No Happy Ending Here

Watching Patrick hoist the Stanley Cup on top of the huge flout that the city had put together for the winning team, made memories flood back to Ali. As she watched the YouTube video she saw herself standing next to him with a smile on her face and two beers in her hands. When Toews took the Cup back Patrick turned to her, took her face in his hands and kissed her.
Alicia hit the red X button on the top of the screen and shut her laptop. She held back the tears that were forming behind her eyes and bit her lip. She couldn’t stop looking at the MacBook that sat on her desk.

“Everything okay?”

Ali turned and saw Chris leaning in the doorframe of her small office. She nodded and took a deep breath. Chris walked into the room and over to her desk, sitting on the flat wooden surface.

“It is not. You were thinking about Patrick weren’t you?”

Alicia opened her mouth to deny his accusations, but she sighed and told him the truth.

“I can’t help it. He was a part of my life for almost two and half years. I just can’t forget about him. We went through so much together.”

Chris smiled down at her.

“You’re going to be fine. How’s about we go out to lunch together? Let’s say ten minutes?”

“Chris. I’d love to but…”

“But what?”

“I have lots of work to do.”

“Lies. You’re an interviewer. You interview me and my team. I know when you’re working and you’re not working right now or in ten minutes. Come on.”

Alicia stood up and was almost chest to chest with Chris large six foot frame. Alicia and her office looked even smaller with Chris standing in it.

“What makes you think I even want to go out in public with you?”

Chris laughed and hugged her.

“Because you love me and you need to get out of this little office. Anyways get ready to leave and come meet me at my car.”

Chris said then let go of her went to walk out of her office. Ali watched him walk away from her up.

“I like my small office, thank you very much. You’re just a giant.”

Chris chuckled at her again when he was in the hallway, then turned back to face her in her office.

“Ten minutes, beautiful.”

She smiled and blush crept onto her cheeks again because of that man. When she could hear his footsteps farther down the hallway she let out a long, loud sigh.

“That man.”

She said to herself with the smile lingering on her face. Alicia sat back down in her swivel office chair and looked down at her laptop again. This time she opened it and opened up her work email, seeing that she had 13 emails in her inbox.

Clicking on the little blue 13 icon she saw that six the Hubert Lacroix, five were from Ron MacLean, one was from P.J. Stock, and one from Mike Gillis.

Alicia thought about reading and replying to them, but then she could do that after her lunch date. She closed her laptop again and got up. Grabbing her purse from the hook on the wall behind her desk.

~~~~

Chris’s brown eyes looked over across the menu at Alicia, who was nose deep in the cardboard menu in front of her face. He watched her for a few moments before he cleared his throat.

“So… how was your day?”

“Fine. I just have a handful of emails to respond to when I get back. Maybe do some interviews later, not quite sure.”

Chris nodded and looked down at the text on the menu seeing what he wanted to eat. Setting down his menu he grabbed his glass of water and bought it to his lips. Then Alicia put her menu down and smiled over at Chris.

“What are you having?”

“Chicken with Cashew Nuts. You?”

“Ginger and Five Spice.”

“I was going to get that.”

Alicia told him as she picked up her water. Chris smiled at the table then looked up at her.

“I’ll share.”

“Sharing is caring, Christopher.”

He chuckled at her and looked around the restaurant for a waiter.

“So what did your day entail?”

“The usual. Wake up at 4:30, drive to the rink, eat breakfast with the guys, had a dryland workout for about an hour or so, then did a few skating drills, then when we get back we’re going to play a pick up game.”

“Goodness gracious. That is a lot in only a few hours.”

Chris shrugged his shoulders, as if it wasn’t a big deal.

“Oh please. Don’t ride if off like it’s not a big deal. You’re a machine, you know that?”

“I work to be that way.”

It was now Alicia’s turn to smile at his words, yet again. Chris was about to say something when the waiter came over and asked for their orders.

“I’ll have the Ginger and Five Spice. And she will have the Chicken with Cashew Nuts.”

Chris said picking up both of the menus with his large hands. The waiter took them from his hand when he was done scribbling down their order.
“Those should be ten to 15 minutes folks.”

“So… how’s everything been since, well when you got everything back?”

Chris was talking about since she’s gotten her stuff back from Chicago. It had took a month and a half to get everything back. She waited till Patrick and the team were on a long road trip and went back, packing everything that was her’s up.

“Well it’s good now. I’m still trying to get the hang of things here. I miss it in Chicago, sometimes. But I love it here, don’t get me wrong, but it was a big part of my life for a while.”

Chris nodded and smiled over at her. He was so happy that she was primarily in Vancouver. It had taken a month or so for her to get all of her things, but she was here. Ryan was able to pull a few strings and got Alicia a job as an interviewer with the team. She had all the credentials for the job. She had studied for four years at Depaul University in the study of sports broadcasting. She graduated at the top of her class.

“So what do you want to do? I remember Ryan said something about you going to get your masters? Do you still want to do that?”

Alicia smiled, knowing that he wanted to change the subject.

“Well, I’ve been looking into going to UBC for my masters. I have gotten a few job offers from other places, but I’m not sure yet.”

“Job offers?”

“Yeah, for about a year now, I’ve been getting offers from ‘Hockey Night in Canada’ and I-”

Chris’s jaw dropped when he heard who was giving her an offer. Alicia stopped mid sentence and looked over at Chris, who looked that he choked on his water.

“What?”

“Hockey Night in Canada has offered you a job and you turned it down? Are you crazy?”

Alicia laughed and reached out for her water. Chris continued to look at her like she was a crazy person, waiting for her to answer herself.

“You sound just like Ryan. I know, I freaked out the first time they came to me for it. But at the time, I wasn’t ready for it. Patrick had just won the Cup, I was a year out of college, and I wasn’t sure what I was going to do for work. I did know that I wanted to work in the hockey world. What better way than with the show that is so iconic with the sport? I told them that I wanted a little more time to think about it and I was contemplating in getting my masters. Now I’m here in Vancouver, I’m not sure again. Maybe next season?”

Chris smiled as he watched Alicia talk about the huge job offer. He watched as he face lit up as she talked about her passion in this world. He knew that she would kill to have the job at Studio 42, anyone in her position would. He understood why she hadn’t taken it yet, now with the injury and the move, it seemed crazy to move to go to Toronto.

“I get it. Whatever you do will be the right choice.”

With that the food arrived and they both started to dig into their food. Chris saw Alicia look over at his food every so often, he chuckled and took a fork full and held it out of her.

“Here.”

She looked over at him and let a small smile crawl onto her face as she went to lean forward in her chair. She took the bite from Chris fork and laughed as she did so. Chris cracked another smile and watched her as she sat back down.

“That’s good.”

She said with another laugh and Chris continued to smile.

“You know you have a cute laugh.”

Alicia blushed and was about to say something back when a young girl came up to their table and cleared her throat as she looked at Chris.

“Hi, I’m Brandi, I’m a huge fan.”

Chris looked from Alicia to Brandi and flashed her his smile.

“Hi, Brandi. Thanks.”

“I was wondering if you could sign this, it’s for my little brother.”

She asked handing him a Canucks hat that she must have had on her head at one point and a black sharpie.

“Sure.”

He said taking the items from her and writing his signature and number on the bill of the hat. When he was done he gave them back to Brandi and smiled again.

“There you go.”

“Thank you, and also can I have a picture with you?”

She asked timidly as she held onto her phone with a tight grip. Chris looked over to Alicia who gave him small reassuring smile.

“Why not?”

Brandi then turned to Alicia and held out her phone for her.

“Do you mind?”

“Not at all.”

She said with a smile and took Brandi’s phone and saw that the camera was already opened. Brandi walked over to Chris and got down so it looked like she was sitting next to him.

“Alright, ready?”

The two smiled and Alicia took a few snaps of the picture and then put the phone down.

“There we go.”

Brandi stood up and took her phone from Alicia and said thank you.

“Thank you, both of you. Good luck in the next game Chris.”

“Your welcome. Thanks Brandi.”

With that the girl ran back over to her table where she had her take out ready to go. She hurried out of the restaurant and both Alicia and Chris smiled.

“You’re the first girl I’ve met that is so cool with fans like that.”

“Well, I dated Patrick for almost three years and my brother is one of the biggest heart throbs in the league. I’m use to it.”

Chris smiled and took another bite of of his food. He hoped that she won’t take the job in Toronto and she would stay in Vancouver. As selfish as that sounded he just wanted her to stay there in that city forever, and he said a silent prayer for being traded to Vancouver.

Notes

Finally I've posted something on this story! It's been almost 9 months! I haven't forgotten about it. I have an idea on where I want to do with this one. More updates to come!

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