Priorities

After getting home from a long day at work, Aubrey walked into the apartment that she shared with her boyfriend for the last two years. Carrying her purse over her shoulder and a bouquet of red roses in a vase in one arm, she couldn't help but smile. Today was her birthday and normally she didn't get too excited over birthdays, but she had been promised by her boyfriend that there would be a special dinner for the two of them after she got off work.

After stripping down and out of her work clothes, she tossed them into the hamper before making her way into the bathroom that was connected to the bedroom. Letting out a long sigh as the shower started relaxing her, today had been an exceptionally long day for her. After finishing up, Aubrey grabbed a towel and wrapped it around her body before stepping out of the shower so she could go and pick out an outfit for tonight.

Walking into her closet, she headed toward the back of it where she had most of her sexy dresses as her boyfriend liked to call them. With a smile she picked the one that she just knew would get his attention. Going back into the room and towards the bathroom, she finished drying off before she did her make-up. Using her make-up, she created a smokey look around her eyes. Once she was satisfied with her make-up, Aubrey made her way back into her bedroom where she picked up the dress and took it off the hanger before slipping into it. The impossibly short black and white halter dress was cut to the belly button that would give a man fantasies he didn't know he had. Aubrey just hoped that it would send the right message to Patrik.

Heading back into the closet, she went towards her shoes and picked up her white peep toe pumps and walked back out again. Sitting down on the bed, she put her shoes on before heading over to her dresser where her jewelry box was, she opened it up and took out the white gold diamond tennis bracelet that he had gotten her last Christmas. Taking out a pair of silver hoop earrings, she held them in her hand as she took out her diamond studded necklace that said the word love in cursive.

Putting her earrings in, Aubrey walked over to her bag and made sure she had everything she needed. Walking into the kitchen, she brought down one of the glasses and filled it with water from the filter as she waited for Patrik to come and get her.

After the first hour, Aubrey's nerves had dissipated and turned into worry. She watched television as she waited and waited and waited for Patrik to come through the door or to call or even text her what was going on. But there was nothing. When the apartment phone went off, she got off the couch and headed to where Patrik had left the cordless phone. Picking it up she recognized the St. Louis number she answered it.

“Hey, Teej.”

“Bree, I wasn't sure if you'd be home yet or not.”

“I'm waiting for Patrik,” she said walking across the room to where she set the flowers on the table. “We are supposed to go to dinner tonight.”

“You have to be kidding.”

“Why would I kid about something like that?” Aubrey questioned him. When he didn't respond right away, she knew something was up. “Is he over there, Teej? And don't fucking lie to me right now.”

“Yes, we were hoping that you'd bring over a couple of the wii remotes.”

“Yeah, whatever.”

Hanging up the phone, she tossed it on the counter and grabbed her jacket and three of the wii remotes that were put away. Grabbing her purse and keys that were on the table and headed for the door. Locking it before heading to the elevators, Aubrey was absolutely livid with her boyfriend.

Getting into her car, she headed to TJ Oshie's apartment. The apartment that he used to share with Patrik before they moved in together. Pulling up into the spot next to where Oshie had parked, Aubrey took a deep breath, before getting all the stuff she needed as she made her way into the apartment building. After pushing the button in the elevator that would take her to the tenth floor, she let out a shaky breath. Aubrey knew that she wanted to cry, but she wouldn't let anyone see her crying. No one would see her that vulnerable, not Patrik, not TJ, no one.

Once she stood in front of apartment number 21, Aubrey raised her fist and knocked on the door and just waited for someone to answer. She could hear someone on the other end making their way to the door. As the door opened, there stood TJ Oshie, the owner of the apartment. “Hey, Aubrey.”

“Are you gonna make me stand out here or are you going to get Patrik?”

“Did you go to work like that?” TJ asked as he opened the door wider so she could walk inside. “If you did I might have to come by more often.”

Rolling her eyes, Aubrey walked into the apartment and handed the wii remotes to TJ, Aubrey took in the scene in front of her. That was the moment she really wanted to cry, but not in front of them.

“Bergy, Aubrey is here to see you...” TJ said as he made his way to the couch where his new fuck buddy, Monica was laying down at.

When Patrik heard her name, his head snapped up and looked at his girlfriend. “Aubrey....”

“Teej, mind if we use your room to talk?”

“Yeah,” he said as he took the controller out of Patrik's hand as he walked behind Aubrey to the bedroom. “Nothing dirty please!”

Rolling her eyes, Aubrey turned and shut the door behind Patrik as he watched her. When she turned back to look at him, she wasn't sure what she wanted to say at that moment. “Bree...”

Holding up her hand, she looked at him. “I got your text message today and your flowers. I thought the text was very sweet and I loved every word that you said. The roses were beautiful, but you didn't have to do that.”

“I wanted to.”

“Why?”

“It's your birthday.”

“So you do remember!” Aubrey said raising her voice. “Then what happened to the plan we had? The one where the only thing I truly wanted was a night out with you? Just the two of us?”

“I forgot we were going out tonight.”

“You knew today was my birthday, but didn't remember the one thing I wanted the most from you?”

“I'm sorry, Bree,” Patrik said. “I can make it up to you. I promise.”

“I can understand you leaving your clothes in the bathroom, I can understand you wanting to hang out with the boys after some of the games, but where do I fit in?” Aubrey asked. “I am so tired of wasting my time trying to just play everything off as if it isn't a big deal in this relationship.”

“Bree...”

“Just stop!” Aubrey yelled at him, tears in her eyes. “I wasn't the one that chased after you! You chased me even when I was with someone else. I didn't understand why you would do that if you were more interested in hanging out with your friends than me! Maybe you should do what TJ does and just get a fucking girl that is willing to fuck you whenever you want!”

“I love you, you know I do.”

“No Patrik, I really don't,” Aubrey said. “Because the man that I love wouldn't have stood me up on my birthday!”

“I'm sorry Bree, the night just slipped my mind and I didn't mean to hurt you.”

“You never mean to, but you still do it,” she told him as a few tears slipped from her eyes. Wiping them away, she looked at him. “Don't bother coming home tonight.”

Turning on her heel, she walked to the door and opened it before walking out of the bedroom and out of the apartment without sparing a glance to anyone in the apartment. As soon as she got to her car, she slammed the door shut before she let any more of the tears fall. Sitting in her car for a good ten minutes crying, Aubrey felt sick to her stomach. Pulling out her phone she texted Monica to let her know that she wasn't going to be opening the bakery tomorrow before she wiped her eyes and backed out of the parking space and made her way back to her apartment.

Walking into the home she shared with Patrik, Aubrey turned and locked the door as she took off her heels and went straight to her bedroom. Laying down in the center of the bed, she turned towards her side and saw the picture taken two summers ago when they had gone to Sweden for the summer. It was the summer when Patrik finally told her that he loved her. His mother was the one that had taken the picture and sent it to them after they had returned to St. Louis. Reaching over, Aubrey pulled the frame down so she didn't have to look at the smile on his face. The smile that seemed to make her weak in the knees.

Turning her back to that side of the room, she heard her phone go off. Picking it up off the bed next to her, she looked at the caller. Patrik. Ignoring the call, she turned off her phone and just let her tears fall. It made her sick to know that she was losing the battle of importance in Patrik's life. She knew that hockey and his friends were always going to be important to him, but where did that put her? She didn't know when things had gotten so bad, but she also didn't know what she could do to fix it. Part of her expected him to come home even though she told him not to. Eventually Aubrey fell asleep on top of the bed in the dress that she had hoped would get Patrik's attention.

The next morning, Aubrey reached over where her alarm was going off and hit it so that it wouldn't go off again. Getting out of bed, she walked over to her dresser and pulled out a pair of blue plaid pajama shorts and a worn out Blues hockey shirt she could change into. Heading into the bathroom she looked at herself in the mirror before taking off the make-up from the night before and taking out her contacts as well. Walking back into her bedroom, she grabbed her glasses off the dresser before walking into the main room. Slipping them onto her face she walked into the main room before sitting on the couch and turning on the TV.

After about an hour of watching TV without paying much attention to anything that had come across the screen, the door to the apartment and Aubrey didn't need to look to know who it was that just walked in. Keeping her eyes on the TV so she wouldn't look at him didn't work when he sat in front of her, blocking her view of the screen.

“I went by the store to talk to you, but it wasn't open.”

Glancing up at him, she let out a sigh. “I told Monica to take the day off. That I wouldn't be opening today.”

“We should talk about last night.”

“Yeah, we really should,” Aubrey agreed as she turned the TV off. “Things shouldn't escalate to this.”

“I was an idiot,” Patrik told her. “I didn't mean to forget about taking you out for your birthday.”

“This isn't the first time this has happened Patrik,” she said. “I don't like fighting with you. It doesn't seem to make a difference if I talk in a reasonable tone of voice or if I scream my head off, you just don't listen.”

“I'm sorry.”

“Please stop apologizing to me,” Aubrey said shaking her head. “Do you remember when we first met?”

“Yes,” he said, traces of a smile on his face. “Osh said not to try anything on you since you had a boyfriend who was about to ask you to marry him.”

“Robbie and I were good together. But he had trouble trusting me and understanding that I don't want to just be a stay at home mother when I get married. And then I met you.”

“I saw the look in your eyes though. You weren't happy with him,” he said. “So I wanted the chance to make you happy.”

“And you did.”

“Did?” Patrik asked looking into her eyes that had tears swelling in them. “As in past tense. Because I don't any longer.”

“We can't keep pretending everything is okay when it isn't,” Aubrey said. “It isn't fair to either one of us. I don't know about you, but I haven't been happy in six months. I tried so hard to make this work, but I don't think anything can repair it.”

“What went wrong?” Patrik asked, taking her hand into his and lacing their fingers together. “I thought you would be it for me.”

“I don't know, I really don't,” Aubrey said. “I don't even know where we go from here.”

“I'll move out,” he told her. “This place is in your name. Plus I'd feel better if you were in a safe place like this.”

“What about you?” she asked.

“I'll move in with Osh,” Patrik said. “Maybe I can get him to straighten his life out a bit. Scare him into it or something.”

Letting out a small laugh, Aubrey looked into his eyes. “I'm sorry that it has to be this way Patrik, I really am.”

Standing up, he stood in front of her before leaning down and kissing the top of her head. “Me too. I'll come by tomorrow and get my stuff.”

“Okay...”

Watching Patrik walk out of the apartment and her life was harder than she thought it would be and so she sat on the couch and just cried. That seemed to be the theme of the weekend. Her heart was hurting and there was no way she could run after him and ask him to forget everything that was mentioned. They had to move on from each other and maybe one day they would be able to be friends again. Friends. They had never truly had been friends because neither one of them wanted to be friends.

Three months had passed from that day. Three months where Aubrey had dove head first into her work and stopped caring about having a man at her side. There were many days where she wished that she had someone to come home to, but her apartment was strictly no pets allowed. When she had Patrik to come home to the no pets allowed thing didn't particularly bother her, but now that it was just her in the apartment it got to be lonely.

Shaking her head of the thoughts of her ex-boyfriend, Aubrey heard her cell phone go off. Getting off the couch, she headed to the kitchen where she had left it to charge. Disconnecting the charger, she smiled as she answered it.

“Hey.”

“You have to guess who is in St. Louis for one night and instead of seeing any hockey players she has decided to have a nice dinner on the town with her best friend.”

“Hmmm....” Aubrey said as she pretended to think about it. “Could it be my best friend?”

“Ding ding ding!”

“When did you get into town?”

“I landed about five minutes ago,” Aubrey's friend laughed. “I'm crashing at your place and we are going out for dinner.”

“A little demanding aren't you?”

“Yes, very. Now start getting ready!”

Laughing, Aubrey hung up her phone and plugged the charger back into the phone so that it would be charged since she was apparently going out to dinner.

Twenty minutes later, Aubrey was changed and ready to go to dinner with her friend who was finishing getting ready. This was the reason that she was thankful that Patrik had talked her into the two bedroom apartment when they first started looking for places to move into together. That was when they decided to take their relationship to the next level which was when she was actually happy.

“You ready Bree?”

Turning around, Aubrey looked at her friend Rachel and smiled. Looking at her friend's outfit made her smile at how beautiful she looked. “Ready when you are. Are you driving or am I?”

“That would be me,” Rachel told her. “I want you to be surprised at where we are going.”

Laughing and nodding her head, Aubrey grabbed her house keys and phone. Placing the phone into her clutch, she followed Rachel out of the apartment. Closing the door behind her she locked the place up and then the two of them headed to the elevators.

Once they arrived at the restaurant, much to Aubrey's surprise they were seated immediately. The last time that happened was when she and Patrik went out for dinner. Shaking the thoughts of her ex from her mind, Aubrey looked at her friend that she hadn't seen in over a year.

“So was this a random trip to St. Louis?” Aubrey asked. “Or do you have other motives?”

“I always have other motives,” Rachel said with a grin. “And this time they aren't aimed at Patrik.”

“Well this is a first,” Aubrey laughed. “But before you talk, there is something I think you should know about me and Patrik.”

“This is never good.”

“We broke up.”

“What?” Rachel asked in a loud whisper as to not shout at the restaurant. “When did this happen? How come you never told me?”

“About three months ago.”

“Three months ago?” Rachel asked. “Three months ago was your birthday.”

“I know. We broke up the day after.”

“Was he cheating?”

“No,” Aubrey said shaking her head. “Patrik never wanted to hurt me.”

“Did you cheat?”

“No. I love Patrik. I could never do that to him,” Aubrey said. “Things just weren't working between us. So we agreed to break up. He moved back in with TJ originally, but things didn't work out so from what TJ told me he's living in the Backes' guest house.”

“And you haven't moved out of the apartment because?”

“I've been busy and I love the place. I paid for half of it and my name is the one on the lease. Why shouldn't I be able to live there?”

“Too many memories?”

“My memories of Patrik are good. We didn't have a bad break-up, it was just time to move on because we were at two different points in our lives.”

“And what points are those?”

“I wanna start to think about settling down and getting married and he's not there,” Aubrey told her. “It isn't his fault, but I don't want to wait forever. I almost had that once, but...”

“You fell in love with a man from Sweden,” Rachel stated before looking at the look in her friend's eyes. “Do you regret it? Falling in love with him?”

“No,” Aubrey said shaking her head. “I don't regret falling in love with him because I still love him. I do regret that I don't know where we went wrong. Not the missing dates or forgetting shit. I mean the last few months weren't like the rest of the relationship.”

“You miss it.”

It wasn't a question. Rachel was stating what Aubrey already knew. She missed having someone to come home to. Some that would listen to her and make her feel better after a shitty day. Most of all, she missed being in love.

“More than I thought I would.”

“Okay, so the reason for my visit to your city.”

“Yes,” Aubrey said wanting to get away from the topic of Patrik. “What brings you here?”

“I'm moving to New York City and I want you to come with me and open another bakery.”

Thankfully, Aubrey hadn't taken a drink of the wine that she had ordered when they first sat down. “Excuse me? Move to New York City?”

“And open another bakery,” Rachel smiled. “There is a place in Manhattan that would be perfect!”

“Rachel...”

“You don't have anything holding you here, Bree,” Rachel sighed. “Like you said, you and Patrik are done so maybe a fresh start and a new city are in order?”

“And who do I have run the one out here? Monica? No I can't. St. Louis is my home and-”

“How about you just think about it?”

“I can do that.”

The rest of dinner went by and before long, the girls were back in Rachel's rental car heading back to Aubrey's apartment. “How long are you in town for?”

“Just for the night. I fly out to New York in the afternoon to meet Robbie.”

“Well I'm-”

Aubrey was cut off by the honking of the horn before the car went swerving into the light post. Turning her head, Aubrey saw Rachel with her head on the steering wheel before she blacked out.

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

The constant beeping coming from somewhere in her room, Aubrey just wanted to ignore it, but she couldn't. As she opened her eyes, she noticed right away that this wasn't her apartment and this was not her bed. After allowing her eyes to adjust to the darkness of the room, she knew where she was. Taking a deep breath was a bad mistake on her part, it hurt to breathe and she was sore.

“Aubrey...”

Turning her head, she saw Patrik in a chair. He must have been sleeping, but her moaning when she tried moving woke him up. Moving so that he was standing next to her, she felt the tears in her eyes escape.

“Patrik, what happened?”

“Do you remember anything?” he asked as he moved a chair next to her bed before taking her hand in his.

“Rachel came for a surprise visit. We went to dinner, but we were headed home when a car hit us. Rachel wasn't moving. Patrik, where is Rachel?”

“Aubrey, there was a drunk driver that hit Rachel's side of the car at full force. She didn't make it.”

“What?”

Kissing the inside of her wrist, Patrik looked at her again. Looking into his eyes she knew there wasn't a mistake in what he had told her. Rachel was dead, her best friend was gone.

Later in the morning the doctor had come in and explained that she had a few bruised ribs, a sprained wrist and a fractured ankle. She counted her lucky stars that she was still around. The afternoon she was to be released from the hospital, Aubrey looked over at Patrik who was with her while she was waiting on the nurse to bring her the release forms so she could leave. Patrik had gone to her place and picked up some clothes for her to wear. “How did you know?”

Looking up from his phone, he gave her a questioning look. “Know what?”

“That I was in the hospital.”

“I guess I'm listed as your emergency contact number because they called me and no one else.”

“And you came without asking any questions?”

Putting his phone back into his pocket, Patrik made his way over to where Aubrey was sitting on the hospital bed. Sitting next to her, he took her hand in his and laced their fingers before bringing her hand to his lips. Kissing her hand softly, he looked at her. “I thought I was gonna be sick when I heard what happened. I couldn't stand the thought of you hurt.”

“Patrik...”

“Give me a second,” he told her. When she nodded he continued. “I have been thinking about a lot of things lately and most of it came back to you. I didn't do right by you. My head was elsewhere while you were with me all the time. You did so much for me and I told myself that if I could get a second chance with you then I would have my priorities straightened out this time.”

“What priorities?”

“You. I love you Aubrey and I want us to give this another try.”

“I don't want to go through that again.”

“I promise that you won't,” Patrik told her. “Believe me.”

“I do.”

“You do?” he asked.

“Yeah, but you have to remember your priorities,” she smiled. “Otherwise things won't work.”

“The only priorities I have right now are you and hockey and since I'm done with hockey for the season, you are the only thing I have to think about.”

Feeling the tears in her eyes, she leaned over and kissed him softly on the lips. “I love you Patrik.”

Notes