Sun & Moon

Catalina hung up her office phone, making a tired sound. She had a handful of things to do before leaving work. If she could do them efficiently, she could escape just after five. There was nothing major going on at work, which was nice. The team had just returned from a road trip and they had three days off. Things, for the most part, would be quiet over the weekend.

Picking up a pen, Catalina marked off the final phone call for her accident with Patrick in regards to insurance. Everything was finally settled, the debts paid and the papers signed. It made Catalina feel weird. Over the past month, she hadn’t really spoken much to Patrick outside of dealing with insurance and medical stuff.

While Catalina edited an interns press release for Alice, there was a subtle knock on the doorframe. Catalina pushed her chair slightly to roll away form the computer, since she was too short to see over it. She was pleasantly surprised to see Jonathan standing in her door way.

“Hey,” she greeted brightly. Catalina gestured to a seat. “Come on in. What can I do for you?”

Jonathan was dressed in a t-shirt and jeans, relaxing on his day off. Catalina wished she were dressed comfortably. She was in a tight, black pencil shirt and an off the shoulder white shirt tucked in her skirt. Every time she sat down, she felt like the skirt was going to rip, which was poor planning on her part.

“Actually just want to come extend and invitation to you while I was in the building.”

“An invitation in person? Sounds like someone is sucking up so I put in a good word with a pretty brunette.”

Jonathan grinned. Catalina internally shook her head. Jonathan was such a classic kind of guy with cleancut looks and a polite, kind demeanor. She was pretty sure that he didn’t have a mean bone in his body, but if he needed to be a hard ass, he would. Catalina could fully understand while Joel Quenville had selected him as a captain.

“Only if it works.” He leaned back in the chair. “My friend Austin’s birthday is tonight. I forgot to tell Erin about it until today, but she’s going to go with me. I wanted to extend the invitation to you.”

“Am I going to be a lonely fish in a large pond?”

Jonathan shook his head. “Patrick, Andrew and Corey will be there. You can even meet the girl who puts up with Andrew.”

Catalina laughed at that. She crossed out something on her calendar before nodding. “I’ve got to meet the girl who is able to handle Andrew Shaw. You can count me in.”

“Great.” Jonathan stood. “I’m picking up Erin at seven, I’ll probably have Kaner with me too. Are you going to come with us or do you have some late work to do here?”

Catalina shook her head. “I should be at the house. If not I’ll get the address from Erin.”

Jonathan excused himself from Catalina's office. She set herself to the task of updating players emergency contacts. She had spent two weeks hounding the information out of them.

Athletes were stubborn and they were tired. They committed themselves to their work ethic, training, resting and about a million other things to get ready for every game. It made Catalina’s job that much harder when she cornered them in the locker room, shoving a pen and paper in their face.

Catalina also had to get every other employee to update it. She didn’t really see how it fit into her job, but she supposed that if there was a crises that needed emergency contacts, it could possibly make sense.

More time than Catalina realized pass. She turned off all of her things and hurried out of the office, locking the door behind her. She stuck her head into Alice’s office. She was still sitting at her desk while talking on the phone about organizing media for the next game. Catalina waved and Alice nodded her head.

At home, Erin was running across the house to her room with her hair half curled. She stopped and looked at Catalina and held up a finger. “Don’t even make fun of me, I have been running around trying to find what to wear.”

“Why?” Catalina laughed. “You’ve already gone out on a handful of dates, I’m pretty sure he knows you’re hot.”

Erin was walking away fixing the rest of her hair that hadn’t been curled yet. “Yes, but his friends don’t.”

“They have eyes, they’ll notice.”

Unfortunately, Catalina ran into the same problem. She wasn’t sure what to wear either. Out of the shower with a towel in her hair, she walked back and forth through her closet. Her robe showed wet spots, body still wet and smooth from a fresh scrub and shave.

Pulling out a dark pair of high waist jeans, Catalina went from there. She began piecing together an outfit while Erin walked in and out of Catalina’s bedroom to display different outfits. Catalina’s favorite outfit was a tight dress that hugged Erin’s hips and ran down to her mid thigh. It was long sleeved, paired with a gorgeous, grey Hugo Boss blazer.

Erin’s hair was in soft curls at the bottom and her makeup lightly done. Meanwhile, Catalina was in her pants and a bra, her hair still wet. A top and jacket were thrown on her bed. She hurried by them and grabbed her hair dryer, plugging it in and turning it on.

Within twenty minutes, Catalina had her hair blown out, a tight faun-colored shirt with a leather jacket pulled over her shoulders. Erin was sitting on Catalina’s bed talking about how much she disliked the Boston Bruins and Catalina was putting on rings when someone knocked on the door.

Erin lurched from the bed, making Catalina flinch. “I will stick a valium in your drink.”

“You don’t have valium,” Erin shot back, going to answer the door.

“I can get my hands on some!”

Alone in her room, Catalina looked for shoes. She was bent over pulling out a pair of new heels when there was a long whistle behind her. She rolled her eyes, not bothering to turn around at the new intruder to her room.

“Enjoying the view?” Catalina asked, standing up and turning to look at Patrick. He was leaning against the door, dressed in a white button up and open leather jacket. “Well don’t you look sharp.”

“Don’t flatter yourself, I was impressed with the shoe collection.” He tilted his head. “Though you don’t look too bad yourself.”

“I never look bad.”

“Not that anyone has seen, anyways.” With her heels on, Catalina turned the light off in her closet, pushing Patrick lightly in the middle of his chest. He smirked and trailed after her. “You have a nice room.”

“Get a good look,” Catalina said, flicking the lights off. “This is the only time you’ll ever see it.”

“Challenge accepted.”

Jonathan and Erin were standing in the kitchen drinking glasses of wine. Catalina eyed the bottle as she entered the kitchen. It was a sweet white wine, the expensive kind that was written in French. She raised an eyebrow at Jonathan, impressed. He grinned and rolled his eyes in response.

Catalina opened the fridge and pulled out a beer. She tipped one in Patrick’s direction and he nodded. She grabbed another and popped the top on both, handing him one. He held out his beer and she smiled, clinking the tops together before taking a swig.

Patrick stared at Catalina over the top of the beer bottle. His eyes were dark and never left hers, unblinking. Catalina stared right back at him, challenging his gaze. She had never backed down from a staring contest and she wasn’t planning on it then.

“Honestly,” Erin said loudly, drawing both of their attention. “You guys are having a staring contest?”

“I was winning,” Patrick assured her.

Catalina snuck a small smile in Erin’s direction. In her own way, Erin was saving Catalina from having to maintain the eye contact. It was about as intimate as Catalina ever got. But it was driven from the refusal to back down as opposed to feeling a deep, soulful connection.

“He only thinks he was winning,” Catalina assured.

They all finished off their drinks, the four of them talking easily. Patrick called a cab and the four of them waited for the call to go down stairs. Catalina walked behind Jonathan and Erin across the lobby. Jonathan slipped his hand around Erin’s, which made Catalina grin. Patrick reached for Catalina jokingly and she shoved him lightly.

Jonathan opened the door and let the two girls slide in first. Jonathan slid in after Erin and Patrick squeezed in after him, pushed against the door. Just as Catalina suspected he would, he complained about being shoved against the door all the way to the party. She was impressed with how many different ways he could phrase it.

Austin lived in a nice mansion in Lincoln Park. Catalina realized that it was Austin Maxwell, the general manager of the Hilton on South Michigan Avenue. It was the official hotel of the Chicago Blackhawks. Catalina wondered if the guys had any friends who weren’t involved in the organization. Then again, Catalina didn’t have that many friends either.

People filled every corner of the house. It was made up of three floors but somehow Austin had managed to invite enough people to fill the entire place. Jonathan introduced them to the man with slicked auburn hair, and bright green eyes.

On the rooftop terrace there was a game of beer pong going. Catalina raised her eyebrows. She hadn’t seen the game of beer bong since her junior year of college. Senior year she had been so busy with internship work and setting up job interviews for when she graduated that she hadn’t had time to go out and party.

Seeing the long table with the pyramid of cups brought back memories. She tapped Erin on the shoulder, gesturing to the table. Erin grinned, her eyes lighting up with glee.

“I am so down,” Erin said.

“Down for what?” Jonathan asked, appearing with a beer in his hand. He passed one to Erin. “I like to know what you’re down for.”

“Well,” Catalina started with a laugh, intending to answer the question and tell Jonathan exactly what Erin was down for. With a look from Erin, Catalina cleared her throat awkwardly and made her tone serious. “Beer pong. She means beer pong.”

Patrick was suddenly next to Catalina. He wasn’t even look at her when he handed her a beer, which she took. “I heard the word beer pong. Who’s ready to get schooled?”

“I wouldn’t get too excited there,” Catalina smirked. “Erin and I were roommates all throughout college. We’ve been doing this since day one.”

Patrick glanced at Catalina. “My nickname is Showtime for a reason.”

“Yikes they might want to call you show off instead.” Catalina gestured toward the table. “Put your money where your mouth is.”

“Twenty bucks.” Catalina snorted. Patrick tilted his head. “Fifty.”

“Deal.”

Erin raised her hand. “I did not agree to dish out money. I’m a school teacher, not a hockey player and a big time PR rep.”

Catalina grinned at Patrick. “Don’t worry, it’s just between Patrick and I. I’m not into sharing.”