Je t'aime, tu sais?

Patrice was doing that stupid thing again where he smiled all the time.
Chest heaving, sweat pouring out of his hair and streaming down the sides of his face and the slope of his nose, he looked at himself in the full length mirrors that covered the walls lining the Bruin's gym in the Garden with his hands on his hips.
Mouth open, sucking in air, he couldn't help but notice the slightest pull of his lips to the left, his teeth exposed and his eyes bright.
He had skipped morning skate, dropping Jamie off at her place around ten and made his way to the gym knowing full well that Ferry would come spot him while he lifted after practice; he had texted him twice yesterday before the Harvard black tie event just to confirm. Morning skate was usually optional, but Patrice executed anything in his life having to do with hockey to its fullest extent as if he couldn't comprehend the word optional.
Except for this morning; because of last night.
He looked at himself in the mirror again and actually laughed out loud with the little breath he had to spare after finishing his cardio.
Last night, he thought. So amazing.
He let his head rest back on his shoulders as he stared at the ceiling and raised an arm to his head and ran a hand through his hair, flinging sweat in every direction. Bending forward, he pressed his hands to his knees and hung his head, closing his eyes and knowing he was still smiling.
He leaned forward still and grabbed his plastic water bottle full of BioSteel. Gently, he lowered himself onto the yoga mat for a stretch, grimacing only for a few seconds before he looked at himself in the mirror again, grinning like an idiot again.
He had been so close with her last night. He had touched her. Every part of her. He had been inside her. He wanted to love her, so much, so desperately; he felt so close to her, so safe with her.
She made him smile.
Like a doofus.
He shook his head and raised an eyebrow to examine the bold clock that hung in the middle of the gym. Morning skate should be over within ten minutes. That's just enough time to get a good, diligent stretch in, he told himself. He leaned forward and pawed at his sneaker, grabbing it around its soft rubber edges and pulling his back toward his leg. He caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror and laughed again, blushing like a mad man.

Jamie was doing that stupid thing where she smiled all the time again.
She had donned a massive grey sweater over some tight, warm, black leggings and had resolved to work hard on her thesis for the rest of the day.
Patrice had dropped her off less than an hour ago and after she had laid on her bed for fifteen minutes, beaming up at the ceiling, she had finally convinced herself to take a shower and start a productive day.
She just couldn't stop smiling and drifting off into dreams of last night.
How many times she got to cup his cheeks, his smile drawn sweetly between, how he had practically melted into her every time he lowered himself on top of her, how damn happy they both had been. How strong and hard his body was, but how soft his eyes were.
She warmed water on the stove in a big kettle for tea and gazed at the black piece of clothing tossed on her cute little green velvet couch longingly.
She promised herself she'd never be one of those girls, but she couldn't help but want to roll all over her bed with the thin shirt's material pressed to her face and her lungs inhaling the sweet, handsome scent of the boy she had spent the night with.
Patrice had insisted she keep the shirt; he had many he had laughed.
The kettle whistled, startling her out of her day dreams as she killed the burner and readied her mug. In a flash she saw her bright red nail polish and smiled, thinking of Patrice's obsession with it.
After they had shared their first climax together, they lay in his bed, her head on his strong shoulder, their chests rising and falling gradually less frantically together. He had taken hold of her hands and brought them to his lips, roughly planting a kiss on her knuckles and groaning, covering them with his hot breath.
"Mi amour," he had sighed, "your nail polish has been driving me crazy inside all night."
The tea kettle whistled again, startling her as she confusedly removed it from the already cut off burner, only to find it wasn't the kettle at all emitting the noise, but instead it was her cell phone.
"Geez, get with it," she scolded herself, rolling her eyes but smiling the whole time.

"Wait, you gotta tell me about it," Ferry said, referring to the black tie event as he grabbed Patrice's hand and lifted him from the mat. Patrice was blushing and smiling all at the same time. He couldn't maintain eye contact with his friend, and Ferry was quick to pick up on Patrice's inability to separate the event from his private, intimate endeavors with Jamie as they made their way to the weights.
"You devil! Did you seal the deal?" He asked, skipping to catch up with Patrice, who was smiling and shaking his head.
"Ferry," he pleaded, laughing a bit.
"Yeah?" He asked, nodding, his eyebrows high, eager to see if his friend would divulge any information. Patrice dropped his head and lay down under the bar full of weights, ready to bench press the living daylights out of his morning. He shook his head again, unable to hide his smile.
"You DID," Ferry said, jabbing him in the chest. "You SO did!" He let out a bark of laughter, readying himself above Patrice, ready to grab the bar of weights if Patrice were ever to fail.
"I dunno what you're talking about," Patrice breathed, fully extending his arms and holding the weights above him, smiling through his grimace. Ferry shook his head, chuckling. He stood above Patrice in a dark grey Bruins track suit, freshly showered from morning skate. Patrice and Ferry were good friends on account of their committed work ethic. Whenever one was unable to make morning skate (and this was Patrice's first missed practice in years), the other always stayed after to help him make up for it independently in the gym. Ferry had missed a couple over the past few seasons due to his sick girls and even the birth of Ava.
"Bergy!" Ferry said excitedly. "Nice, man!"
At this point, Ferry knew Patrice couldn't respond due to fatigue so he decided to tease him, just a bit. He figured Patrice was such a serious, dedicated guy, that it was only in his best interest as a good friend to make him smile and laugh every once and a while. Ferry was merely performing his duty as a friend.
"Were you any good?" He asked, as opposed to asking if she were any good, a question Ferry believed was private and immature. Instead, he'd rather poke fun at his friend then ask him what he knew Patrice would consider deeply personal questions.
Patrice's lips were pressed together and his chest was jumping up and down when he could manage a breath, his arms shaking as the weights seemed to get heavier and heavier. He managed to shake his head and expel a short breath to stand in for a laugh.
Ferry helped him place the weights suspended in their metal holding above his head, and as Patrice sat up and forward, Ferry took a seat on the bench next to him. "I'm just givin' you a rough time, bud," he laughed, patting Patrice on the back. "It seems like you had a pretty damn good night, though. I'm happy for you, man."
Patrice, still short of breath smiled and shook his head. "Yeah," he sighed, rubbing his face with a towel presented to him by Milan, who took a seat next to Ferry, also freshly showered from morning skate.
"Thanks bud," Patrice nodded to his other friend. "But yeah, last night," he breathed, nodding. "It was pretty awesome," he laughed.
"What was last night?" Milan asked, his brows knitted together.
"Harvard black tie event," Patrice breathed, sucking down some BioSteel.
"Oh-ho! With Joyeux Noel?" Milan still referred to Jamie by their Christmas Eve nickname. The men chuckled and Patrice nodded, laying back down and stretching his arms to receive the weights from Ferry again for his second set.
"How's that going by the way?" Milan asked, still seated next to Patrice.
"Good," Patrice grunted.
"Good enough to skip morning skate," Ferry winked.
"Oooh, there it is!" Milan laughed, clapping his hands.
Patrice's breathing got heavier and on his last rep, he unleashed a bit of a roar trying to return to bar to its resting place. He immediately fell back on his back, lifting his knees and resting his feet on the bench, knees apart, chest heaving.
After a few seconds, he gushed a little to them. "God; she's the best. She's just amazing, y'know?" he said, raising his forearm to his forehead and covering his grimacing face with his other hand and the towel.
"Yeah?" Milan asked, chuckling still.
"That's awesome man," Ferry nodded, stealing a swig from his BioSteel.
"I'm just like... she's all I can think about," he admitted, still looking at the inside of his white, sweat-ridden towel. His hands rose and fell with his chest and even jerked with his pounding heart.
"Yeah?" Milan asked again.
"Yeah, it's just like... I dunno..." He pulled the towel from his face and motioned for Ferry to lower the bar into his hands.
"Again?" Ferry asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah, load me up," Patrice breathed. Ferry looked at Milan who shrugged. He chewed his lip for a second, and lowered his friend the bar.
"She just makes me want to be better, y'know?" Patrice said, letting the weight crush his chest and then propelling the bar into the air with his strong triceps cramping and wrists cracking from years of abuse.
"That's good to have in a partner," Milan noted, sitting and watching Patrice complete his third set, his eyes rising and falling with the bar.
"Yeah, not that you need the extra motivation or anything," Ferry said, giving Milan a cautious look. They both knew that if it were even possible for Patrice to be more motivated he'd probably exhaust himself. It was like he was always at his prime.
Patrice unleashed a massive breath of air through his gritted teeth and Ferry assisted him in laying the bar to rest.
Chest heaving, he laid back down on the bench and drew his feet up again, attempting to pull his belly button through to his back, stretching his trunk.
"I've never thought about another person so much," he confessed, throwing the towel over his face. He drew his left thumb up along his ribs, attempting to rub out an ache he had developed from not breathing properly during benching. "I just feel like I'm going crazy, y'know? Like, is that wrong? Are you guys like that?"
"Like what?" Milan asked.
"Like do we think about Krista or Brittany all the time?"
"Yeah, like," Patrice couldn't find the right words; he didn't want to sound creepy, but, he genuinely wanted to know if the strong emotions he was feeling toward Jamie were normal. He didn't think he had ever experienced "normal" before... And now that they had slept together--his stomach flipped and spread a warm, tingly feeling throughout his body--the feelings toward her were growing stronger by the minute.
He pulled the towel from his face and turned his head to face his friends. "Y'know," he gestured to them, "Like, I feel like I'm obsessed with her; is that crazy? Am I nuts?"
His two friends cracked big smiles, bearing their teeth as they gave hearty laughs.
"Bergy, you're in love!" Milan said in a dreamy voice, holding his hands under his chin and looking far off into the distance. This elicited more laughs from Ferry, who pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head.
"What?" Patrice asked, slightly perturbed. He didn't want to be mocked for a serious question, even if he couldn't find the serious language to properly express it. He looked at Milan and shook his head, still smiling slightly--and blushing--and laid back down on the bench, placing the towel over his face.
When their chuckling subsided, Ferry cleared his throat.
"Bergy; you're crazy about this girl right?" He asked.
"Well, yeah. I guess so," Patrice shrugged logically.
"Then... you're crazy." Ferry reasoned.
"But am I crazy?"
"Yes! You're crazy!" Milan laughed as Patrice sat up and pulled the towel from his face again, looking at them incredulously.
"That's what it's all about man; love is crazy. You're in love, ergo, you're crazy." Ferry explained, using hand gestures.
"Love makes people do crazy things, bud," Milan confirmed, nodding.
"I never said I was in love," Patrice said, shaking his head and assuming his bench press position again, motioning for Ferry to lower him the bar.
Milan stood above him instead as Ferry looked at him from his seat next to him.
"Right," Milan said.
"You are, you just won't admit it to yourself yet," Ferry told him, smirking.
"Because that'd mean Bergy be cray-zay!" Milan sang.
"And we both know you can't deal with that, Perfect Patrice" Ferry winked.

Jamie lay on her bed, her phone hot against her ear.
"Yeah," she blushed, biting her lip.
"Yeah?!" Emily asked, excitedly.
"Mhm," Jamie confirmed, laughing.
"Was he amazing?"
"Em!"
"You have to tell me! Was he?"
Jamie heaved a sigh. How could she lie about such a thing? How could she swear privacy and a quiet life as she had always pursued when she was bursting at the seams about how happy someone could make her feel? How happy someone could make her BE.
"He said he hadn't done anything like it in a while," she confessed. "But, I thought he was amazing," she laughed, embarrassed. She didn't want to reveal their intimacy to the world, but, Emily was her sister, and she just had to share her happiness with someone. And, she figured, Emily would work something in Patrice's favor, like convincing Jamie she should go to his game tonight.
Jamie didn't want to go because she didn't want anyone to think that just because they had slept together that she would drop everything and start following him around like a puppy. But, she honestly knew she was crazy for thinking that, who would assume such a thing? Not Patrice. And if he didn't, did it matter who--if anyone--would? She needed someone to talk her into going, and she knew Emily would be just the person.
"Yeah?" She asked, obviously wanting more details.
"Yeah," Jamie said, practically sweating she was blushing so much. "The first time we had to slow down once so he could collect himself, he was so embarras--"
"Wait! One: the FIRST time? Two: how long had it been? I'm surprised he'd last more than a few minutes!"
"Oh my god," Jamie moaned, laughing still. "You think I'm hard-headed, Em. You've got to meet this man."
"Pun intended?"
"STOP--"
"Just kidding! Ah!" Emily was laughing wildly, knowing she was getting to her sister. "I want to meet him, James! He sounds so perfect for you. When do I get to meet him?!"
"I dunno, soon though. I'll have to fly you down for a long weekend or something; I think we're going to be pretty serious."
"Yeah? Is that what you want?"
"I definitely do," Jamie confessed, tracing the spoked-B on her chest, smiling.