Cinematic Confessions

"So are you excited for your date?" Katherine asked as she went through Autumn's closet. The two women were lucky they were the same size and could wear each other's clothes. It made it a lot easier and a lot cheaper than having to buy two of everything. They had done that all the time throughout college, and when the two had moved to two different places, thousands of miles away from each other, they had argued over who got to keep what clothes. Now that they were back in the same city, Katherine was taking full advantage of having a brand new wardrobe courtesy of Autumn. "Where is that purple scarf?" she said, rummaging through all the clothes.

Autumn pushed in front of her, reaching for the scarf in the top of the closet. It was amazing she knew exactly what Katherine was referring to. The two of them shared the same mind at certain times, especially when it came to things like this. "You're so screwed when I get big and you can't wear any of my clothes," Autumn joked.

"No, I still have your entire closet full of clothes. You're the one that won't be able to wear any of your clothes," Katherine laughed, sticking her tongue out at her best friend.

Autumn groaned. "Remind me again why I agreed to do this," she asked jokingly. Katherine knew Autumn could care less about all the less than fun things that came along with pregnancy. She knew her best friend would happily carry her and Cade's baby no matter what. Even if she wasn't going to be able to wear all of her clothes in her closet.

"Did you tell Mr. Hottie about the pregnancy?" Katherine asked, and Autumn's reaction gave her response away. "Are you planning on it?" she said as she continued going through her closet, pulling out a jacket and trying it on, looking at herself in the mirror and deciding she liked how it looked, so she put it on the bed to remember to take home to wear the next day.

"I don't really have a choice, do I?" Autumn asked. It wasn't as if she could hide this secret from him forever. While guys were slow and dense sometimes, she didn't think Corey would be so oblivious of her growing belly and not figure it out on his own. "I'll tell him eventually," she assured Katherine.

"And when he tries to get in your pants tomorrow night?" Katherine asked. It was a legitimate question, and while they had never discussed it, Katherine felt it would be weird for Autumn to have sex while she was pregnant with her child. Not that she could really stop Autumn from doing that.

"Then I tell him no," Autumn said simply. "What kind of whore do you take me for anyways?" she joked with a wink. "No sex on the first date!" she exclaimed.

"Oh, I better go tell that to Bobby Sutherland," she said, referring to one of Autumn's boyfriends from college, whom Katherine had found naked in Autumn's bed one morning their freshman year in college when they shared a dorm room.

"Shut up," Autumn said, giving Katherine a playful shove to her shoulder. "But, I can promise you, I'm not going to have sex with him tomorrow night. We're just going to watch some movies," she said, downplaying just how excited she was. To have a guy willingly have a movie night with her was uncommon, and Autumn couldn't wait for the next night.

She heard Katherine's phone beep, and she watched as her best friend read her text. "You don't have plans for tonight, do you?" Katherine asked her, and Autumn shook her head. Other than trying to figure out what outfit she'd wear the following night, she didn't really have anything to do that night. "Feel like going to the Hawks game with me tonight? Cade just texted and said he has to stay at work late tonight," she explained.

Cade was doing his residency in the emergency room at Rush Hospital, and he often had to stay late at work or go in early, so Katherine was used to him calling at the last minute to cancel plans. Texting Katherine at two in the afternoon for a seven o'clock game was actually early for him. "C'mon Kat," Autumn started to say, but Katherine cut her off.

"You said your new guy coaches hockey, right? Don't you think this would give you guys something else to talk about tomorrow night? Something that he's interested in?" she prodded her. "Pleeeeease?" she was practically begging at this point. Katherine hated going to games by herself, but she would do so if she had no other choice. She hardly missed any home game, her and Cade having season tickets to the Blackhawks.

Autumn sighed, knowing she wasn't going to say no to her best friend. "Fine," she told her. "But you've got to help me pick out what I'm going to wear tomorrow night then," she added.

"Not a problem," Katherine smiled at her. "I've got the perfect outfit for you that's going to make you look so sexy, he won't know what to do with himself," she beamed.

"Whoa, hold on!" Autumn interrupted her friend. "We're staying in, remember? We're having a movie night, not going to some nightclub," she reminded her. The last thing Autumn wanted was for Katherine to pick the super short, low cut dress she had in the back of her closet she had worn to a fancy party in New York City.

Katherine shrugged her shoulders, searching through Autumn's closet some more. She had seen the perfect outfit in there for Autumn earlier when she was trying to find that scarf for herself. "Who cares? You can still look hot and have him wanting you," she told her with her head inside the closet. She reached out, pushing a bunch of hangers out of the way before finally finding the one that she wanted. She pulled a simple light pink dress out, showing it to Autumn. It wasn't too showy but was still dressy enough that it would be clear she thought highly of the date. "With the sparkly heels," she smiled at Autumn.

"You don’t think it'd be too much?" Autumn asked her hesitantly.

"Hell no," Katherine shook her head. "He's so going to try to get in your pants," she winked at her. Autumn rolled her eyes at her, but Katherine persisted. "You know it, too! Just don't let him hurt my baby," she joked.

Autumn's face fell. "The baby," she mumbled. For the few minutes they had been trying to pick out an outfit for Autumn, she had forgotten that she was carrying a baby.

"You can tell him tomorrow night. Just tell him the truth. No decent guy is going to walk away from you for doing this amazing thing for your best friend," Katherine spoke, and Autumn knew she was right about that. She was just fearful that Corey wasn't going to be a standup guy like she hoped he was. "And, if he does walk away, then he's a douche, and you don't want to be with him anyways."

"You don't think he'll be upset? That I should have told him before our first date?"

Katherine rolled her eyes. "He'd be stupid to get upset about something like that," she said, putting her hand on Autumn's shoulder. "You need to stop worrying so much and get ready for the game tonight. I'm going to have to teach you the basics of hockey so you'll have something to talk with him about tomorrow," she laughed.

Autumn shrugged Katherine's hand off. "I know about hockey! I learned the basics from my dad and from living with you for so long, you hockey loving freak!"

"Well then you can thank me when he's impressed by your hockey knowledge," Katherine said, bumping her with her hip.

The two women spent the rest of the afternoon together before heading to the game. Katherine sat down in her seat with a beer in her hand, and Autumn glared at her. "You're just rubbing it in my face that I can't drink," Autumn told her. It was one thing to sit through a hockey game, but it was just cruel to have to do it without the accompanying beer.

"Sorry," Katherine said, though it was clear she wasn't really that sorry as she took a big sip of her beer. "I'll buy you all the alcohol you want in nine months though," she said with a smile.

"Oh, I’m so holding you to that," Autumn assured her, and Katherine seemed okay with that as she happily drank her beer, turning her attention out to the ice. They were announcing the starting lineup as the guys made their way out onto the ice, and suddenly Autumn's eyes went wide.

"Wait, what's the goalie's name?" Autumn asked Katherine, knowing her friend would know the answer to the question.

"Crawford, why?" Katherine asked, not even taking her eyes off the ice. She didn't know what the big deal was. Autumn hardly cared about what was going on down on the ice, so Katherine didn't know why she cared who the goalie was.

"First name?" Autumn asked quickly, though she didn't need Katherine to answer her. She already knew the answer, and it was confirmed when the goalie took his helmet off to grab a drink of water. Katherine had fantastic seats that were on the home side, down by the goalie, six rows up, and Autumn was able to easily see all of the guys' faces.

"Corey," Katherine responded in between sips of beer, though Autumn was only half listening.

"Corey Crawford," Autumn mumbled. She knew his name sounded familiar when he had told her it. But, she had assumed it flowed so easily off of her lips because of the alliteration. Now she realized it sounded familiar because she had probably heard it before from Katherine.

"Yeah, why?" Katherine asked, finally taking her eyes off of the ice to look over at her friend, who looked like she had just seen a ghost. "Autumn, what's wrong?" she asked.

"He's my date tomorrow night," Autumn spoke numbly. He had told her he coached hockey, not that he was the goalie of the Chicago Blackhawks. She couldn't believe how dumb she had been, and how he had played her like that.

"Wait, what?" Katherine cried, grabbing Autumn's arm. "What?" she asked again, unable to come up with more words.

Autumn nodded her head. "Yep, that's Corey, the guy I met at Starbucks and I'm supposed to have a date with tomorrow night."

Katherine started laughing, and Autumn turned her head, glaring at her friend who apparently found this all funny. But, Autumn wasn't laughing. "You're freaking dating Corey Crawford. That's just insane!"

"Insane, yeah," Autumn mumbled. "He didn't even tell me he played for the Blackhawks," she stated.

"He probably thought you already knew," Katherine pointed out. "Nearly everyone in this city knows that!"

"Well, I didn't," Autumn said, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Why are you getting angry? You're dating Corey Crawford! Half the girls here would kill to be in your place!" Katherine told her. She was probably right, too, and Autumn knew that. He probably had a line down the street outside of his apartment of girls willingly throwing themselves at him to get a chance to be in the bed of the Stanley Cup winning goalie.

It didn't matter to Autumn, though. She hated being lied to, and that's exactly what he'd done. She was surprised he even gave her his real name. "Yeah, well he's going to get a piece of my mind tomorrow night," she vowed. "He won't know what hit him."

Katherine looked at her friend. She'd seen that face before, the one that said whoever was on the receiving end of it better watch out. She knew the goaltender had better watch his back. When Autumn was pissed off, she was a force to be reckoned with, and she wasn't sure the superstar would be ready to handle her when she got her claws in him.



Corey hadn't been this nervous for a first date in a long time. Usually the girl he was going out with knew everything about him before their date, able to easily google him and find out everything they could ever want to know about him. But, Autumn didn't know who he was, and he knew she didn't know everything about him.

She had texted him earlier that day, giving him her address, saying they could have the movie night at her place since she had enough movies to last for days that they could watch. He told her he'd bring over dinner if she picked out the movies, and they agreed to meet at six.

He had just enough time to go home after practice and shower before going to pick up a pizza for dinner. When she had texted him his address, he immediately recognized the condo building as one of the nicer ones in the cities, a couple of his teammates living there as well. He hoped that she wasn't expecting something super fancy for dinner, as that wasn't him at all. Though the fact that she had told him that she would be happy staying in and watching movies every night for the rest of her life made him think otherwise.

He made it to her condo, and she buzzed him up. He carried the pizza into the elevator, going up to her floor. She met him at the door, opening it up for him and smiling when she saw him. "Where's the pizza from?" she asked him.

"Gino's," he replied, happy that she was okay with the pizza.

She shrugged her shoulders. "Never had it."

Corey's eyes went wide. "You've never had Gino's? What kind of Chicagoan are you?" he asked jokingly. Gino's was a popular place in the city, and everyone loved it. He couldn't believe she had never had it. "You're going to die when you eat it," he promised her.

Autumn laughed. "I just moved to Chicago a few weeks ago," she explained, and everything started to make sense to Corey. That was why she had no idea who he was. She hadn't been in Chicago when they won the Cup and his name had been everywhere. He liked it better this way.

"Why'd you move?" he asked as he set the pizza down on her table and she made her way into her kitchen to grab a couple of paper plates and napkins.

"What do you want to drink?" she called out, not answering his question just yet.

"Water's fine," he told her, and she came back out with two glasses of water in her hands and the plates and napkins tucked underneath her elbow.

"I had a great opportunity come up," she told him, not going into any more details. He had lied to her, so why would she tell him about the surrogacy? Especially if tonight was the last time they'd see each other after she called him out on his lies.

"What is it that you do?" Corey asked, realizing they had never talked about her occupation. His had come up, and he had immediately strayed away from talking about jobs anymore after that, wanting to stay away from his own.

"Oh, I'm a pharmacist," she told him, as she opened the pizza box. "Ooh, this looks good!" she told him, grabbing a piece and putting it on her plate in front of her.

"I'm telling you, it's delicious," he grinned, grabbing his own piece.

They ate their pizza while having a nice flowing conversation, getting to know each other a little more. Corey filled her in on his family, and he was pleasantly surprised when he found out she could speak French just as well as her English, now knowing he could switch back and forth between the languages he was fluent in as often as he wanted, with Autumn able to understand him either way.

Autumn was loving everything he was telling her about himself. But, that fun time was about to end when she brought up his lying to her.

"So what movies do you have on the list for tonight?" Corey asked her as they were finishing up their dinner. This was the moment Autumn had been waiting for. She hadn't confronted him after the game or even when he first got to her place tonight. No, she had thought about just exactly how she was going to ask him about lying to her. And, she had it all planned out.

She turned around to face him, looking him dead in the eyes. "I've got three. Body of Lies. True Lies. Liar Liar," she told him, and she watched as his face scrunched in confusion.

"I gather there's a theme there," he said with a slight chuckle.

"Yeah, it's all about you tonight." Autumn's attitude had changed in a split second. Her arms were crossed over her chest defensively, and she was staring at him with anger in her eyes.

"Whoa, whoa, what?" Corey asked, completely dumbfounded with what she was saying. "They're about me? When did I lie to you?" he asked, though he knew the answer to that question. Had she figured out who he was?

"Oh, when you told me you coached a hockey team. You asshole. You play for the fucking Blackhawks!" she said loudly. Yep, she had figured out who he was. "And, what? You thought I was just some naïve girl who would never figure it out? Or you just wanted to string me along?" she asked, irate.

"String you along?" Corey questioned, putting his hands up defensively. "We've known each other for what? Less than a week? And you're upset because I didn't tell you that I played in the NHL? What does it matter? Does it change who I am? Everything I've told you has been the truth. No, I didn't straight out tell you that I played for the Hawks, but I never said I coached either. You assumed that. I just didn't correct you," he told her.

Autumn thought back to their conversation and realized he was right. He had never said that he coached. He just let her believe that. "Why? You said yourself, what does it matter? So why not just tell me the truth?"

"Like I just said, we've known each other for a couple of days. I'm sorry I haven't divulged my entire life to you in that short period of time," he said defensively, and she realized she may have overreacted just a tad bit.

"I'm sorry," Autumn spoke softly, and Corey stopped talking. "It was just a shock to me when I was at the game last night and I saw you out on the ice," she explained.

Corey tilted his head to one side. "You were at the game last night?" he asked her. He thought she had said she wasn't a hockey fan, so why was she at a Hawks game?

"Yeah, Katherine, that's my best friend. I went with her," she told him. "I don't normally go or even pay attention to anything in the NHL, but like I said, she's a big fan. And, she had an extra ticket and basically forced me to go. Imagine my surprise when they announce you as the starting goalie."

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you," he spoke sincerely. Looking back on it, he realized he should have just mentioned it. The worst that could have happen was that she ended up being a big fan girl, but at least this argument wouldn't have come about. "I just liked that for once someone didn’t think of me as the Blackhawks goaltender," he explained.

"I shouldn't have blown it out of proportion," she shrugged her shoulders.

"Why don't we just continue with our date?" he suggested. "We can learn more about each other as the night goes on and in future dates," he said, and Autumn had to admit she was a little surprised he still wanted more dates with her after she had gone off on him like she had. "But, I can promise you that's the only big thing that you didn't know," he assured her.

Now was the perfect opportunity for her to bring up that she was going to have Katherine and Cade's baby. But, she didn't want to ruin everything. She had gone crazy on this guy and he still wanted to continue to date her. That didn't happen with just any guy. And, she didn't want to scare him off by telling him of her unconventional pregnancy. She just needed to get him to like who she was, and then she could drop the bomb on him, when he was more likely to understand.

"So what movies would you really like to watch?" Autumn asked him.

"Whatever you pick, whatever you're in the mood for," he told her, sitting down on the couch as she walked over to her movie selection.

Autumn chuckled. "You probably shouldn't give me all the power, I may choose something you hate," she said.

"I'll watch whatever you want," he smiled at her.

"Okay," Autumn sang, pulling out one of her favorite movies. "But, just remember, you let me choose," she said, putting the dvd in and tossing him the box to see what they were watching.

"How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days," he read. "I gotta say, this isn't something we've watched on a road trip," he joked.

"Good, something new," she smiled as she settled down on the couch next to him, putting her feet to the side and sitting close next to him. Corey put his arm around her on the back of the couch, getting comfortable, ready to watch this chick flick she had picked out.