Tonight is the party at Max’s. I’m feeling nervous about it for some reason. Maybe it’s because being around a lot of people puts me on edge. I always want to find a quiet corner to hide in. Danny and I are driving ourselves. I hope it doesn’t offend Anne, though I don’t know why I would care about that. Ben said she said Kris told her to dress casual, which is a good thing since I didn’t really give wardrobe any thought. Rachel is in my room doing her hair while I'm getting dressed. Her and Ben are at my house so we can follow each other there. I’m wearing a short summer dress with my cowboy boots. Rachel is dressed basically the same way but somehow looks way classier than I do.
Danny and Ben are there waiting when we come bouncing down the stairs.
“Hey there little ladies,” Danny says to us in his best cowboy accent. I walk up to him and curtsey and Ben cracks up. I stand on tiptoes and stretch myself up to kiss Danny and he slides his hand up under my skirt. I smack it away and yell goodbye to my parents.
“Don’t wait up!”
“Just come home before your dog gets worried,” my father yells back.
We follow Ben to pick up Anne and then to Max’s house. It takes us a while to figure out where to park. Danny and I walk hand in hand over to Ben’s car and the five of us walk together. Anne greets us with a shy smile and a small wave. Danny gives my hand a squeeze and I smile and wave back at her. Why he's so nice to her is and will always be a mystery to me.
Sometimes I think maybe she loved him in a way that I can't. To me he's a guy I've known forever and is my brother's best friend. We just decided to start hanging out in a more intimate setting than we used to. She went out of her way to be with him on two separate occasions. Meanwhile I find myself wondering if I'm with him because I don't have to put any thought into it. He's good looking and he's a good guy. I love him but am I in love with him. That's a question I have to explore. But then again if I have to explore it at all...
Danny snaps me out of that train of thought by saving me from getting hit by a bus. Literally.
"yikes," I say and give his hand a thank you squeeze.
"Please be careful, Carly." He shakes his head at me and sighs.
------------------------
Most of the guys are here already. The ones who planned on coming, I mean. Some of the guys are on vacation or back in their hometowns. She should be here any minute. I haven’t stop thinking about her since the first moment I saw her. I’m not sure if it’s a good thing I’m going to be seeing her again. I’m determined to make her see the connection though so I go over to Max’s stereo and pull up Adele on my iPod. When I turn away from the stereo to walk back to the couch where I was sitting, Kris is standing there. He rolls his eyes at me and plops himself on the couch beside TK.
“What the hell is this,” TK asks me.
“It’s Adele,” I shrug. “Girls like her.”
“At least one girl does,” Kris adds. TK nods because he knows what’s happening. I’ve talked to him plenty about Carly over the past week.
Before either of them can prod me about it further, Max comes stomping into the room and over to the stereo. He presses the stop button authoritavely. If we had been playing a record, he’d have dragged the needle across it.
“What the fuck, Staal? Did you hear this at the gay pride parade?”
“He put it on for his girl,” TK blurts.
“Pffft,” Max scoffs and waves his arm around the room, palm up. “What girl?”
“The MMA fighter’s girl,” Kris chimes and goes over to the stereo. He pulls his iPod out of his pocket and Max whips it out of his hand.
“No,” Max says to Kris. He calls up his “party music” mix on his own iPod and presses play. She Wants Revenge cuts through the air and Max again says, “No,” but this time it’s directed at me. “No way am I letting you piss off that guy. Are you fucking kidding me?”
Then he rolls his eyes at me and walks out the sliding glass doors muttering, “stupid motherfucking moron,” on his way.
“Who is motherfucking moron?” Geno, who has suddenly appeared beside me, asks and puts his arm around my shoulders.
“I am,” I tell him.
“Ah,” is all he says and he goes out the sliding glass doors laughing.
I lower my head and sigh because I don’t want to talk to Letang. It’s either that or out the sliding glass doors though. I see Max out there telling Cookie and Duper a story that I assume is about me having a crush on Carly, so I turn towards the couch. TK smiles at me and makes me glad he knows. Letang thinks he knows how I feel about Carly and how often I think about her but TK really does know because I tell him everything. He’s been a good friend to me over the past couple years and I’d hate to see him go to a different team. And now I’ve depressed myself so I lower myself dramatically on the couch with them.
“You would take less to stay here, right,” I ask Tyler and Letang smacks me.
I turn to give him a dirty look and he shakes his head.
“We’re not talking about that right now,” he scolds. “That’s for him to work out without you hounding him. Max too. You know better, Jordan.”
I lean my head back on the couch, ashamed of myself for needing to be scolded by the resident softy. I just don’t want Tyler to leave.
“You can put Adele back on,” Tyler suggests. “Max just doesn’t want to see you get hurt… physically or otherwise. But if you think that would make her feel more comfortable…”
“Nah,” I stop him and pull my head up off the back of the couch. “I thought it would be nice to try to make her feel a connection with me and short of carrying a puppy around, I’ve got nothing but Adele.” I let out a heavy sigh. “If you guys think I’m an idiot, you can tell me. I can take it.”
“I don’t,” Kris says. “And you couldn’t.”
Tyler nods in agreement.
"ugh," I sigh and lean my head back on the couch again. "I am a stupid motherfucking moron."
TK pats my knee, stands and walks out the sliding door.
"I'm going to miss him," Kris comments dismally and looks at him through the glass like it's the last time he'll see him.
"He's not going anywhere," I say. My tone is angrier sounding than I mean it to be.
We hear the doorbell. When it rings again, we notice that nobody is moving to answer it so Kris stands to open the door.
------------------------
There's nothing like standing in front of a door, ringing the bell and having it open to Kris Letang smiling. I want to pull it shut and ring the doorbell again just to watch him reappear. Amazing. He drags Anne into his arms and I can feel my shoulders collapse a bit out of jealousy. He's pretty. Maybe too pretty really. I look up at Danny and he puts his hand on my back to guide me through the open door.
Kris takes Anne's hand and guides her through a maze of people and out of the room we're currently in. What kind of room it is, I can't be certain. It's sort of just an open space with a few pieces of furniture. Couch, sofa table, and a stand in the same dark wood as the sofa table with a giant fishtank on it. It kind of looks like a waiting room. I picture girls scattered through the room waiting for their turn in the master bedroom and giggle to myself. Danny looks down at me and smiles but doesn't ask me why I'm giggling.
Rachel follows Ben, who is making a beeline for Tyler Kennedy no doubt. He'd probably rather be having talks with Tyler's agent, learning the ins and outs of free agency, but he likely hasn't been invited to this party.
I don't know where to go or what to do, so Danny and I just stand in the waiting room looking around.
--------------------------------------
My palms started sweating the second Tanger got up to answer the door. Something is telling me that she's here. I feel chained to the couch. Can't seem to stand. My right knee is bouncing and my fingers are peeling at the label on my beer bottle.
Somebody smacks me in the back of the head and I hear a familiar voice asking if he can put in some country music.
"Yes please change this shit," I tell Rupper. He whips out his iPod and Jason Aldean fills the air.
I'm watching Rupper when a small lady hand rests on my arm. I look over to see Anne smiling at me. I smile and turn back to Rupper. She's not my favorite person but I don't want to be rude. Especially since Tanger likes her.
She sits beside me on the couch and I look her over. She's not bad-looking necessarily but she has big teeth. She actually looks better when she's not smiling. Her teeth are nicely positioned though so who am I to criticize? She's wearing camouflage shorts, a frilly green top that shows an appreciable amount of cleavage and a pair of gold sandals. Her hair is pulled back in that way that looks effortless but probably took an hour to fix. If she asks me about Carly, if she says anything about Carly, I'm going to lose my mind.
"Carly's here," she says on cue. "We road together. Well, not together, I rode with her brother," she's starting to ramble so I have to interrupt her.
"Nice to see you," I tell her insincerely with a forced smile. I look around for Letang and that's when I see her walking this way. She's hand in hand with Danny but I don't even see him. She's wearing a little dress with those hardly there straps and cowboy boots. Her hair is flowing over her shoulders. I have to close my eyes because I feel like I'm staring. Problem is, when I close my eyes all I can picture is holding her hair back as I'm kissing her neck and shoulders. Good lord this girl.
I slap my hands on my knees and stand up. I reach my hand out for Anne and she takes it and stands beside me. "Let's go find Kris," I tell her. Then I act surprised to see Carly and Danny coming our way.
------------------------------
Danny and I make our way through the different flocks of people and finally find the back of the house. Somebody points us to the beer and we go grab a couple. Kris had said something about going out to the balcony to find Max, so that's where we are trying to get to. We just follow the music and end up in the room with the sliding glass doors. And Jordan fucking Staal. Somehow I had managed to forget how incredibly gorgeous he is. My knees feel like they go a little weak and I hope Danny doesn't notice. Anne is standing there with Jordan and they're facing our way. I smile and wave.
Jordan's smile looks forced though. It almost offends me until he turns to look at Anne and his eyes glaze over with contempt.
Danny takes a step towards him and holds out his hand. Jordan shakes it.
"Nice to see you all again," Jordan says and turns to me. His smile looks real this time. I try not to stare at him but his shorts are hanging low and his t-shirt is barely long enough so whenever he moves a certain way, a bit of skin peeks through. I catch myself licking my lips so I take a drink. Maybe if anybody noticed they'll assume I was just thirsty and not day dreaming about licking Jordan Staal's hip flexors. Then he leans in, puts one of his giant hands on my shoulder and kisses my cheek.
"Hi," I mean to say but it's more of a squeak. An involuntary giggle flutters out of my mouth and I force myself to look away.
"Did you all have any troubles finding a place to park," he asks as he takes a few steps sideways away from Anne. My eyes deceive me and follow him. He looks to be in a noticably better mood than he was at first sight. His eyes are so blue I feel like I've been transported to a Caribbean beach.
"No," Danny's voice breaks my concentration, "not really. We brought two cars so we were trying to find somewhere that we could at least park on the same street."
"You and Carly drove separately," Jordan asks. His voice has a tone to it. An eager tone?
Danny laughs. "No. We drove ourselves. Ben and Rachel brought Anne."
Jordan nods knowingly and it makes me smile. He's seen this girl twice and he already doesn't like her. I have to force myself to look away from him again.
I shake my head at myself and turn my head to look out on the balcony.
"There's Kris," I say to Danny and we make way to the sliding door.
"Nice to see you, Jordan," I tell him without looking at him.
"I'm sure we'll see more of each other tonight," he says with a laugh.
No comments:
Post a Comment