The next morning Mike woke up later than usual to a few texts, the only important one was from Hailey though. It was a picture of Lily:

I think she misses him too. The puck bunnies haven’t been keeping it warm for you?

He tossed a pillow across the room and threw his head back against the headboard. She wasn’t giving in easily and he was already getting frustrated, but not enough to stop. He wanted this and he was usually able to get what he wanted, he had to work at it, but usually ended up getting it: this was no exception. He wanted Hailey to be his and he was bound and determined to do
whatever he would have to do to get her.

He sent her a text back:

No, nothing could keep it as warm as you did.

He could see her rolling her eyes at the cheesiness of what he said, but he still hoped she laughed a little at it and thought it was cute.

Mike got up and went to brush his teeth and shower, taking his phone into the bathroom with him in case she sent a message.

After getting out of the shower he saw that he had a message:

I see you haven’t worked on those lines since I’ve been gone. If you don’t say something cheesy like that again then I’ll think about meeting up with you.

He smiled, at least she was making little jokes with him now:

There’s a lot more chessiness where that came from, but I’d really like it if we could talk. I wasn’t lying when I said I miss you, it’s been a rough few months and I could have used you around, even just to talk to.

Hailey sent a text right back to him:

I heard about the trade, sorry Mikey. I’ll meet up with you next week and we can talk.

The sweetness behind that text caused Mike to sigh like a little girl with a crush on Justin Timberlake. He literally swooned and began to crave her more and more. The kind words she would always say to him, even after they argued or he took out his frustration on her, they always made him feel better and happier.

He was going to go out on a limb here but he just wanted to talk with her more:

Can I call you later or are you going to be busy?

She either got busy or was hesitating to let him call her and talk to her because it took her about an hour to text him back:

I work late tonight, but I’ll be off at seven. If you still want to talk then, you can call. You know, you could have called a long time ago if you wanted to talk to someone about things?

He smiled at her kindness. Mike knew he should have called to check up on her and he also knew that she would have talked him through the playoffs and the trade, but he felt bad at how bad they had left things. He felt like just calling her up would have been random and probably upsetting to her or himself.

And on top of it, he had left the game winning puck on her table that night he had left and she didn’t respond. Mike had scored that goal for her and given it to her because he thought it conveyed a message, apparently he had been mistaking.

He gave in though, he wanted to hear her voice so badly that talking with her now was killing him:

Seven? I’ll call you then.

Mike’s day dragged on and on because he was just waiting for seven o’clock to roll around so he could call her.

He busied himself with errands and visiting his folks for dinner. They noticed something was different and Norm nodded at the phone in his son’s hands, “Waiting for someone to call?”

“No, just anxious. I have a phone call to make in a few hours.”

My mom raised an eyebrow, “A few hours and it will be late here, is it someone in LA?”

I nodded, “She’s off work at seven, so I’ll call her around nine.”

“She?” his dad’s skeptical tone put Mike on edge.

“Hailey,” Mike told them.

“She’s speaking to you?” his mom, Irene, asked.

“I sent flowers yesterday and I guess we’re going to meet up next week.”

Irene’s face broke into a smile, “Oh honey, that’s wonderful! She was always so good to you
and brought out the best in you.”

Mike smiled, “I know, that’s why I have to talk to her.”

“Good luck,” they both said as he left for the evening.

Mike went home and watched a movie until it was five to nine. Then he sat and rehearsed
what he wanted to say to her, knowing full well that he would completely blank on it by the time they were able to talk.

He waited until five after nine to finally call her and when she answered she snorted, “Five minutes late, typical Mike Richards.”

Mike chuckled, “Just wanted to give you time to get to your car or at least out of the building.”

“I’m still in my office,” she told him.

“Oh, do you want to call me back? Are you busy?”

“No, just getting my things ready to go home for the night.”

There was a moment of silence and he tried to remember what he wanted to say to her, but it
was all gone. She finally broke the silence and asked, “How are you?”

Hailey knew that this conversation would be awkward, at least in the beginning. She also knew htat she wanted to hear his voice and hear whatever he had to say to her.

“Coping,” he told her honestly, “This trade really threw me for a loop.”

“I bet it did,” she sounded sympathetic as he heard a door close, “Completely out of blue or did you have a little warning?”

“Out of the blue.”

“Sucks,” the elevator dinged as she walked into it.

They were quiet again, “How’s LA treating you?” he finally asked.

She was quiet and he wondered if he had lost her, “Hails?”

“It’s been rough,” her voice said it all.

Mike felt bad for her, “Why?”

“People are different here, they’re so much more catty out here and everyone’s blonde,” she laughed, “You’ll love that.”

“I like brunettes,” Mike just wanted to see her now.

“I dyed my hair,” she told him, “It’s a little darker. Doesn’t look as red anymore.”

“I bet it looks great,” he lied because he knew it did.

“Eh,” she sighed.

“Want to know something weird?” he asked Hailey.

“Why not?”

“I live in the same complex as you do,” Mike waited for her answer.

“No shit,” she laughed, “Small world.”

“Very small,” he laughed too.

He heard Hailey yawn, “How far away do you work?”

“About fifteen minutes,” Hailey replied, “depending on the traffic.”

“I don’t think I’m going to like this traffic thing,” he told her, “It seems rough.”

“It can be, Philly was nothing compared to this.”

“You miss Philly?”

“A lot more than I thought I would,” she told him.

Mike wanted to tell her that maybe he could bring her a little piece of Philadelphia and make
her feel better about living in LA, but he didn’t want to sound too forward or cocky that she would even allow him back into her life. On top of that, he had already taken enough risks with their messages that morning.

“Have you been home to visit?” he asked.

“No, my parents came out though a few weeks ago, it was nice. Are you all moved in?”

“Pretty much, just waiting for the season to start to take back everything else.”

“How much are you going to miss Philly?” she asked as she got into her car.

“A lot,” he admitted, “I’m going to miss the guys, the fans, the city.”

“It’s me, you don’t need to be politically correct with me and tell me the same shit you tell the
media, Mike; let’s be real here.”

“I’m going to like the change of coaches and the organization I think. So far they’ve been
great, but I will miss the guys.”

“Yeah, you had a rough time with shit this last season, you think that’s why they dropped you?”

“Probably,” Mike sighed and tugged at his hair, “I wasn’t the most accommodating captain.”

“No, you were an ass actually. You pissed off the entire organization, the coach, and some of
your teammates.”

“They were stupid rules,” he argued.

“They were set so that you guys wouldn’t be portrayed as drunken buffoons Mike, not to make
your social life easier. They were put into place to better you guys as a team,” Hailey had always hated that he acted like a badass when it came to the whole no drinking for a month rule.

“Well it was stupid.”

“You should have just sucked it up Richards.”

“hey, I didn’t see you staying sober for a month,” I pointed out.

“I didn’t have rules that asked me to nor did I have the media ten feet up my ass calling me out
on my drunken sexapades with porn stars and making rumors of me being the cause of a divorce, did i?”

Hailey automatically regretted the tone of voice she used. She was tired and had had a shitty day at work. The last thing she wanted to do was argue with an old flame over the phone.

She had meant what she said though, Mike had been terrible to his organization and actually deserved to be traded based on those facts alone. But based on everything else, it wasn’t fair for him to have to leave his friends and teammates.

Mike felt the anger surge through his body and he pounded his fist on the table next to him, “I didn’t call you to listen to you lecture me about my personal life.”

No matter how bad she felt, she was still angry with her new life and with his actions toward her, “And I didn’t answer thinking I was going to be talking to a complete dick so we’re both even,” she hissed, “And to be frank Mike, I was a part of that personal life too. I was there through all of that shit last season and most of the season before, I looked like an idiot in my circle of friends for even hanging out with you guys let alone doing whatever you and I were doing. When we used to go to events together and people started talking, they weren’t just talking about you, they were talking about me too and saying how I was dumb or how I was a slut,” she paused, “My life could have been easier if you had just signed that stupid sheet of paper too Mike.”

Mike had never thought of that. Hailey had always gone along with what he had decided to do in his career, she had never mentioned that people talked about her or anything that was on that Crossing Broad website about her, not once. She acted like it didn’t affect her and so he thought it really didn’t.

“Hails,” he started but she cut him off.

“Don’t Mike, I don’t want to hear it.”

“I’m sorry,” he said it anyway.

“For what? For making me look stupid? for leading me on for a year and a half? For being an
ass tonight? Which one is it because there’s a lot of apologizes you owe me.”

Hailey was so angry now and he didn’t think it was good for her to drive and be angry like that. He couldn’t calm her down though, he didn’t know how to calm her down when he was so far away. If he had been there he just would have held her and apologized over and over again until she calmed down, but this was harder than he had originally thought.

“Hailey, please,” Mike said in a softer tone, “I don’t want to do this over the phone.”

“Then why did you call me?” she barked.

“Because I wanted to hear your voice,” he felt as though he could cry.

She was quiet for a long minute and he hoped what he said had made her soften even just a
little.

Mike stood up and walked into his bedroom to lay down, “Hails, baby, are you there?”

“Yeah,” her tone was soft now but she sniffled.

“Don’t cry,” he knew she was and that was bad while she was driving, “Please baby, don’t cry; I’m not there to make it better.”

“I…I have to go Mike,” she huffed.

“Hay, please.”

“Goodbye.”

With that, the line went dead.

He didn’t try to call her back because he didn’t know what to say. If he were with her, he
would have, but over the phone he could do nothing. He knew that if he was going to make them work he would have to figure something out though because they were bound to argue over the phone a lot if they began a relationship and he would have to calm her down without seeing her.

Mike grabbed his laptop and searched for tickets to LA. It couldn’t wait until next week, this had to be taken care of now. Hailey wouldn’t wait around for him, she was fed up with him as it was, and a week from now, she wouldn’t want to even see him. Mike had to fix all of this before her overly active mind started thinking.

He found a flight to LA that left in three hours. It would be 12:30 by the time it left here. He wouldn’t get there until the tomorrow afternoon though. The problem with living in a small Canadian town was that it took forever to get anywhere it seemed, this was no exception with a fifteen hour flight. Hailey would be at work until who knows when and he would be sitting in his condo just waiting for her to come home like a stalker.