Cinematic Confessions

Corey jumped when he heard his name being yelled and a pillow being thrown at him. He didn't recognize where he was momentarily, but then the previous night rushed back to him. He recalled letting in those two late goals in the game and losing it for the Blackhawks. Then Brent and Sharp had tried to get him to go out for a beer with them to shake the loss off, but he had told them no, that he was going to go back to his room and call Autumn instead.

But, he hadn't gotten that far. He had ended up getting something to eat in the hotel bar and had ran into a fan that was all over him, offering to buy him drinks. He had tried to be nice and let her down gently, but she was adamant about him having a drink with her. He eventually obliged, getting a beer. One beer turned into four in a short period of time, and the woman had asked him to go up to her room.

Even with the buzz he had going on from the alcohol, Corey knew better, and he turned her down, knowing he had the girl of his dreams back at home. So, he made his way back up to the room he shared with Duncan and had promptly passed out on his bed, completely forgetting to call Autumn like he had intended to.

Duncan was now screaming at him to get his ass out of bed, and Corey glanced at the clock next to the bed to see that he had exactly two minutes to get downstairs and on the bus so the team could get on a plane to Edmonton. "Shit," Corey muttered, grateful to have Duncs for a roommate since the defenseman had packed Corey's bag for him, holding it out for him.

Corey had fallen asleep the night before in his suit that he had worn to and from the game, and that was what he was going to wear on this plane ride as well. He was sure he looked a mess with a wrinkled suit and his bed head, but he didn't have enough time to even glance in a mirror, instead running out the door behind Duncan.

He ran onto the bus, seeing Coach Quenneville looking at his watch, ready to have the bus driver shut the door if Corey and Duncan didn't get on there in time. Corey breathed a sigh of relief as he threw his collapsed in a seat next to Patrick Sharp. "For the man that went right back to his room last night, I wouldn’t expect you to be the one that's late," Patrick muttered with a smirk.

Corey ignored him as he went to reach for his phone out of his bag to text Autumn. He knew she must be wondering why she hadn't heard from him the previous night after the game. Even when he went out with the rest of the guys, he usually at least sent her a quick text, but last night, he hadn't gotten that far before he started drowning his sorrows from the loss in the beer the woman had bought him. He groaned when he saw that his phone had died since he hadn't charged it the night before. So much for texting Autumn.

"So why were you late? Forgot to set you alarm?" Patrick asked him. Corey knew there was no sense in lying to him. It wasn't like he had done anything wrong, all he had done was have a few beers with a woman in the hotel bar. He hadn't gone to her room like she had wanted, nor had he cheated on Autumn. So why did he feel bad for the night before?

"Yeah," Corey sighed before launching into the story of what had happened.

Patrick shook his head at him. "Dude, accepting a drink with a woman at a bar? Bad move," he told him. "Autumn's not going to be happy with that," he continued.

Corey shot him a sideways glance. "Why? I didn’t do anything with the woman," he justified.

"If I told Abby I just had a beer with another woman, I'd be sleeping on the couch for a month," Patrick chuckled, thinking about how his wife would react.

"So I shouldn't tell Autumn?" Corey asked.

"That's a worse idea!" Patrick exclaimed. "Women hate being lied to. And, if you don't tell her and she finds out from someone else--and she will find out from someone else, they always do--she'll be even more pissed. Just fess up and get it over with. And then make it up to her. Even if she tells you that it's okay, it's not, and you need to do something big to make up for it," Patrick advised. Corey nodded his head, taking in the words.

He had plenty of time to try to think of something to do to make it up to Autumn while he sat on a plane to Edmonton. As soon as they got to the hotel, he immediately plugged his phone in, looking to see how many texts he had missed. Three were from Autumn. Two from after the game and one from earlier that day talking about getting her dress for the event that weekend.

He didn't even bother texting her back, instead calling her. "Hello?" a tired voice answered, and he wondered if he had woken her up.

"Hey babe," Corey said into the phone as he leaned up against the headboard of the bed in the hotel. Duncan was heading to the shower before the team went out for an early dinner.

"Corey?" her voice sounded, and he now knew that he did indeed wake her up. She must not have even checked her phone to see who was calling before she picked up. "How are you doing? I didn't hear from you after the game," she commented. She didn't sound mad about it at all, just a little worried.

"Yeah, I'm sorry about that," he said, pausing for a moment. Patrick told him he needed to just fess up, but now Corey was nervous about how Autumn was going to react. Plus, she didn't need to be upset with the baby. But, that was just him making excuses.

"It's okay," Autumn told him, and he knew she meant that.

"No, I had meant to," Corey replied. "I just got a little…preoccupied."

"Preoccupied?" Autumn asked, intrigued by his wording.

"I went to the bar at the hotel when we got back to get some food. And there was this girl there," he said, suddenly stopping, knowing that he sounded lame trying to explain what had happened.

"A girl?" Autumn said. "Corey, did you…" she trailed off, unable to even say the words.

"What? No!" Corey exclaimed, suddenly realizing what Autumn thought had happened. "Nothing happened between me and her, I swear! I just drank some beers with her. Then I went back to my room. Alone," he emphasized. "You can ask Duncs, I passed out as soon as I got back to the room."

He could hear Autumn breathe a sigh of relief. "Oh, you just had some drinks with a girl," she said quietly.

He knew she wasn’t happy with that, just like Patrick had warned him she would be. "You're mad," he stated rather than asked.

"No, I'm not mad."

"You're lying."

"Look Corey, no, I'm not the happiest that you had drinks with some girl at a bar. But, what am I going to do about it? Tell you you're not allowed to hang out with people of the opposite sex? No, I'm not that type of girl. I'm a little hurt that you'd spend all night with her drinking and not even text me, but I get it. And, it's fine." Again, Sharp was right. She'd said it was "fine."

"I'm sorry, Autumn," Corey apologized sincerely.

"It's not big deal," she told him. He knew she didn't mean it though. He leaned his head back against the headboard once again, closing his eyes. He had messed up, and he needed to fix it. He felt bad. "How was the trip to Edmonton?" she asked him, bringing him out of his thoughts. Apparently she just wanted to move on, and he could do that for now, but he knew he would have to make everything up to her.

"It was okay. It's a quick flight. I think the guys are all going to go out to dinner here in a little bit, and then I'm probably going to come back and go right to sleep," he told her. He was still tired from the night before.

"Well I'll let you go then," she told him.

"No!" Corey stopped her. "We're not leaving yet. Tell me about your day."

"I had the doctor's appointment," she told him.

Corey mentally cursed himself. He hadn't even asked her how the doctor's appointment had gone. He knew it was a big one this time, that she was going to find out the sex of the baby, and he had been so preoccupied trying to explain himself that he hadn't even focused on that once. "Did you find out the sex of the baby?"

"Yeah, it's a girl."

"You're having a baby girl," Corey said barely above a whisper just as Duncan walked out of the bathroom. He smiled to himself, picturing Autumn holding a little girl.

He heard Autumn chuckle. "I’m not having a baby girl. Well, I am, but she's not mine. She's Kat and Cade's."

"How excited are they?" he asked.

"Oh you wouldn't believe it," Autumn told him, her voice getting back to its normal self. "They're so happy, and I'm so happy that I can do this for them. They deserve this baby more than anyone in the world. I can't wait to give her to them," she said happily.

Corey smiled himself. "Would you want a boy or a girl?" he suddenly said, surprising even himself by the question. They hadn't really talked about kids before, at least not like this, and he hoped he wasn't scaring her by asking her.

"Which one would I want? Like us? I mean me?" she sputtered, obviously having gotten caught off guard by the question.

"Yeah," Corey replied. "Which one would you want us to have?"

She paused for a minute, and Corey wondered if he had scared her off. "I'd be happy with either. I mean, I kinda want both, to be honest," she answered. "But, I think this is something we should talk about when you're here, not over the phone," she said with a chuckle.

"Yeah, you're probably right," Corey agreed. "But for the record, I want both, too," he told her.

"Corey, I love you."

"I love you, too," he replied before hanging up with her. They may have ended the phone call on good terms, but Corey knew he still needed to fix the mistake he'd made the night before when he had had drinks with that woman at the bar.

"Everything good with you two?" Duncan asked him, knowing that Corey was going to tell Autumn about the previous night's events. Corey nodded his head in response. "Let me know if you need the name of the florist I go to when I mess things up," Duncan told him with a laugh. "I've practically got her on speed dial at this point."

Corey laughed as he got up off the couch and headed to his suitcase to grab some different clothes to wear. He had been wearing the same suit for over twenty-four hours and it was time for a change. "I'm sure you do," he told Duncan.

"Word of advice," Duncan said, and Corey glanced up at him from his suitcase. "Women like flowers, chocolate, and attention. Give Autumn all three. She's bound to forgive you that way."

Corey shook his head, but he took note of Duncan's words. They were bound to come in handy at some point, even if he wouldn't have to resort to all three this time. He went into the bathroom to take a quick shower and change before coming back out and leaving for dinner with Duncan.

They met a bunch of the other guys downstairs and walked a block down the road to a local restaurant, getting a big table in the back room. Corey found himself sitting between Brent and Patrick. "So did you talk to your girl?" Patrick inquired. Corey nodded his head. "And how did she react?"

"React to what?" Brent asked, and Corey sighed. He really didn't want to have to retell his story from the night before. Fortunately for him, Patrick recapped it pretty quickly. "Dumbass," Brent muttered with a laugh. "You'll learn though, buddy," he said, putting a hand on Corey's shoulder. "Don't even look at another woman when you've got one back home."

"Autumn was actually okay with it. She wasn't exactly happy, but we moved past it," Corey shrugged as the waitress brought their drinks out, and he took a sip of his beer she sat in front of him.

"She pretended she moved past it," Sharp corrected him. "No woman just gets over it like that," he said, snapping his fingers together. "You've still got to make it up to her. What did I tell you? Even if she says it's fine, it's never fine."

Brent nodded his head. "Sharpy's right. You better wine and dine her when you get home. Well dine her since she can't drink. But you get my point," Brent said, taking a drink of his own beer.

"I'm going to have to do something at that dinner on Saturday," Corey thought aloud. "She's worried about going already. She thinks people are going to judge her or something," he said, shaking his head. He didn't really understand what Autumn was so worried about. So she was pregnant. That didn't matter. She was still his girlfriend, and he still loved her.

"Why?" Brent asked. "She'll have people there she knows. Bri will be there. So will all the WAGs," he told him.

Corey shrugged his shoulders. "I tried telling her that. She's worried she won't look good or something. I think she looks great pregnant."

"Women are weird," Brent muttered, and Patrick nodded his head in agreement.

"You'll have to do something to make her more comfortable, feel pretty or something. That's how you're going to make it all up to her," Patrick told him.

Corey cocked an eyebrow at his teammate. "And how do you propose I do that?" he asked him, having no ideas himself on what exactly he was supposed to do to make Autumn feel pretty. He told her all the time how beautiful he thought she was and he showed her in the bedroom exactly how he felt. He wasn't sure why she was still feeling insecure.

"You've got to figure that one out yourself. You messed up, you fix it," Patrick told him, offering no advice whatsoever. Corey looked at Brent for help.

Brent jerked his thumb in Sharp's direction. "What he said. I've got my own problems to deal with."

"Problems with Brianna?" Corey asked.

Brent shook his head. "No, I've just got to make up for leaving her alone with Ryan while I'm on the road. She's not getting any sleep because he's not sleeping through the night. So I owe her," he explained. Corey nodded his head in understanding. "So you're on your own figuring out your problem," Brent said.