Love, Lies, and the NHL.

Mandy pulled her earbuds out of her pocket and sat down on the bench outside Capitol Cookies. She was waiting for a friend so they could go and get coffee. She slipped the buds in her ears and turned on some music. She was looking down at her Twitter feed when she felt someone tap on her arm. "Excuse me, do you happen to have the time? My phone died..." the guy said. He was tall and very muscular. He looked familiar at first, but Mandy couldn't place him

"Yeah. It's 3:15." Mandy smiled, pulling her headphones out

"Fuck...oh well." the guy sighed sitting down

"Is there a problem?" Mandy asked

"Oh, I was supposed to meet someone at 3...I guess I was late and they left." he smiled turning towards her "Hi, I'm Tom." he said extending his arm to her

Mandy smiled "Mandy." she said shaking his hand

"If you don't mind me asking, why are you sitting in downtown DC? By yourself? In the rain?"

Mandy laughed "Waiting for a friend, who like yourself, is late."

Tom laughed "Touche. I can sit with you until your friend is here, if that's ok?"

Mandy nodded, "Okay. Tom? Right?"

"Yeah." he smiled

"So what brings you to DC?" she asked

Tom laughed "Is it that obvious I'm not a local?"

"You have an accent. Northern. Canada?" she said

"Wow. You're good. Toronto." Tom laughed

Mandy smiled "I'm a language major."

"Oh, cool." Tom smiled

"So what brings you to DC?"

Tom laughed "Well, I've been here for a few years. I uh....I play hockey."

Mandy gave him a look and her eyes widened "Holy shit, you're Tom Wilson."

"Yeah." Tom smiled

"You look so different without your hockey gear on."

Tom laughed, "Yeah. I get that a lot. Are you a Caps fan?"

Mandy laughed "Sort of. I know the game. Have seen the Caps play a few times."

"Awesome. Maybe you can come see me play." Tom laughed

Mandy smiled "Maybe."

"So what happened with your friend?"

"You know what? I don't know. We were going to go get coffee. You want to come with me instead?"

"Sure." Tom smiled following Mandy down the street to the coffee shop. They each ordered a drink and sat down at the table

"So what's it like being a professional hockey player?"

"Oh, there's never a dull moment." Tom laughed "Especially with Ovechkin."

Mandy smiled "Traveling must be nice, too."

Tom nodded, "Yeah. It's a lot of fun. So you go to school here?"

Mandy nodded "UDC. I'm working towards a Speech-Language Pathology degree."

"Oh? I'm sorry, but what is that, like what are you going to be doing?"

Mandy smiled "I'm going to be a speech therapist. For people with speech disorders or helping people who have had strokes or brain injuries work on their speech."

"Oh wow. That's awesome."

Mandy nodded, "My dad had suffered a stroke and he lost most of his speaking abilities. He passed away a few years ago, but when it happened to him, I wanted a way to help people like that."

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay. He would've been proud, you know? So I can do this for him." Mandy smiled

Tom smiled "Right."

"So what got you into hockey?"

"Oh being from Canada, it's kind of a birthright. Everyone in Canada pretty much plays." Tom laughed "Some of us stick with it, some of us don't."

Mandy nodded, "I see."

"Mandy! What the heck? I thought something happened to you!" a small brunette said coming up to the table

"Sorry, Annika. I waited. You were supposed to be at the bench at 3:30...I waited until 4."

"No. You said 4:30." Annika argued

"I said 3:30." Mandy sighed

"Oh, hello." Annika said to Tom

"Hi." Tom smiled as Annika sat down

"I'm Annika."

"Tom." he replied with a smile "Well, Mandy, it was nice meeting you and having coffee with you, but I gotta go."

"Yeah. Thanks for coming me company." Mandy smiled

"Could I by chance get your number? Maybe we can go out for coffee again sometime."

"Okay. I'd like that." Mandy smiled jotting her number down on a napkin and handing it to him "See you again, Tom."

Tom smiled, "You too." he said taking off

"Who was that?" Annika asked

"Wait till you hear this..." Mandy started filling her friend in
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"She's super cute, Latts." Tom said drinking from the milk carton

"I bet she is and you didn't get her pic? Or at least her friend's number for me?" Michael Latta laughed

"I already told you, my phone died!"

"Right. Just like you were meeting up with a friend and was 'late'."

"Hey. I couldn't think of another ice breaker...and my phone did die...while we got coffee."

Michael laughed "Willie, you are smooth. Like peanut butter."

"Shut up, Latts. So, should I text her?"

"Dude, that's too early. Gotta at least wait until tomorrow."

"That's so old fashioned..."

"You don't want to seem desperate."

"Well, maybe I am desperate. I'm going to text her."

"Fine fine. Your life, bro."

Tom headed back into his room and hopped in bed, putting the number into his phone and sending a quick message.

Tom- Hey, Mandy. It's Tom. Just wanted to message you so you have my number and now you have it:)
Mandy- Hey! Thanks for messaging me:)
Tom- One more thing, are you free tomorrow?
Mandy- Yeah. I'm free.
Tom- Sweet. Can I take you out for dinner? Say 7?
Mandy- Sure:) Do you want to meet at the bench? haha
Tom- I can pick you up from your place?
Mandy- Alright. I'll message you my address.

"Sweet." Tom said knocking on the wall that separated his and Michael's rooms "Hey, Latts. I have a date tomorrow!"
______________________________________
Mandy slipped on her bracelet and looked herself over in the mirror. She'd bought this purple cocktail dress and had never had a chance to wear it until now. She threw her coat on and smiled as the notification sound went off on her phone.

Tom-I'll be there in five!

She slipped her shoes on and applied one last coat of lip-gloss when there was a knock at the door. She grabbed her purse and headed to the door "Did you have trouble finding it?" Mandy asked

Tom shook his head "No. I have a GPS." he laughed. Mandy smiled at him. He was wearing jeans and a black button up shirt that fit him very well. His hair was slicked back, "You look really nice." he said

Mandy felt her cheeks redden "Thanks, Tom. You do too."

Tom smiled holding his arm out to her, "Ready to go?"

Mandy nodded and took his arm "Yeah, let's go." she replied.

Tom had made reservations at The Capital Grille. They got set at their table and ordered their drinks, "Have you ever been here before?" Tom asked

Mandy shook her head "No. It's a really nice place though. I've heard a lot about it."

Tom smiled "I've been here a few times with the guys. Don't worry about price. Get whatever you'd like."

"Are you sure?" Mandy asked

Tom nodded "Of course."

They each ordered their meals and Mandy took a sip of her drink "Thanks for taking me out, Tom."

"No problem. I kinda wanted to get to know you a little better...can I be honest with you?"

"Yeah." Mandy nodded

"The other day, I wasn't meeting up with a friend. I used that as an excuse to talk to you."

Mandy smiled "I know. I'd been sitting there for a while and no one came by looking for you."

Tom smiled "I'm an idiot."

"No, I thought it was sweet." she giggled. Soon enough the waitress brought out their food. "Everything looks so good."

"It is." Tom smiled

After dinner, they headed back to Mandy's place. "Thanks for dinner, Tom."

"No problem." Tom smiled as they walked up to the door. "Well, thanks for coming out with me."

"Everything was great." Mandy smiled standing up on her tip toes and kissing him. "Well good night."

"Yeah, good night." He said heading down the steps

"Hey, Tom?"

"Yeah?" He asked spinning around

"Can we go out again sometime?" Mandy asked

Tom smiled "yeah."

Notes

okay so...I'm kind of thinking about turning this into a longer story...let me know what you think<3