Chapter Eleven

As of right now I will not have a chapter to post tomorrow for the simple fact that I will not have time to finish it. Just so ya'll are aware. :o)  A couple people have questioned what I mean by the "Batmoblie."  Well, instead of posting a picture of Ovie this chapter, I am posting a picture of the car. I have to say... something about this car even gets me hot and bothered. Enjoy!!

Ch. 11

“Lana!” Faith and Becky called out loudly in the large, busy bathroom.  “Lana, if you don’t tell us where you are, we’re going to start kicking open every door until we find you!” Becky squawked.  I could have sworn I heard more than a few, “If you do, I’m kicking your ass,” remarks echoing in some stalls next to me.  Before Becky could follow through with her threat and get pummeled, I opened up the lock on my bathroom stall and walked out.

“What the hell happened?!” Becky cried before Faith could effectively cover her mouth to remind her of the fact that we were in a public place and that the issue was dealing with a famous hockey player.  Along with those facts came a good chance of ears close by who would love to get their hands on information that might be considered juicy.

“Maybe we should walk outside,” Faith commented, giving Becky the death glare.  She then took my hand and drug me out of the bathroom, grabbing a few paper towels along the way and handing them to me.  We hit the exit door and found ourselves in the smokers’ area.  Luckily the area was big, so we could hide in our own littler corner and chat.  Once away from any prying ears, Faith turned to me with a worried look and asked the same question Becky had, but in a calmer tone.  “Are you okay?”

I nodded my head and then shook it for the simple fact of feeling very pathetic at the moment.  “We were kissing and then a friend of his interrupted us and made a comment about Alex being on his way to scoring a few more points as he gave me that look.”

“What look?”

“The look that made me suddenly realize I was getting involved in something I never wanted to be involved in,” I said quietly.  Becky and Faith just stood there watching me intently, willing me to continue.  “Alex is a player…” I began.

“Yeah, pretty sure we talked about that fact last weekend…” Becky snorted, causing me to smile a little.  She always knew how to lighten up a situation.

“I know.  Which is exactly why I’m mad at myself.  I fell for every charm out there on that dance floor.  It makes me no better than Dawn or any other girl that has found herself in his bed.  He’s only going to do the same to me…”

“So you think he’s playing you?”

“Yeah.”

“But has he done anything to make you think that?” Faith inquired, seriously.

I looked at her like she was asking the stupidest question in the world.  “Well, I’m here with him, aren’t I?  I was just kissing him…”

“That doesn’t mean he was playing you,” Faith pointed out.  “Lana, I know you’re scared, and rightfully so because he is Alexander Ovechkin,” she said, emphasizing his name like he was a god or something.  “However, talking with Mike, he was fairly sure Alex was genuinely crushing on you.”

“Crushing on me?!  I’m fairly sure he proposed for us to go back to his house and do the horizontal mombo, Faith!” I flipped.

“Okay…so the boys move fast…”

I shook my head and scoffed.  “He’s a playboy,” I announced grimly.

“Yes, he might be, but I really think it’s different for him with you.  Look, Lana, I understand you’ve been out of the dating world for awhile now.  I also understand that getting involved with a famous person, like Alex, would be like going from tapping your foot into small puddle to diving head first into the Atlantic Ocean.  But the way he looks at you and just a few things he has done for and with you so far, tells me he is taking this a little more serious just getting you into his bed for one night.  Now, I’m not denying that Alex is a playboy or flirt, but I have a feeling that when he is interested in something or someone, he takes it seriously,” Faith explained patiently.

“So you think I’m over-reacting?” I asked quietly.

Her and Becky looked at each other and then back at me before each raising their right hands and pinching their thumb and index fingers together to show the “little bit” sign.

“You understand why I’m a little more than freaked out right now, right?”

“Most definitely,” they both said in unison.  They were now officially freaking me out with their twin-like tendencies.

“I mean, seriously, any girl would kill to be kissing an NHL star…” Becky swooned.

I rolled my eyes and shook my head.  “I don’t give a crap about him being an NHL star,” I sighed.  “Honestly, he could be a pig farmer and it wouldn’t change my worries,” I admitted.

Both girls lost it at this point and laughed hysterically.  “Only you would use a pig farmer as an example!” one of them laughed.

They were right.  Only me.  The southern girl.  Only me.  The person standing out back of a posh club, freaking out because I had just been kissed by some rich Russian guy who was supposedly god’s gift to a hockey.  Only me.

“Did you see Lana?” I frantically asked Brooks.  “She ran off when Ab bumped into us kissing…”

“You hurt her, I’m killing you.  Your only chance to survive would hope she poisons my pastry before I get to you,” he growled.  Something told me he was being very serious.

“I did not hurt her, or at least I don’t think so,” I said, not feeling so sure of my words.

“I saw the three girls sneaking out into the smokers’ area,” Carly piped up.  “I was dancing with Faith when Lana went running by, so I was waiting for the girls to come out of the bathroom, but it was obvious they went outside to talk about something.”

“Thanks,” I punched Carly in the shoulder before heading back to the area he spoke of.  I was pushing through the door when Faith opened it, causing me to almost fall into Lana.  “Lana,” I breathed.

She put her hands out to brace me from falling into her.  The look on her face and the other two girls, told me that I was probably the main topic of their conversation.  “Alex,” she said quietly before nodding over at Faith and Becky to tell them to go back inside.

I took her hand and led her over to an open area where we could have some privacy.  She leaned against the brick of the building and crossed her arms in front of her, immediately looking down at the ground and biting her lip.  “Lana, I’m sorry.”  Without looking at me, she just nodded once.  “Ab is my best friend here in the States.  He can seem a little rude…” I paused, trying to figure out what to say.

Before I could think of anything, Lana looked up at me and asked, “Can you take me home now?  My second wind has seemed to leave and I’m tired.”

I looked at her for a moment and nodded.  “Sure.”  However, neither of us moved.

“Alex…”  “Lana…” we both spoke at the same time.

“Go ahead,” I chuckled, feeling really nervous.

“I don’t want to be Dawn…” she blurted out.  “I mean, I’m not standing here saying that to kiss me we need to be in a full-on relationship, but I am warning you that I will not be sleeping with you tonight.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at her honesty.  In fact, I was fairly sure it was this honesty that I appreciated.  “You think I dance with you to get you in my bed?” I asked, unable to stop myself from cupping her cheek with my hand.

She bit her lip and didn’t dare look at me in the eyes as she nodded her head.

“Little Lana, I may not be an angel, but I can behave on occasion.  Of course it doesn’t help when you dance up on me like that and wear a dress like this,” I paused to finger the light material of her sleeve.  “But I am sure you are not like Dawn nor the rest of the women I have been with recently…”

At this, she stopped me from speaking with just her finger over my lips.  “I don’t really want to her about your list of women right now.  Especially not when I’m still questioning myself on if this is even the road I should be going down…”

I couldn’t help but smile and laugh at this.  I took her finger away from my lips and replaced it with her lips.  She resisted for a moment but once I pulled her closer to me, her arms slowly reached up and wrapped around my neck, allowing me to feel the whole length of her body against mine.

8am and I was wide awake.  Really?!  Why can’t I just sleep in for once?!

Alex dropped me off after we had gone back inside and mingled for a bit before leaving.  The kiss outside had left me a hot mess and I found myself mentally battling on if I should let him have his way with me anyway.  The “good little southern girl” in me got the better of the argument and now I was waking up in my own bed, alone, with a million thoughts floating around in my brain.

I showered and as soon as I padded back out into my bedroom, my phone beeped to alert me of a text message.

Alex: Good Morning Little Lana

I dropped my head back and groaned.  Little Lana was not my idea of a cute pet name.  Yes, I was shorter than him, but when he said it last night, it almost sounded like he was calling me Little Lama due to his accent.

Me: Morning, Alex.

I sat on the edge of my bed waiting for him to text back when my phone actually rang, causing me to jump in surprise.  Add in the nerves and my phone almost went flying across the room.

“Hi Alex,” I answered, unable to hide my smile.

“Lana.  You eat breakfast yet?”

“Nope.”

“Come over to my house and I’ll make you some.”

“You are going to make me breakfast?  The man who doesn’t know where he can find cookie trays in his own kitchen is going to make me breakfast?” I chirped mercilessly.

“Breakfast is the one thing I can make…it’s no rocket science to make Blini.”

“Blini?”

“Come over and you will know what Blini is,” he persisted.

“Fine, when?”

“Now.”

“Well give me a few, because I just got out of the shower…”

“You could have showered over here.”

“Of course I could have,” I rolled my eyes.  “I’ll see ya in a lil.”

Chapter Ten

Sorry it took a little bit for me to get this up.  Yes, it was only a day in-between, but I had been doing so well with getting a chapter out each day.  However, I hit a little wall with this chapter. I knew where I wanted it to go, but it wasn't taking the right path... with that being said, I think we got it now! Of course that doesn't mean that the chapter everyday pace is going to keep happening... like I said before, Medic class takes priority, so your patience is always appreciated!! :o)

A little shout-out to JD89... she just got caught up with the story, and I wanted to say thanks for the comments along the way!!

...why yes, Mr. Ovechkin, you can pick me up anyday looking like that!!

Ch. 10

“I’m fairly sure the Batmobile only holds two people!” Faith cried while frantically throwing things out of her closet.  We were in overdrive mode.  Opera was not the place I was going to get away with wearing jeans and a long-sleeved shirt at.  This was high class and highly expensive.

“Well, then just follow us or something,” I called from the bathroom, quickly throwing on some make-up.  Thank goodness the last-minute college parties got me into the practice of getting ready quickly.  Usually I would have had a hard time figuring out what I wanted to wear, but I knew exactly what had to be worn from the instant he texted back the club name.  I had bought the dress almost a year ago for one of the girls nights we had planned and wore it that night only.  I had gotten a lot of head-turns that night.  I’m fairly sure that fact right there was more than enough reason to wear the dress.  It was a glorified t-shirt dress, made of a silky dark teal material.  The sleeves hung loosely from my arms and the dress clung just enough to show that I might be a size 10, but I was a toned sized 10.  It flattered my body perfect and with a pair of black, shiny, low healed sling-backs, I was ready for a night out on the town.  I quickly straightened my hair and added some product to make look as silky smooth as my dress.  When I walked out of the bathroom, Becky whistled.

“I was hoping that is what you would wear!”

I laughed and shrugged my shoulders like I couldn’t take a compliment.

She looked perfect in a curve hugging champagne and dark brown laced spaghetti strapped number; brown colors always went well with her red hair.  However, stick-skinny Faith was all about calling attention to herself with her clubbing dresses and tonight she didn’t disappoint in a bright yellow number and 4 inch heals.  Suddenly I didn’t feel as confident as I did when I just looked at myself in the mirror.

Maybe it would be a good thing if Alex would just fall for one of my roommates.  No pressure that way…

Before I could fret anymore, the doorbell rang.

“Shit!  I was hoping to just meet him outside or something!” I hissed, attempting to walk quickly through the living room in my heels.

I opened the door just a little and found Alex leaning against the door frame with one hand and the other hand in his pocket, flashing me a missing tooth grin.  Once again, he was in black suit pants, but this time was wearing a light blue dress shirt and a leather coat.  Definitely has no self-imagine problem.

“Hi, I’ll be out in like 5 minutes… I need to find my little purse…”

Before I could close the door and have a moment of hyperventilation, Faith ripped the door from my hand and pulled it wide open, inviting Alex inside to wait.  It was probably the polite thing to do, but I was more than a little nervous at the moment.

With the door wide open, Alex had full site of me and of Faith.  I was feeling at a huge disadvantage while standing between two beautiful people.  I bit my lip and stepped back so that Alex could come inside.  He walked in, bowed slightly to Faith and kissed her hand as she introduced herself to him.  Surprisingly she acted like a normal human despite Alex putting on his prince charming act.  She smiled at him and then winked at me before walking back upstairs to grab her own purse and round up Becky, leaving me and Alex in the living room, alone.

“I have to grab my purse from my room,” I said shyly, not even daring to look at him.

Before I could take a step, his hand gently grabbed my wrist.  “Lana,” he spoke quietly.

I turned back and looked at him, actually looking into his eyes for the first time since he had arrived.  “Yeah?”

“You look amazing,” he said taking a step towards me, immediately intoxicating me with his cologne.

Shit.  I felt myself shiver.  If I couldn’t keep it together while we were still at the house, how the hell was I going to keep it together dancing with him at the club?!  I refused to just allow him to have his way so easy with me.  This crush of mine was not making things any easier.  “Thanks!” I said brightly, trying to act like I wasn’t shaking in my boots, or heels for that matter.

I attempted to take another step away from him, but he was attached to my wrist and somehow ended up following me down the steps to my bedroom.  This was quickly turning into a disaster.

“Do you rent the house?” he asked easily, obviously having none of the nervous issues I was suddenly having.

“Um, well, I own the house.  Faith and Becky chip in money for rent that goes towards the mortgage…”

“It’s nice to live with friends.  You don’t have to be alone,” he commented, almost sounding like he wished he had the same set-up.

“Oh believe me, there are days that I would love to be alone in this house,” I laughed, hitting the landing and throwing a silent thank you to my mom forcing me to make my bed every morning and keep my room clean.  It was one less thing to be nervous about with Alex being in my room.  “They are my best friends, but sometimes everyone needs their breaks,” I turned and smiled to him.  His eyes locked with mine and an impromptu silence fell between us.  I bit my lip and then took a deep breath.  His hand was still wrapped around my wrist and it was either his touch or the remnants of my burns from yesterday making my whole arm feel really warm.  Since I had just put aloe on my burns, I was thinking it had more to do with Alex’s hand on my skin.  “Um, I have to admit, I’m a little intimidated by the fact that you have followed me downstairs to my bedroom.  With that being said, I don’t mind that you are here, but I would like to search my closet without you standing there getting a look at all my underwear and stuff,” I smiled.

Alex looked at me and laughed loudly.  “I knew I make you nervous!”

I frowned and finally pulled from his grip.  “Of course you would bring that back up!” I cried while walking into my walk-in closet, which was just another perk of having the basement bedroom.

“But you are okay with me seeing your stuffed hippo lying on your pillow?”

“You make fun of my hippo; I’m not going out clubbing with you,” I warned.

When I came back out of my closet, Alex was lying on my bed, arms stretched behind his head with the hippo lying on his chest, smiling playfully.  I was mortified and breathless all at once by the sight on my bed.  “Your bed is comfy and hippo makes a nice companion,” he winked at me.  All I could do was groan and roll my eyes.

“Let’s go, Romeo, before I change my mind and realize that this is probably the worst idea ever,” I grumbled while tripping up the steps.

 Lana looked smoking hot when Faith opened the door to let me in.  I could tell her nerves were once again getting the best of her, but I didn’t let that deter me from getting her to loosen up.  On the way over to her place I realized that tonight was going to be somewhat of a test for the both of us.  If there was anything actually going on between us, I was sure it was going to become evident tonight.

She obviously wasn’t going to be an easy pick-up like the last several girls I had been with, but I was always one for a challenge.

I about lost it when she made the comment about not seeing her underwear.  I had already seen it last Friday when she was in my kitchen, but of course she didn’t know this.  She also didn’t know that I was picturing what underwear, if any, she had on under that dress over hers tonight.

When we arrived at Opera, the place was already filled to the gills with people.  Immediately we headed back towards the VIP section and met up with the rest of the team, including Sasha, who had yet to meet my latest conquest.

“You must be, Lana,” Alex immediately came over and introduced himself, which was rare, considering how shy he is around strangers.  Then again, Lana’s smile can give anyone that feeling you’ve known her forever.

She looked at me and then over at Alex and smiled curiously at him.  “Are you the other Alex on the team?” she asked.

“I am, but everyone call me Sasha,” he said before pulling over his girlfriend, Heather, whom he had met here in DC.  Everyone had been shocked that the two of them had hit it off so easy.  Especially for the simple fact he wasn’t always the most comfortable here in the United States and even less comfortable with the language, despite getting better at speaking it every year.  “My girlfriend, Heather,” he introduced his blonde beauty.

Heather smiled sweetly at Lana and the two shook hands.  “Nice to meet, ya’ll,” Lana said, making me smile because the accent seemed to get me every time.

A few minutes later we were doing a celebratory shot of vodka for winning our 7^th game, keeping us the only undefeated team in the league.

Lana put up her hands and began shaking her head, “I don’t need to do a shot,” she announced anxiously.

“Yes you do!  You are good luck!” Mikee cried, shoving the overfilled glass in front of her face.

“How am I good luck?”

“Your food…at the party,” he said, dodging her attempt at pushing him away from her.

“Really?!  You believe in superstitious stuff like that?” she asked, putting a hand on her hip and looking around at the group of us that were waiting patiently to do our shot.

“Yes!” Mike, along with several other guys piped up in unison.

Lana just shook her head and laughed.  “Ya’ll are pathetic!” she cried, taking the shot from his hand.  She was about to bring it up and sniff it, but I immediately stopped her.

“Sniffing it is not going to make it go down any better; just take it…”

She scrunched her nose and looked back and forth between me and the shot.  “I don’t like Vodka.”

“You don’t know what’s good for you,” I winked before holding up my own shot and saluting everyone with it.

Out of the corner of my eye I watched Lana take the shot and sling it back.  Her face was priceless and the coughing that proceeded afterward was even funnier.

“That’s terrible!” she complained breathlessly.

“What shots do you like?” I asked, taking her glass from her and setting it on the table behind us.

She put her hand on her hip and looked at me like I should have known that answer already.  I just raised my eyebrows at her and motioned for her to speak.

“Southern girls drink Southern Comfort,” she said plainly.

“Then we do a shot of Southern Comfort!” I yelled.  A whoop went up from some of the guys that were still standing around and soon we were all doing a shot of Lana’s favorite.  It was my turn to make a face.

“That stuff takes like cough syrup!” I told her, mindlessly wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her towards me.  She left out a squeak in mid-laughter.

“I’m done shots.  You make me do a few more of those and I won’t be able to walk up the three steps into my house tonight,” she laughed.

“Fine, then we go dance!”

I lied.  My biggest fear of drinking more shots had nothing to do with walking.  Sure, I would probably need to take off my shoes to ensure my safety if I had too much to drink, but that was the least of my worries when it came to Alex being near me.

Alarm bells were going off in my head when I realized that this was shaping into more of a date than anything.  Sure, we were there with the group, but it was completely different from last Saturday when I was mingling with all the guys.  Tonight I was there with Alex.  He was the one who asked me here, he was the one whose car I arrived in.  I was his date tonight.  When he pulled me against him, I stopped breathing as memories of our dance together last week suddenly filtered back into present memory.  As we began dancing tonight, I was instantly lost in the feel of him.  The heat that radiated off of him made me think about how warm he would be if I was lying in bed with him.  The feel of his body under the material of his clothing, made me think about what it would feel like if I could touch him without the clothing on.

Where have these crazy thoughts come from?! I don’t ever remember thinking this with any other guy I had just met, especially a guy I barely knew.  Maybe it was the recklessness about him that piqued my interest or just the way he carried himself.  So sure of himself, not seeming to care what anyone thought, as long as he was happy and the people around him were happy.

“You look lost in your head,” Alex whispered into my ear, causing me to realize that I had spaced out.

I looked up at him and allowed a half smile to cross my face.  “Sorry, it’s hard not to get caught up in the beat…” I said.  The way the lights reflected off of his blue eyes threatened to put me in another trance.

He leaned back down, but this time his lips came dangerously close to mine.  I sucked in a breath and held it.  At the last second he leaned moved to my ear and whispered again.  “We move well together.”  There was no middle line in flirting with Alex.  Maybe it was the fact he was translating everything from Russian to English in his head, or maybe he was just that honest.  Either way, there was no way I could mix signals.  Alex just told me straight up he wanted me in his bed.  There is no way in hell you are ready for this!  Stay calm.

I let out my breath with a hiss and tried to push him away, but when I tried, he pulled me even closer against him and soon we were kissing on the dance floor.  His strong hands were splayed across my lower back and up at my neck to make sure I didn’t move, but he wouldn’t have to worry.  I wasn’t going to pull away, my body wasn’t going to let me.

The feel of her body against mine turned me on with every movement.  The thin material of her dress tricked me into believing I was actually touching her skin.  Never mind that she was grinding on me like there was no tomorrow and that a few pieces of her hair were stuck to the part of her neck that I wanted to bite.  There was no option but to kiss her.  How the hell did it get to this point?!  Up until last week, you were lusting over her co-worker and now here you are trying to figure out the fastest way out of here to get her in your bed.

A faint taste of the Vodka and Southern Comfort was still on her lips.  My hand position wasn’t going to let her pull away, but instead of resisting, she melted into me, easily progressing the kiss by running her tongue lightly over my lips.  When she opened her mouth to me, I was greeted by a sweet coolness and a softness that was Lana.  The kiss wasn’t demanding, but the emotion that was playing out was something that sent shivers through me.  This was not anything I was used to.

This all happened in the span of a few seconds because as soon as the kiss began, it ended when one of my friends, Ab, punched me in the shoulder.  “Hey buddy, great win tonight!” he called out loudly.  “Looks like you’re on your way to scoring a few more points tonight,” he elbowed me and chirped brashly.  Any other time this would have been okay.  But tonight wasn’t any other time.

Lana looked up at me with eyes that told me she was appalled and quickly pulled back and out of my arms.  She was holding her hand to her lips and practically ran to the back towards the bathrooms.  I went to follow her but Ab grabbed my arm and began pulling me in the opposite direction, saying he had some guy he wanted me to talk to about the Batmobile.  I tried telling him that I would talk to the guy later, but the guy was already pushing his hand in front of my face and trying to shake my hand.

Chapter Nine

I see I have some new followers!! Welcome!! Hope to hear from ya in the comment section!!

This post is for Rebeheart since she pleaded so nicely! :o)

Ch. 9

Dinner was over too quickly.  It was only 8pm on a Friday night and I found myself hoping to have at least a few more hours with Lana.  It was obvious she was holding back on me in the beginning and I’m fairly sure that had to do with the fact that she was still angry at me.  However, once I was able to make her laugh, she reverted back to the bubbly person I knew her to be around the other guys.  Lana didn’t make it hard to see that I made her nervous.  Okay, so a lot of women were nervous around me and I always found it easy to take advantage of them because of that, but it was different with Lana.  She seemed to be a step ahead of me and I was intrigued by it.  For once, I had an equal in my world of games.

“Do you want to go to a movie?” I asked, despite knowing I wouldn’t be able to talk during the movie and get to know her better.

She left out an ironic laugh, like I had just told a joke that only she knew the answer to.  “No, thank you.  Like I said, I have to be back at the shop by 5am.  I’m already exhausted from the long week,” she admitted, shoving her hands into the pocket of her ski-jacket.  We were standing in the back alley behind her shop, where she parked her car.  When I saw how dark it was in the alley, I had refused to let her walk back there by herself.

“Do you have plan for tomorrow night?” I asked, leaning against the driver’s side door, not even giving her a chance to get in and speed away.  I was not a man who took “no” for an answer, at least not easily.

She bit her lip and shook her head slowly.  “No…”

“I will have a ticket sitting at Will Call for you.”

She looked at me and raised a questioning eyebrow, instantly making me smile at her inquisitor look.  The shadows of the alley were playing on her face, defining her pouty lips and high cheek bones, reminding me how she was very pretty.  “Are you and the guys that hell bent on getting me to like your sport?!” she cried out, laughing.

“Sure, why not?  Hockey is the best thing in life.”

She snorted at my declaration and shook her head in disbelief.  “Fine, if you want me to come to your game, then you will need to leave 3 tickets at the Will Call,” she announced.

“Three?”

“Three.  Otherwise I will most definitely be receiving death threats on my breakfast plate in the morning.  My roommates are…well…just slightly obsessed with the team,” she admitted.

I laughed and nodded.  Something made me realize that this was again another battle that Lana was attempting to get the upper hand on.  If she didn’t come to the game by herself, then I wouldn’t be able to get her fully alone with me. This fact was something that despite making strides tonight at dinner; she was not totally comfortable with. 

“Fine, three tickets it is.  We will go out afterwards…”

“If I feel up to it.”

“Okay,” I said, despite wanting to push her into just saying “yes.”

“Thanks for your help this evening, despite the fact that if it wasn’t for your ruining things, I wouldn’t be in this predicament,” she poked at my chest.

“I aim to please,” I winked.  I am positive that if there was light, I would have seen her blushing at this comment.

She just shook her said and mumbled, “Yeah, I’m sure,” before forcing me away from her car door by opening it up and pushing me away from the car and her.  I waited until she started the car and drove away, down the alley, before I began walking back to my car.  I pulled my phone from my pocket and punched in Sasha’s name.

As soon as he answered I said, “You were right.”

“Now, you have a set of rules that you need to follow…” I began as soon as I got home and walked into the living room to find Becky and Faith watching first part of the final Harry Potter movie.  HBO was showing it everyday it seemed and everyday we were watching it.

“Sssh!  This is the part where Ron declares his love for Hermione!!” Becky hissed, waving her arms hysterically around.  I sighed, took off my coat and stood behind the couch, watching the part that was a favorite of mine also.  When he finished his soliloquy, the three of us all cried, “Awwwwww!”

Becky then muted the TV and allowed her head to flop back on the couch to look up at me.  “Another late night at the bakery?”

I laughed lightly as walked around the couch to plop down on the recliner.  “Yeah, kind of…”

“You need to get someone hired, ASAP!” Faith clucked.

“I know.  Especially someone who knows how to use the register,” I smiled, thinking about the $150 in cash, Alex handed me to put in the register to pay for the customers he didn’t charge.  I knew damn well he didn’t sell that much in coffee and pastries, but he was not allowing me to take any less.

“So what were you saying about rules?” Becky asked, popping a piece of popcorn in her mouth.

“Oh, yeah.  Rules.  There will definitely be rules for tomorrow night.”

“Tomorrow night?  Why would we need rules to go see Footloose?”

“Oh shit!  That’s right!  I did have something planned!” I cried sincerely.  I really wanted to go see Footloose, and now Alex had ruined that once again.  “I guess I could just have Karl pass along the message that we aren’t going to come…”

“Karl?!  Are you talking to him again?!” Faith asked excitedly.

“Well, no, I haven’t talked with him since the other night…but I still have his number…”

“Becky, she’s totally holding out on something again,” Faith said, turning to Becky before both of them looked back at me with stink-eyes.

“Fine.  Alex stopped by the shop today…”  The reaction I was already dreading on the way home finally happened.  Both of my friends stood up and began screeching and jumping around on the floor and on the couch.  So much for laying ground rules.  They will never abide by them.

Once they quieted themselves, five minutes later, I explained my whole evening to them.  This time not leaving a detail out because I didn’t want their imaginations taking them to some far away land.  Not surprisingly they had many questions and some of them were ones for the life of me that I could not answer.

“What are his motives in all this?” Faith asked at one point.

I shrugged.  I honestly did not know, which is what made me feel nervous being around him.  Especially after we talked about Alex’s girl habits last weekend, I was not very comfortable at possibly being in his sites.

“Do you like him?” Becky asked.

I blushed at this question, leaving me unable to deny that I did have somewhat of a crush on him.  “I don’t think he’s my type,” I felt the need to blurt out to keep some kind of self-sanity.

“How do yo even know what your type is?!” Becky and Faith said at the same time.

“Well I thought Garrett was…he seemed nice enough at first…”

“Yeah, but he’s not.”

“I like Karl,” I admitted timidly.

“But you didn’t seem very interested in going any farther with that.  I mean, you have his number and you could have contacted him…”

I would have liked to argue this thought a little, but they were right.  I had a very nice time with him in Georgetown, but it was what it was the more I thought of it.  Plus, he didn’t put me on edge like Alex.  Of course that edge was feeling really dangerous right about now, but it was definitely something more than I had experienced in a long time.

For once I am clueless and I’m the person who usually has all the answers.

“Well, I guess we could we always go to the movies after the game…” I said nonchalantly.  Next thing I knew the girls began jumping up and down again, grabbing my hands and soon the three of us were swinging around in a circle.  I was more of the middle man being drug around the circle while they jumped and danced.

…

Not even 5 minutes after getting to our seats at the Verizon Center, Becky broke the first rule.  “Don’t act like a fan girl if one of the guys waves to us.” 

John Carlson immediately spotted us behind the home bench as soon he came out from the locker room.  “Hey Lana!” he called and waved before jumping out onto the ice for warm-ups.  Becky literally squealed in excitement and as soon as Brooks noticed me and nodded, she began hyperventilating as Faith fanned herself.  This is too much.

I have to admit that I had a lot more fun this game, for the simple fact that I had fun friends to watch it with.  The girls kept me laughing throughout the game and talking non-stop, naming each player and explained everything going on during the game.  I was quickly enthralled by watching the guys get off the bench so quickly during what the girls called line changes.  I still didn’t understand the reasons for the different times they stopped play or why some people went into the penalty box, but by the 4th goal scored by the Caps, I knew when it was time to stand-up and cheer loudly.  It was a lop-sided game, but the score heavily favored the Caps, making the atmosphere even more electric with the happy fans.  When Nicky scored the 7^th goal, I thought the place was going to explode and I felt the urge to cover my ears from all the screams.

As tired as I should have been, I found myself wide awake and ready to go out and about.  To no surprise the little voice in my head was yelling, “This is all apart Alex’s evil plan.” 

I left my cell phone number with the tickets at Will Call.  I was more than a little worried that Lana wouldn’t text me her plans at the end of the game, but a small part of me figured she was too nice not to at least say thank you for the tickets.

Right after interviews, I checked my phone and the little marker light was blinking. I brought the phone to life to find an unread message from an unknown number.

Thank you for the tickets, the girls said they were the best seats ever.

I guess that small part was right.  I looked at the time of the message and it was from 5 minutes ago.  I quickly saved her number and texted her back.

Me: Your welcome. You go out tonight?  As soon as I hit send, I wished my English writing was as good as my speaking.

“I know that look,” Sam said beside me in our native tongue.

I looked over at him and shook my head.

“Is she going to come out tonight?”

“I don’t know yet,” I grimaced but quickly turned my attention back to my phone that just beeped.

Lana: Yeah, I’m too wound up from your crazy game.

I laughed for the simple fact that I could hear her saying the words in her southern accent.  I looked over at Sam and shook my head.  “Oh, she’s mine tonight.”

He laughed and elbowed me.  “Ah, another love of a lifetime is starting,” he joked.  This of course was a joke between us for a couple years now.  He of all people knew I changed my women with the change of the seasons.

“She’s American,” I threw back.

“Ah, but something tells me she might be the one to change your mind about American women,” he chirped back before hitting the shower.

I looked back at my phone and typed back another message.

Me: Go home. Get changed, I pick you up and we head to Opera.

Not even 30 seconds later… Lana: I can get there myself.

Me: I pick you up.  Don’t argue with the man who bought your tickets.

Lana: The seats were terrible.

Me: You bad at lying. Even through texting I can tell.

Lana: LOL see you in a little.