Chapter Eight

And here is the 3rd Chapter for the day... I better get lots of comments for being so awesome!! LOL Like I told everyone on the fanfic-board, this story has been flying out of my finger-tips at an amazing rate, which makes me really happy because it's been one of the more fun stories to write!

Finally figured out how to post videos on here... so I'm posting the song (and some of the lyrics) to one of the songs I thought fit so well with this chapter.  I had popped in the CD the other day and was singing along to it when I thought about the lyrics a little more and realized this explained Lana's feelings since she's kind of finding herself at a cross-roads in this chapter.  I know, I am probably sounding silly, but I gotta say, if I don't get into these characters, the story doesn't come out half as good. So deal with my insanity and listen to the song. Besides, it's Mutemath and they have made it mainstream so now everyone can know how awesome they are!!

Clipping - Mutemath

Common sense failed again
Meddling in a foreign scene
Foreign dream
Time won't spare another sun
Daring me with another choice another choice

Anymore, I don't know what I want anymore
I just don't know anymore

By Friday I was in need of an éclair and had the words I wanted to say to Lana.  I felt really bad about the whole situation when Mikee informed me that Lana was now running the shop by herself and within a few short days, she was already looking dead tired.  I couldn’t help but think some of this was my fault.  I also felt the need to apologize for the Alzner comment.  When I talked to him the next day, he said that he just took her home and didn’t even ask her out on a date because she didn’t seem overly interested in anything more.

Then there was also the dilemma that I kept finding myself in.  I was constantly day-dreaming about her.  Of course I didn’t tell anyone about this because I wasn’t even sure why I was thinking about her.  By the end of the week I knew the only way I could put all the thoughts out of my head was to go and apologize to her.  If I didn’t have anymore sorry feelings, I wouldn’t think of her anymore, right?  Let’s hope so.

Of course Murphy’s Law was never kind to me, but then again, who is it friendly to? I was by myself at the shop and quickly I was reminded why I had an assistant.  The week had been a total ship wreck and I was sinking quickly.  With 3 holiday parties to cater for, including one for Eric Fehr’s wife, and a wedding cake for Saturday, it took everything to keep my head above water.  I tried keeping a smile on my face for all my customers, but even for a happy southern girl, it didn’t come easily.  I was running back and forth to wait on what seemed to be an abnormal amount of customers and the kitchen.  Friday I was interrupted for what seemed to be the millionth time and my mood had quickly come to a head.

“What do we need to do to get some service around here?!” I heard a male voice yell loudly while I was pulling a cake from the oven.  In a flash I was on the floor, on my butt, and my hard-work was now all over me and all over the bakery shop kitchen.  I must have screamed.  A few moments later, the same male voice, that I now realized had a Russian accent, was speaking my name, right beside me.  “Shit, Lana, you okay?!”

I looked over and found Alex’s bright blue eyes filled with worry, but my view was skewed from the tears that were brimming up in my eyes.

“Are you hurt?” he asked.

I couldn’t say anything, I was too upset.  I just looked down at my forearms, which had some bright red marks on them from the tray burning them before hitting the floor.  I then noticed that the cake was also down the front of me.  When I finally did find my voice, Alex already had his arms around me and pulling me up off the floor to get me over to the sink.  He quickly turned on the cold faucet and pushed my arms underneath.  I silently watched the water wash over my burns and hiccupped.

“Did Dawn quit?” he asked calmly.

“Of course Dawn quit.  Her high school sweetheart dumped her unexpectedly and then some Russian hockey player sweet talked her into his bed before dropping her off at my house the next morning.  Usually Friday’s are quiet, but with the on-going theme this week of an influx of customers and a crazy amount of orders…well, I must have slipped on something when I was hurriedly pulling out the cake so that I could come out and wait on the person yelling loudly in my shop.”

“I’m sorry, Lana.  I was just playing around.”

I just shrugged.  What was I going to say?  “I’m sure your definition of playing around is a lot different than mine at the moment?!” “Damn you for coming in to my store?!”  “Damn you for having the most beautiful blue eyes and an accent that seems to take my breath?”  Oh and don’t forget the fact that he smelled absolutely amazing.  Yeah, no, none of that was going to fly.  In an attempt to clear my head from all the sudden craziness, I looked over at the cake lying on the floor and groaned.  There obviously was a bigger dilemma at hand.

Alex pulled me from my thoughts when he began speaking again.  “Look, how about I help? I watch the shop while you work back here…”

I took a step away from him to get some fresh air and laughed sarcastically.  “Yeah, okay.  How is that going to work?!  You don’t even know how to run the register…”

“I can give change and write stuff down so you put in later,” he said seriously.  He was obviously being sincere about this.

I put my hand on my hip and looked at him, biting my lip.  Part of me wanted to yell at him and tell him to get out of my shop, but when I glanced back over at the cake, I knew I had no choice.  “Fine.  I close in an hour, so please don’t get yourself in too much trouble?  If ya need anything, get me, pleeeeaaasssseeee.”

He nodded and gave me that goofy smile that somehow made him endearing but I’m not quite sure why.  Maybe it was how his eyes lit up.  Of course it probably didn’t hurt that he was looking really good in a pair custom jeans, tight black shirt with a tattoo pattern sewn into with silver and blue threads.  Don’t forget the brand new Nike kicks and black baseball hat with his name written on the side of it, pressed down over his shaggy hair.

I felt his eyes boring into me as we walked back into the shop so that I could give him a quick run-through.  The look on his face made me think he might have bit off a bigger piece than he could chew, but at the end of my fast spoken speech he grinned, grabbed me by the shoulders and turned me towards the kitchen and patted me on the butt.  “Go back to your kitchen and bake, pretty Lana,” he said.  To most women, they might have taken the comment as sexist, but I had no problem being in the kitchen.  It was truly my happy place.  But him touching me on the butt was slightly forward, right?

The first few customers that came in, I found myself spying on him through the little window in the kitchen door.  After seeing how he handled the customers, even posing for some pictures and signing a few autographs, a sense of calmness came and allowed me to get back to baking.  Too quickly the hour went by and Alex was back in the kitchen.

Overwhelmed and totally out of my realm.  That was the perfect description of how I felt while waiting on customers at the bakery.  I was a hockey player, not a coffee server, but after causing the kitchen accident, I had no choice but to step up to the plate and help her out.  What was supposed to be a simple apology, turned into me getting frustrated in counting change and just telling people their orders were on me.

Happy customers bring more business, right?

“I owe you $150,” I announced as soon as I stepped back into the kitchen, seeming to startle Lana once again.  Thankfully she didn’t have anything in her hand this time except for a spoon.

She turned slowly around and looked at me with a questioning look.  “Why?”

“I didn’t make the customers pay.”

“What?!” she squeaked with horror taking over.  “I thought you said you knew how to make change?!”

I walked over and placed a finger over her pouty lips to shush her.  “No worries.  I make sure you have money and then some.  That is why I owe you $150.  It is all good.”

She looked up at me, squinted at me and shook her head.

“You seem very stressed,” I commented, taking my finger away from her lips and a step back because I was afraid she might actually start swinging.”

“Very stressed is an understatement!” she freaked, turning back to the bowl of icing she was mixing.  “It’s 4pm on a Friday and I have to stay here until that cake is done when all I wanted to do was leave on time since I have to be back in here at 5am tomorrow to finish and deliver a wedding cake tomorrow by 9am.”

“You hungry?” I asked, getting her to stop the gears in her head and to look back at me.

“Huh?”

“Are-You-Hungry?” I asked slowly, enunciating every word of the sentence.

She shook her head and giggled.  “Something about a Russian enunciating the English language sounds very awkward.”

I laughed and shrugged my shoulders.  “It got you to stop stressing for a minute.”

She turned her back to the bowl of icing and then looked back at me again, this time with softer eyes.  “I’m sorry, I’m not usually this spastic,” she frowned.  “It’s just been a terrible week.”

“Well, I wait here with you while you finish and then we go get something to eat.  Besides, I am probably somewhat to blame in this.”  I said matter of fact.

She bit her lip and fidgeted a bit.  “People make their own decisions,” she said quietly, pausing a bit before saying, “I will be fine…I will just grab something to eat at home…”

“I helped you, so now you have to say yes.”

A cute frown graced her face and soon she was rolling her eyes and letting out a quiet laugh.  “You are manipulative.”

“I’m Russian,” I grinned.

He was too good.  No wonder he had a new woman in his bed each night.  Something with the way he looked at me left me at a disadvantage with this man and I was scared to death because of it.  So much for hating him.

At my insistence, we walked down a block to a corner pub.  I refused to get in his car or to go anywhere fancy because I for one did not feel comfortable being in a position where he was in complete control and the latter reason was the fact I still in my batter splattered clothing. 

I pulled my coat tightly around me to keep off the fall chill and walked with my head down after we passed the first couple people who did double-takes when they noticed Alex.

“Doesn’t it bother you that people always make a big fuss when they recognize ya?” I asked quietly, after being seated in a dark corner of the pub at the request of Alex.  I thought the swooning hostess was going to faint when Alex flashed his missing-tooth smile and a wink.  I could only roll my eyes and hold back a loud, “Good Grief.”

He shrugged and shook his head.  “It’s all apart of the business…ya know?”

“No, I wouldn’t know,” I answered.  “I don’t understand it at all.  You guys make all that money to do something you love and yet you’re human just like me and the rest of the people…”

He cocked his head and looked at me intently.  “I work hard for what I get,” he said steadily.  It was obvious I was probably one of the first people to say something like this to him.

I smiled and shook my head while picking up the menu to figure out what I wanted.  My stomach was churning and I was hoping it was for the simple fact that I was starving.  “I work hard too,” I noted.

“And it shows.  You have a lucrative business.”

“I’m not rich.”

“Ah, but are you happy?” he asked, pulling my menu backwards to grab the attention of my eyes.

I looked at him and stared at his blue eyes when I spoke.  “I have a roof over my head, good friends, and enough money to go and do most of the things I want to do.  So yeah, I guess I am happy…”

“You guess?” he smiled curiously.

“Yeah.  I guess,” I smiled back.  “I mean I have days that I wish I was lying on the beach on an island in Fiji, not having to worry about a damn thing, but that’s not real life.”

He chuckled at this and shook his head in agreement.  “No, that’s not real life, but it would be nice.”

“Yeah, it would be,” I grinned, going back to looking at the menu.  A moment of silence fell between us while we made our food choices.  Our waiter arrived, asked for Alex’s autograph and then took our orders.  As soon as there wasn’t anything to hide my face behind, I began playing with the paper from my straw.

Alex reached out and placed his hand over mine, willing me to stop what I was doing.  “You are nervous around me,” he spoke in a way that I wasn’t sure if he was asking a question or stating a fact.

I looked up and shrugged.

“Why?  Is it because of me being famous?”

I snorted at this and shook my head.  “You are not famous in my book,” I stated plainly.  “Remember, I’m not a sports fanatic.”

“Then what is it?” he asked, this time leaning across the table, almost placing himself across that invisible personal space line that was somewhere in the middle of the table.

I slid my hand out from underneath his and shook my head.  “Are you happy?  I mean, are you happy with having so much money you could circle it across the US?” I asked, not caring if I sounded too forward.  He had already crossed the line with the way he touched me on the dance floor and with asking the same question a few moments earlier.

He folded his hands and pressed his thumbs to his lips as if he was trying to hide a smile.

“Are you laughing at me for asking you the same question you just asked me?” I scoffed.

“I laugh because you totally just turned everything back to me.  How do you do that?”

I shrugged my shoulders and took a sip of my soda.  “Both of my parents were in the military, you have to be the master at turning the tables when you are getting punished for something you might or might not have done,” I smiled.

“You have siblings?”

“An older brother who would always get me in trouble for shit he usually did.  He was my best friend but also my worst enemy when we were growing up,” I revealed with a laugh.

“I’m fairly certain you are the most honest and sincere person I have ever met, Lana.”

“We southerners have never been good at following the rules of society.”

Alex busted up laughing at this comment, causing me to laugh along with him.  And that quickly, I found myself having a good time with Alex Ovechkin.

Chapter Seven

Ch. 7

Sunday morning was beautiful.  I’m not sure if I’d say I’m lucky, but it was physically impossible for me to sleep in, especially after getting up early for the bakery every morning.  I was up by 8am and out for a jog.  By 9:30am I was feeding my face with banana French toast and coffee.  At noon, I was outside washing the Colbalt and re-hashing my lovely date disaster with Becky.

“I can’t believe he ditched you like that, making you get your own ride home!” she cried, accidentally spraying me with water while she swung the hose around as she spoke.

“Whatever, it made things a lot less weird not having to ride in the same car with him,” I shrugged.

“So where did you go then?”

“I met Dawn out in Georgetown…”  I wanted to tell her about that fun jaunt, but that would mean I’d have to tell her about my excursion on Friday night.  I might have been awake and moving, but I didn’t want to do anything that might trigger a late hang-over headache.

“Dawn is home?”

“Travis dumped her.”

“Ouch, definitely a bad weekend…one filled with dating disasters,” she cringed.

A few minutes later Faith came out of the house blaring She’s Country by Jason Aldean from her IHome speakers crying out something about my theme song.  Next thing I knew we were line dancing on the driveway making complete fools of ourselves.  We were in our own little world until we turned to face down the street for the next few steps of the line-dance and found a matte-black Mercedes sitting along side the curb within 15 feet of us.

I watched Dawn get out of the passenger side with puffy red eyes and then watched Alex get out of the driver’s side, looking as stunned as I probably looked.  Faith or Becky made some kind of high pitch squeal but neither of them moved; the three of us stood there like statues.

Alex moved around to the front of his car to meet Dawn halfway.  He handed over her purse and said a few quiet words to her which she just brushed off and made her way over to me and my roomies.  Before she made it over to us, Alex waved slightly and said, “Hey Lana.  Have a nice evening with Alzner?”

I blushed, feeling 4 pairs of eyes burning holes into me.  3 of those pairs belonged to the girls.  One pair was Alex’s bright baby blues that were looking at me like he was a jealous child who had just been caught in the cookie jar.  He shot me a half smile.  All I could do was raise my eyebrows in confusion.  Before I could say anything he was hopping back into his car and speeding away, leaving me feeling really uncomfortable with whatever just occurred.

“How does Ovie know you’re name…?”

“Karl Alzner?!”

“Lana, I have to take a hiatus from work…”

All three girls spoke at the same time.  I was obviously going to have a lot to explain and a lot to talk about.  How can one man that I barely know cause so much craziness in my life?!  And what the hell was that all about?!

When I got out of the car, country music was blaring and 3 girls were staring at me with their jaws dropped.  However, I’m fairly sure Lana’s eyes were the biggest of all.  She looked a mess in a clingy hot pink t-shirt with Nike written in old-school fluorescent block letters and a pair of jean shorts.  Her nipples were hard and perky, most likely from the damp spots on her shirt.  Her legs obviously weren’t long and lean like Dawn’s, but they were toned and defined.  The way she had been line dancing made me realize that the country songs weren’t too far off when they talked about southern girls being able to shake it.

Despite my earlier denials of not being interested in Lana, the roll of my stomach told a completely different story.  Seeing her again this morning and the sudden jealously that flowed through my veins reiterated that fact.  I’m fairly sure my stomach dropped onto the road when I stepped out of the car.  I attempted to say something polite to Dawn, but she didn’t want to hear any of it and I couldn’t bring myself to say anything too loud because I was now feeling some shame.  The Great Alexander Ovechkin suddenly feels remorse for his partying ways.

“You’re leaving?!” I cried, taking Dawn’s hands and leading her thru my house and into the kitchen to make her a cup of coffee.  She looked absolutely terrible.  It probably didn’t help that she was doing the walk of shame into my house with two very curious roommates of mine.  Her hair was thrown merciless up into a messy ponytail and her black wrinkled dress sure as hell didn’t hold the allure it held last night. 

I left the swooning twins out in the front of the house, hoping they’d quickly get a grip because it was obvious I had some bigger issues to deal with at the moment. 

“Why did you come to this decision?” I asked, frantically.  All I could think about was the hell I was going to be facing at the shop without an assistant, especially with all the party orders I just got the other night at Alex’s house.

“Well I realized this morning while I was hunting for my clothing around Alex’s house that I need to get some things straightened out.”  She paused and sucked in a sob.  I have to admit I felt a slight strand of jealousy burn in my veins knowing that she was with him all night.  Lana, get a grip.  You are not that type of girl.  I got a grip when the next few sentences came out of her mouth. 

“For beginners, I should have never been in his bed last night.  I’m smarter than that.  All he did was use me for sex and in my already broken state, it feels worse than ever,” she sobbed.  “I need to just focus on me and my school work for a little,” Dawn finished with pitiful tears running down her face.

I just stood there rubbing her shoulders and biting my lip.  Suddenly my silly crush on the Russian hockey player had evaporated as quickly as it had developed.  In fact it turned into hatred when my friend and employee told me she was going to quit.  I totally understood, but it was still a bitter pill to swallow.

Never mind the way I felt in Alex’s arms on the dance floor last night.  It was all a game to him and I refused to be a pawn in the wrong play.

After I took Dawn home, I had to come clean with my roomies about my real weekend.

“So let me get this straight. While we were watching Footloose and wishing we had a hunk of our own like Kenny Wormold, you were schmoozing it up with the entire Capitals team?!  I’m fairly certain you didn’t appreciate anything in that room the way you should have been appreciating,” Faith screeched.

I shook my head and began my rebuttal.  “I wouldn’t call it schmoozing.  I was doing my job.  I had no idea who I was baking for and I was shocked when I heard Brooks saying my name as I got the stuff out of the car…Besides, it’s not like I could have invited you guys along over…”

“Well next time you have to do a delivery, you are taking one of us with you, just in case,” Becky said in a matter of fact tone.

“So was this event some of the reason things didn’t work out for you and Garrett?” Faith suddenly interjected.

“I’m sure it didn’t help the guys were waving at me during warm-ups and punching the glass in front of us at the end of the game,” I mumbled, trying to pass it off as nothing because in truth, it still was nothing to me.

“They were doing what?!” Becky squealed so loud that Faith and I had to cover our ears.

“Just waving,” I said quietly.

“Did you get to fuck the whole team or what?!” she asked, sounding very excited of the fact that there might have been a chance for me to do that.

“Oh my God, NO!  You are taking this totally out of control.  I just played Uno with a couple of them.  It’s not a huge deal.”

“Okay, maybe you didn’t fuck them on Friday night, but Dawn sure as hell fucked Ovi last night!  And what did he mean with his smart remark about having a nice night with Alzner? Faith inquired, pursing her lips like a reporter who was determined to get the full scoop.  These girls don’t miss a damn thing.

“Um…well…it was all by happenstance.  The guys coincidentally showed up at the same bar we were at and well…the rest is history I guess.”

“History that needs to be taught!” Faith pushed.

I rolled my eyes and sighed.  My headache was beginning.  “Karl brought me home last night…”

“Oh my god!  So Garrett dumps you and you end up smooching with Karl in his truck?!”

“I totally did not say I was smooching with Karl!” I cried out defensively.  “Ya’ll need to quit it.  Yes, we danced.  Yes, he bought me a drink, but so did Nicky and Carly…”

“Carly?  You are calling them by their nick-names?!  Carly ain’t even old enough to drink!” Becky cut it.

I laughed at this.  “I thought that too, but according to him, he turned 21 in January.”

Faith and Becky’s eyes were the size of saucers.

“So anyway, Karl brought me home and I’m glad he did because his truck is a lot cooler than those smelly taxis,” I giggled.

“Are you sure Karl didn’t want to be invited into your house?” Becky went back to swooning.

“It was not like that.”

“Did he get your number?”

I began biting my lip at this question.  I was really hoping they wouldn’t ask that question.  “…well, yes…but it was only because I wanted him to text me when he got home so I knew he made it home okay…”

“Are you kidding me?!” they squealed together, holding each others hands like the best thing in the planet had happened.  “You are so naïve, Lana!”

“How is being naïve when you want to make sure someone gets home okay?”

“Well, I guess it’s not naïve, but it is silly,” Faith smiled.

“Oh,” I shrugged.

“So did he text you?” Becky asked.

“Yup.”

“Can I seeeeeee the text message?!”

I pulled my phone out of my pocket and pulled up the text.  Her and Faith were instantly huddled around me.

Karl Alzner: Home safe and sound.  Sweet dreams, southern girl.

“OH MY GOD!!!!” they screamed and began bouncing around the room.  That was the last straw.  I needed to lock myself in my bedroom and take an Advil.  I went to get up off the couch but Faith tugged on my arm.

“The way Ovi looked when he realized it was you standing there in the driveway this afternoon, I’m thinking you’re leaving something else out,” Faith said quietly.

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“I don’t know.  Something about the way he looked at you told me he was a little ashamed to be dropping his one-night-stand on your doorstep and a little jealous with the Alzner remark he spit out.”  Faith had always been intuitive, so comments like these were not out of the ordinary, but this one definitely sent a shiver through me.

“Well, I don’t care what way he looked at me.  I am not impressed,” I snapped.

“Hockey players, especially Ovi, are known for shit like that,” Becky spoke in a calmer tone.  “That’s just the deal if you get to hook up with one of them…”

“But why would you put yourself in a situation like that?  I could never even think of doing that…”

“There you go sounding naïve again,” she said, shaking her head at me.

I pulled away from her and walked towards the door.  I needed fresh air.  “No, I have morals and I’ve been there done that and was only left with a memory that has scarred me,” I snapped.  The girls knew about that because we were in college when it happened.  My story was eerily like Dawn’s.  I too got trashed one night and ended up hooking up with one of my crushes…he was gone from my bed the next morning and didn’t say one more word to me for the last year of our college career.  I had been mortified.

“I’m sorry,” Faith whispered.

I nodded and sighed.  “I know one thing.  After all of this, Alex Ovechkin will no longer be on the Dixie Pixies,” I announced.

Chapter Six

For my awesome Blogger crew!! You get 3 chapters today for the simple fact that I was unable to post the chapters on here over the weekend due to me being forgetful and what-not.  Anyway, enjoy!!!

Ch. 6

I woke up around noon, Sunday morning, hung-over and sore from last night’s after game festivities in Georgetown.  Sam, I and some of our boys went out and partied after the win.  It had been a while since I had partied that hard, to the point that Sam asked me if I was drinking to forget something or someone.

“You’re hitting it hard tonight…” he commented after I did my 10^th shot of Vodka.

“I’m Russian.  Vodka is my water,” I laughed, brushing him off.  Maybe I was drinking to forget.  My game was still not back to where I wanted it to be.  I wanted to start this season off on fire and once again I had to answer questions during the press-time after the game, about being kept off the box score.  In my mind, things needed to change.  Of course this constituted as leaving it all behind with a night out on the town and bringing a girl back to my bed.  I immediately reminded of this girl when her voice brought me back to the real world and reminded me that she wasn’t the one I was just dreaming about before I opened my eyes.  No, that girl was probably waking up in Alzner’s bed this morning.

…

I was actually shocked to see her at the bar when we walked in.  She didn’t seem like the Georgetown party-r, but then again, I knew very little about her and it was probably unfair of me to make judgments on someone I barely knew.

“Isn’t that Lana?” I asked Mike who was already eyeing up a group of girls standing at the other end of the bar.

He looked and instead of answering my question with a simple, “Yes,” he made a bee-line right over to her and the all familiar blonde standing next to her.

Lana left out a squeak when Mike wrapped an arm around her shoulder and whispered into her ear.  I watched her smack him and curse at him for scaring her.  My feet moved me over to them and I got there just in time for her to introduce us to Dawn.  In the matter of a few short moments, the other guys were crowded around us and greeting Lana.  At first she looked shy, biting her lip nervously but she eased up once Carly and Nicky began bargaining with her to make them cupcakes for the up-coming road-trip.

Before we knew it, an hour went by, the guys had drinks in them and Lana was out on the dance floor shaking her ass.  Despite just being in a pair of jeans, fashionable brown leather boots and dark blue long sleeved t-shirt while everyone else around her was dressed to the nines for their Saturday night out, Lana didn’t seem to mind.  She was laughing non-stop at the guys, acting as if she was having the time of her life.  When I looked over again, she was slow dancing with Karl Alzner to the Dirt Road Anthem remix with Ludacris.  He was holding her close and she was holding tight while they belted out the words together.  Karl was a good kid, but he was not me. 

Not quite sure why I was so worried about what Lana was doing because I had the beautiful blonde Dawn dancing up on me the way I had been hoping she would after meeting her for the first time.

An hour later, Dawn disappeared for a bit and in my alcohol induced haze; I cut off Lana before she headed back to the middle of the dance floor to Karl and some of the other guys.

“Where do you think you are going?” I asked, my accent coming through thicker than normal due to the heavy amount of alcohol consumption.  I slipped an arm down between her arm and torso, grabbing firmly onto her waist.

My quick movement almost knocked her off balance, so she had no choice but to hold onto my arm and place a soft hand on chest to steady herself.  She looked up at me with a surprised smile and laughed.  “I was headed back out to the dance floor, but this Russian guy has totally blocked my route.”

“Dance with me?”

“I don’t know…you’re dancing skills didn’t really seem that safe,” she joked.  “I’m not such the crazy dancer as you seem to be.”

I chuckled and pulled her against me.  “I do know how to move,” I whispered heavily into her ear.  She shivered in my arms and I’m fairly sure her breath caught in her throat.  She didn’t say anything more as I held her.  Instead she just moved with me and bit her lip.  A few pieces errant pieces of her hair were strewn wildly on her face; her eye-liner was now smudged around her eyes, giving her that sexy smoky look with her raven eyes.  It probably was the alcohol, but I suddenly felt like everything was fuzzy.  I was lost in my own world with her until Dawn came back and began chirping Lana about stealing her dance partner.

Lana left out a nervous laugh, looked up at me with a look that I couldn’t decipher and disappeared into the crowd, leaving me with Dawn.  I didn’t really see her the rest of the night, but her image was imprinted in my brain for the rest of the night.

Obviously my weekend roller-coaster was not quite at the end.  While standing out on the sidewalk of the Verizon Center waiting for an available taxi, my phone vibrated with a text message from Dawn.

“What are you up to? I need someone to hang with…”

I furrowed my brow and stared at the screen for a moment.  Dawn was supposed to be with Travis in the Outerbanks.  In fact, she was hoping he was going to propose to her this weekend.  I looked at my watch and then back at the phone.  It was 9:45 on a Saturday night.  The night was young and after the date I just had, I was all for having a couple drinks.

“Where do you want to meet?”

A few moments later I was in Georgetown and heading into a bar/club.  The streets felt like home.  Many a weekend I spent here while in college and at the moment, it felt like college was so long ago.  I wasn’t quite dressed for the occasion, but I shoved the hockey jersey in my oversized purse, smoothed out my shirt and walked into the loud bar.

Dawn was already at the bar drinking a large glass of Long Island Iced Tea, dressed in a tight black dress and sulking.  Turned out, when she arrived at Travis’s apartment to leave for North Carolina, his car was already packed to the gills, but none of it was her stuff.  Instead the luggage was from some girl in his Psychology class.  He told her he needed a break and left her standing in the street watching him drive away.  She was devastated and suddenly I was even gladder that Garrett had “dumped” me.

We had only been sitting at the bar for a little over a half hour when Mike threw his arm on my shoulder.  I was shocked to see them.  What dumb luck.  Despite being a little put-out at all the attention the guys gave me, they made me feel as if I had known them forever, just like the other night.  Of course this didn’t make me any less nervous when Alex walked over to say hi.  Despite the crush I was starting to realize I had on him, I was actually relieved when Dawn captured his attention.  This allowed me to act like myself with the rest of the guys without feeling self-conscious about how I looked. 

Suddenly, the lack of club clothing on my body made me feel really out of place when Alex joined our group at the bar.  He looked like a million bucks in his black suit with white dress shirt that was unbuttoned to probably show off his thick gold chained necklace with crosses.  It was as if he was on a whole other playing field and I was just another spectator.  Boys like that don’t raise the self-esteem meter for girls like me.

One person I found myself clicking easily with was Karl.  I had seen him the night of the party, but never got to talk with him until tonight.  His friendly, down to earth personality was a nice pace for a southern girl like me.  It didn’t take long to find myself dancing with him exclusively.

I was on my way back from the bathroom when Alex stopped me towards the edge of the dance floor.  It was obvious he had more than his fair share of alcohol.  His English was more broken than I remembered and I would bet some of the vodka smell was coming from his pores.

“Where do you go?” he asked me, abruptly putting a hand on my waist.  I had no choice but to hold onto him.  He was warm and hard. Suddenly, I couldn’t breathe.  “Dance with me,” he said.

I joked with him about seeing his dance moves, in hopes to get out of the situation I was in.  The wrecklessness I felt with him, worried me.  When he whispered, “I do now how to move,” His warm breath in my ear instantly persuaded me that despite the silly moves I had seen earlier, he was telling the truth.  Something in my brain also told me that he probably knew how to move in ways that would not be appropriate for the public place we were in.  Lana! What the hell has gotten into you?!

I couldn’t bring myself to look at him.  I was just too afraid that I would blush like a silly school girl.  His toned down dance moves took me along for a ride and I was lost in translation somewhere when Dawn came back.  Her remarks about stealing her dance partner gave me the perfect chance to walk away.

My heart was still pounding when Karl found me wandering aimlessly on the dance floor.

“Lana, you okay?” he asked worriedly.

“Yup,” I smiled.

“Do you need a ride home?  I’m thinking of heading home…”

I smiled and nodded.  Home sounded like a perfect idea.  I was now realizing how tired I was.  I attempted to look for Dawn, but I didn’t make too much of an effort because I didn’t really want to see Alex again for the fear of looking like a loser or something.

Karl was a complete gentleman.  He offered me his arm and we easily walked down the street to where he had parked his truck.  When I saw it, my eyes flew open.

“Holy Hell that is one kick-ass truck!” I exclaimed.  It was a black Dodge Ram, completely tricked out and lifted.  Black rims, custom grille…it was every southern girl’s dream.  “Did you ever take it mudding?” I asked, giving it the walk-around look.

He laughed at my hickish geek-out.  “You are totally a southern girl!”

“Not sure what gave that away,” I grinned.

He opened up the passenger side door and helped me up into the truck.  Before I knew it, we were blaring some Eric Church and heading back to my house.

“Good morning,” she cooed.  I turned my head and looked over to find her looking not as pretty as I had remembered her to be when meeting her at the coffee shop.  Of course she was beautiful, but after being wrapped up in the long legs I had drooled over the other week and being caged in by her long blonde hair, the shine of the penny didn’t seem to be there anymore. 

After my impromptu dance with Lana, everything else seemed to be a blur and now I was here with a just another morning dilemma to deal with. 

“Dawn,” I acknowledged hoarsely.

“Want me to make some breakfast?” she asked sweetly.  She was lying on her stomach, the sheet just covering her bare ass.  Her legs were bent so that when she wiggled her toes I could see them above her head.

I never had breakfast with any of my one night-stand’s.  This morning wouldn’t be any different.  I got what I wanted and she got what she wanted, or at least what she had wanted last night.  Today was a new day and in my mind, long term was not the option here.

“How about I take you home?” I asked, but making it sound more like a statement so that she didn’t feel like she had a choice.  I quickly got up, walked into my closet and pulled a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt from what I hoped to be a pile of clean laundry and threw it on.  By the time I came back out, I found her dressed and pouting.  They are all the same.

The ride to the address she gave me was a quiet one, which suited me fine with the headache I was carrying around.  Luckily the tinted windows in my car helped keep the most obnoxious sun rays out of my face.  Unfortunately, it didn’t help much when I pulled up at the address and saw a familiar brunette and two other girls dancing around in the driveway while washing a car.

“You live here?” I turned to Dawn, my eyebrows raised up in surprise.

“No, this is Lana’s house.  I have some things I need to talk to her about,” Dawn snapped.

Oh great.

Chapter Five

Sooo wonderful to hear all the love for this story!! Gotta agree with some of you commentors... I really like Lana too! She's actually might be one of my favorite heroines thus far!  And for those of you who aren't big Ovi fans but are still hooked on the story... I'm glad to hear that I've done my job!  I too am not a big Ovi fan... so from now on I will be posting some pics I find on the internet (god bless tumblr) that I have found in where Alex is actually someone to look at. LOL  Pics will be at the end of the Chapters. :o)

Ch. 5

Frustrated is not even the word to describe what I have been feeling on the ice since the season began.  Sure, the team was undefeated, but as captain, I never felt like I was doing my job to the best of my ability if I wasn’t actually scoring goals.  That was my whole game.  I was born to score goals.  Hell, Chimera had more goals than me and he’s only scored 17 goals in his career for the Capitals.  This was not the way I wanted to start out my season.  After not having the best goal scoring season last year, I was ready to get back on the horse and prove that I could still be a scoring machine and be an effective captain.  The only way to prove that was to score goals.

I was also tiring of the questions on if my mind wasn’t in the game.  The questions started to surface when I had to fly home to Russia during preseason for a family funeral.  I didn’t want to talk much about it and of course with everything else, if you were mum on something, the media beat it like a dead horse.

Needless to say, I was looking forward to getting back on the ice Saturday evening against the Sens.  The Senators were already playing like the lowly team that have been for the last year and a half, so the consensus in the locker room was that we would have the game in the bag.

“It’s no fun not having Mrs. Carrie Underwood on this team anymore,” Hendicks chirped.  “I like busting his balls about that…” he smiled, garnering some laughter from the rest of the locker room.

“Okay, so we know this team sucks, but keep your fucking noses to the grind, Boudreau yelled as he walked into the locker room before the game.  “We’re back in our own building tonight and we need to bring it for our fans!”

The whole team yelled in agreement as we lined up to head out onto the ice for warm-ups.  As soon as I hit the ice, I immediately began falling into my zone, whizzing by the many faces in the crowd, causing them to be a blur.  Every now and then a face would stick out, but I always tried to keep myself from paying much attention.  Some of the other guys on the other hand were the exact opposite.

“Hey!  It’s Lana!” Carly yelled enthusiastically and began waving at her as he skated by.

I looked over and saw her sitting a few rows off the ice, just left of our bench.  She was in a Caps jersey and there was some blonde guy looking strangely at John and then at Mike when he too skated by and acknowledged Lana.  Lana just smiled politely and waved as small as possible.  I laughed when I saw the redness creep up her neck and into her face.  The guy next to her turned to her and looked to be grilling her about what had just happened.  She didn’t look thrilled.

I skated up behind Brooks and purposefully bumped into him.  “Lana tell me she is not a hockey fan,” I commented.

Brooks turned to me and I motioned with my head over to where she was sitting.  A smile crossed his face and he chuckled.  “Yeah, she told us guys the same thing last night.  But she had also told me that she was going to be at the game against her will after I mentioned to her about giving her tickets to the game tonight if she wanted to come.”

“You asked her to the game?” I asked, slightly surprised because I knew Brooks was involved with some girl in his hometown.  I heard a small voice in my head scolding me for not asking her myself.  It would have been a nice gesture after ruining her Friday night.

“Yeah, she said her two roommates are huge fans and she reminds me of one of my best girlfriends at home.  It’s kind of nice meeting that occasional girl who seems to have no ulterior motives, ya know?”

Yeah, I totally knew what he was talking about.  Well, in some ways.  I only had a few close girlfriends but all of them were Russian or had a Russian background.  In fact, one of them was Alyonka Larinov who stopped by last night.  She was in town doing something for the NHL and decided to crash the party, which of course I was happy about.  It was hard for us to hang out in public without everyone questioning if we were together and even when we denied it, there were still the nay-sayers.  Again, the attention sometimes got old, but of course I enjoyed playing the media games.

“Who is the girl everyone seems to be waving to?” Semin asked, plopping down next to me in the locker room right before we went back out for the start of the 1^st period.  He hadn’t been at the get together last night due to not feeling 100%. 

“That is Lana.  I hired her to make the desserts for the party last night.  Brooks and Mike took me into her shop the other week and I fell in love with her pastries.  I won’t tell my Grammy, but I’m fairly sure Lana bakes better sweets than her…” I divulged in my native tongue.

Sam looked at me and furrowed his brow.  “I thought Lana was the blonde girl you were drooling over the other week at the bakery?”

I laughed and shook my head.  “A slight mix-up.”

“Ah.  So is Lana Russian?  If she’s such a good baker, you better marry her,” he joked.

“Nyet.  You should hear the southern accent she has,” I laughed.

“Nothing wrong with some southern loving…”

I shook my head and laughed again.  “I don’t think she’s the type.  She’s seems more along the lines of a good southern girl.”

“Then you should definitely marry her,” he winked, even though he knew my views on only marrying someone from our homeland.  However, he was dating Gracie, who was actually American and seemed to be very happy with her.  Little did he or anyone else know, the first thing I thought of when I saw her tonight was the pink polka-dot panties and the daisy tattoo on the small of her back.

I knew it was coming as soon as John Carlson waved at me.  I could see Garrett’s eyes getting bigger with each player acknowledging my presences.  I could also tell the other people around me were suddenly interested in who I was too.  This was quickly turning into a nightmare I certainly didn’t want to be in.  I was out of my comfort zone.  “Why are all the guys waving to you?” Garrett asked, turning in his seat towards me.

I shrugged my shoulders and tried to do the fluff off act.  “They’re just all being polite, I guess.”

“I know that Brooks comes into your coffee shop, but you didn’t tell me the whole team did!”  I cringed when I heard his voice begin to pinch into a higher octave at his excitement.

“Well, I met a bunch of them last night…”

“I thought you were working on some big order for last night?”

“I was,” I said shortly, feeling a little on the defense.  I wasn’t too thrilled with the accusatory tone in his voice.  After all, this was our first date.  And soon to be our last.  Ugh.

“I’m thinking you’re leaving out some key pieces here, Lana…”

I turned to him and whispered loud enough so only he could here me.  “I got a call from some guy named Alex.  Little did I know, he is supposedly the captain of the Caps and was having a team get-together at his house?  I got there with the desserts a little later than I planned and ended up having to go in and deliver the stuff with everyone being there.  So through kind of knowing Brooks and kind of knowing Mike, I ended up meeting a few of the other guys and playing cards with them.”

“Which Alex?”

“Huh?”

“Which Alex?  There are two on the team,” Garrett said, squirming around his in seat.  Oh my god, he’s the male version of the two fan girls living in my house.  How did I get myself into this?!  When I just looked at him blankly, he pulled out the program book and turned to the page that showed the head shot of each player.  “Is it him?” he asked, pointing to some guy I had never seen before with a last name that I could have sworn said Semen.

“Is that a porn name?!” I giggled and shook my head back and forth for my answer.

“It’s Semin.  Not See-men,” Garrett laughed and rolled his eyes.  “How about him?”

This time he pointed to the Alex I had met last night, the one whose blue eyes seemed to be piercing through me just in the picture.  His hair was disheveled, exactly as it had been last night but his facial hair was a little thicker in the picture.  “Yes, him.”

“That’s Alexander Ovechkin, Lana.  You’re LW on The Dixie Pixies?  Ovie is one of the greatest players in the game right now,” he said in a tone that made me believe that he was beginning to think I had no brain.  Not a very nice tone for someone to use with a girl who you are on a date with.  Just because I was clueless when it came to hockey, did not mean I was dumb.

“Oh,” I said quietly, turning back to face the rink where the guys were skating by, heading back to the bench and back, to what I could only assume, to their locker rooms.  Alex, Ovie, as Garrett called him, skated past and looked at me through his darkened shield.  A shiver instantly went through my body and I only hoped for sanity sake it was because of the chill of the arena.  I didn’t need to be crushing on some Russian sports star when I couldn’t even date a supposed average American school teacher.

The game was practically a stalemate.  All three goals, two from us, one from Ottawa, were all scored in the first period.  Hell, no one even had a penalty in the third period.  Once again I was held off the score sheet.  It was getting old.  The only thing that saved the night was that we won and bumped up our win streak to four games.  We saluted the fans and when we skated back to the bench, I looked over and found Lana smiling broadly and waving to some of the guys as they passed by.  With no more game to worry about, I too decided to go skating by her.  When I did I punched the glass and shot her date an intimidating glare before winking at her.  She instantly blushed, garnering the response I was hoping to get.  I wasn’t into her that way, but it didn’t mean I didn’t want every woman to love me.

“You have a thing for the southern bell,” Sasha punched me as soon as we began walking down the hall towards the locker room.

“What?”

“I saw you out there before you went to the bench…”

“Ah, I was just trying to see if I could get her to blush,” I winked at him.

“Well, she did.  She’s totally different from anything else you have ever gone after,” he observed.

“Exactly why I will not be going after her,” I insisted.

“Exactly why you will go after her as soon as one of the other guys make a move,” he said smoothly.

“You have no faith in my words, friend?”

“Not this time,” he smiled back.

I didn’t want to stare at him the whole game.  The whole point of me going to the game was to get a new perspective on the sport my roommates were forever trying to get me to love.  However, that was a lost cause when all I could do was sit there and critique everything about Alex. However, nowhere in my critique of him did I think he was an amazing hockey player.  In fact, I was fairly sure I would never be able to tell the difference between a bench warmer and the MVP of the league.  Instead my critique had everything to do with how Alex looked out on the ice.  Instantly it annoyed me to realize he seemed to make himself look different from everyone else on the team, as if he was trying to draw attention to himself.  For instance, he was the only player on the ice with bright yellow laces on his skates.  Then there was his jersey that always seemed to be tucked in behind the pads on his back.  The strings of his pants were definitely longer than how everyone else was wearing them and his tinted visor also added to my irritation.

For supposedly being one of the top players in the NHL, his skating seemed very awkward compared to a lot of the other guys on the team.  He did not look as fluid, yet I did note he was very fast.

I was lost in a whole other planet of concentration by the time the 2^nd intermission came around.  Garrett had to say my names a couple times before I would look over at him.

“You sure are quiet sitting there.  Are you okay?  You seem to be zoned out or something.”

I looked over at him and smiled shyly, biting my lip in the process.  “I’m sorry, I am just taking it all in I guess.”

He raised his eyebrows and nodded before turning back towards the red-head that was sitting  in the seat in front of him.  If I hadn’t been so wrapped up in watching Alex, I probably would have been pissed considering Garrett was flirting with the girl since somewhere in the middle of the first period. 

At the end of the game Garrett asked me what my plans were for the rest of the night.  When I said I didn’t know he informed me that he was planning on staying in the area to hit up some of the bars so that if I could find my own way home it would make more sense.  I was actually slightly surprised by his forwardness when it came to “dumping” me but personally, it didn’t bother me in the least when I took another minute to think about it.  We obviously had nothing in common and the date was a disaster to say the least.

I told him thank-you and at that we began walking opposite directions in the concourse that looked like a red sea of people.  It’s like a god-damn cult!

Suddenly I found myself from being proposed to a couple times the night before by rich hockey players to having to find my way home after being ditched by the hockey fanatic version of Zach Morris.  What a roller-coaster weekend this has turned out to be?!

...hello blue eyes.