From Boston to Pittsburgh With Love

Geno's P.O.V.

Saturday before Geno leaves.

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This Saturday was the day that Sid was leaving. In the morning Sid and I went for an exhausting workout at Jakub's gym, then went back to the hotel for Sid to pack and then to go grab Adriana from her place.

"I'm majorly bummed to leave, you know that right? But then again it's not like I gotta worry about you, eh?" He said winking at me.

"I be fine. Spend time with Adriana." i said smiling back.

"Glad to hear. But um there is one slight problem, and I don't know if you've taken account for it yet..." He said clutching the steering wheel and staring straight ahead.

"What problem?" I saw no problem whatsoever. I was going an entire 6 days with the women of my dreams. What the hell was he talking about?

"What's gonna happen when the week is up? Not even a week, G, you got like 6 days with this girl." He said sadly.

"Oh...yea...I no think of that." I muttered absolutely shocked. I had completely ignored the fact that I had six days, and then what? She had told us she would most likely would be brought back to Vancouver with her grandmother and mother to keep a closer eye on here.

"All I'm saying man is that you need to make each one of these days count." He said back, snapping me out of my trance.

"Right, make each day count. I think of plan." I said as we walked into our hotel and into the elevator.

Sid was right. I needed some sort of plan, I needed to 'woo' her. As Sid and I arrived at our room and he began to pack I laid down on my bed and began to think. Few of my friends and teammates knew how dorky I can actually be, meaning that I actually wanted to pull out all the stops in this situation.

"So what are ya gonna do Gino?" Asked Sid as he threw his shoes into the suitcase.

"Oh um, thinking picnic tomorrow at park." I said grinning sheepishly

"I like it! How about spending Monday in the old town square? I heard there's like a million and one things to do. Super corny, perfect for this!" He said laughing.

"Need to write down." I said as I grabbed the stationary from the hotel room. I never understood why they out this here, but hey I can't complain right now.

"Alright so here's what I think you should do, now this is just my suggestions. Tomorrow have that picnic and oh bring that travel chess set you and Neal use! She told me she's never learned! Okay so spend the day relaxing at the park, then Monday go spend the day at the town square. She'll love getting out of the castle and away from the gym and that punching bag. There's so much to do there. Alright..so Tuesday spend the day at the markets. I can already tell she's the kind of girl who love's that stuff. So Wednesday, go to the Charles Bridge. G, there you have to make your move. I'll leave Thursday up to you, it's your last day so make it count." He said grinning. I loved the fact Sid was helping me with this, he had come to know how nervous I can get about these situations.

"Thanks man. What should I do about...um Thursday?" I asked looking over at him.

"That's 110% up to you man...look I'm not gonna tell you what to do. But I do know that you have six days to convince this girl to basically kiss her family goodbye. And for a girl like her, and a family like hers that's going to be difficult. You need to be the rock that she's spent her whole life looking for man." He said flopping down on the bed after finishing packing.

"You know you very corny sometimes." I said chuckling as I changed into some more suitable clothes to see Adriana.

"Hey, I'm just helpin' you out." He said before quickly falling asleep.

I smiled knowing my friends heart was in the right place. I hadn't been feeling that tired so I just laid on the bed, thinking of the next week with Adriana. I couldn't wait to spend these next days with her, all to myself. I already felt this strong pull towards her whenever she was around, like I was naturally gravitating towards her. I felt fiercely protective over her, especially around the skeevy trainer Jakub...

5 pm rolled around and I woke Sidney up and we dragged his bags to the car and headed to pick up Adriana who wanted to come say goodbye to Sid. We rolled up to the front gate of the castle, at the beginning of the driveway only to find Adriana waiting in the front.

"Why you not inside?!" I asked hoping out and opening her door as she slid in. She looked so beautiful in her over sized sweatshirt and leggings.

"I hate this place so much! Oh my god. This family. This castle. My brother. HOLY SHIT." She huffed as we drove towards the airport.

"Take deep breath." I said smiling back at her, smiling even bigger when she winked back at me.

"Alright let it all out sport. This is a safe place! Plus I need something to think about on the ride back." Sid chuckled from the drivers seat.

"Ha ha very funny...smart ass. Well my grandmother and mother called Gretta the maid in charge of 'looking after me' and said that Milan had gotten an 'anonymous' email to his fan page that I was spending way to much time with two certain hockey players visiting Prague. SO naturally I called them to tell them to stop believing all these rumors and I got into this screaming match over the phone with them. My mother called me selfish and a 'bezobziran razočarenje kćeri'. I'm absolutely loosing my mind...I cry myself to sleep practically every night." She ranted looking absolutely devastated at what her mother had called her.

There was a moment of silence in the car before I decided it was my turn to break the silence. "What...that mean? Those Serbian words?." I asked turning around to look at her beautiful green eyes.

"Oh...um it's Serbian for an inconsiderate...disappointment of a daughter..." She said, as I watched water begin to fill up in her eyes.

I hated seeing her like this, it made my fists clench. My knuckles started to run white as I stared out the window, already hating her family for treating her like this. Sid noticed my tense demeanor, "Dude, help her out." He whispered.

I made note of his comment. We spent the remaining 30 minutes of the drive to the airport talking about the coming up season and Sid'd new commercial with Reebok. Finally we arrived at the airport, we all got out to help unload Sid's bags and send him off.

First he went to Adriana wrapping her into a tight hug and whispering something into her ear before kissing her forehead, a sign of endearment she had taught us of the Serbian people, and came over to me. Then he came over to me wrapped me in a tight and slightly awkward hug.

"Listen, you guys have something here. Don't waist these six says, G." He whispered to me before pulling away.

I nodded and waited, knowing there was more coming.

"If you piss these days away and waist whatever you two have, leaving her here in Prague for another month so help me Gino I'll find someway to make you pay. I naturally can't think of one right now, but with the right motivation I'll make you pay if you screw up." He said grinning at me.

I grinned back at one of my best friends, someone who made coming to a foreign country like America so inviting. We did our traditional handshake that we did every night before each game. He grabbed his bags and passport and began walking towards the door. He turned halfway, grinned and waved before continuing on through the glass doors of the airport.

I turned to Adriana, "Ready for dinner?"

"Absofruitly!" She grinned as she got into the front seat next to me.

We drove in blissful silence back to the hotel I was staying at and into the restaurant, where I had reservations. We sat in a far corner of the restaurant in candle light. Sid had told me to ask for a quite area, I hadn't expected them to oblige but they had; leaving Adriana and I to our own accord.

A few awkward moments passed as we scanned through the menu's. It felt like this silence was becoming too unbearable, I could feel Sid kicking my chair and telling me to stop wasting time.

"So, um we have six days." I said gazing into her eyes as she looked up from the menu.

"Oh yup! So what's on the agenda?" She asked nervously smiling over at me. I didn't want her to feel so nervous around me, I wanted her to feel comfortable.

"Surprise." I said throwing on my biggest smile for her.

"Oh! Wow! I think I like surprises...not sure though." She said nervously as she sipped the wine we had previously ordered.

We made small talk for a few minutes, I could feel the question coming bubbling up to the surface as the conversation proceeded on into the night. I knew I had to say something, I took a deep breathe and prepared for it.

But she beat me to it, "So listen Gino...we um we need to figure this out. Whatever this, is."

"You right. I like you, you like me. Simple." I said gazing at her.

"This is true. But Gino what are WE? And please don't pretend I'm an idiot, I know about that girlfriend of yours in Russia. I know the relationship has been rough, I heard from Jakub. I will not be some rebound." She said staring sadly over at me.

"NO! I like you more. Things over for good with Oksana...I want you be girlfriend?" I practically spit the question out. It's not that I didn't mean it, I certainly did. It was simply that I was so nervous as to what her reaction would be.

Her face lit up like St. Petersburg at night, "Gino..." She said smiling over at me.

"You no want to be girlfriend?" I asked confused as to why she didn't finish her sentence.

"Oh my goodness! No its not that! It's just I didn't know how to spit out the words. Just saying yes to something so extraordinary like that seems to ordinary to me. I wanna say yes a thousand times, and that doesn't even seem enough." She beamed over at me. She looked like the embodiment of sunshine; that was it, she was my sunshine.

I couldn't even form a response. I just smiled over at her, my breathe having already left.

"I don't know about you Gino, but I'm feeling a walk." She smiled over at me.

"Da. Let us leave." I said as we both stood up. I walked over to her offering my coat and sliding my hand into hers, something that felt so completely effortless. We walked to the front and paid for the little amount of wine we had actually drank and made our way outside.

We walked along the cobblestone streets of the old town center with linked hands in perfect silence. I felt no rush to whisk her off to America. I could stay like this forever. I didn't even realize we had stopped in front of a fountain.

I looked down at her, she was gazing over at it, "It's St Raphael, the patron saint of love." She whispered looking up to me.

I stared down at her, into her absolutely stunning green eyes. I could lose myself in them for hours. I didn't even realize what I was doing until it was over. I reached down sliding my hands to the side of her face and into her hair. I stroked the side of her head with my thumbs and continued to stare into those forest green eyes, no one speaking. At first the kiss was cautious, very tentative, I didn't want to over step boundaries. But she granted me entry and began to kiss back. She wrapped her hands up into my hair, and I traced the top of her lip with my tongue begging for entrance. Granting me entrance only deepened the kiss.

For a few moments in time we lost ourselves in each other. No aspect of the outside world could have torn me away from her in that moment. She pulled away first resting her forehead on my chin. My hands began to stroke her hair.

"We should go back, it is getting late." She whispered into my chest.

"Da, let us go my sunshine." I smiled down at her as I took her hand and we started back.

"Sunshine, eh? I like it. I'll have to come up with one for you." She smiled thoughtfully over at me.

As we walked back to the hotel I thought of what Sid had said, I wasn't going to waste anytime with her. I knew for certain, I wasn't going to lose her.
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