The Hockey Life

CHAPTER THIRTY: BE MINE
I had never been so relieved so far in my relationship with Patrick until we had finally met each other’s parents. It was so stressful and nerve wracking for both of us, and I was glad that it was over. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t get to be relieved for very long, though. Valentine’s Day was quickly approaching, and I had no ideas and no time. I had a really bad habit of procrastinating anyways, so it didn’t help that I didn’t have a clue what I was going to do.
“Tess, help! Valentine’s Day is tomorrow. I need to figure out what I’m getting Patrick,” I pleaded, desperately searching the Internet for ideas.
“Well, the quickest way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, right? Make him dinner or something,” she suggested.
“Okay, that’s great, but I can’t just make him dinner. He needs a real gift that won’t get devoured in ten minutes.”
“So chocolate’s out, too?”
“I guess. I don’t know. I just don’t want to get him the typical box of chocolates. I want to get him something nice and different, if that’s possible. And it has to be something decent, because god knows what he’ll get me. I’d hate for him to buy me something pricey when all he gets from me is something cheap that won’t even last. I don’t want to be embarrassed,” I rambled.
“Lean, I’m pretty sure he understands that you’re a college student and you don’t have a lot of money. He’s not going to care what you get him. If you make him a dinner, he probably won’t even expect a gift, but if you want to give him something, then I guess you could do something creative with food,” Tess suggested. I went on Pinterest and easily found cute Valentine’s Day ideas. I couldn’t choose just one, so I decided to combine them all.
“I’m going to make him a gift basket type of thing, I think. With a bunch of sweets in it, and maybe a couple other things too,” I decided.
“That’s a good idea, Lean! See, it’ll be fine. Stop stressing so much. He’ll love it.”
“Yeah, I guess so. Well, I need to go get some stuff. Do you want to come with?” I wondered.
“Heck yes I do!” she answered, purposefully making her voice sound like Napoleon Dynamite.
We headed out and I made a mental list of things I needed. First we went to the grocery store and I got everything I needed to make a couple different kinds of cookies. I picked up some candy too, which mostly consisted of Twizzlers, since I knew they were Patrick’s favorite candy.
Next we went to the huge Sports Authority downtown. I was going to put a couple hockey items in the basket along with the food, which would include stick tape and some pucks that I would decorate to look like the candy hearts that had sayings on them. Although we managed to make the grocery store trip pretty fast, we always stalled at sports stores. We always ended up looking at athletic clothes or sticks or gear for Chicago teams. This trip was just the same as any other, in that sense. However, Tess and I were interrupted while we were grabbing pucks. When we got to them, we realized that Dylan was in the same aisle.
“Hey Lena,” he said.
“Oh. Hey Dylan. I haven’t seen you in a while,” I said.
“I’m going to go look at clothes,” Tess said, leaving the two of us alone.
“So, how have you been?” Dylan asked.
“Pretty good, how have you been?”
“I’ve been alright. Are you planning on getting in some extra practice with those?” he guessed, pointing to the pucks I was holding.
“Oh, no. These are a part of Patrick’s gift for tomorrow,” I said, feeling guilty as soon as I said it. It hadn’t been that long since I found out Dylan had feelings for me. He probably still did and my bringing up the fact that I had chosen Patrick instead of him could only make him feel worse.
“Smart. He’ll definitely appreciate that. Well, I’m sure you and your friend are busy, so I’ll leave you guys to it. I just needed to upgrade a couple things,” he said, and I noticed the new glove and helmet in his arms.
“Okay. Well, it’s nice to see you, since we haven’t talked in a while,” I said.
“True that. Since we don’t work together anymore, we probably should actually try texting each other for a change,” he suggested.
“Yeah, sounds good. Maybe we could even hang out sometime,” I said. Oh god, why did I say that? “We could play some hockey sometime, you know? To practice,” I added to make it seem less weird.
“Good idea!”
“Yeah. Well, see you later.”
“See ya.”
I located Tess in the women’s section with pucks and tape in my hands. “Wow, that was awkward,” I told her.
“I bet. How bad was it?”
“Not that bad, until I told him we should hang out sometime.”
“You invited him to hang out with you?!” Tess had gotten a little loud, at that point. A couple people turned to look at us.
“Shut up, people are staring! Don’t worry, I specified that I meant to play hockey so as not to suggest anything else. I didn’t mean to make plans with him, I just blurted it out. I felt bad because I mentioned Patrick to him and he probably is still jealous,” I said.
“Probably. Well, let’s go before I buy a bunch of stuff I don’t need and you make things even more weird.”
I spent the whole day baking and creating until I finally had Patrick’s Valentine’s basket all done. I thought it looked good by the end of the night, so I made myself go to bed. I had to admit that it felt really good to be able to just go to sleep.
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The next day, I found out that I had to go to Patrick’s place at six. I had originally wanted to make him dinner, but he told me he had something planned for me at his place already, so I had no choice. I had absolutely no idea what he had planned for me, so even though I had his gift ready and there should have been nothing to worry about, I was stressed. I didn’t even know what to wear. It shouldn’t have mattered since we would most likely just be staying at his place, but I still wanted to look good. After talking with Tess, I settled on a red, lacy, cap sleeve, bodycon dress and Converse so I wasn’t too dressy or too casual. I curled my hair and did my makeup and I was ready to go.
I was happy to get to Patrick’s place finally. I had let myself get too stressed out about the day for me not to enjoy it.
“Hey. Happy Valentine’s Day,” I said when he opened the door.
“Happy Valentine’s Day,” he answered with a smile. “Is that for me?” he asked when he saw the basket of stuff in my hands. “Nope, I just bought myself a gift for today,” I said sarcastically. He laughed as he let me in. I took off my coat and threw it over a chair and set the basket down. I couldn’t help but notice him staring at me as I did so.
“Wow, you look great!” he said.
“Thank you. So do you,” I answered.
“Thanks. Well, are you hungry?”
“I am, actually.”
“Go ahead and sit down, then,” he commanded, so I took a seat at the dining room table. He went into the kitchen and came out a minute later with two plates in his hands: one for me and one for him.
“Did you make this?” I asked, admiring the delicious looking plate of spaghetti and garlic bread sitting in front of me.
“Yeah. A few weeks back I told you that I didn’t know if making food for you would be a very good idea, but I thought I’d finally try it. No promises that it’ll actually be good, but I did my best,” he confessed.
“Well, it looks good, to say the least,” I said. Patrick poured us each a glass of wine and we ate. The meal was actually pretty good. I was honestly very impressed.
After we were done with dinner, it was time to exchange gifts. I gave Patrick his gift first. It wasn’t much of a surprise. It was wrapped in transparent cellophane, so he could easily see what all was in it, but Tess had been right. He appreciated it, especially the Twizzlers. I honestly could have gotten him nothing but those, and he probably would have been overjoyed. My gift, however, was wrapped nicely in a bag. I knew Patrick had to have wrapped it, so I was extra impressed with him. First dinner, then a pretty gift. What was next? I guessed I would find out.
The first thing I found in the bag was a box of chocolates. Very cliché, but I still would have been a little disappointed if I hadn’t gotten any chocolate. There was also a little box inside. It was a jewelry box. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but when I opened it I saw a beautiful heart necklace with diamonds on it. It was perfect. But at the same time, I wished he hadn’t spent so much on me, since I knew it couldn’t have been cheap. I mean, he did have plenty of money to spend, but it was still a lot for a relationship that hadn’t even existed for two months yet. I was appreciative, though.
“Oh my gosh, this is a gorgeous necklace, Patrick,” I told him.
“Do you want me to put it on you?” he wondered. I just nodded. I continued to stare at it even once it was around my neck.
“I hope you didn’t spend a fortune on this,” I said.
“It doesn’t matter how much I spent,” he said.
“Yes it does! It hasn’t been that long. You shouldn’t be spending this much on me. Maybe I don’t know the exact price of this, but I’ve seen some a lot like it and they’re not cheap. I couldn’t even afford to get you something this nice right now, but now I wish I would have,” I admitted.
“Don’t say that, Lean. You don’t need to spend that much on me. I love what you got me. I honestly would probably like it a lot more than if you would have spent a ton of money on something, because you actually took the time to make my gift. I know I didn’t have to spend a lot on you, but I wanted to. It’s only been about a month and a half, but I really like you. Our relationship is already better than any of my past relationships have been. You’re an amazing girl and I just think you deserve something nice.” I knew I had to be blushing after he said that. I couldn’t help but smile. I had been so worried about nothing.
“Thank you so much. For everything,” I said.
After that, we originally decided to enjoy some chocolates for dessert and watch a romantic comedy, but we got a little distracted by each other’s lips in the process…What can I say? It was Valentine’s Day after all. We had a perfectly good excuse. Valentine’s Day was supposed to be a day full of happiness and love. I wouldn’t say that I was in love. I wasn’t even ready to say “I love you.”. I didn’t think it could ever be possible to know that quickly, but I was definitely feeling something with him that I hadn’t ever felt before with anyone else. It was a perfect night, so I just enjoyed every moment with him until I knew that I absolutely had to go home.
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“So how was your date?” Tess wondered when I came through our apartment door.
“Awesome,” I told her.
“Wait a second. You weren’t wearing a necklace when you left. Let me see that!” she demanded. She ran up to me and beamed at it for a moment and I detected a little bit of jealousy on her face. “This is so pretty. He did an awesome job!” she decided.
“I know. He made dinner for me too,” I spilled.
“Oooo, what did he make?”
“Spaghetti. It was good, actually. I was pleasantly surprised.”
“Wow. Nice job, Patty Cake,” Tess said seriously.
“Patty Cake? Really? When did you decide to call him that?”
“Just now. You should invite him over sometime soon so I can call him that when he’s around. He’ll love it,” Tess said.
“Yeah, sure he will,” I answered sarcastically. I didn’t let myself get even the slightest bit annoyed with her crazy comments. I couldn’t. I was in a good mood, and I stayed that way until I went so sleep. It had been a pretty decent February 14th.

Notes