One Night Becomes a Liftime

My first full day in Chicago started out horrible and I was praying that I wouldn’t have many days like that. Brent was trying his hardest to get things settle for us and I had appreciated that more than he could imagine. The visit from his ex-girlfriend had rocked me a little and I had to remember that it was expected considering I came out of nowhere. The one thing that felt right was Evan’s happiness, he would find the smallest reason to call for his father and Brent smiled every time he heard Evan calling him.

I had decided that night I would put in a little more effort to make this work. To start off better I had decided to cook dinner for the three of us that night. Brent gave me the basic layout of the kitchen then left me on my own to cook. He did point out before leaving that if I needed anything just yell for him and he would come. I stood in the middle of the kitchen taking a few deep breaths before putting myself to work. The one thing I was great at was making Italian meals that I had learned growing up. The problem with cooking was my mind would begin to wonder and in this situation that wasn’t the best.

With the whole move and everything else I had gone through in the last month I had forgotten to tell my parents that I moved to Chicago. I knew they wouldn’t be upset about my move considering they had lobbied for Brent every chance they got, what they were going to be mad about was me not telling them before I had done it. I was so deep in my thought and busy with preparing our meal that I didn’t hear the doorbell. What brought me from my tunneled vision was a soft unfamiliar voice that had come in the kitchen.

“Wow, I have never seen this kitchen busy like this before.” She said and I turned to face another blonde standing in the doorway. I had no intentions of playing nice if she turned out to be another conquest of his and I was even more nervous when I saw the very pregnant belly she had. “Kelly-Rae.” She said walking in closer with a small but forced smile on her face.

“Angela.” I said watching her closely. “I would shake hands but I’m in the middle of cooking.” I said showing her my messy hands and she nodded. “Can I help you with something?”

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you who I am.” She said and I raised my eyebrow considering she did just say what her name was. “I’m Duncan Keith’s wife.”

“Oh… it’s nice to meet you.” I said with a relieved smile. “I’m…” I began to say but she cut me off.

“I know… you’re Brent’s baby mama.” She said with a smirk that threw me a little off.

“Actually I was going to say Evan’s mother but I guess baby mama is the same.” I said sarcastically as I sucked in a deep breath as she smiled at me. “I’m going to take a guess and say that you’re friends with Christy and you don’t quite approve of me being here.”

“I told Duncan I would be nice and that’s exactly what I’m doing.” Kelly said and all the niceness she had was almost gone.

“Exactly how many of you see me as the demon that ruined your friend’s cushy life?”

“Christy and I are best friends just like Duncan and Brent are…” She said sauntering closer to the counter I was working at.

Just as she was about to continue with her remark she was cut off by another female voice that had an accent to it. “Not many of us liked the dizzy bitch anyways.” I heard and we both looked towards the door to see two other women standing there. “Kelly you really should keep your voice lower, Duncan could have heard you not playing so nice.”

I stood looking between the two women and wasn’t sure of what exactly was going on. “Hello Elina.” Kelly said rolling her eyes and Elina smirked.

“Hello Angela.” Elina had said looking over at me. “I’m Elina… I’m Niklas Hjalmarsson’s girlfriend and this is Abby she is Patrick Sharp’s wife.”

“Hi, it’s nice to meet you both.” I said smiling at them and they both smiled back.

“We both wanted to meet you before the guys went on their road trip tomorrow.” Abby said as she moved closer. “Coming to a new city and not knowing anyone is hard and we…” she said pointing between herself and Elina. “wanted you to feel welcomed.”

“Thank you.” I said smiling at them as I felt the slight hostility between the three ladies. “Will all of you be staying for dinner?” I asked trying to gage if I had enough food.

“No.” Elina said shaking her head. “We won’t be here long.”

The three of us talked some more as Kelly stood there just watching and listening to us. I knew to stay on guard around her now that I knew she was friends with Brent’s ex-girlfriend. Elina and Abby actual helped me as I cooked and when I placed the dish in the oven we talked some more over a glass of wine. I was really liking the two women a lot more than Kelly-Rae. About a half hour later the guys loudly came into the kitchen and all of us looked over towards them.

“It smells awesome in here. Hello Angela.” Duncan said smiling at me and I nodded at him then he looked over at Kelly. “We should get going now.” She nodded at him and walked over by him without saying a word to me. “See you in the morning.” He said to Brent as he patted his back and they left.

“We should all get going.” Abby said standing up and went into her purse pulling a paper and pen out. “Angela here is my number and Elina’s if you need anything give us call.” She said smiling at me as she handed the paper over.

“Thank you and it was really nice getting know the two of you.”

After a few handshakes and some goodbyes Brent and I walked his friends to the door. It felt weird standing there with him as we watched his teammates leave. Evan had been busy on the video game while all the grownups talked and when the oven buzzer went off I walked back to the kitchen. I wasn’t in there alone very long, Brent came in behind me and began pulling plates out as I pulled the food from the oven. I served helpings into the three plates as Brent went to get Evan and the three of us sat at the table to eat.

“Was everything ok with the ladies?” Brent asked as he looked across the table at me. “I really didn’t know they were all coming over, if I did I would have warned you.”

“It’s ok, everything was fine.” I said smiling at him and he nodded. “Do you have a game on Monday?”

“No, I go to Detroit Tomorrow night and should be back in town by Sunday evening.” He said smiling at me. “Why?”

“I’m not sure where the schools are around here and Evan needs to get back to school soon.”

“I like being at home mommy.” Evan said shaking his head. “Can’t I just stay home?”

“Buddy you need to stay in school.” Brent said looking over at him then back at me. “It’s about an hour ride to the schools you wanted but we can go in the morning.”

“I can just check out the school you said was closer to here.” I said and he smiled at me as he looked over at Evan and smiled again. “I start work soon and I need to also go look for a decent used car.”

“I have two cars Angela; you can use one of them.” Brent said shaking his head.

“I still need to buy my own.”

“You will but for now just use one of mine.” Brent said as he sat back in his chair. “The SUV has a good amount of room in it, I use that one most so the fans know it but the truck is just as good so it’s your choice.”

“I can use the truck until I find a car of my own.”

“Mommy can I be excused now?” Evan asked as he placed his fork down. “My tummy is full.”

“Clear your plate and place it in the sink then you may.” I said smiling at him and he nodded.

Brent watched as Evan did as he was told them left the kitchen before looking back at me. “Angela I was serious when I said you raised him well.” He said with a smile. “I missed so much but you did a really good job with him on your own.”

“Brent I’m sorry you missed a lot but you have to understand why I did it.”

“I can’t understand.” Brent said as he placed his fork down then ran his fingers through his hair. “I missed four years that I will never get back but I don’t want to fight about this because it won’t change what happened.”

“I don’t want to fight either but we need to work this out or it will always be the wedge between us, for Evan’s sake we need to do this.” I said and Brent closed his eyes but nodded his head. “I have always put Evan first and he was the reason I did the things I did.”

“Were you putting Evan first when you decided I wasn’t going to be in his life… were you putting Evan first when you decided not to tell him who I was when he first asked about his father?”

“You decided not to be in his life when you kept lying to me.” I snapped at him in a low voice. “I decided to help you out by moving away so you couldn’t continue to hurt him.”

“Why didn’t you tell him I was his father… why wait until you had no choice?”

“I had hoped this wouldn’t have happened until he was older and was able to understand better.”

“Wow Angela…” Brent said shaking his head at me and I looked at him confused. “You really said that to me?” he said in disbelief as he stood up from his chair. “You really wished I was out of my own son’s life longer so you would have time to save your relationship with him.”

“Brent…” I began to say but he cut me off.

“I got some things to do, I’ll be back later.” He said quickly walking away before I could say anything.

I sat there stunned and when I heard the front door slam shut it caused me to jump a little. That conversation had not gone anywhere near what I had expected. It had seemed to do more damage than good. It took me a few moments to even move from my chair. I felt more alone now than I did when I first moved away from my family, I had no one to talk to. I couldn’t call Sarah because she wouldn’t understand and my parents were definitely out of the question because they didn’t even know I was here. My sister could have been an option but she would have told my parents and the one person that did understand wasn’t on speaking terms with me.

After taking a few deep breaths I stood up and decided to clean the mess that was in the kitchen from dinner. Once that was done I walked into the living room and glanced around it a few moments before walking over to the couch and sat down. As I sat there I thought about what I said to him and realized the way it came out did sound horrible. He had every right to be upset because I could have done this better.

Brent had been gone for a few hours and I began to actually worry about him because he was upset when he left. Evan had come down a little after he left and I had to tell him that Brent had to do somethings and he would be back later. At around nine o’clock I had gone up to get Evan ready for bed and laid him down before going back down to the living room. After a couple of more hours of waiting around for him to return I decided to give up and go to bed. Just as I stood up and began walking to the stairs the front door opened and I stopped walking. Brent glanced up and stopped moving himself as we stood there looking at each other.

“Brent…” I began to say and again he cut me off.

“I can’t talk right now.” He said shaking his head as he closed the door then looked back at me.

“You can’t or you won’t?” I asked as he walked towards the steps I was standing near.

“Both.” He said as he walked pass me. “I have a flight to catch in the morning and a game tomorrow night so I need to still pack and get some sleep.”

“Ok.” I said as I watched him walk up the stairs and out of sight.

When I got up to the room I was staying in I glanced across the hall to his room and the door was still open. He had just happened to be walking pass his door and saw me standing there watching him. Feeling like a peeping tom I quickly looked away and went into the room closing the door behind me. Things felt weird now that he was mad at me and I honestly didn’t know what to do or say to make things better between us.

We were complete strangers to each other, always have been. The only thing we shared in common that I knew of was Evan. His girlfriend or ex-girlfriend, I was quite sure what she was but she was right. I didn’t know a thing about him or his personality. We were expecting to live under the same roof for who knows how long and not know each other. I could see that he was trying and so was I but there was just too much anger between us to make this work. I knew one thing was for sure I needed to get back to work so I could give him his space back. No matter how much I wished for things to be normal again it wasn’t going to happen and I had to accept that.

The next morning I woke up just before he left but didn’t get out of the bed, I watched as he walked in Evan’s room probably to say goodbye. He then went downstairs with his bag, I strained to hear if he was still here or left but I couldn’t hear anything. When I felt like he left I climbed out of the bed and went to the bathroom to wash up and get ready for my day. I opened the bathroom door when I was done and was surprised to see him leaning on the wall across from the door.

“I figured you might need these.” He said holding a set of keys out to me. “The house key and truck keys are on here.”

“Thanks.” I said taking the keys from him.

Brent went to walk away but stopped mid step. “If you need anything give one of the ladies a call and they could help you.”

“Alright.” I said and he again nodded but this time walked away. I looked down at the keys in my hand and realized I needed to say something before he left so I quickly ran to the stairs. “Brent.”

He got to the bottom step just as I called his name and he turned and looked up at me. “Yeah?”

“I’m sorry.” I said softly to him.

“So am I.” he said with a forced smile then walked away.

It was a start; I knew things weren’t going to be smooth as silk for us for a long while but I sure as hell didn’t expect it to feel like walking in a pit of broken glass. Once Evan was awake and I feed him breakfast I decided the two of us would go explore some of the city on our own. I wanted to get to know some of the area and a good route to work so I wouldn’t feel lost. It was freezing cold out so the first thing we did was hit up a mall so I could buy a winter coat. I was very cautious driving around because I wasn’t used to driving in winter weather conditions and I didn’t want to wreck his truck my first day driving it.

Evan and I walked through the mall stopping in different stores as we walked, just to look around. I finally found a nice coat that was in budget for me so I bought and we were on our way out of the mall when a familiar accented voice called out my name.

“Angela.” She said again and when I turned around Elina was waving at me as she walked towards us with a couple of people she was with. “I thought that was you but wasn’t sure at first.”

“I needed a winter coat.” I said smiling at her. “I forgot what winters up north are like.”

“Oh yeah… I remember Abby telling me you were from San Jose.” Elina said with a soft smile.

“I’ve lived there for a while but originally I’m from Minnesota.”

“I bet it was wonderful to live in all that warm weather.” She said with a laugh and I laughed with her.

“It definitely was.” I said as I felt a tug on my hand.

“Mommy?” Evan said as he glanced up at me.

“Yeah little man.” I said looking down at him.

“I’m hungry.”

“Ok.” I said as I looked back at Elina and she was smiling at Evan. “I really should get going.”

“He is just adorable and looks some much like his father.” Elina said as she looked back at me and I nodded with a smile. It was true he did look a lot like his father and there was no denying it. “Would you two like to join me for lunch, my treat?”

“That really isn’t necessary.” I said shaking my head. “I’m sure you and your friends are really busy.”

“Actually they were just about leave.” She said turning towards them and they all said quick goodbyes and she turned back towards me. “I’m free and just as hungry as sweet Evan.”

“Ok.” I said smiling at her.

“Yay.” She said excitedly. “I’ll follow you back home and we can go in my car.”

Lunch with Elina was actually great, we got to know each other better. We talked about how I met Brent and she told me how she met Niklas. I did have to make it clear with her a few times that Brent and I were not an item and that we were just leaving together because I needed to find a new apartment. She refused to listen and said something along the lines of that was just temporary, for me to mark her words on that. I laughed it off and changed the subject to something completely different.