Stay, Stay, Stay

Katherine

I woke up the next morning to my alarm chirping noisily. "Ughhh shut the fuck up already," I groaned, fumbling to shut it off. After finally getting the alarm off, I checked my phone. Surprisingly, I already had three texts and a missed call from Jordan.

7:27 J: I'm slightly hungover so we should go get coffee.

7:35 J: Pleaseeee?

7:42 J: You can't avoid me forever!

I laughed at his goofy texts before moving on to the voice mail.

"Whyyy aren't you answering meeeee? I'm going to keep annoying you until you agree. I can be very persistent!"

"Trust me, I know," I replied to my empty room before wandering into the kitchen. My roommate, Anna, was already up and had a cup of coffee waiting for me on the counter.

"Thank you!" I told her as I sipped the coffee. It was already cooled to the exact temperature that I liked, as usual.

"Anytime. So how was your night?"

"Well....I met a guy."

"Nice! Is he cool? You didn't hook up with him, did you?"

I laughed.

"Please, you know I don't do one night stands. But he is pretty cool. Definitely not someone I thought would be interested in me."

Just as I finished my sentence, my phone started ringing and Jordan's name popped up on my screen.

"Speak of the devil," I told Anna before answering the phone.

"You know, I never thought Jordan Staal would be the type to pursue a girl he met at a bar so intensely.”

At that, Anna's eyes practically bugged out of her head.

"Jordan Staal? Jordan motherfucking Staal?" she whispered; I merely winked at her before turning away and focusing my attention on Jordan's comeback.

"What can I say? You seem really cool and interesting, unlike the girls I meet at every other bar."

"Uh huh. Well just so you know, flattery won’t get you anywhere. In case you haven't noticed, I'm not going to just jump into bed with you."

"You go girl!" my roommate whispered, and I smiled at her before heading back to my room and locking the door.

“Damn, someone’s cranky this morning,” Jordan retorted.

“Whatever.” I was teasing him to a certain degree, but I was also being slightly serious. I wasn’t a fan of hooking up with a random guy that would forget about me the next day.

"Anyway, if I were just looking for a hookup, I wouldn't be obsessively calling you. Trust me on that one. Pleaaase, will you just get coffee with me?"

I let the line go silent for a moment as I pondered it. Jordan had a point, he could get into bed with practically any girl he wanted.

"Fine -"

I heard Jordan let out a loud whoop on the other end of the phone.

"BUT I have to shower and everything and I have work at 10, so I don't have a ton of time. I know of a great little coffee shop near work, I'll text you the address and meet you there at 9."

"Perfect! See you soon K."

"Bye Jord."

I hung up the phone before letting the last two minutes sink in. I had just committed to coffee. With Jordan Staal. In a little over an hour. Thankfully, I had gotten today's outfit ready after I dragged myself home last night, so all I had to do was shower, do my makeup and get dressed. I could manage that.

~~~
Jordan

I didn't notice the butterflies in my stomach until after I hung up the phone. Why was I so nervous? I was never nervous around girls. Whatever, it didn't matter. I had to get ready and look nice before I met Katherine in an hour.

I sat up quickly, groaning as my headache momentarily intensified, and jumped into the shower. An hour was a lot of time for me to get ready, but somehow it felt like not enough. I found my thoughts wandering to Katherine as I went through my morning routine. It intrigued me how she didn't try to jump in my pants the first second she saw me. I was so used to girls throwing themselves at me that it was odd when Katherine said she wasn't looking to just hook up with me. It was nice though, and I found myself wishing other girls acted the way she did around me.

After I finished showering, I grabbed a pair of nice black shorts from my closet and pulled a gray t-shirt on. I fluffed my hair, and ran out the door 15 minutes early. Driving always helped me relax; hopefully the extra time would help me clear my head. I scanned the parking lot as I pulled in at 8:58, and noticed Katherine’s truck wasn't there yet. Knowing I would be spotted by fans when I walked in the door, I opted to wait in the car until I saw her. She pulled in four minutes later, and I got out of the car as soon as she parked. I recognized the faint sound of Taylor Swift’s “Love Story” drifting from Katherine’s truck as she rolled up her windows and stepped out.

Again, Katherine looked stunning. Today she was wearing a simple light blue t-shirt and jeans with cowboy boots. Her curls were pulled back in a sky high ponytail and she wore minimal makeup to enhance her features. Damn, she looked good dressed down.

"Hey," I greeted her, and flashed her a grin.

She looked startled to see me, almost as if she had been psyching herself up for this like I had been all morning. She recovered quickly though, and grinned back.

"Hey yourself. Sorry I'm late; my roommate wouldn't leave me alone all morning."

"Please, you're fine. I just got here, so no worries."

She smiled sheepishly.

"Ready?"

I nodded, then pulled the coffee shop door open for her. I walked up to the counter and ordered my coffee before motioning Katherine to do the same.

“It’s fine, I can pay for myself.”

“I’m the one that asked you to have coffee with me, so I’m paying. End of story,” I insisted. She sighed.

“Fine, but I’m paying next time.”

I tried not to look too excited at that statement, but ended up grinning goofily.

“Next time, eh?”

She blushed and rolled her eyes at me before sauntering up to the counter.

~~~
Katherine

Wow, I really needed to learn to control my mouth. Jordan probably thought I was some obsessive psycho now. But I had to let it go, otherwise I’d be obsessing over it and probably ruin this date, or whatever it was. I took a deep breath before speaking.

“Hey Greta,” I greeted my favorite barista.

“Hey hon. The usual?”

“You know me too well.”

I winked at Greta and stepped aside so Jordan could pay, his forearm brushing gently against mine as he reached for his wallet. I could feel myself blushing, and kept my eyes trained on the counter. Greta handed Jordan his coffee and he left to add his cream and sugar. As she mixed my drink, Greta
gave me a knowing smile. I gave her my best innocent face in return.

“Here you go hon.” She slid the coffee across the counter to me. I thanked her and turned to walk away, but looked back when I heard her say my name.

“He’s a keeper. Don’t let him get away.” She winked at me before turning back to the cash register to help the next customer.

Damn her.

I sighed and meandered over to the coffee bar, where I found Jordan dumping copious amounts of cream and sugar into his coffee.

“Jord, how much of that stuff do you put in?”

“I don’t know, however much it takes until it tastes good.” He grinned cheekily as I rolled my eyes in response.

“Come on.” I bumped his elbow with mine before leading us to my favorite booth in the far back corner. Now that it was just the two of us, I realized that I had no idea what to talk about. The only thing that made me feel better was the fact that Jordan looked just as clueless.

“So...Taylor Swift, huh?”

I gave him my best offended face.

“Excuse you, Tay-Tay is awesome! You can’t diss Taylor. That’s, like, illegal.”

He laughed heartily at that.

“Who said I was dissing her? I happen to like Taylor Swift.”

I wrinkled my eyebrows.

“Really? A big professional athlete like you likes Taylor Swift?”

“Yeah, her songs are my guilty pleasure. Don’t tell anyone though, the guys would chirp me to no end.”

I chuckled and nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, I could see that.”

After that exchange, the conversation fell into an awkward silence.

“Sorry, I’m not used to getting to know people. I pretty much just hang around with the team,” Jordan sheepishly admitted after a moment.

“It’s fine, I’m not used to it either.” I smiled softly, hoping to lessen his anxiety – and mine, for that matter.

“Well...you know what I do for a living, so why don’t you tell me what you do?” he decided.

“Um...yeah, alright. That’s a good place to start.”

I took a sip of my coffee before continuing.

“I’m actually an equine veterinarian. My office is a few minutes away from here.”

Jordan’s eyes widened.

“So you work with horses?”

“Yep.”

He thought for a minute before replying.

“That explains the jeans and boots.”

“Yeah,” I chuckled. “It gets a little warm in the summertime, but it could be worse.”

“That’s a good point.”

He paused before speaking again.

“You look a little young to be a vet. I mean…don’t you have to go to school for a long time? …sorry, that probably sounded kind of offensive, I didn’t mean it like that. I just…yeah, I’m gonna stop talking now.”

I laughed at his awkward stammering.

“No, it’s totally fine. Yeah, most people have to go to school for eight years – four years of undergrad and four years of vet school. But the undergrad school I went to had an early acceptance program with University of Illinois’ vet school, so I was able to skip my senior year of undergrad and finish everything in seven years instead of eight. Plus I had already skipped a year previously, so when I graduated this spring I was 24 instead of 26.”

Jordan’s jaw dropped slightly at my explanation.

“Wow, that’s impressive!”

“I usually refrain from telling people that right off the bat because I feel like it makes me sound arrogant. So hopefully you don’t think I’m egotistical or anything, because I’m really not.”

Jordan shook his head.

“Nah, definitely not. I think it’s awesome, actually.”

I nodded.

“Good. I guess it’s pretty similar to you too, you know, being a famous professional athlete and all. I would never guess it just by talking to you.”

He smiled sheepishly.

“Thanks. That’s good to hear. I’m always worried that I have a snobby aura or something surrounding me,” he laughed.

“Nah, I sense zero snobbiness,” I chuckled before taking a sip of coffee.

As I looked up, I caught Jordan watching me, a small smile playing on his lips.

“What?” I prodded.

“Nothing. Just...I’m trying to envision you as a horse vet. On the one hand, it surprises me because I never would have guessed that when I met you. But on the other hand...now that I know what you do, I can kinda see it.”

I met his eyes for a moment before lifting my coffee cup to my mouth and taking another sip.

“What kind of coffee is that, anyway?”

“A mocha latte.”

Jordan wrinkled his nose.

“You don’t seem like the type that would get foofy drinks.”

I laughed at his accuracy before replying.

“Yeah...I never really liked foofy drinks until my high school friend made me go to Starbucks and introduced me to the mocha latte. It’s actually pretty low on the foofy scale. It’s just three shots of espresso, steamed milk and chocolate sauce. Here, try it.”

Jordan looked at the drink skeptically before slowly pulling it from my hands and bringing it to his mouth. He took a sip, making a thoughtful face as he tasted it, then slid the cup back to me.

“And the verdict is...?”

“It’s good. I don’t know if I could drink the whole thing, but it’s definitely better than just plain coffee.”

“Team Katherine one, team Jordan zeroooo.” I smirked at him playfully before taking another sip of my latte as Jordan rolled his eyes.

“So, we’ve talked about me enough for right now. Why are you back in Pittsburgh already? It’s only August, I figured you’d be staying at home or something since it looks like we’re going to have a lockout.”

“Yeah, well I was getting a little tired of being at home. It’s nice to go back and have my whole family together, but having three other grown brothers in the same small house gets old after awhile.”

I laughed, trying to picture the situation.

“I can imagine.”

“Yeahhh. So I decided to get away from them and come back to Pittsburgh for awhile. I never have time to really enjoy the city during the season, so I decided to do a little sightseeing. I actually got in yesterday afternoon, but a lot of my teammates are still out of town so I ended up in a random bar. And as fate would have it, I met you. So yeah, that’s what’s going on with me right now.”

I nodded.

“That’s pretty cool. I never really have time to go sightseeing either. I’ve seen a lot of Chicago, since it’s my hometown, but I never got the chance to really explore Pittsburgh in the little while that I’ve been here.”

“How’d you even end up here, anyway? I mean, Pittsburgh is so far from Chicago.”

“It’s a funny story, actually. The best friend of my favorite vet school professor owned a practice here, but his wife was transferred to Colorado for her job and he was looking for someone to sell the practice to. My professor knew I was looking for an opportunity like this, so he recommended me. I flew out here over spring break and fell in love with the area. Apparently the guy thought I was perfect, even though I’m fresh out of school, so I graduated college and a week later started treating animals.”

“Damn, that’s pretty cool. Although I can’t say I’m surprised that the guy liked you, I’d be impressed if I were him too.” He grinned.

I felt my face heating up and somehow managed to not break into a huge smile at Jordan’s compliment.

“Thanks,” I managed, and downed the rest of my coffee before checking my watch.

“Shit, I’ve gotta go if I want to get to the office on time,” I informed Jordan reluctantly.

“Oh, yeah...alright. Well I guess I’ll let you go then.” He seemed a little disappointed that our date was ending so early. Before thinking it through, I blurted out, “You can come with if you want. I mean, you don’t have to, but if you want to come and hang out at the office you could. Only if you
want to though, don’t feel like I’m forcing you to.”

Jordan laughed at my awkward outburst before nodding.

“I think I’ll take you up on that offer, if you don’t mind. It’s a little lonely without the whole team here to hang out with, and I’m kind of interested to see your office and everything.”

I smiled, glad that he didn’t seem fazed by my random offer.

“Okay, let’s go then. Just leave the cups on the table, the staff will come clear them,” I instructed as I stood up.

I waved to Greta as we left the coffee shop, and Jordan led me to what I assumed was his car.

“Sweet ride you got there,” I teased. In all actuality though, his car was beautiful. It was a black Porsche convertible – not so outrageous that it attracted a ton of attention, but it definitely screamed “money” at people that passed it.

“Just one of the perks of being a professional athlete,” he replied with a proud smile, and I couldn’t help but smile back.

“Well alright Mr. Porsche, we’ve got to get going. Just follow me; it’s only about a ten minute drive.”

“Don’t worry, I’m a pretty good navigator,” he stated confidently.

I smiled as I rolled my eyes and bumped him with my elbow, then turned and headed to my truck.

What the fuck had I just gotten myself into?