It's All About Love

Katie got home from work, took a long shower, and stood wrapped in her towel doing her hair and makeup. She’d been dancing all day, so it felt nice to relax for a few minutes. She texted Corey her address around 6 and went straight to her closet to pick out an outfit. They were going to eat and watch Thursday Night Football in a local bar, so she threw on a pair of jeans, a light purple v-neck t shirt and took out a black and grey flannel to wear over it, but she was warm so she didn’t put it on. She grabbed her favorite pair of slate grey combat boots and put them, along with the flannel and her purse, by the door. Then, she filled up her dog, Puck’s, water and food bowls. As he was eating, she heard a knock on her door. She opened it and saw Corey standing on the other side.

“Hey, you can come in if you want,” she said moving to one side, gesturing for him to come inside.

He looked around her apartment as he entered. “Your apartment feels really,” he paused, thinking of the right word, “like home.” He looked at her.

“Thank you! My mom helped me put it together. Let me just make sure my dog’s finished eating and we can go.” She smiled and as she began walking away, Puck, who was a mini husky, came running out of the kitchen and straight to where Corey was standing.

Corey kneeled to pet the dog. “Puck! Come here!” Katie called to the dog.

“No, it’s okay. I kinda like him.” Corey laughed as Puck started licking his face.

“Sorry, he’s a kisser.” She giggled as she watched the adorable scene in front of her. Corey stood up, and the dog walked over and stood at Katie’s feet.

“Did you call him Puck?” Corey asked, wiping the dog slobber from his face.

“Yeahhh, my youngest brother named him.” She laughed, “I told you my family was a big hockey family.” She bent down to pat her dog on the head before walking to the kitchen to clean up his food. When she came back, Corey was looking at a bunch of pictures that hung on the wall behind the couch. She watched as he carefully looked over each of the photos, and she walked over to look at them with him.

She pointed at the first one. “That’s my family, mom, dad, my two older brothers and my two younger ones, at my oldest brother’s graduation.” She moved on to the next one, “this is me and my three best friends in high school, Sam, Lexi, and Kylie.” He listened as she told him about who was in each of the pictures on her wall. Most of them were either of her brothers or of her dancing.

When she had finished going through pictures, she took his hand and they made their way to the restaurant. They sat down in the back and made small talk while they waited on their food. He ordered a beer, and she drank water. As the football game started, he noticed she had a hard time concentrating on their conversations.

“You must really like football…” He said with a smile.

“That obvious?” She laughed. “Growing up with four brothers definitely made me a sports fan, sorry.”

“Sorry? Being a sports fan makes you like 15 times more attractive than you already were.” She blushed. “So which sports do you like?” He asked.

“Football and hockey mainly. When the Bears’ season is over, a team called the Blackhawks, you may have heard of them, gets all my attention.” She joked.

“Yeah, I think I’ve heard of them!” He laughed. “I hear they have a really good goalie or something like that.”

After they ate, Corey moved to sit next to Katie. They talked about everything and anything that came up, nothing extremely personal though. That didn’t seem to matter to either of them, they both seemed happy just to be together.

Corey studied her face while she talked. He noticed the way her eyes appeared brighter, happier, and more vibrant than they were in the pictures he was looking at earlier. She had a small scar on her forehead, just above her eyebrow, and another one on her cheek, near her ear. She had a contagious smile. But her eyes. He was lost in her beautiful green eyes. He moved his eyes to her nose, then to her lips. The urge to kiss her overwhelmed him. But, he stopped himself, and shifted next to her, putting more distance between them.

She stopped what she was saying and asked, “Corey?” he looked her in the eyes waiting for her to finish, “Were you going to kiss me?” She stared back into his eyes, waiting for an answer. He gave her a small nod. Then, she leaned closer to him, shifting her gaze from his eyes to his lips and back to his eyes. Finally, he caught on and closed the space between them. At first, he barely touched his lips to hers, but then he relaxed enough to give her a real kiss.

She pulled away with a smile on her face. He moved closer to her again and reconnected their lips. She placed a hand on his cheek and let it rest there even after pulling away again. They stayed silent for a moment, just looking at each other. Corey’s phone rang inside his pocket, but he ignored it as they went back to talking. It rang again, and again.

“You should get that, Cor.” Katie said as she tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear. He smiled at the nickname she’d given him.

“No, it’s alright. It’s probably just my mom or something, we always talk on Thursdays, I’ll call her back later.” Then it rang again. “Okay, maybe it’s important, just hold on a sec.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket, looked at the texts he had gotten, and quickly slipped it back in his pocket as his cheeks turned red. “Okay, that was not my mom.”

“Then who? Your cheeks are turning red, you’re embarrassed.” She lightly poked his cheek and laughed. He laughed back.

“Some of my teammates have a hard time with the concept of privacy, I guess. Look.” He pointed behind them to a table where Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane were enjoying a dinner together. They were wearing sunglasses, obviously trying to blend in so as not to be seen by Corey or Katie. Corey turned around towards them and yelled, “Kaner, Tazer, would you guys like to join us?” They agreed and sat down opposite Katie and Corey. Katie looked up at Corey, trying to hide her embarrassment. He had a smirk on his face that said he would get back at them.

The boys sat down and both took off their sunglasses. Katie held on to Corey’s hand underneath the table. His big hands made her feel safe. He looked at her and then across the table to his friends. “It’s like a proper double date now.”

“Fuck you, Crow.” Kane said under his breath.

“Kaner, we did spy on him. Let him have his fun.” Jon added. They reminded Katie of little kids who were about to get yelled at by their parents. She couldn’t help but smile.

“Katie, this is Jon and Pat, or Captain Serious and Peek-a-Boo, as we like to call them. Boys, this is Katie.” Corey said.

“Hi, Katie.” Jon and Patrick said in unison. After getting over the initial awkwardness, they all talked and watched the end of the football game without any more interruptions. As it got later, reality struck that Corey would be leaving for a week. Katie leaned her head against Corey’s shoulder and let her eyes flutter shut for a moment.

“You look tired.” Patrick pointed out. Katie nodded her head as she lifted it off Corey.

“You could’ve kept your head there, Crow wouldn’t have minded.” Jon said while glaring at Corey, who stuck up his middle finger at Jon.

Corey offered to bring Katie home, she agreed. They said goodnight to Jon and Patrick, and drove back to Katie’s apartment. Corey had planned on walking her to her door, kissing her goodnight and heading home, but she invited him in, and he accepted her invitation. She made herself a cup of tea, and they sat talking in her kitchen.

“So, you’re leaving.” She said, breaking the silence that had fallen between them.

He rubbed his thumb across her dainty knuckles and said, “But I’ll be back.”

She looked up to his eyes and held his gaze. He thought he saw tears forming in her eyes, but she quickly blinked them away. “Promise?” She asked while looking at her hand wrapped in his.

He reached forward, placing his fingers under her chin and turning her face towards his. He searched for a reason for her tears in her expression but found nothing. “I’ll promise to come back if you promise to be my girlfriend.”

“I guess that wouldn’t be so bad.” She smiled, he rolled his eyes.

“I have no idea where I found the guts to ask you that.” He was honestly in disbelief at his sudden courage. She didn’t say anything, but she leaned over and kissed him.