Mike went home to Kenora about two days later with his head in a complete daze. Hailey and Jeff may or may not have been lying to him throughout the whole time he had known her, and they were both on his street and didn’t even contact him to see if he was around. Jeff knew that Mike had at least moved in, he had told Jeff he had bought a condo along Manhattan Beach.

Jeff had texted Mike a couple times since the near run in but Mike hadn’t responded to them because he didn’t even hint he was in LA. Mike wasn’t going to have to see the guy except when the Kings played them and Mike seemed perfectly fine with ending a friendship.

Jeff had always been the one to tell his “best friend” that he had legitimate feelings for Hailey, he had always tried to push Mike toward her; now Mike didn’t understand what was going on. Maybe once Jeff realized the new Kings’ player was moving on he went in for the kill. Either way, Mike was less than pleased with what was going on.
In Mike’s own little world, Hailey was his and completely off limits to his friends and teammates. They all saw her that way too, no one hit on her after they realized that the pair had more than just a one night stand going on. However, could he really be upset with either of them? Was that okay?

The answer was no, it wasn’t okay for Mike to be pissed off at Jeff or at Hailey. She and Mike had established a friends with benefits deal, the operative word being FRIENDS. They were not dating, they were not a couple, and were nothing more to each other than a simple fuck on a cold, lonely night. Or so Mike told himself both then and now. They were more than that, a lot more than that.

After a week of being home and talking the situation out with his brothers Mike finally called
Jeff back, “Dude, where the hell have you been?” he answered.

“Home,” Mike stated, “What’s up?”

He paused, “You doing okay now that you got a place in LA?”

“Fine. How about you?” Mike asked.

“Okay. Columbus is a shit hole though,” he laughed, “God I’m going to hate it there.”

Mike laughed too, “At least I have the beach.”

“Shut up fucker,” the blond was roaring with laughter, “You should fly out there in a week or
so, I’ll be out there visiting Hailey.”

“Oh really?” Mike asked and played dumb.

“Yeah, I just left there last week after taking some of her stuff to her. She’s in need of some friend time; I don’t think she likes LA too much.”

“Why not?” Mike forgot he was mad at his friend and became caring.

“I think she just feels out of place. She’s lost a lot of weight and dyed her hair, she looks great with all of that and the nice tan, but I can just tell she misses Philly. She clung to me like her life depended on it dude, when was the last time she did that?”

“Clung to you?” Mike was getting some insight to what he saw now.

“Yeah. I was there for three days and she just wanted to hang out with just me, I don’t know
if she’s met any decent people out there either. The one night we went out with some people she
met,” he paused, “They were just not her crowd at all. That’s why I’m going back in a week, she
needs me and I think she could use you too.”

“Me?” Mike questioned.

“She asked how you dealt with the elimination and the trade. She said she wanted to call you
or text you but then she thought it’d be too awkward considering you two left things a little rough. I think she regrets that,” he said quickly.

Mike looked down at his feet on the wooden dock outside his large lake house, “I do too.”

“Give her a call,” Jeff encouraged Mike, “Text her, write her a fucking letter,” he laughed, “Or we could surprise her when I get there.”

“Where’s she living?” Mike asked.

“Don’t creep on her you fucking idiot!”

“No,” Mike told Jeff, “I’m not.”

“941 S. Sunnyside, Manhattan Beach,” he told Mike with a knowing tone.

“Right down the street,” Mike gritted his teeth.

“Right down the street, three places down I think,” Jeff chuckled.

“Son of a bitch,” Mike shook his head, “I’ll figure something out.”

“You do that. Let me know if you need help.”

After hanging up with Jeff Mike went back into his house. He pulled out his laptop and looked up the exact placement of his and Hailey’s living situation and laughed; he was right, three buildings away. The two were in the same complex, most likely bought from the same guy.

Mike’s next thing was to check for florists in the area. He felt like he should send her flowers or something, maybe start to make up for how they left things, maybe make her day a little better if it wasn’t going well.

He quickly found one and called them, “Hello, Miss Marie’s Flower Shop, how can I help you?”

“Hi, I was hoping I could get some flowers sent out by this afternoon, is that possible?”

“Of course,” the older woman told him, “What did you want to send? Or should I ask how big
of a mistake did you make?”

Mike laughed, “A big one.”

“Well, if you don’t mind me asking about it. I like to get a feel for what should be sent out, roses aren’t always the trick for you men,” she was smart.

“I let her move to LA without telling her how I felt.”

“Oh,” she sighed, “And how do you feel?”

“I think about her constantly,” he told Miss Marie.

“Well, do you know her favorite flower?”

“Lilies,” I replied, “Lilies and tulips.”

“Lilies will be good. How about some pink tulips and,” hse paused, “What’s her favorite color?”

“Purple.”

“Oh, you’re good,” she chuckled, “How about some lavender lilacs with some white lilies? That
sound good?”

“Perfect,” he smiled, “She’ll love it.”

“Good. Now do you want to include a card?”

He paused because he didn’t know what to say and the woman caught that, “How about one that just says I fucked up?” Mike offered with a chuckle.

“Oh no, you did, but we have to make it sound much better than that…How about “I wish I had the right words to say then, but I do now”? how does that sound?”

“It osunds good,” Mike was in awe of this woman.”

“Would you like to include your name?”

“No,” he stated quickly, “She’ll know.”

“Alrighty, let me ring that up for you,” she paused and Mike heard the cash register.

“Thank you,” Mike said before giving the woman his credit card information.

“Excuse me for asking, but are you Mike Richards the hockey player?”

“Yes,” he was afraid of how she would react now.

“Oh, well,” she giggled, “I can’t wait to tell my husband that you called. We’re from Philadelphia originally, he tries to keep up with the sports there, he was thrilled you got traded here.”

“Well tell him if this works I’ll get you guys tickets to whatever game you want,” Mike laughed, “Seriously, I will.”

“Well then, I hope it works,” she laughed too, “Good luck Mike, let me know how it goes.”

“Thank you,” he hung up the phone.