this is crazy."

I nodded.

"Hey, go say hi to the Bruins!", She called over her shoulder as she continued to the booth with the drinks, "They like to meet the new hostesses."

And so I did. As I walked, I mused to myself that I was probably in a position most would kill for, guy or girl. I knew that to some people ice hockey was a very big deal, like a very big deal. I had a friend in the Vancouver area who had told me about people rioting about ice hockey a few years back. Now if that wasn't crazy I didn't know what was...

There were a bunch of them sitting around the table in the booth. Mostly guys, but also a few girls. Girlfriends, toys for the night, maybe even a wife or two if I'd had to guess from the rings on their fingers. I didn't recognize a single soul, so I smiled a lot bigger to compensate for that.

"Hi!", I sounded absolutely ridiculous, "I'm Andy, the new hostess. Maisie said I should introduce myself."

What followed was a long string of introductions. Names I was most likely to forget. I knew a total of three names, but only because Maisie had told me them. Zdeno Chara, I knew he was the captain since I had his jersey on. He looked really tall, even just sitting down. Brad Marchand, because Maisie had mentioned him. Adam McQuaid, Milan Lucic, Patrice Bergeron. Someone with a Scandinavian name I wasn't ever going to try pronouncing correctly. Girlfriends, wives, and toys who's names all blurred together. And then there was Tyler Seguin, the talk of Biel-Bienne.

"Wow, that's a lot of names", I said trying not to sound horrified, "Nice to meet you guys. Is there anything I can get you?"

I was so off my game, outside of my comfort zone alltogether with this. I'd never considered myself awkward, but I felt like a rambling fifth grader hanging out with her brother and his high school friends.

"You can come sit on my lap if you want to", One of them said with a wink. I already forgotten which one of them he was.

Trying to be nice since he was clearly very drunk, I just laughed, "Sorry, but I don't think that I can sit down in these shorts, because they're so tight."

Everyone laughed, and I felt somehow relieved. As if I'd passed a test. Don't be mean to the drunk hockey player, or something like that. After that they rambled off a list that was mostly beer and shots, and I shot off to get them. And that's how I met the better part of the Boston Bruins.


Things calmed down as soon as the club closed at two in the morning, and people shuffled out. The lights came on, and it was like the little fantasy world of the club was turned off.

"You did good for your first night", Maisie commented with a grin as we cleaned up the booths of bottles and the like.

I was thankful we didn't have to clean the entire things. There were apparently a cleaning staff for that. I was pretty much dead tired and wanted to go home and collapse.

"I agree", Johnny showed up next to us, "For your first time you handled yourself really good. You can come back tomorrow night. Keep it up and I'll get you your papers on Monday. Sleep tight, girls."

I stared as he disappeared as soon as he'd shown up. Unless I messed up tomorrow night, I had a job. Unbelievable. It wasn't exactly the job that I had anticipated, and it was only three nights a week, but it was a job. At least one for now, until I could find a steadier job that paid better. This one would barely cover rent, meaning I'd have to have my dad help me out anyway. Not that he would mind. I always figured he felt guilty because he was never there for me as a kid.

As I cleared out the booth the Bruins had occupied, I came across a phone. Of course. I sighed. The background gave no clue as to who the phone belonged to. It was just the Bruins logotype. I tucked it inside the pocket on the shorts, and finished cleaning the booth.

As I watched Maisie get into her car and drive off after we had locked up together, I immediately remembered the phone in my pocket. Mostly because it started vibrating because someone was calling it.

"Fuck", I muttered and nearly groped myself to get it of from there.

It was after three in the morning on a Friday, who could be calling? Of course, maybe I shouldn't have been that surprised. This was a phone belonging to a hockey player in the NHL after all. God only knew what stuff they probably got themselves into.

The caller ID read 'Brad Marchand'. Oh, okay then.

"Hello", I answered, "I'm sorry, I just found this phone so I've got no clue who it belongs to. I'm a hostess at Sea Nightclub."

The person on the other end, Brad perhaps, laughed, "It's okay, it's my phone."

Okay, not Brad Marchand then.

"This is Tyler", He continued, oh, Tyler Seguin, "Sorry to have to bother you. I just now realized I lost my phone. Thanks for finding it though."

"No problem."

"Where are you at right now?", Tyler asked, "We're at an after party on Tremont Street, in the building next to the movie theater. If you want to, swing by with it, but it's okay if it's not on your route home or whatever."

'Tell her to come party!', I heard someone yell in the background. I laughed.

"Um, I'm actually new in Boston, so I have got absolutely no idea where Tremont Street is."

I barely even knew the name of my own street. It was amazing how I found my way home at all trying to navigate this one hell of a city. It wasn't even logical like I knew New York City was.

"Oh, sorry!", He apologised, "Tremont is like, right next to the Boston Common park, on the east side of it. I'll stand outside the door so you can't miss it. I'll get you a drink as a thank you."

I thought about it for a moment. It was on my way back to my apartment by the sound of it. But I was really tired and had contemplated on taking a cab. But this was a hockey player asking me for a favor, and inviting me to a party. Sort of.

"Fine, I'll be there in ten or fifteen minutes."