A Winter Classic

“What are we doing here?” Ellie asked following Phil up a set of stairs and through the maze of corridors. She knew where they were, hell she even knew what they were doing here but she didn’t really know why, he’d been pretty hush hush about the whole thing so she’d decided to just go along with it.

“I think that’s rather obvious don’t you?”

He paused pushing the door open and holding it while she walked through. When the door swung shut he continued down the silent hallway.

“Okay smart guy,” Ellie whispered pushing her bag further up her shoulder. “Why are we here specifically?”

“Because I thought it would be fun.”

He pushed open a second set of doors that led to a wider corridor. Lined with rows of framed photos both in black and white leading up to vibrantly colored ones, it was a short depiction of this team’s long, storied history.

“Why are you whispering?”

“I don’t know!” she answered. “Probably cause I feel like I’m about to get caught doing something I shouldn’t be.”

“You know I work here, this isn’t a raid.”

“Well it feels like one to me.”

He laughed at her, watched her take everything in, stopping a few times to read plaques and photos on the walls, and eventually they made it to the locker room. He led her to his stall, sat down on that familiar seat before she did the same right next to him.

“So this is where it all starts?” Ellie looked around at all the identical stalls, name plates above displayed their owners, and some bared keepsakes from friends and family. She imagined the guys who’d been here for a while were more inclined to move in personal touches then maybe some of their younger teammates.

“This is it.”

“Besides the lingering smell it’s pretty nice in here.” She laughed pulling out her skates and lacing them like a pro.

“It definitely takes some getting used to.” Phil laughed with her, pulling on his own skates. “I’ll give you the tour later.”

“I’m gonna hold you to that.” She winked over at him. When they were both finished she followed him out the door and to the rink. The crisp air hit her the moment the door swung open and that unmistakable chill brought goose bumps to her skin. Full this place was impressive, empty it was immense. She looked at the seats, rows and rows of color chairs that people spent hundreds and thousands of dollars to sit in and here she was about to step on the ice. If people knew she was a Habs fan they’d burn her at the stake for what she was about to do.

“You ready?”

“You do know I can actually skate right?” Ellie moved around in her boots, rolling her ankles to make sure everything felt good and nothing was too tight.

“I know you keep claiming you know how to skate.” He confirmed standing next to her. “But I’ve never actually seen you skate.”

“Well your about to see my skate circles around you Kessel.”

She walked towards the opening in the boards, could feel him on her heels as she looked across the smooth white ice. It had just been freshly cleaned; you could still see the slight sheen on water floating in the surface. Slowly Ellie stepped onto the ice, planted one foot onto the surface before she slipped tumbling to the ground. Before she even knew what was happening she was flat on her face, ice pressed against her cheek.

“Ellie, are you okay?”

She could hear the panic in his voice, heard him step onto the ice and could see him from the corner of her eye. He leaned into her sight line about to say something when she burst into hysterical laughter flipping around onto her back. Looking up into the rafters of this multimillion dollar building lying on her back like an idiot all she could do was laugh thinking about how the hockey gods had decided to punish her for stepping foot on enemy ice.

“I’m… I’m…” she laughed again sitting up.

“Are you okay?” He framed her face in his hands, looking into her eyes. She’d taken a pretty big slip and landed hard, concussing her had definitely not been his plan this afternoon.

“Don’t worry I landed on my humility.” She laughed giving her head a little shake. “I’m fine, I promise.”

“You’re sure?”

He looked so concerned which was sweet but she really was fine, she leaned over and pressed her lips to his concerned face, sat back then looked up at him.

“That was all a part of my plan, obviously.”

“Obviously.”

“I told you I was amazing, didn’t I?” Ellie looked down at the bright purple skate guard still wrapped around her left blade, the culprit of her fall.

“Oh yeah I’m very impressed.” Phil laughed, sliding the guard off before helping her to her feet. “You think you can handle this now?”

“I sure hope so.” She laughed testing her feet again; she did a small circle around where he stood. “See I told you, circles.”

She did one more rotation around him before taking off down the ice, he caught up even faster then she’d expected. It was easy to say he was fast, you could see it from the stands but physically being there next to him it was impressive.

“The view from here must be pretty impressive on game nights huh?”

Tonight was one of those nights, in a few hours this place would be full to the rafters in a sea of blue and white. She’d sat in all that passion, from the stands it could get pretty crazy but from down here, being the focus of all that passion had to be something else. Ellie looked down at her feet, watched as her blades sliced through the iconic emblem painted below the surface, even though she wasn’t a Leafs fan being here was a pretty surreal experience.

“You know you don’t always take it in in the moment.” He reached out for her hand, lacing their fingers and pulling her along. “You get so caught up its hard to remember some times.”

Ellie bumped her hip with his as they slid around the corner, taking a few quiet laps before she spoke again.

“You should really try.”

“Try what?”

“Making sure your actually taking it in.” she explained. “Time goes by so fast, your careers only so long, you don’t wanna look back and regret that you didn’t take it all in.”

She was just thinking about the last two months, where had they gone? In the blink of an eye their relationship had progressed and every day she was falling for him more and more, it was all happening so quickly.

“I’ll try my best.”

“I mean you’re a pretty big deal.” Ellie teased. “I’m sure your kids will have lots of questions someday.”

They’d never talked about kids, if he even wanted any but most people did, she definitely did. Maybe not right away, she was still young and in the beginnings of her career but someday she knew she wanted a family.

“Yeah…”

He dropped the subject; it lingered in the air for a few minutes before Ellie took the hint and changed it completely.

“So what made you wanna test my skating abilities anyways.”

“Well we are a couple weeks away from the team Christmas party.” Phil explained. “And I don’t want you to embarrass me.”

Ellie reached over shoving him with a laugh.

“Well I haven’t even gotten an invite yet so…”

“Do you want a formal invitation or would a simple skywriting message due?”

“Ha… ha… ha…” Ellie laughed sarcastically. “Aren’t you a world class comedian today?”

He reached over pulling her to a stop.

“I’d like you to come.” He started. “I’ve never actually brought someone to these things before.”

He shrugged his shoulders. It was true, he’d never invited anyone to these team things, not that he hadn’t had the opportunity he’d just never really wanted to. This year things were different, this year when they’d started planning this and had asked him if he’d be bringing anyone Ellie had jumped right into his mind.

“Yeah?”

“If you wanna come?”

She thought about what he was offering; it was a chance to get to know some more of his friends, a chance to get to know their families. It was pretty intimidating but it was a huge step forward, she was a little scared but at the same time she was excited.

“Yeah!” Ellie confirmed. “I’ll make sure I’m not working that night, it’ll be fun.”

“It will, there are some people I want you to meet, some people who’ve been asking about you.”

Ellie’s eyes went wide as saucers and they both laughed.

“Should I be scared?”

“A little.”

“Gee thanks.” She rolled her eyes with a smile. “Now that I think about it I might be working…”

“You don’t even know what day it is.”

“Minor detail.” She laughed.

She would go of course, she’d be nervous as hell but she’d definitely go. If she was the first person that he’d ever invited to this thing it clearly meant something to him and if it was important to him, it was important to her.

“You’ll be fine.” Phil reassured her. “And I’ll be there the whole time.”

“You promise?”

“I promise.”

“Okay I’m in then.”

“Good.” He kissed her then, leaned in slowly and pressed his lips to hers. It was like something in a movie really, with the music in the background and his hands on her hips she’d melt through the ice if he didn’t stop soon. His nose brushed against hers when he pulled away but she used her momentum to slide into his body, not quite ready to let go of the moment she wrapped her arms around him and felt him do the same. She listened to a song playing in the distance, a song she’d heard a million times before that she would now associate with this once in a lifetime moment for the rest of her life.

“You ready to go?”

Ellie gave him a nod as he pulled away; she was just about to follow him before pulling him to a stop. Skating over to center ice she waved him over and he followed.

“Do you have your phone?”

She’d left hers in her bag which was probably a good thing considering she’d landed on her face the minute she’d stepped on the ice. He nodded reaching into his pocket and handed it over to her. He watched Ellie unlock the screen, watched her fingers glide across the screen of his phone till she found and clicked open the camera app. She snapped a few shots of the two of them together and then forced him to do the same since his arms were longer; when she was satisfied with the results she sent copies to herself and handed the phone back to him.

“Now you won’t forget this moment either.”

He looked down at the shots, scrolled through to his favorite then set it as his background photo. Slipping it back into his pocket he watched her do a small circle where they stood. Ellie took one last look around, doing exactly what she’d told him to do, take in all in before giving him a little shove towards the door. He slid in behind her, hands on her hips and he guided her off the ice.

“Now let’s take it slow getting off here.” He joked.

“God, you fall one time…” Ellie laughed using the hand he offered to step back onto the rubberized floor. “Better now than in front of your friends.”

“That would make a very memorable first impression.”

They made their way back to the locker room, sat side by side unlacing their skates and tossing them into their respective bags.

“I’ll try to keep it together for your sake.”

“Don’t make me regret inviting you.”

“Don’t tempt me.” She laughed as he reached over grabbing her bag and her hand.

“Let’s eat?”

“Lead the way.”

Ellie followed him out the same way they came in, opting to walk instead of drive to a restaurant nearby.