Chapter 26
It was only an hour and a half flight to Halifax, Nova Scotia, but took almost an hour to drive to Brad's house from the airport. They sat in the back of a taxi, following long grey streets through never ending stretches of woods. Tall wispy pines, round beech trees, ash and Canada's signature maple. Occasionally they passed small openings where large rocks and gravel roads disappeared behind more trees. Fewer still were shopping centers and apartment buildings. The larger cities and towns lay on the outer edges of the peninsula and along the bays. They were driving inland, where homes sat in woods, along lakes and away from main highways.

Brad's home was north of Halifax, in a fairly well developed area situated between two lakes, the same house he had grown up in. His parents had moved to another neighborhood when his siblings left home, and Brad had purchased the house from them. From the drive way it looked like a normal grey brick Victorian revival style house, similar to houses all over America. But once inside, the house just kept going, and going. It was twice as big as largest homes in Elia's home town, and made her feel a slightly out of place. Large rooms were filled with rich, dark furniture of leather and walnut, and lined with ostentatious columns. It was almost the opposite of Brad's modest rental in Boston, and she would have never guessed he had grown up there.

A back deck led down to a stone set patio and in-ground pool, a long reaching grass lawn ran down to another deck and a path that led up to the water's edge. They spent the latter half of the evening sitting out by the water sharing a bottle of wine. Brad sat in a patio chair with Elia laying with her back against his chest and his arms around her. The lake was still and quiet, save for the waking mosquitoes and occasional echoed voice from across the water. Every so often a bird would fly down along the shore brush and Elia would nudge Brad to name it. Mostly catbirds and whip-poor-wills, and once a kingbird, all coming flying down to catch the insects flying around.

“This is a pretty nice place you have here Bradley,” Elia said after a glass of wine, “I think I'll take it.”
“Oh will you?” Brad replied.
“Yes, for America, this whole province, or as you can call it now, a state.”
“Nope, we made up our minds hundreds of years ago, Canada. What are you doing?” He said as he watched Elia pull out her phone.
“I'm calling the President to let him know I've invaded and might need back up.”
He took the phone out of her hand. It said it was calling The Prez.
“Wait is this seriously Barack Obama's cell phone number?” He asked. Someone on the other end picked up and Brad hung up the call. Elia looked up at him over her shoulder and said he was in a lot of trouble for hanging up on the President. She might not even be allowed back in the country now.
“That's okay, I'm claiming you for Canada.” He said, holding her tighter.

The sun sank down over the trees and moon lit up the lake. The sounds of birds died down and a chorus of crickets and bullfrogs took their place. Here and there they heard the splash of water or a snapping branch. Brad gently pushed her hair aside and started to kiss her neck, moving his hands under her shirt and unbuttoning her pants. His touch felt like electricity, moving all over her body. When she couldn't take it anymore she stood up, slowly slipping out of her pants. Kneeling in front of him, she unbuttoned Brad's jeans, pulling them down just enough before getting on top of him. They made love out on the deck, slowly and quietly with the stars all around them. He pulled her tight against his body as he finished, resting his head against her chest. They stayed that way for a few minutes, before heading back to the dark hollow house. Their footsteps echoed through the halls as they walked to the bedroom. Wrapped up together they fell asleep under a warm clean breeze coming in from the windows.

In the morning the couple drove into Halifax to have breakfast with Brad's family. The city looked like any coastal town, a mixture of older houses and mid rise buildings, parks and and piers. They arrived at a newer construction row house along the bay. His parents, two sisters and brother were all there. Everyone was gathered in the kitchen, Brad's Dad and brother were extending the table and his mom was setting out beverages and fruit and quiche. Elia helped herself to some coffee and sat down between Brad's sister Melissa and his Mom.
Melissa noticed that Elia had come back from Utah more tan than she had left, and then remembered that she had seen a dress in a magazine she thought Elia should get for the NHL Awards. She ran out of the room to get a Vogue from her car. It was a sleeveless white Dolce & Gabbana mini dress with silver beading detail and an an irregular hemline. The dress was beautiful, but Diane Kruger had already worn it to a movie premiere a couple months before. Disappointed, she started to flip through the magazine for other ideas. Brad's mother stood up to pull something out of the oven and Brad took her chair, sitting down to read the sports section of the newspaper.

“Oh Elly! Brad said you went to London for an audition? How did it go?” Melissa asked excitedly. Brad hadn't asked about it, but his sister hadn't forgotten.
“I think it went really well, it was for the HBO show Game of Thrones. I met with Kit Harrington who is mega sweet and Richard Madden who is sharp as a tack, I would love to work with either of them. Have you seen the show?”
“Yeah, it's really...violent.” She replied hesitantly.
“It's really bad-ass, and full of nudity,” Brad's brother Jeff interjected from the kitchen. Brad was suddenly more interested in the topic, looking up from the paper with a quizzical look on his face. He had never seen the show before.
“Yeah, they asked if I would be willing to do full nudity if I got either of the roles.” Elia said trying to sound professional. Sometimes it could be strange to talk to non-actors about things like nudity in acting roles, but it was one hundred times more awkward with your boyfriend's family.
“You said no, right?” Brad asked harshly. Elia was taken aback by his tone.
“I said I would consider it. That is something that can be worked out in contract negotiation, I would want to know the context in the script before deciding. Could potentially have a body double.” She shrugged. Before Brad could respond his sister asked another seemingly innocent question.
“They film that in England or something, right?”
“Depending on which role I am offered, I would be filming in Iceland or Ireland,” Elia answered.
“Iceland or Ireland? When?” Brad asked, even more discontented.
“I think the end of August.” Elia said slowly, feeling ever more uncomfortable by Brad's escalating irritation. His face was stuck in disbelief.
“I thought you were going to spend the season in Boston with me. You said you wanted to take a break from working.” He said, taking Elia's hand, now sounding concerned.
Elia took a deep breath. She had said she wanted to take a break from working, but she hadn't worked since mid February, and season two of the show started shooting in August. That was a pretty long break. Elia had been obsessed with trying to get on the show since she started watching it, and had started reading the books on the plane to London. It wasn't just a movie, it was a series, once it was passed up it could be hard for another role to open up.
“I haven't been offered anything yet,” she started saying, “Let's not worry about something that might not happen anyways.” Brad stared at her for a moment, thinking, then agreed and turned back around to say something to his brother. If Brad's family had noticed the tension they chose to ignore it. Melissa found another dress to show Elia and breakfast continued on.

Later on, after everyone had eaten, Elia and Brad took a walk down to the shore line. They were on a small peninsula in the bay, and the end had been preserved as a forest park. The water was so clear they could see beneath the surface several yards out, a kaleidoscope of rocks. Across the water was more land, houses in between trees, a pier and sail boats. They sat down on a large stone plateau. Brad was saying they could take a boat out on the ocean tomorrow if she wanted. Elia nodded quietly. She looked over at Brad and his carefree smile.
“Hey, babe?” She said abruptly.
“What's going on?” Brad replied.
“I didn't like how you kind of ambushed me in front of your family earlier.” Elia held her breathe wondering what he would say back. He rubbed his chin with his hand, looking at the water. Then he turned to Elia.
“I apologize for that. You know I'm an emotional guy and I just react to things sometimes. But, I will try to be better about that in the future.” He put his hand around her shoulders, rubbing her arm with his hand. “You know, I felt a little blindsided by the whole thing too. I thought we were on the same page about the future. I don't want to go backwards. You know, these last two years...” He trailed off, hesitating. “When I figured out who you were, I was thinking no way could I ever be with you. I know I'm not the best looking guy, or the tallest,”
“Brad--”
“El,” he stopped her interruption. “I was just some guy trying to make it to the NHL. And you were working all the time, and I was just waiting. Waiting until I could finally prove I'm good enough to stand beside you. And that's now, and I don't want to go back to being away from you and not getting to see you for months at a time. I want to be with you. I love you.”
Elia opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. She looked into Brad's eyes, putting her hand on his cheek. There was something holding her back, paralyzing her. It seemed like an eternity of empty air between them, but it was just a few seconds. Instead of finding the words she leaned in to kiss him. Her words came back to her, “Don't ever think for a second that you have to be something to be with me. I've always been yours.” She kissed him again, deeply, hoping that was good enough for him.

That first week in Nova Scotia was busy and full of social commitments. All of Brad's family and friends from growing up wanted to see them. Each night they were either having dinner out, or a cookout at someone's home. Many days were spent sailing out on the ocean or boating on the lake and swimming. At the end of the week they hosted a party at the house.

It started to slow down after the initial rush, and days started to pass by like they would for any normal couple. Going to the grocery store and cooking dinner together. Forgetting the food on the stove while they got it on against the kitchen counter. Hanging out with friends or going out to bars. Spending whole days in bed watching movies and making love. Elia and Brad went shopping for some kayaks, and spent many days out on the lake or trucking to rivers around Nova Scotia.

One of Brad's goals was to have Elia hunting ready by fall. The first day of his plan had been slightly alarming. Elia had finished getting dressed and walked outside to find Brad with his friend Josh setting up a table full of rifles, ammunition, arrows and bows. They could hunt moose, deer, pheasant, geese, ducks, bear, the list went on and on. In the appropriate season of course, the boys were quick to point out. Elia was fairly certain she would kill none of these animals. They set up targets at the end of the yard, and a contraption made to throw clay discs into the air. Having spent a month training in archery for her first movie The Legend of Zelda, Elia had no problem with the bow and arrows. She could hit a moving target from horseback if necessary. When she found out Brad intended to hunt a moose with a bow she steadfastly refused on the grounds of moose were terrifying. Shooting the guns was more difficult. Elia was a terrible shot, and ended the first day with a sore, bruised shoulder. “Well, we've got time.” Brad kept repeating over and over, perhaps trying to convince himself.

In the many years that Elia had been befriending athletes she had found that they all enjoyed sleeping. A lot. Pregame naps, post practice naps, post game pre-drinking naps. Brad was no exception to this rule, Elia discovered. At first it was relaxing to lay in bed late into the morning, but eventually she started getting restless.

“So, when do you think you're going to start working out for the season again?” Elia asked one morning. Brad didn't open his eyes, instead pulling Elia onto his lap, “Ok, I'll start now.” Elia thought for a moment, then said instead “Bradley, I'm not talking about that, you're going to have a Stanley Cup hangover.” He mumbled something about he had plenty of time, it wasn't a big deal. She started to get out of bed and Brad grabbed her arm and pulled her back in, rolling on top of her.

Later on that morning Elia started a tradition of getting up and out of bed for a run every morning. Since she couldn't be in Chicago, she decided she and Jonathan could be phone running buddies. Hooking up her phone to her headphones with the mic she could run and talk to him at the same time. Somehow being thousands of miles away made them more competitive with each other, trying to run further distances in the same amount of time and comparing their map-my-run maps online.

It was as perfect a summer as if Elia had written it herself. The pair were in a bubble together, eclipsed from the outside world. They decided to not even leave for the NHL Awards or the ESPY's later in July. It wasn't until the beginning of August that reality reared it's head again. Brad was heading to Boston for the Bruins' Convention, and Elia was supposed to go to Comic Con. Of course, a stop over in Chicago for the Blackhawks' Convention on the way back wouldn't be too far out of the way.

Notes