“Don’t go.”

“I have to…”

“No you don’t. Tell Dan I won’t let you.”

James smiled. “And you think he would buy that?”

“Yes.”

He brought Aliin for a hug, resting his chin on her head. They stayed like this for a while, just standing together in a comfortable hug in their kitchen. It was 5 am and Ali had gotten up to see James off, but neither was in a huge hurry to part.

“What if I offered him money?” Ali said, her voice muffled by James’ coat.

He laughed. “Pretty sure he’s got all the money he needs, babe.”

“Well there has to be something!” She lifted her head and looked at him. “I’m just going to miss you.”

“I’m going to miss you too…but these ten days will go fast, you know it will.” If only I could tell you that you won’t have to wait long.

He brought a hand up to Ali’s cheek and drew her in for a kiss. He wanted to leave her with something to remember when she felt lonely, he wanted to show her how much he was going to miss her, and most importantly: to cover up how nervous he was about this trip.

Ali moaned softly into his mouth as he let his tongue brush against hers gently. She pressed her head into his coat again, giving him one last hug.

“Tell Dan I hate him.”

James laughed. “I’ll tell him you said hi, how’s that?”

“That’ll do.”

Ali and James parted, but not before he gave her another kiss on the forehead. He picked up his suitcase and Ali grabbed his garment bag. They loaded the items into the trunk, and then James gave Ali one final kiss.

“I’ll call you later, k?”

She nodded and stood by in her pj’s as James got into his car. She gave him a wave before he pulled out of the garage and headed over to Paulie’s. Once there, Paul wasted no time in bringing his stuff outside, and James helped him to place his stuff in his trunk as well.

Both guys got into the car with a heavy sigh, and then looked at one another.

“Bring it?” Paul asked.

James patted his coat pocket.

Paul nodded. “Good.”

* * *

“Right this way, please.”

The Maître d’ led Ali and Becky to an open booth off to the side of the sushi restaurant, which was buzzing already for an early lunch. Both women slid onto the seats across from one another, with menus handed to them thereafter.

“Tim will be your server and he’ll be over shortly. Enjoy!”

The woman left Becky and Ali to themselves as they both peeled out of their coats. Ali lifted off her white cable knit hat, smoothing down her hair to calm the static.

“So!” Becky said, once they each got situated. “Spill it.”

Ali lifted her hands animatedly. “I had no idea what the hell was even going on, ya know? I was on speaker phone for most of it, but James was really giving it to her.”

Becky’s smile widened. “That is SO awesome. I can’t believe he even said something, let alone put you on the phone with her.”

“I know, right?” She smiled and glanced around the rest of the restaurant. “I thought it was pretty ballsy, myself.”

“Ballsy?” Becky laughed. “That was fucking outstanding.”

Ali knew it, too. It made her smile just thinking about it. “Too bad I wasn’t there though. I would have LOVED to see what the look was like on her face.”

“It probably looked just like any other time” Becky said. “Boring and lifeless.”

They shared a guilty laugh at Becky’s insult, but was interrupted by their waiter. He came and stood at the end of their booth, a broad grin across his face.

“Hi ladies, how are we doing this afternoon?”

“Doing fabulous, how about you?” Ali asked. She smiled over at Becky.

“Doing great! My name is Tim and I’ll be taking your orders today.” He looked between them. “Can I get you started with something to drink?”

“Coke?” Becky asked.

“Yep, and you?”

“Iced tea, please” Ali said.

“Alright, I’ll go grab those and be back to take your order if you’re ready.” Tim gave them a final smile and headed off.

“So more, more! Tell me more!” Becky pleaded. “What did he actually say to her?”

Ali gladly recounted the entire exchange between her, James, and Kelly on the phone (or the parts she could remember hearing, anyway). Becky laughed and actually slapped the table when she heard James’ closing line before he hung up. While retelling the whole story, Ali was smiling and thinking about how cool it had been.

“Well…As if I even needed to say this again,” Becky said. “But your man is one of a kind.”

“In more ways than one.”

Ali meant it as a joke about James’ unique ways, but Becky took it sexually. She gave a little whistle just as Tim came back. He gave Becky an odd look, which made her almost bust out laughing.

I am so glad I have her to keep me company this week Ali was thinking as Becky placed her order. Ali went next, and then they were alone again.

“So what’s his schedule now? Where is he playing?”

Ali counted on her fingers. “First San Jose, then Anaheim, St. Louis, Winnipeg, and Denver…..I think. I know Denver is last, anyways.”

“Jeeze! How can they stand doing such long stretches like that?”

She shrugged. “They love it. They live for it. I know for James’, he’s been doing it so long and grew up surrounded by it, so I mean…I can see why it’s a small price to pay.”

“True.” Becky nodded, deep in thought. When she looked up at Ali, she grinned. “So any new bite marks?”

Ali gasped. “Becks!”

“Whaaaaat?” She gave her an innocent smile. “You’re not wearing a scarf, so I guess the answer is no.”

“We didn’t even have sex last night” Ali said. “Just kind of laid together all night, ya know? I didn’t really get much sleep, since we were all up in one another’s business, but it was really sweet.”

“Wow. No sex before a long trip?”

“Is that bad?” Ali frowned.

“No!! NO.” Becky waved her hands. “I just find it impressive that he….I don’t know…”

“…Didn’t want it?” She was starting to feel a little nervous. The whole night she thought James was just being cuddly and sweet and were all good signs.

“Of course he wanted it, Ali – he has a dick, right?”

She giggled. “A very nice one, yes.”

“Okay then.” Becky nodded her head once firmly. “That’s settled.”

Ali was still thinking about it, though. With her straw, she stirred the ice cubes around in her glass. Becky noticed her across the table, but respected her silence. With a sigh, Ali eventually looked up.

“Yes?” Becky said.

“It really isn't a bad thing, is it?” Ali tried to think back now. The last time James and her had sex wasn’t even that big of an event. It was the night he came back from the Kelly episode. It was quite a difference from the last road trip James went on when they’d gone all out, right before Christmas. Oh well, I suppose they can’t all be back-breakers.

“You guys are just getting into that comfortable zone” Becky answered. “That’s not a bad thing at all.”

“Don’t you mean boring?”

Becky shrugged. “In the eye of the beholder, I suppose.”

I suppose. Ali looked down glumly.

“Becoming comfortable shouldn’t worry you ” Becky added. “I remember when my husband and I were dating…I think we got ‘comfortable’ around the same time you guys are. It was at least a year together, maybe a little sooner. I don’t remember.”

Ali nodded, taking a sip of her iced tea. “I guess. You know how I worry, though.”

“Well don’t!” She smiled. “That’s why I’m here!”

Their food came on one large plate with all the sushi and sashimi they ordered, which looked overwhelming. Ali couldn’t wait to dig in, though; anything to take her mind off of the weird doubts that were coming and going. As they ate, the conversation veered off to more about Becky’s kids and the latest goings-on in her household. Again, Ali was thankful for the distraction.

As they finished cleaning the giant plate of all the various pieces, Ali felt her phone vibrate against her thigh where her purse sat. She knew it was James before she even looked at the phone.

“Do you care?” she quickly asked Becky.

“No, go ahead!”

Ali answered, pressing her other finger to her opposite ear. “Hey!” She listened, a smile on her face. She then rolled her eyes while looking at Becky. “You are not on the beach, James.”

Becky watched as Ali’s face went from excited to happy to alive with laughter. The whole time she found herself smiling across the table as she waited.

“Okay….yeah, that sounds good” Ali said. She laughed again. “Well tell him I said Speedos aren’t good for anyone, at any time.” Glancing up at Becky, she lifted her finger, indicating just another minute more.

“Take your time!” Becky whispered.

Ali shook her head, still listening on the line. “Well good luck, babe. I’ll be watching.” She paused as she listened more. “Aww….really?”

Becky saw Ali smiled down at the table bashfully.

“Thanks, me too” she said. “Love you. Bye.”

She hung up and sighed happily. Becky matched her sigh as well.

“One of a kind” she said.

Ali smiled.

* * *

Another win for the Pittsburgh Penguins; this time in San Jose. James was on a personal high, buzzing off of the two goals he scored for the team that night. He was on fire the entire bus ride back to the hotel, too, and was getting everyone else in a better mood than they already were after the win.

“Dude, you feel like raging tonight?” Bortuzzo asked him. “Cause this is what I’m reading in the Book of Nealer.”

“Book of Nealer” James repeated with a laugh. “Where the hell do you come up with this shit, Borts?”

“From the Book of Bennett.”

Beau looked over across the aisle. “Hey, leave my ass out of this.”

“You want to rage, Sunny? It’s your home state” James said, slapping his shoulder from his seat next to him. “Maybe a little Sex on the Beach to start?”

“I sure hope you mean the drink, Nealer” Beau said, scrunching up his face.

James grinned. “Well if you need me to be a wing man and make the non-drink version happen, I’ll gladly offer my services.”

"The last thing he needs are your services," Bortuzzo chimed in.

“Who’s giving service to who?” Fleury asked, leaning over the headrest of James’ seat.

“We’re going out. Bottom line.” James turned in his seat to face Sid and Fleury. “You two coming? That top shelfer you hit deserves four drinks on its own, Crosby.”

“I’ll take you up on that” Sid replied with a healthy grin. He was also feeling damn good after that win.

“It’s going to be a long stretch, boys” James said, turning back around. “Need to use the time wisely while we have it.”

And the guys used very little time to get ready once they were back at the hotel. It was a warm night for early January in California, so James threw on a teal v-neck t-shirt and jeans, happy to dress for warm weather conditions for once. He slid his wallet in his back pocket, grabbed his phone, and headed out the door.

James met Geno and Fleury in the lobby, but as they waited for the others to assemble, he sent a text to Ali. She had sent him a few texts earlier before going to bed. He responded to all of them, but Ali hadn’t followed up. He guessed she was asleep, and he didn’t want to wake her by calling.

Picturing you sleeping as I type this, and guess what? It made me smile. Sweet dreams. Talk to you in the morning.

Finally, the others appeared in the lobby, exiting as a cluster from one of the elevators, all dressed down in t-shirts or polo shirts. There wasn’t one guy in the group who wasn’t looking forward to walking around outside in summer clothes.

In no time, they found themselves several blocks from their hotel and rounding the corner to a street full of bars and restaurants. Sid had done most of the researching on where they were going, so he led the pack as they talked and laughed the entire way to their first bar.

What they weren’t expecting, however, was the first bar that Sid chose. All twelve of them piled into the entrance, staring at waitresses in skimpy tartan plaid skirts and tiny white tops tied in the middle with a very small knot. All of them looked like they were about to burst out of them.

“Holy shit, Sid” Beau said.

Sid shrugged. “I thought it looked fun on the website.” He looked over at Beau and smiled.

James was already on the move. He went up to one of the waitresses and asked if they had a booth or table area that could fit all of them. She said they could move a few tables together on the second level if they wanted. All the guys agreed that would be the best. When the tables were ready and they all sat down, the view was better than they expected. Since they were on the second floor, they not only had the waitresses on the second floor to look at, but if they looked down, the view was even better.

“Can you always pick the bars from now on?” Bortuzzo asked, gazing down at the cleavage of the waitresses serving on the first floor.

James was actually doing well for himself. He was more entertained by the dumb reactions of all the guys around him than he was by the selection of the waitresses they were drooling over. Despite this, he wasn’t going to lie to himself and say they weren’t attractive. In fact, he found a lot of them to be pretty fucking hot.

A petite, perky waitress with a hell of a rack and auburn hair that fell in loose waves arrived at their table. “Hi guysss, my name is Melissaaaa.” She drug the ends of her words out, already laying the flirting on thick.

James smiled at her, shifting his eyes over to the guys across the table from him. The only other person to meet his gaze was Paulie, who rolled his eyes.

“Hi Melissa” Sid said, doing his best not to look down into the cleavage that was eye level with him.

“Wow, how many are there?” she asked with a high pitched giggle. “One, two, three…”

“Twelve” Sid replied, cutting her off. “Can you handle twelve?”

She stared down the length of the table, eyeing all of them up. “Oh I think I’ve handled twelve once or twice in my time.”

The guys loved it. They ate her flirting up the thicker she laid it on, too. James wasn’t a fool, but he couldn’t take his eyes off her, either.

One by one, Melissa went around the table, asking everyone for their drink orders. When she got to James, she paused.

“What’ll you have, handsome?”

A hard on, he thought. “Uhh, let’s go with the darkest beer you have.”

“We have a microbrew from—“

“—Biggest glass you can put it in” he said, smiling. “Melissa.”

She wrote his order down, batting her eyelashes at him. Across the table, Paulie was staring at James as Melissa moved on, and James’ eyes moved down to her ass.

“Dude.”

James looked at him; he was shaking his head.

“Take it easy, Paulie. I’m not married…I can look.” And look he did, but that was it. He wasn’t going to touch her. He wasn’t going to bring her back anywhere. He just wanted to look. How do these kind of girls even exist?

He thought this even as Melissa came back, giant tray in hand and a blonde to help her pass out the drinks. The blonde disappeared when the drinks were distributed, but Melissa stayed.

“So are you guys from around here?”

Sid did most of the talking. In fact, from where James sat, Sid seemed to be the most interested in Melissa. He couldn’t tell if she was into him or not, since she kept her gaze evenly spread around the table.

“Wonder how much Sid’s gonna tip her” Dupuis said, leaning into James, who laughed.

“My guess is high.” He took a drink, his eyes still locked on Melissa flirting with Sid. Since when did Sid turn into a casanova?

Beau raised his hand and grabbed Melissa’s attention for a second. She came down to their end of the table.

“How about a round of shots for everyone?” Beau said, pointing at everyone sitting nearest to him. “You down?”

“Down!!” they said in unison.

“So what’ll it be?” Melissa put a hand over the back of Beau’s chair, leaning in to hear over the commotion in the bar.

James’ eyes fell to her cleavage again, only this time, Melissa caught him. She flashed him a grin, and James matched it.At least I’ve still got it.

Beau put in an order, but James didn’t even hear what it was. He’d take anything at this point. At the head of the table, Sid was leaning back in his chair and speaking to Melissa closely, his hand on her arm. She giggled and nodded, then left them alone again.

“You bringing her back, Crosby?” James yelled down to him.

Sid laughed. “What do you think?”

James shrugged and drank some of his beer. He was now very interested to see where this night would go.

* * *

Five beers but only one shot later, thank you very much, James was starting to feel pretty drunk. Not just tipsy, but drunk. None of them at the cluster of tables had eaten a thing since the game, and James definitely felt the liquor moving quickly through his body. It felt good. James felt like himself again.

But is this me?
It WAS me.
...it’s not so bad to feel this way, is it?

He took a drink of his beer, avoiding any further thoughts.

Melissa was still waiting on them, and the bar was open for another hour yet, but James didn’t know how much longer he could hold out. When he got like this, all he wanted to do was either fuck or go to sleep. He was far from doing either, so he went to take a piss.

“Where ya going, stud?”

Well, well. James smiled. “Hey Melissa.”

“Need another drink?” she asked, blue eyes sparkling up at him.

“Nah, just need to release the last five into a urinal.”

She laughed.

Was that funny? James couldn’t tell, so he kept walking.

Melissa followed. “What’s your name, anyway?”

“Neal.”

“Neal? That’s a nice name.”

Was it? Fuck, how drunk am I? He felt a hand on his arm, spinning him around.

“Hey, so…I was wondering…” Melissa began.

James held up his hands. “I can’t.” He thought he saw her frown.

“Huh?”

“I can’t. I have a fiancé.”

Melissa laughed. “Um….okay?”

“I love her” James babbled. He rubbed his face. “Fuck, I gotta piss.”

“Wait!” Melissa held onto him. “Your friend – who is he?”

James leaned in to her. “Friend? Who?”

She pointed to Sid. “The one with the hat.”

James burst out laughing. “Crosby!?!? You want Crosby?” He kept laughing, and Melissa just stared at him, half smiling, half confused.

“Why are you laughing?”

He shook his head. He didn’t even know how to answer that. She wants Sid, you asshole. Of all things, James felt relieved. That’s exactly how he felt.

Running a hand through his hair, James gave her a side grin. “Go for him; he’s single. He also needs to get fucked pretty badly. Green light all the way.”

“Really!?” Melissa’s empty smile grew. “What’s his name again? Crosby? Is that his first name?”

James laughed again. “You don’t even know who he is?”

“No?”

“You’re perfect for him.” James gave her a pat on the ass, which made her jump a little. “Go get him, Lissa.”

He left her near the bar as he went to the restroom. Even as James unzipped his jeans and started to piss, he was still laughing. A guy down the line at another urinal was trying not to look over at James.

When he emerged again, he saw Melissa actually sitting on Sid’s lap. Her slender, tan legs led up to her tiny skirt that barely covered her ass. All was on display in the way she was sitting on Crosby. Something inside James’ brain told him he should be getting angry or jealous at that moment, but nothing really cropped up. He was a little turned on, sure…she was a good looking girl. Really good looking. She was fit, had nice hair, pretty smile.

But that’s it.
Nothing else.

It’s not enough for me anymore.

James rubbed the back of his neck and sighed. “I gotta get out of here” he said aloud. He went back to his seat, passing by Sid and Melissa. Sid had an awkwardly happy air about him, and James was glad for him. Finally, someone other than my fucking girlfriend.

Duper watched James sit down somewhat clumsily next to him. “Where the hell were you?”

“Pissing. Where were you?” He took what was left of his beer and guzzled it until the glass was empty. “Can I give you my credit card to pay for this?”

“Sure.” He watched James flip through his wallet. “You going back already?”

“Yeah. Gotta get out of here.”

“You okay, though?”

“Oh yeah.” James meant it to. “Here. Leave a decent tip, would you? I’ll get it back from you tomorrow or something.”

He handed Dupuis his credit card and slipped his wallet back in his pocket. The others frowned when they saw James get up again.

“Leaving, Nealer!?” Bortuzzo asked. Geno was staring at him as well, a question mark all over his face.

“Yeah. Tired.”

“Tired.” Bortuzzo rolled his eyes. “Pussy whipped.”

“Fuck off, Borts. So what if I am?” James walked past them. Drunk or not, he was happy to leave the scene. Let Sid have all the chicks he could, he was done with it all.

* * *