She's Like a Piece of Home

She didn’t quite know how it happened, but it had. Matt had somehow become a fixture in her office over a matter of a few weeks. During the first week, the timings had seemed odd, until Raleigh began paying attention to the Penguins schedule. During the second week, she tested out her theory, noting a small question mark on her desk calendar and then drawing a small smiley face next to the two out of three correct days. On Monday morning of the third week, she confidently noted small smiley faces next to her predicted “Matt” days. By Tuesday, Raleigh’s predictions seemed on point for the week, given the small smiley face on her calendar and Matt sitting casually in the leather armchair across from her desk.

The timing for the visits seemed to coincide with their morning skates and when, she knew, he should have been home napping. He never seemed to have any particular reason for stopping by, other than to recount childhood memories or discuss what they had done with their lives after she moved. Upon realizing that he should have been napping and not sitting in her office, she began to limit the spent on his visits. Raleigh would let him stay for an hour before she would kick him out and demand that he go take his nap and do whatever other pre-game rituals he had.

She glanced at the large round clock on the wall behind Matt. They had spent nearly an hour discussing whether or not Jesse McCullin had deserved the broken nose she had given him when she was eight. Matt’s arms were folded across his chest, the blue and white plaid sleeves of his unbuttoned long sleeve shirt blocking the dark gray t-shirt underneath. The act made his arms appear as shield against Raleigh’s logical answers.

“For the record, he deserved it,” she stated matter-of-factly. “And on that note, despite my enjoying this rousing debate,” she tapped at her wrist for added emphasis, “it’s time for you to go take your nap.”

“You would think,” he declared, amused, “that considering I took the fall for you and was grounded for two weeks for that, you’d be a bit nicer to me.”

She choked back the laughter. “Hardly my fault that Jesse didn’t want to admit that he had been beaten by a girl. Though, I did appreciate that you didn’t sell me out.”

He shrugged, his arms falling to his sides. “Eh, my mom never would have believed it anyway. You were a damn saint in her eyes. The perfect little girl she never had. Man, did you ever have her fooled.”

Raleigh shushed him from across the desk. “Your mom is a sweetheart. And seriously, not that I don’t love catching up with you, but you need to go.”

With a roll of his eyes, he stood up. “Fine, mom.” He was halfway to the door when he stopped suddenly and turned to face her. “Hey, so are you ever going to come to a game?”

The question surprised her only slightly. She had wondered, on occasion, when it would appropriate to go. She and Luka had really only been an actual ‘thing’ for about a month, which Matt was fully aware of. He had made couple jokes that first week about her joining the other WAGS in the box and she shrugged them off. She didn’t feel right coming right out and asking Luka about going, especially since they had agreed to keep everything under the radar. Besides, she wasn’t his girlfriend, at least not officially. She was certainly positive that they were exclusive, but adding titles to it kind of freaked her out.

However, her eyes still immediately dropped to her desk in mild embarrassment. “Oh, uh, Luka’s never – uh. He’s never asked me to come. I mean, we’re not really official. We’re just – just… I don’t know. It’s not like I’m his girlfriend… and besides, I don’t think he wants me – to, you know, go.” She let her last few words fade out, but knew he heard them when he took a step back towards her again. She was biting the inside of her gums, unsure of how to clarify the thoughts.

“Are you sure that’s the case?” He questioned, his blue eyes narrowing. Her face twitched slightly. “Have you ever told him that you want to go?”

“I – no.” Her lips formed a small ‘o’ as she felt her ears begin to burn. She subconsciously began twisting the tips of her fingers into the hem of her black fitted, short-sleeve top.

“Are you,” he paused as he returned to the dark brown leather armchair, “are you still –” Whatever he was going to ask, he appeared to change his mind midway through his question. “Has he ever been here? To visit you?” Her gaze darted away from Matt as she shook her head and bit her lip. “He’s never come to see you?”

“Considering that you’ve become quite the regular, you could probably answer that question,” she responded, her eyes still focused on her desk. Her next words tumbled out of her mouth before she could stop them. “It’s just that… I don’t know, I get this feeling that it’s not really me that he’s interested in. It’s hard to explain. I feel like, I don’t know, it’s the idea of me or something. It’s like he’s there, but he’s not really there. Like he’s looking at me, but not looking at me. I think I might…” Her eyes were still glued to her desk. This was the conversation she had been successfully avoiding with Brooke and Cami. She played along for them, but she couldn’t with Matt.

“You might what?” Matt asked softly. She broke her gaze with the small spot on the wooden desk.

“Be his rebound,” she replied in a near whisper. Matt’s lips twisted as he studied her and there was a long pause before he responded.

“Why are you staying then? You’re not exactly doing either of you any favors by staying in something you don’t want to be in.” There was no judgment in his voice when he asked.

She bit her lip and rubbed the back her neck as she looked away from him. “Well, I mean it’s not all bad. And god help me, this is going to sound so shallow, but uh, he’s like really good in – ”

Matt held a hand up to stop her. “For the love of everything that is our friendship, please do not finish that sentence.”

“Bed.”

Matt groaned. “I was so much better off not knowing that.”

“Com’on,” Raleigh laughed with a roll of her eyes, “I find it hard to believe that you guys never brag about that shit.”

“Yeah, but to hear it from my best friend… not the way I want to wanted that rumor to be confirmed.”

“Sorry… rumor confirmed.” She stopped laughing abruptly as she processed what he had just said. “Wait, did you just call me your best friend?”

“No, I mean, yeah.” Matt stuttered over his words, looking suddenly bashful. “I mean, well, you basically are.”

“Aww, Matty.” She leaned back in her chair and grinned. The uncomfortable feeling of admitting what she had felt from the start in regards to Luka evaporated as she looked back at Matt.

Matt’s hair brushed lightly against the sides of his face as he shook his head. “Don’t,” he stated holding up a hand again. “Don’t do that. I’m going to go now.”

She giggled as she watched him wipe his palms on his jeans as he stood up. “Bye, bestie!” she teased as he began to walk towards the door. He turned briefly as he continued walking and provided her one very obvious middle finger. This only caused her to erupt into more laughter. “Have a great game!”

Raleigh’s typing was interrupted as she watched her blonde friend plop herself into the chair that Matt had vacated no more than 20 minutes ago.

“Well, your spirits seemed to have improved lately,” Brooke smirked as she entered Raleigh’s office. “Wouldn’t have anything to do with the boyfriend, would it? Seriously, what’s with the dopey grin? Has Luka been visiting you and you haven’t told me?”

“Huh? No. Luka’s never been here. What’s up?” Raleigh asked in an attempt to quickly change the subject. Brooke, however, was never easily deterred and Raleigh spent the next 15 minutes warding off questions about what exactly was going on with her and Luka. “Let’s just bring this back around… why are you here?”

Brooke looked momentarily hurt. Then it dawned on Raleigh. “Oh, shit. We were supposed to get lunch today. I’m so sorry.”

“Do you still want to go?” Brooke asked in an unusually quiet voice. Raleigh’s energy from Matt’s visit vanished.

“I, um, ate already. Matt stopped by.”

“Matt?” Brooke asked quizzically with an expression to match. “Matt was here?”

Raleigh nodded. “He visits sometimes.”

“Visits? Like with an ‘s’ on the end? As in plural?” Raleigh nodded again and another flash of hurt crossed Brooke’s face. “Oh.”

Brooke didn’t say anything else and Raleigh knew she had messed up by not telling her sooner. The silence seemed to extend forever. As Raleigh opened her mouth to apologize again, Brooke pounced. “So let me make sure I’m understanding this correctly. Luka, your boyfriend – ”

“Not my boyfriend,” Raleigh interjected. Brooke continued shrugging off Raleigh’s statement.

“Has never visited you, despite the arena being just blocks from here, but Matt, your childhood friend, who just randomly popped back into your life, has visited you multiple times? Nothing about that seems strange to you?”

“No?” It came out as a question as Raleigh turned her head slightly, giving Brooke an odd stare. “Look, I’m not them. I don’t know.”

“Matt’s fiancé doesn’t have a problem with him stopping by to see you so often?”

“I didn’t think I needed to ask that,” Raleigh responded defensively. What was Brooke’s end game here? It wasn’t her responsibility to make sure everything was kosher with her friend’s fiancé. “I guess I just assumed that we were all adults and could make our own decisions?”

The words must have come out sharper than she intended, because Brooke looked stunned as she stood up.

“I’m going to go.” And with a sharp turn, Brooke was gone before Raleigh even had a chance to respond. What the hell just happened?

At 3:00pm, she gave up for the day as she realized she was no longer productive and reluctantly asked Casey if she could head out early. She pulled her tan trench coat on and grabbed her bag. She felt like she was dragging as she made her way to the elevator and it descended the seven floors. How had she gone from feeling so happy to so down so quickly? What had gotten into Brooke? And then a secondary thought crossed her mind, should she have asked Matt if Julia was okay with all of his visits? Lost in her thoughts, she stared in disbelief as the elevator doors opened. Was it possible that today could provide her with any more surprises?

“Luka?” She didn’t realize she had spoken, but knew the voice was indeed hers.

“Little bird say I should visit.” She stepped out of the elevator towards him. What did Matt tell him? “Molly is out of town. I want – Do you want to come over after game tonight?”

She froze and continued staring at him. “What?”

“If you want to come to game you can. But you say you want secret so… you come over after?” Despite everything she told Matt earlier, standing there face to face with him, she had a hard time saying no. And knowing Molly was out of town made the decision easier. Alex never asked questions.

“I – Okay. Yeah, I will.”

Hands still in his pockets, he leaned in and gave her a quick peck. “Watch game, okay?”

“Okay.”

*

And she did. She watched as Luka scored the game-winning goal against the Edmonton Oilers. When she got Luka’s, he pulled her into the house quickly. They barely made it to the bedroom.