Hiding Place

Even though Danielle and I only spent two weeks in San Jose, it still meant that we had a lot of packing to do the day before we made our way back to San Francisco. It was a quick turnaround for Danielle as she was heading up to Napa with her family a couple of days later while I got to relax and probably start some sort of training regime for the next season. The month without her around always passed by slowly.

“Why do we always bring so much stuff?” Danielle huffed as she complained. I was seated beside my suitcase pulling things out of the drawers that I had and folding them as I placed them into my suitcase. She was pulling things off hangers and folding them before placing the items into her suitcase. Every year we played rock-paper-scissors, best two out of three, for the closet. I’ve lost two out of the three years that we’ve come here together.

I shrugged. “Probably because we never know exactly what we’re going to do when we’re down here.” My eyes shifted towards the clock sitting on the bedside table – it was eleven in the morning and somehow I had to work two topics of conversation in with Danielle before two this afternoon. I wasn’t sure how to bring up TJ. But I was pretty sure that game six would be easier.

She nodded. “Remind me not to go shopping as much next year. Amelia was a bad influence on me as usual. Where were you yesterday when we went? You disappeared before anyone else was awake.”

There it was. I knew I would have to probably go over the details of what happened with Logan yesterday, but I didn’t think it would be because I missed out on a shopping trip.

My mouth curled into a smile at the thought of yesterday. After all the talking, it was a great day with just the two of us. Logan put on some baseball – neither the Jays nor Giants were playing so we were completely neutral – and we just enjoyed each other’s company. “Speaking of yesterday,” I started and tried to neutralize my smile but it was proving to be difficult. “How would you like to go to game six tonight? You still talk to TJ right?”

Danielle dropped the dress she was holding and looked at me with wide eyes. “You spent the day with Logan! Oh my god why didn’t you tell me when you got back last night?”

I needed to take advantage of the fact that I had the upper hand in knowledge about the topic of conversation at the moment. “Answer my questions and I’ll answer yours,” I smirked as I continued to casually fold t-shirts and pile them into my suitcase.

“Ugh!” My best friend huffed. “Fine. I would love to go to game six this will totally make up for you bailing on the ‘Quakes game. TJ and I still kind of text but we’re more friends, nothing like what’s going on with you and Logan.”

I plucked my phone from my pocket and typed a quick text to Logan that Danielle and I were in for game six and that I would see him after the game. I didn’t expect a response; I figured he was either at some sort of pregame thing or doing something to do with the big game he had tonight.

My cheeks were darker I could tell as I continued to think about yesterday. “Well, after Friday I promised him I would text him in the morning. He invited me over for breakfast, I taught him how to make crepes, then we talked about things and then we watched baseball together on his couch.” I tried my best to shrug it off like it was no big deal by reaching for another shirt and continuing to fold.

“Breakfast? That’s cute. Making crepes together? Adorable. Baseball? How unusual for you two,” she rolled her eyes and marched over to where I was sitting and pulled the shirt out of my hands. “What did you two talk about?”

It didn’t seem like such a big deal to me. I wanted to keep things on the down low rather than out there in the open. The added pressure of having other people aware of the circumstances we agreed upon was something that I wasn’t sure I could deal with. I know what Logan and I agreed upon – things were going to be slow and we had a watch and see approach – but I didn’t know how other people would react to it. I know it shouldn’t matter what other people think because I was happy with what we decided.

Despite all that, I desperately wanted to tell my best friend because she would know how to handle these things a lot better than me.

I licked my lips and shrugged. “We figured out where we stand with each other. Nothing is set in stone we just acknowledged that there’s something there between us and we’re going to see what happens.”

Danielle nearly tackled me in a hug. “I’m just so happy for you!” She exclaimed before letting go of me. “It’s about time you acknowledged your feelings instead of hiding behind them and baseball.”

“There’s still the whole summer to get through,” I smiled. Even though there was going to be this distance, I was excited to see where this would go. “I’m not sure how we’re supposed to act around each other now. Like I’m sure he knows I was going to talk to you about it, but I don’t know if he’s going to mention anything to his team so not as much excitement tonight?”

She continued to have a massive grin on her face. “Okay I got it so I can be excited for you when we’re not around him?” I nodded. “So how do you feel about this whole take it slow thing?”

“Honestly, I haven’t really thought about it. Like I think it’s the best route for us, you know? There’s no point in us making this grand commitment when who knows how much longer he’s going to be in California.”

Danielle raised an eyebrow at me, “So now you being in San Francisco and him being in San Jose is no longer an issue. Interesting.” She teased and shook her head at me.

“Shut up,” I laughed and shook a shirt out by her before starting to fold it. “He told me that he wants me to have fun this summer. Which I’m not really sure what that means but that he also wants to keep in touch, take things slow and not push aside feelings.” I could feel my cheeks heating up as I recalled our conversation.

“Wait,” Danielle’s excitement for me was starting to dwindle and I had a feeling I knew what the next topic of conversation related to this was going to be. “He wants you to have fun? Is that his way of saying you can’t get mad at him if something happens in wherever he’s from in Canada over the summer?” She was starting to switch to her usual defensive, protective attitude when it came to me and other guys.

I shrugged. I didn’t attempt to get clarification from him as to what ‘have fun’ meant. “I don’t know. We didn’t discuss the specifics of that…”

She folded her arms across her chest and was looking at me curiously. “I’m going to have to have a talk with him tonight.”

“Dan,” I said trying to get her off this focus. Just minutes ago she was happy for me and now she was concerned about one aspect of what Logan had said to me. “It’s not a big deal it’s not like he asked me to be his girlfriend, okay?”

She raised her eyebrows at me and nodded. “Fine. But I may be talking to TJ about Logan tonight.”

Reluctantly I agreed. Logan had to figure he had it coming from someone. I wanted to say he was lucky that it wasn’t my brother, but in most cases Danielle was more protective of me than he was.

---

“I cannot believe that just happened,” Danielle and I finally sat back down in our seats after cheering excessively that the Sharks managed to hold on to their two to one victory and force a game seven in two days against Los Angeles.

I sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly. I had a content smile on my face as the two of us sat in our seats in the upper level of the ‘Shark Tank’ We were watching the rest of the crowd empty out while I waited for Logan to text me and Danielle waited for TJ to text her. We knew it wasn’t going to be a late night – the guys had a flight to Los Angeles tomorrow and Danielle and I were heading back to San Francisco.

“What do you think we’re going to do tonight? Our last night in San Jose until next year,” a sigh fell past my lips – this year in San Jose was definitely one of the most interesting compared to the previous two we’ve had here.

Danielle raised an eyebrow at me. “Your last time in San Jose for the year?”

I started to dig through my bag for my phone so I would notice when I got a message. I had a habit of putting my phone on silent and wouldn’t hear it all the time, so now I would know when Logan texted me. “What are you talking about?”

She laughed. “Bullshit this is your last time in San Jose for 2013.”

“What are you implying?” I laughed.

“Oh please,” she lightly shoved me. “When this whole thing with you and Logan works out, you’re going to be driving down here more than you think.”

I shook my head. I didn’t know how this was going to work at all but that didn’t matter to me at the moment. Somehow we would make our schedules work, if this was meant to work, it would work. “You do realize that we’re playing soccer regularly from August until November and possibly into December if we can turn things around for next year…”

Danielle deadpanned, “Cause that’s going to stop you from seeing him.”

“And his schedule,” I added.

“Minor detail,” she shrugged.

My phone vibrated on my leg. Hey Steve who you met before should be coming up to get you and Danielle soon. Can’t wait to see you. I couldn’t help but smile at his message. Before I would have hated that a simple message like that made me smile, but now I was glad that it did.

Just as I turned to tell Danielle that Steve was coming to get us again, he showed up. “Well if it isn’t my favourite San Francisco State Gators. I don’t know what those two boys did to get so lucky.”

Danielle and I both had red cheeks as we stood up to start making our way to the bottom of the HP Pavilion. “Who told you about that Steve?” Danielle asked as the three of us walked down the stairs and headed towards the concourse to find an elevator.

He shook his head, “When the boys make a request to invite someone down to meet them, I usually ask a little about the lucky ladies. It’s been a while that these two have had people other than their families come down to them, so I figure you two must be special.”

Right when we stepped into the elevator, Danielle got a text from TJ basically informing her of the same thing that Logan had told me. Those guys really needed to work on their coordination of things, but I figured TJ was getting a bit more media attention tonight thanks to his game winning goal.

Steve continued to make small talk with the two of us. He asked about our soccer team, which positions we played and what we were taking in school. Danielle and I had almost identical answers for everything with the exception of our positions on the field and the emphasis of our concentrations in school.

“Well I hope to see you ladies again soon. The boys should be out shortly, at least I hope so for your sake,” he laughed and we said our goodbyes.

I was glad that Danielle agreed to go to the game with me tonight otherwise standing alone in this largely cement hallway with people passing by with determined looks on their faces. The teardown of all the equipment for the players must be happening already with their flight to Los Angeles tomorrow. I couldn’t imagine being the equipment manager for a hockey team.

But really, I was happy to have my best friend beside me. I knew I was going to need her support through this whole thing with Logan – whether it worked or not, I didn’t know but I hoped it did. With her protectiveness and positive attitude, I was in good hands. “Thanks for coming with me,” I mumbled just loud enough for her to hear.

She turned to look at me, “You’re welcome? I’m just glad you asked me to come with you.”

“Who else was I going to bring?” I looked at her like seriously, you’re asking me that question?

Danielle shrugged, “You could have asked Amelia.” Marcus was on the road right now.

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah cause that would have been fun explaining how I managed to get tickets to a sold out hockey game.”

“Shut up, you know I’m right,” she laughed. “So what are you going to do when you see him?”

Was I supposed to have this all planned out? “I don’t know, whatever I say when I see him is what I’ll say?”

Danielle shook her head, “You lost me dude.”

“Danielle!” TJ came running out of the room and scooped my best friend up dramatically and swung her around a few times before settling her down and squeezing her tight in a hug. “Told you I’d score a goal for you.”

She laughed and pushed him off of her. With the way they were acting, it definitely didn’t seem like they were just friends but I wasn’t going to pick at that now. I didn’t want to make our last night in San Jose awkward by bringing up how she acted with TJ – I didn’t know the guy that well and maybe through their friendship I would get to know him better.

The two of them were talking at a hundred words per minute, which left me out of the loop entirely. I pulled my phone out of my pocket once more and went on Facebook to pass the time – although not a lot was happening on there either. I moved to lean with my shoulder pressed into the wall, facing where TJ and Danielle were still talking animatedly as I started to read an article that Carmen, one of my teammates posted, about women’s soccer.

A pair of hands slid around my waist and locked on my stomach as whom I could only assume was Logan rested his head on my shoulder. “Someone looks thrilled to be here.”

I pressed the lock button on my phone and dropped it back into my pocket as I attempted to stand up straighter and turn to face him. My clumsiness was currently winning, as it was a good thing Logan had his arms around me. He let out a laugh before pulling me close to him for a quick kiss. “Aren’t you some sort of athlete?” He joked.

“Shut up,” I laughed and pushed his shoulder as he dropped his arms from me. “Good game tonight. I told you there would be a game seven.”

He nodded, “Thanks. Yeah, I’m not getting a prediction for the next game though.” I watched as his lips curled into a smirk.

“Don’t trust my prediction skills?” I raised an eyebrow at him and waited for his response.

Logan shook his head and took a deep breath. “No, it’s just I don’t want to acknowledge that it could be, you know, the last game of the season.”

That I understood. Too many times in my high school career we lost in the semi-finals when we were almost always a favourite to win the regional championship. Every time it got even worse because every year we were considered to be a stronger team, but we never made it. “I understand,” I smiled and attempted to lace my fingers between his like he had done to me a few times before. “So when do you leave for LA tomorrow?”

He let me slide my fingers between his and grinned as he ran his free hand over his face. “Um, in the afternoon I think or the early evening. We’re practicing here before we head down there. You go back to San Francisco tomorrow?” I nodded. “What time?” His voice was softening.

I shrugged. “Not sure. We’re going to try to avoid traffic so probably in the afternoon at some point.”

A wave of tension and awkwardness swept over the two of us. Even though we made these agreements, even though we acknowledged that we had feelings for the other, even though nothing was official, it certainly didn’t make this pending ‘going our separate ways’ any easier.

The silence between us while the other two were laughing was killer. I had to break it. “So I guess you can’t stay out too late tonight, right?”

Logan continued to speak softly, “No, I probably shouldn’t.” He sighed reluctantly. Even if he tried to convince me, there was no way I was going to let him stay out. Hockey was more important right now. It had to be. This was game seven we were talking about.

I attempted to make a joke of the situation, “So seeing as you’re the one with a curfew, what would you like to do?”

His voice got quieter, if it was possible. “Would you be alright with getting something to eat and watching a movie at my place? I’m kind of tired but I want to spend time with you too.”

Well that was unexpected. Just as I opened my mouth to answer him, Danielle mentioned that she was going to get something to eat with TJ and the two of them were going to hang out. She said a quick see you later to Logan and TJ waved and said it was nice to have met me before pulling her along with him.

Logan was looking at me curiously, waiting for my response. “That sounds great,” I smiled at him. He let go of my hand and put his arm around my shoulders before tugging me close to him. He mentioned going to this sandwich shop that usually stayed open late on game day because some of the guys would go there after the game. I wasn’t super hungry, but I knew he was so I agreed to it.

A quiet night with Logan on the couch seemed like a perfect send off before we went our separate ways – well he will hopefully still be in California for a little while longer. But after his season is done, we’ll see how things go. Not only will there be the distance to combat but the time difference as well. We’ll see if we can make it work.