Kings and Queens

28

“Alright, so tell me,” Danny jumped onto my bed with Trish and Bridgette, “Sex good?”

I rolled my eyes, “What do you think?”

He and Trish fanned themselves and Bridgette actually turned red. I’d let them think what they wanted without revealing too much. I wasn’t the kind of girl to kiss and tell, after all.

Trish smiled, “It’s cute to see you like this Lang, you’ve been a little closed off since, well,” she made a face without saying the name no one wanted to say to me for over a year.

The last guy I dated turned out to be a fame whore, more so than me, Bridge, all our friends, plus Dustin’s ex combined. I fell for him and let him use me to get his own name out there; granted it didn’t work in his favor, but it still stung like a bitch.

“Both of you look so cute all in love and happy,” Trish went on.

Bridgette shook her head, “She may be in love, but…”

“Stop,” I rolled my eyes as the hairstylist attempted to tame whatever mess I had going on.

This was a more semi-formal event for a charity, so we didn’t have to be glammed up, but we still needed the full team get us ready. Usually, these were tiresome days that ended pretty early for us, but since the boys were going we assumed it would be a little more fun.

“Jeff met some front office girl,” Bridgette said from her makeup chair.

“Dustin mentioned that,” I opened Twitter on my phone and found a picture from Bridgette of me getting my hair done and sticking my tongue out with a drink in my hand: @therealbridge87-That would be my sister, such a lady @Langleywashofficial.

Already, Dustin had retweeted it: Beautiful, isn’t she?

I set my phone down on the table as Bridgette told us everything her and Mike had done over
their weekend, “He was so drunk, I thought he was going to throw up!”

I laughed at that and then spaced out, remembering how great the weekend had been to me
and Dustin. It was nice to be away from all of this and in our own little world. We got to know each
other on a mental and emotional level while getting to know each other in the Biblical sense too. It
was fantastic.

A few hours later we were downstairs finishing off a couple margaritas when the doorbell
rang. Bridgette jumped up, “Got it!” she smiled as she strutted to the door.

I started to follow her and heard her greet Mike, “Hey baby,” she kissed him, “Jeff.”

I furrowed my brow when she didn’t say Dustin’s name and wondered if he had backed out.
He seemed nervous about going and asked if he was going to embarrass me. I assured him that he
couldn’t and that I would be the one to embarrass myself undoubtedly.

Jeff turned the corner and smiled at me, “No date?” I asked.

“Short notice,” he shrugged, “Dustin’s on his way.”

“I thought he was getting ready with you guys?”

“He was, he just had to run an errand.”

I nodded and accepted that he had a life on his off days. Mike and Bridgette joined us for
another drink and ten minutes later the doorbell rang again. this time, I stood to answer it for
Dustin. He stood on the other side of the door with a smirk, “Good thing I showed up or else Jeff
would have stolen you,” he glanced up and down, taking in my outfit.

“I might have let him,” I stated.

“Sorry I’m late,” he leaned down for a kiss, “I had to run home to fix a few things. Now, why
don’t you go upstairs and pack an overnight bag, we’ll stay at my place tonight,” he pushed me by
the hips through the door.

“One night away from me hurt you that much?” I teased as I fixed a crease on his dress shirt
that was expertly picked by Danny and looked incredibly good on him.

“Exactly,” he kissed me again, “Hurry.”

I walked back down the stairs just as the car was pulling up to take us to the event. Dustin
took my bag and my sister eyed it curiously. When we were all in the car she looked at me, “Going
somewhere?”

“We’re going to stay at my place tonight,” Dustin answered.

She nodded, giving me a small smirk.

Dustin helped me from the car when we arrived at our destination. He looked nervous so I
stopped him before we walked the short red carpet, “What’s wrong?”

“What if they want to talk to me?”

“Then talk,” I shrugged, “You do this after games all the time.”

“It’s different, that’s my world, this is yours,” he looked around, “Lang, I don’t want to
embarrass you.”

“And you won’t,” I touched his face, “I don’t embarrass easily and if you say something dumb
it’ll make me look smarter,” I teased him.

He chuckled and I went on, “Just try to be funny if they talk to you, but not crude funny, just
witty. That seems to work the best, just don’t be a jackass. If they say something you don’t want to
talk about then just tell them politely.”

“What if they bring her up?” he looked at the media, “I’ve seen some of them around when I
would do stuff like this with her.”

“I’ll take care of it,” I promised.

We began walking down the carpet and were called over by someone from E. I greeted them
warmly and he smiled, “So, I guess it is safe to say that Langley Washington has herself a King?”

I laughed, “Yes, I definitely managed to snag a King.” I squeezed Dustin’s hand.

The reporter asked a couple more questions before smiling at me and cueing his cameraman
to end the take, “Excited to host?”

This reporter was always friendly to me and never asked or said anything inappropriate or
brought up things I wasn’t comfortable talking about, so I felt I could be real with him, to an extent.
“I’m pretty nervous actually; I don’t know how funny I can be.”

He chuckled, “She had a lot of good things to say about you and said backstage you were
hilarious. I think that little Twitter scuffle got you noticed by a whole new crowd.”

“Oh really?”

He nodded, “You were always seen as the girl next door, now I think they’re finally getting to
see how funny you can be, and I know you’re a riot when you want to be.”

Dustin chuckled and the reporter looked at him, “Not a mute, eh?”

Dustin shook his head, “No, just trying to not embarrass her.”

“You’ll do fine hockey boy, you’ve got one of the best media coaches with you,” he smiled at
me, “Have a good night you two.”

“Thank you,” we walked away, “Not so bad, was it?”

“Nah,” he smiled down at me.

The paps were taking pictures and asking us to pose together, for me to pose alone, for my
sister and I to pose together, and for us all to stand with the group we arrived with. It was a fairly
easy line and it felt better to me than most. I attributed that to Dustin standing with me most of the
time. I wasn’t a huge fan of things like this, but they did have their perks. They were usually fun, I
got some good gossip, sometimes we left with schnazzy gifts, and I could network. This one felt
easier, more relaxed than normal. Maybe I had finally gotten used to the attention or maybe it was
Dustin.

When we were inside the party we had to do our rounds and talk to people. Dustin, Mike, and Jeff stayed off to the side for the most part or talked to some people who approached them. They all seemed to have calmed down a little and were enjoying themselves by the time Bridgette and I were finished with our duties.

“You look comfortable out there,” Dustin smiled at me as we sat at a table.

“Comes with the territory,” I shrugged before leaning over to kiss him, “Did I thank you for
coming with me tonight?”

He smirked at me, “No, but maybe you can later on.”

“We’ll see,” I winked.

After a few hours, Dustin and I left the event and went back to his place. As soon as we
walked up to the porch he stopped me, “I was late tonight because I had to come home to make
sure my cleaning lady got everything out.”

“Dead bodies?”

He looked nervous, “No, I just wanted to make sure every sign of the past was gone,” he
touched my face, “Like stuff she left or random things I didn’t even think about.”

“Is your house completely empty now?” I let out an awkward giggle.

He shook his head, “Still furnished, just a few less things hanging on the wall or cluttering up
the joint.”

He opened the door and pulled me in behind him, “Tour?”

I nodded as he started dragging me around his house. It was a beautiful place; a little modern
but felt lived in, like there had been a family here instead of a bachelor. Then again, he had had a
wife and a step daughter here only a short while ago.

Dustin and I walked upstairs so he could show me the rooms up there. He stopped in front of
what I assumed was the master bedroom, “This is best room of the house,” he flung the door open.

I walked in ahead of him and was shocked that it had the same feeling that the rest of the
place did; again, not much of the bachelor pad I had assumed I would see. I turned to smile at him,
“This isn’t what I expected.”

“What’d you think?” he seemed proud of himself.

“A bachelor pad. Kind of like Mike’s place.”

“Mike’s place is nice,” he argued.

“But it’s obvious that two guys live there.”

He chuckled, “This is a home, not a bachelor pad.”

“It is,” I smiled.

I changed into my pajamas before walking downstairs to find him in the living room in his own
pajamas. In front of him were two glasses of wine, “Didn’t drink enough at the party?” I asked.

He smiled and nodded to the spot next to him on the couch. I sat and took the wine glass. He
kissed my head, “Tonight was fun.”

“Yeah,” I agreed.

He stood to walk back into the kitchen when I noticed a book on lower shelf of the coffee
table. I picked it up and opened it, “She didn’t take everything,” I mumbled to myself.

I flipped through the pages, “Fucking hell,” Dustin said as he came back into the room.

I looked up at him and saw the guilty look on his face, “Lang, I’m sorry.”

I shook my head, “No, it’s fine.” Truth be told, I couldn’t be mad about him having a photo
album of his wedding. I could feel awkward and worry that there might be a reason for it being
here though.

He sat down and went to take it away from me, but I shook my head, “I want to see.”

He didn’t look happy, but he conceded. I saw a picture of Jessica nad sighed, “She’s gorgeous.”

Dustin put his arm around me, “You’re better, she’s all fake.”

I shook my head, feeling completely inferior to the woman in the pictures. I turned the page
and saw a picture of them together; Dustin didn’t look too happy, he looked nervous. “Were you
nervous that day?”

He nodded, “I had a bad feeling the entire day, should have called it off.”

I closed the book and looked at him, “It was a lesson learned.”

“An expensive lesson,” he shook his head, “But I guess.”

“So, was her cheating the worst thing she did to you?”

He shrugged, “No, the demeaning me was the worst, but the cheating was the final straw. It
just wasn’t good, Lang, let’s just leave it at that.”

I wasn’t going to push the topic because I could see he didn’t want to talk about it. I set the book back where I found it and turned to him. He still looked a little annoyed so I touched his face,
“What time do you have practice tomorrow?”

“Eleven,” he told me, “Want to go with me?”

“Maybe,” I tugged at his shirt, “Depends on how much you wear me out tonight.”

That caused him to smile, “Well, come on then.”

I didn’t like that he didn’t seem to want to discuss his past, but I could understand that it was
painful or he felt ashamed of it. In time, I figured he would let me into that part of his life and tell
me more, but it was soon and I was willing to wait a while.
♠ ♠ ♠
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