The Hockey Life

PART THIRTY-SEVEN: SLEEPOVER
When Patrick and I arrived at the restaurant, we weren’t bothered by photographers like I had suspected. Apparently the word had not gotten out about our date and none of them happened to be around. Constant camera flashes alone stressed me out, so I was glad we were able to get in and out without any problems.
We had a great time at the restaurant. The food was incredible and the atmosphere was nice as well. There weren’t really any fans pestering Pat. Well, except for a few at a table a few feet away. A family of four was sitting at the table: a mother, a father, and two little girls. They were both cute little blondes: one looked to be only a couple years older than the other. I guessed they were close to ages five and seven. I noticed at the beginning of the date that they couldn’t seem to keep their eyes off of Patrick and I. I figured they must have known who he was. I watched them nudge their parents and point, and I overheard their parents telling them it was rude to point and that they needed to leave us alone while we had our dinner.
“I think you’ve got a few fans over there,” I said, eyeing the table.
“Oh yeah?” Patrick asked. He didn’t look. He must have assumed that I was going to be annoyed by them.
“Yeah. A couple of cute blonde girls,” I added. He seemed amazed that I was being casual about it. He seemed to think I was talking about older girls.
“What?” he asked. He finally turned and saw the little girls and their parents. They caught him looking and they waved at him. He smiled and waved back. At that moment, our waiter brought our food, so we turned our attention away from the family for a while. However, when we were almost done eating, the father and the two girls came over to our table.
“Hi there, I’m very sorry to bother you. It’s just that my daughters are huge fans of yours and they wanted to ask for an autograph,” the father said.
“It’s not a problem at all,” Patrick said.
“Hi Kaner!” the girls said in unison. They were too cute for words.
“Hey there. What are your names?” Pat asked with a huge smile plastered on his face. He was a sucker for little kids, like me.
“My name is Madison,” the older girl said. “This is Morgan,” she then introduced her younger, shyer sister.
“Those are pretty names,” Patrick said.
“Thank you,” the girls said. “You’re our favorite player on the Blackhawks,” Madison revealed.
“Wow, really?” Pat asked. They nodded.
“Will you sign our shirts?” Madison asked.
“Of course I will!” he answered. Madison turned around so he could sign her Blackhawks t shirt first.
“Is she your girlfriend?” Madison wondered.
“Maddie, don’t ask personal questions like that. It’s rude,” her dad warned.
“It’s okay, sir. Yes, she’s my girlfriend. You can talk to her too, if you want. She won’t bite.”
“What’s your name?” Madison asked as she let her little sister get her autograph.
“Lena,” I told her with a smile.
“You’re really pretty, Lena,” she told me. Sure, it was just a little girl saying I was pretty, but I was still flattered.
“Thank you! You’re a pretty girl yourself,” I said.
“Thanks.”
“Alright girls, we better leave Patrick and Lena alone now so they can finish their dinner. Thank you so much for signing their shirts. I really appreciate it,” the dad said.
“No problem. Your daughters are sweet,” Patrick said.
“Bye Kaner! Thank you!” the girls said as their dad convinced them to head back to their table. Patrick and I finished our dinner and once we got into his car, we gushed about how adorable and sweet the girls were. We had plenty of conversation to occupy us during the ride, so I completely forgot about the fact that we were going back to his place until we actually arrived there. When we did, I had some nervous jitters. I attempted to ignore them and play it cool. He unlocked his door and we went inside. I took my phone out of my purse, checked the time, and put it back inside without bothering to zip it back up. Checking my phone was one of the many things I tended to do when I was nervous, along with messing with my hair.
“Thank you for dinner,” I said, trying to stall.
“You’re welcome. You’ve had fun so far, right?” he asked as he scooped me into a hug.
“Yeah.”
“Good,” he decided as he kissed me. “Are you ready for part two of the date?” he asked.
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” I lied.
“Alright, follow me then,” he said. I turned to follow him and I clumsily knocked over my purse. Its contents spilled everywhere. I bent down to pick everything up and Patrick did the same, unfortunately. I grabbed my phone first and next to it was one of the condoms that I clearly remembered putting back in the drawer. Dammit Tess! She must have slipped one into my purse while I was dealing with Patrick and the flowers he brought me.
“What’s with this?” he asked as he picked the condom up before I could hide it from him.
“Oh, um, Tess must have put that in there,” I said quickly.
“You can be honest with me, Lean. I’m not mad or anything. I’m the opposite of that,” he said with a little smirk on his face.
“Honestly, Tess really must have slipped one in my bag. She wanted me to have a couple just in case and I refused to bring them because…” I stopped for a minute, unsure about what to tell him. But when I looked into his eyes, I realized that I had nothing to be afraid of. I needed to continue with the honesty. “Okay, to be completely honest, I’m not ready for anything like that. I mean, it’s not that I don’t want to, it’s just that I don’t know if it’s the right time yet. As embarrassing as it is, I’m twenty-two and still a virgin, and I just want the first time to be special. I want to be truly ready and prepared, and I’m not yet,” I explained. I refused to look at him now, because I was afraid of what he’d say. I opted to staring at the hardwood floor instead.
“It’s not embarrassing, Lean. You shouldn’t be embarrassed,” he said.
“I shouldn’t?”
“No. It’s probably a good thing. Sometimes I wish I would have waited. Especially now that I have you. I wouldn’t have minded waiting for you,” he continued.
“I’m not sure that I believe you,” I laughed.
“Okay, I’ll admit that as a guy I never thought I would ever say that, but it’s true. And I’m not trying to pressure you into anything that you’re not ready for. I don’t want to rush it if you’re not ready; I never wanted to. If I’m going to be your first, then I want it to be special too,” he said. I realized that I was no longer nervous. I felt normal again.
“I’m so glad to hear that. I am sorry, though, if I ruined your plans for tonight,” I apologized.
“You didn’t ruin my plans, why would you…wait, you thought THAT was what the second part of the date was?”
“Not at first. But I talked to Tess and then, yeah, I did,” I admitted. “So if that’s not it, then what is?”
“We were supposed to go to the movies the other day and I had to cancel, so I figured that I’d make it up to you by having a movie night. I rented a couple movies that came out recently that you said you had wanted to see. I got popcorn and candy too,” he explained. He picked up my now refilled and closed purse and set it on the table before he took my hand and led me towards the living room. There were pillows and blankets set aside, plus my favorite candies, movie theater butter popcorn, and two new releases sitting on the coffee table. Wow, did I feel stupid. He had planned something cute and innocent after all. I was going to have to yell at Tess when I got home.
“I like that plan a lot better,” I admitted.
“Good. Well, which movie would you like to start off with?” Patrick wondered, holding up the choices which were Identity Thief and Warm Bodies.
“It doesn’t really matter to me. You know that I wanted to see them both,” I said.
“Alright. Well, let’s get the romantic zombie comedy one over with,” he laughed. He asked if I wanted popcorn but I told him I would need some time before my stomach would be ready for more food. He gave me a pair of his sweatpants to change into so I could be comfortable and he changed too. His couch was basically like three recliners formed into one piece of furniture, so we put up the foot rests and got cozy under the blankets. We even turned the lights off too. It was like going to the theaters, but more comfortable and more private.
Once the first movie was over, we both decided we were ready for more food. He made popcorn and refilled our drinks and then we got comfortable again. I had to admit, it was really nice to just cuddle with Patrick. We reclined once we were done eating and we were able to get truly comfortable and enjoy the movie. Well, part of the movie, at least…
*************************************************************
I felt movement and I slowly opened my eyes. It was much brighter than I had remembered. I stirred and looked to my right to see a sleepy looking Patrick.
“I’m sorry, did I wake you up?” he asked.
“Yeah, I don’t mind though. It’s probably good that you did, since we fell asleep. What time is it, anyways?” I yawned and stretched.
“Almost nine AM,” he answered.
“Oh, wow. So I guess I accidentally spent the night here,” I realized.
“Yeah, I guess you did,” he replied. He looked at me and his lips turned up into a grin.
“What are you smiling about?” I asked.
“I don’t know. You just look beautiful in the morning,” he decided. He pulled me closer (not that we weren’t already close from cuddling the night before) and kissed me.
“Do you want to stay for a while? I can make you breakfast,” he suggested.
“Yeah, I’ll stay,” I said. How could I turn down his offer? Tess rarely cooked me breakfast. We either cooked it together or we had something that didn’t have to be cooked, such as cereal or Pop tarts. It was usually the latter, since cooking took effort that we didn’t want to deal with in the morning.
“You aren’t starving right now, are you?” Patrick wondered.
“No, why?”
“Because I kinda like what we have going on right now. I’m not so sure I want to get up yet,” he said. He went back to kissing me and I realized that I wished we could always have sleepovers like this one. I wanted to be able to wake up next to him in the morning and kiss him right after I woke up. I knew it couldn’t happen, but I wanted to be able to rewind and do it all over again. I hoped we could have more moments like this one in the future.
Patrick made bacon and eggs for breakfast and after we ate I decided I should probably head home. I originally planned on changing back into my jeans, but Pat said I could keep the sweatpants if I wanted, so I took him up on that offer and I stayed in them. Sure, they were big, but they were comfortable. I headed out the door with my jeans in my hands and my purse over my shoulder, not big enough to hold any type of clothing.
When I got home, I tried my best to be silent. I knew Tess would want to sleep in as much as possible. However, it seemed that she was already awake.
“You dirty little whore,” she said as she eyed the pants I was wearing that clearly weren’t mine.
“Wow, thanks Tess,” I said.
“You’re right, you’re right. I should be congratulating you because you totally spent the night there and you’re totally not wearing your own pants,” she said.
“We didn’t have sex, if that’s what you’re insinuating,” I promised.
“Are you sure about that?” she wondered.
“Yes, I’m sure. Speaking of that, thanks a lot for the surprise in my purse. It fell out and Patrick saw it. I had to confess to him that I wasn’t ready only to find out that he wasn’t trying to get in my pants, he was just trying to make up for the movie date we missed by renting movies I had wanted to see. He got my favorite kinds of candy and popcorn and we cuddled with blankets and pillows on the couch and it was completely adorable and sweet,” I explained.
“Aw! Okay, I’m sorry I did that, Lean. I won’t do it again. So, if you guys didn’t do it then why are you just now getting home?”
“Blankets, pillows, dark lighting, full stomachs…I guess it was inevitable that we would fall asleep. We didn’t wake up until almost nine in the morning, so we had breakfast and then I left. He let me wear his sweatpants to be more comfortable and he said I could keep them.”
“You guys should stop having such a perfect relationship. It’s too much for me,” Tess said.
“Oh, come on, it’s not perfect, Tess. No relationship is perfect,” I assured her. It was true. No relationship could be truly perfect. However, I had to admit that my first sleepover with Patrick was pretty close to being perfect.

Notes

Hey guys, I hope you like this chapter! I had a lot of fun writing it, so I hope you guys have fun reading it. This chapter was one that I've had planned for a looooong time, so I've been anticipating writing it. I think that's what's so bittersweet about the fact that I planned a lot of moments for this story in advance - I get really impatient because there are things that I can't wait to write and post. Sometimes I'm afraid that makes me speed up other chapters too much, but you guys have so much positive feedback for me that I really hope that isn't true. I want to do the best I can on this story, even if it is just a fanfic, so I hope I'm doing a decent job.