I woke up at 7:30 the next morning to the alarm I had set so I'd wake up in time for practice at 9:00. I hopped out of bed right away which was unusual for me, I usually waited until the last second to get up but today I was in a good mood and not even getting up early could ruin it.

I quietly left my room and walked down the hall to the kitchen so I wouldn't wake Cassie up. When I got there I decided to make myself a bagel. It couldn't be that hard right? I thought wrong.

Toasters don't work like they're advertised! It's supposed to pop when the bagel is done not when it's as black as the jersey I wear. I had to learn the hard way after I'd already burnt the crap out of 2 bagels that you can change the temperature you toast them
at, thankfully I got the third one right.

I buttered it up and went out to the living room so I could relax on the couch while I ate.

After I was done, I called Paul to see if he would come pick me up. He didn't seem too surprised that I wasn't home. He asked me the address and told me he'd come get me then we'd pick up my gear before heading to CONSOL. Just when I thought I'd avoided any stupid questions he could ask, he spoke.

"So how was she?" He asked. Greaaaat, he thought Cassie was a one night stand. This was going to call for some explaining.

"It's not like that." I groaned and ran a hand over my face and through my hair.

"Sure it's not Nealer, you little slut." He said. I knew it would take a little more explaining to get him to understand so I said that I'd tell him about it when he picked me up. He agreed and we said our goodbyes then hung up.

After the call I continued getting ready, taking the most time to do my hair. Some of the guys made fun of me for how religious I was with my hair but I liked for it to look a certain way so I did what I had to.

Once my hair was done just the way I wanted it, I figured I still had a few minutes before Pauly showed up so I sat down on the couch to wait.

I remembered that I forgot to tell Cassie I had practice that morning so I grabbed a piece of paper from the printer and quickly scribbled down a note so she'd know where I was.

Cass,
Sorry I forgot to tell you I had morning practice today. I'm
getting Pauly to pick me up so I can bring your car back, I
hope you don't need your keys. Since I have no idea what
your car looks like, I'm hoping that it makes a lot of noise
when I hit the alarm button on the keys.

P.S. Don't try to cook anything by yourself, I don't want to come
back to see your apartment burning down. I'll help you make
something as soon as practice is over.

-James

Just as I placed the note on the fridge, my phone started ringing and I figured it was Pauly letting me know he was here so I slipped into my shoes and headed out of the apartment. Once I got to the lobby I could see his car just outside the door so I walked straight to it.

"So what's the deal?" He asked the second I opened the door.

"Curious or what?" I replied.

"Yes now come on." He said as he peeled out from his space in front of the apartment building.

"You know that girl that tripped over my hockey bag after the game Saturday night?" I asked.

"Well that's a different way to pick up chicks but hey if it works!" He joked.

"No that's not all just let me finish." I paused and looked over at him, he nodded as if to say 'go ahead'.

"I took her to the hospital and I stayed with her. We found out that she has a bruised elbow and she isn't allowed to use that hand until her elbow heals. She doesn't really have anyone else so I'm staying with her for the next week until she gets used to doing things with one hand."

"She doesn't have anyone else? What is she a recluse?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No you asshole, she just found her boyfriend cheating on her with her best friend." I said, a little annoyed that he would say something like that about her.

"Shit. Now I feel like a complete douche." He said.

"You should. She's actually a really good person." I said.

"Sounds like somebody's got a crush!" He said, as if we were girls in high school and that was the gossip.

"No I don't, we just get along really well. I've only known her for a day, you and I both know a guy doesn't get feelings for someone that quick." But I was thinking otherwise. It's true, I'd only known her for about a day but she'd already made her way into my mind.

"Yeah you're right man and usually it comes after sex." I nodded my head like I agreed and maybe I would have only two days ago but not anymore. I was already done for.

The rest of the drive to my apartment was silent and once we got there I was up and down in 2 minutes. Thankfully, we made it to CONSOL with 10 minutes to spare.

It was always nice getting there a bit early so I didn't have to rush to get into my gear and I had a bit of time to talk to the boys
before we got on the ice.

"Hey Nealer! Where'd you go after the game Saturday, I thought you were coming to the club with us?" I heard Sid say when he walked in. I couldn't lie to my captain so I told him the whole story. In all honesty I wasn't sure that I wanted to lie about it anyways, I mean why would I? Sure I'd get shit from some of the guys but that would die down when another guy did something we could all chirp him for.

By the end of practice everyone on the team knew about it. The chirps were weren't long coming but it was all in good fun. Most of the guys said they wanted to meet her and see what she's like, especially Beau but I think that's because he wanted someone around who was clumsier than him.

It was nice to hear them say they wanted to meet her because she was becoming one of my better friends in Pittsburgh and if the guys didn't get along with her or even try to, that would've been a problem.

Before everyone left, Dan came in the locker room to talk to us as per usual. He told us practice was good and that we could have an off day tomorrow then we'd have a morning skate Wednesday, the day of our next game. He also wanted to remind us that the party for the everyone in the organization was on Saturday. Once he was through talking he let us get ready to leave.

Fuck I totally forgot all about that. I was planning on going with Shianne but that was before we broke up so I had to find someone else.

I thought about it on the walk down to the fans parking lot to get Cassie's car. Why would I go looking for someone when the perfect girl for me to bring was in her apartment waiting for me to come home?

On the way to her car I ran into Flower who told me a couple of the guys were going out for brunch the next day at one of the local diners. Him and Sid thought it would be a good idea to invite Cassie so everyone could meet her and get to know my new friend. I told him that I thought it was a good idea too. I was happy they thought of it because that way she would get to meet all the guys before Saturday if she said yes to coming with me.

When I reached the parking lot I didn't actually have much trouble finding Cassie's car. There were only 3 cars parked there so when I hit the alarm button I found it right away. It was a yellow Volkswagen 181. If the guys see me they are going to give me so much shit, was all I could think.

I successfully got out away from CONSOL without any of the guys noticing me but driving around town with the top down was definitely not a great idea.

I would look around and counted how many people were giving me weird looks every time I stopped at a red light. They looked so confused as to why I was driving that car, like it couldn't possibly
be me behind the wheel. Thankfully I made it back before too long because it eventually started getting annoying.

When I walked in the door of Cassie's apartment I could hear the tv on so before I did anything else I went to the living room to see her. She was sat down cross-legged on the couch with an empty plate on the coffee table in front of her.

"I told you to wait and I'd make something for you Cass." I said giving her a look that a parent would give their kid when they disobeyed.

"I got hungry and I was tired of waiting so I just had some toast, that wouldn't burn the place down. Besides, I need to figure everything out with my left hand and sooner is better than later, that's what you said last night." I did say that so I couldn't argue with her there, I thought as I went over to sit down on the couch next to her.

"James you're getting the couch all sweaty!" She said pushing me off with her feet.

"I just wanna sit down for a minute! Pleeeeaaaaaase." I whined and tried to sit back down again.

"Go get a shower stinky butt!" She kicked me in the ass before I could sit down then she started laughing as she stretched out on the couch.

"Ugh fine." I dragged my feet all the way to the bathroom.

Before I went in I called out. "In case you were wondering I got atleast 100 weird looks on the way home."

She laughed at that. "Really? I was betting on 50." I opened the door to the bathroom, picked out a towel for myself and hopped in the shower.

I do most of my thinking in the shower so once I was in there I just let my mind wander. It didn't wander very far, all I could think about was the cute little brunette out on the couch. She took me by surprise and I liked that, the way we met was kind of crazy but I was glad it happened.

When I was done getting cleaned up, I opened the door to the bathroom and I nearly hit Cassie because she was walking by at the same time.

The fright made her scream, which scared the crap out of me and made me scream too. When I get scared I tend to throw my arms in the air, that time was no exception. Unfortunately, when I threw my arms up, my towel went down.

It couldn't get much more awkward than that moment there. I was used to being around the guys naked and stuff in the locker room but I was pretty insecure around Cass. The two or three seconds that everything was out felt like forever. I was standing there in the doorway with no coverage, water still dripping from my hair down my body. She stared at me wide-eyed, then started to freak out.

"OH MY GOD PUT YOUR TOWEL BACK ON." She yelled then turned away from me and covered her face with her hands.

"You scared the shit out of me!" I said, picking up my towel and wrapping it back around my waist.

"I will never be able to unsee that!" She said horrified, then shook her head and walked into the living room.

"Geez thanks Cass, I didn't think I was that bad looking. You're a real confidence booster." I said walking to my room to get dressed.

When I went into the living room since I was finally able to pass the test to sit on the couch, Cassie was sprawled out taking up the whole thing. Once she noticed me in the room she sat up with her back leaned against the armrest and her legs stretched out. There was just enough room for me to sit down.

"Sorry" She said avoiding eye contact.

"For what? Taking over the couch or bruising my ego?" I said jokingly. I lifted up her legs so I had more room then laid them over mine so we could both be comfortable.

She laughed and said, "I'll take over this couch whenever I want to, but I am sorry about bruising your ego, I know how precious that is to a man. I just wasn't expecting that." She said.

"You weren't expecting a Greek god's body to go with this handsome face?" I said trying to make her laugh but instead she smacked me on the arm.

"No. I wasn't expecting to see your.. you know... so I freaked." She said.

"Yeah I wasn't really expecting you to see my dick either." I had to laugh. It was a pretty funny situation and she was being so awkward about it, that made it funnier.

In seconds she was laughing with me and eventually when our laughter died down we decided that I could try making lunch for us.

Luckily she had a frozen pizza in her fridge that I could just pop in the oven without much work. I was going to have to learn how to cook eventually though.

While we waited for the pizza to cook I set the table and poured us both some water which, weirdly enough, is both of our favourite drink.

After I finished setting up our eating space, we sat down at the kitchen table and waited for the last couple of minutes on the pizza. That's when I thought about the Pens party. I wanted to invite her but I didn't want her to think it was a date just in case that would scare her off, especially since she only broke up with Michael yesterday.

"Hey Cass?"

"Mhmm?"

"There's a party for everyone in the Penguins organization on Saturday, what do you think about coming with me...you know as a friend?" I said slightly nervous, I hoped my voice didn't give it away.

She didn't answer right away and that made me even more nervous. Did she not want to go with me? Did I say something wrong? Was she afraid the guys wouldn't like her? I knew they would though. Those were the kinds of thoughts that plagued my mind before she answered.

"Okay but what will the team think?" She bit her lip.

"Well... they already know what's going on because I was supposed to go out after the game with them. Sid asked right away when I got to practice where I went so I explained everything to him and he told everyone else. They told me to invite you to come out to brunch with us tomorrow."

"As embarrassing as that whole story is, I'm glad they know, if they didn't it would just make everything more complicated." She said looking relieved.

"And brunch tomorrow?" I said, hopeful.

"Sounds good." She said.

I got up and walked over to the oven to get our pizza. It was the perfect golden brown and it smelled amazing. I dished up pizza on two plates for us and brought them over to the table.

We were sat down at her kitchen table with our plates in hand and 2 slices of pizza for each of us. The pizza was so good I savoured every bite.

Well, I thought, that's one more meal I can cook myself so I don't have to eat out every night. My goal was to know how to cook 5 things by the end of the week, that was an interesting challenge.

We ate in silence, when we were finished we picked up our plates, brought them to the sink and left them there to do after supper so we wouldn't have to do them twice. After that we walked out to the kitchen to relax on the couch.

She was sat up with her legs across me like earlier. I could have stayed there all day I was that comfortable. I had almost fallen asleep before she spoke.

"What's the dress code for the party?" She asked.

"It's pretty formal, all the guys wear a tux and all the girls wear dresses. I don't really see the point of dressing up for the team but it's just what everyone does." It was kind of stupid, why did we all have to dress to impress when they were basically my second family?

"You don't find dressing up fun?" She said. I could tell she was excited just thinking about it.

"No. Tuxedos are black. They get hot." I said plainly.

"Awe poor baby!" She said in a babying voice and pinched my cheek like a grandmother would do.

"OW!" She snickered.

"Anyways, if this thing is fancy I need to get a new dress." She said.

"You don't have one that you can wear?" I asked suspicious because girls always say they don't have anything to wear when they could have 70 different things in their closet that are all completely fine.

"Never have I ever had to dress up for anything besides prom." She stated simply.

"God damnit you're getting good at this." I said as I lifted her legs off of me and walked to my room to find my car keys. While I was in there, I made a quick phone call to the dress store in the
mall. I told the girl at the counter my credit card number so Cassie wouldn't have to pay for anything since I was asking her to go.

"Where are you going?" I heard her call out from the living room.

"WE are going to get you a dress, now come on!" I called back.

I didn't have to wait too long for her to meet me in the doorway, she wasn't one of those girls who always had to put on makeup or do her hair perfectly when she was going out and I liked that. Sure a girl is entitled to do whatever she wants to her face but I just didn't like it when girls put on way too much makeup, they looked fake. I want a girl, not a Barbie doll replica.

Once we got to the mall I asked her if she wanted my help or anything but she declined, saying that she felt like surprising me with it and I was fine with that. Who doesn't like a good surprise?

So while I was waiting for her I decided to look at tuxes because I didn't want to have to try and find one last minute. It didn't take me long to find one that fit nicely. Instead of renting it I decided it would just be easier if I bought it, that way I'd have one for any occasion that I'd need and it's not like I couldn't afford it anyways.

When I was done I strolled through the mall and went back down to the store she went into. I found a bench nearby for to sit on, while I was waiting a girl came over and started talking to me.

We were talking for a good twenty minutes and when she started flirting with me I went along with it. She was pretty hot so I wasn't going to argue it.

Just as she was putting her number in my phone I saw Cassie coming out of the store all happy go lucky but as soon as she saw us she looked pissed beyond belief.