The Moonstone Starlet

CHAPTER 42

Elia's stomach was dancing and her heart was racing. How could she have been so blind? Did Jonny feel it too? He had to, right? Her body felt petrified. She was afraid to move an inch, afraid that if she moved they would shatter into a million pieces. If she didn't move they could stay like that forever, held together on the couch, his arms around her. But if they stayed like that she would never know what it was like to kiss him. Did she want to kiss Jonathan? She did. Her stomach lurched. She tried to focus back on the movie.
“I promise I'll be back, Haku. You can't die.”
“What's going on here?”
“Don't you see? It's called...Love.”
Jon moved his arm, pulling her in a little tighter. He had to be feeling the same way she did. Then again she used to cuddle with Kaner this way. Maybe he just wants a cuddle buddy. Everyone knew Elia was a cuddle slut. But Jon wasn't. But maybe he wanted to try it out, see what it was like. She kept going back and forth in her mind, trying to analyze everything Jon had done or said to her, trying to guess what he was thinking. It had been a long time since a man had made her this nervous, and she was terrified by it.
Spirited Away was a long movie, and they still had almost an hour to go but Elia wished it could go on forever. Suddenly Jon's phone started beeping. Elia felt his pelvis push into her as he reached into his pocket to grab his phone and almost screamed.
“Shit, I didn't realize how late it was,” Jon said, pushing on Elia gently so he could get up. She stood up from the couch and looked at him, her eyes wide and her mouth slightly open.
“I should probably go or I might fall asleep here,” he said, standing up.
“You could stay. I mean, I might fall asleep too, but we could just...We could sleep on the couch, that would be fine,” Elia said, staring at him nervously. Jon looked back at her quizzically, unsure of what that meant, but he seemed pleased with the suggestion.
“Yeah, yeah...Okay...” he sat back down, and motioned for Elia to sit back with him. Before she could he jumped up again.
“Shit, I can't. I forgot, that alarm on my phone was to remind me, I have a meeting with Q early in the morning. It's one of those stupid day games tomorrow. I have to go home because I have flash drive there I need. Damn it.”
He seemed disappointed. At least, Elia hoped there was a little bit of disappointment there, but maybe he just wanted to go home and she was imagining it. Stop being so crazy, Elia thought to herself. She had to drive Toews home since she had picked him up that morning. He could have taken a cab, but Elia wanted to see him for just a few more minutes. Act normal, she told herself as they started driving back to his place. She didn't know what normal was though, so she started talking to him about the game against the Redwings the next day.
“Are you nervous or something?” Jon asked as they hopped on Upper Wacker.
“What, no!” Elia said, trying not to sound like she'd just been caught doing something.
“You're talking without taking breaths in between.”
He did that thing again where he put his hand over the back of the seat and rested it on her neck. It sent a shiver down her spine. When he started rubbing his thumb along the top of her neck she thought she might die. They pulled up outside his condo building. He turned and looked at her, staring for a moment.
“You're coming to the game tomorrow, right?”
“Yeah, my flight doesn't leave until 7:40.”
“We should get something to eat before you leave.” he started to turn to get out of the car.
“Jonny?”
“Yeah?”
“Thanks for coming with this morning. It really means a lot to me.”
He smiled, “I'll see you tomorrow.”

Elia watched him walk into his building, and stared vacantly at the door for a while after he had gone. Her mind was reeling. There was only one thing to do now. She pulled a u-turn and headed back down Wacker. She made a right and crossed over the river. In no time she was up thirty floors, knocking on Kane's door. There was no answer. She knocked again, louder. When he didn't answer she pulled out her keys and started to let herself in.
“Patrick! I'm having an emergency!” she yelled as she walked through the apartment towards his room. “Pat? Are you here? If you are in your room doing it with Amanda, I'm coming in just so you know. I'm literally having a huge problem!” She yelled as she barged in through Pat's bedroom door.
“Elia, what the fuck?!” Pat said, reaching to grab some shorts off the floor. Amanda was holding a blanket over herself.
“I'm having a problem!”
“I'm a little busy, with my girlfriend. You can't just come in here like that!”
“You can two do that anytime, I am having a crisis now!”
“El--” Pat started to yell but she interrupted him.
“--I'm in love with Jonathan Toews!” Elia blurted out. Her face was twisted as if she was in pain. “I'm in love with Jon. I think I always have been. Oh my god, I think I'm going to throw up!” She ran out of the room and into the bathroom. Amanda got out of bed, put on some clothes and went after her. Pat sat in bed, wondering why his friends were so stupid. Amanda came back after a few minutes, confirming that Elia had indeed thrown up.
“I can't wait to tell people about this. Girl falls in love with Jonathan Toews--immediately vomits,” Pat told Amanda, laughing. She smiled back at him, “You should be nicer about it. If I remember correctly, you weren't always the smoothest guy when we started dating.”
“Ehhhh, I don't remember that.” Pat said.
Elia came back into the room and crawled into the bed with them, laying down in the middle of the bed. She looked unusually pale. If she hadn't come into the room proclaiming love for Jon they might have thought she was ill. In the years he had known her, Patrick had never seen her like this.
“What am I going to do?” she lamented. “Do you think he might like me? Like like like me?”
“Yeah, I totally do.” Pat replied quickly. He was hoping this would end quickly so he could go back to what he was doing before this interruption. But it wasn't. Elia buried her face in a pillow and started making a sound like a wounded animal.
“Are you drunk? I thought you drove over here,” Patrick asked her. She propped herself up on her elbows. “I'm not drunk. What's happened to me is much worse than that.”
“Look, I don't know why you're freaking out. Jon is really in to you. I know that for a fact, because he has literally told me.” Pat said. Elia was listening, looking at him skeptically. “I also know that as long as I've known Jon, which is a long time, I have never seen him make a move on a woman. My suggestion to you is to just do what you normally do.”
Elia was certainly no stranger to making first moves on men. Normally when she saw something she wanted she would just go get it. This was different though. This wasn't just some guy, this was her best friend. She hadn't fully grasped just how important Jon was to her until she contemplated the possibility of losing him. He knew her better than anyone. He was her confidant, the one she wanted to tell everything to, the only one who could calm her down and remind her of her strength. What if she made a move and he wasn't into it? There was no faster way to ruin a friendship.
“The cat can be dead or alive Kaner, but once you open the box it's one or the other,” she said.
“Don't Schrödinger's cat this Elia,” Pat said impatiently.
“If you don't open the box to feed the cat it will die anyway,” Amanda added.
“Thanks for that reassuring statement Amanda.” Elia said.
She had a point though. Elia could do nothing and still have a great friendship with Jon waiting for something to happen, but it might only be a matter of time before another Paris Club shot girl made a move on him. She couldn't bear the thought of him with another person. Pat said he knew Jon was into her, but then why hadn't Jon ever done anything about it? All the thoughts and feelings were so new and overwhelming, she was starting to feel like she might throw up again.
“I should get a good night's rest and rethink this in the morning,” Elia said, laying her head back down on a pillow. Pat stared at her for a minute.
“That is a good idea, but you need to go home and sleep there. Not here.”

Reluctantly Elia made her way back home. She had good intentions to go to sleep, but was finding it difficult. Instead she made a late night run to Santullo's for some greasy pizza. She sat on her bed eating, with One Tree Hill on in the background, trying to think things through. There were dozens of pictures of her and Jon on her computer, from Facebook and Blackhawks' events and Instagram, or just taken hanging out. A lot of pictures were just her and Jon sitting in hotel rooms, probably taken by Kaner. “Oh my god,” she muttered out loud, looking at a picture from their first fishing trip together. Why hadn't she seen then what she saw now? Her folded up thin crust pizza slice had turned into a funnel, and had been dripping oil onto her laptop and comforter. “Oh shit,” she jumped out of bed, laying the pizza back onto the paper bag it had come in. This wouldn't have happened if she had been eating Chicago style pizza, which was eaten with a knife and fork like civilized people eat food.
After throwing her comforter into the washing machine and wiping off her laptop she walked over to her desktop computer. She logged into the cloud for her production company and started watching old footage from her year with the Blackhawks. Her memory was foggy, but watching it back she remembered how she felt. For some reason she couldn't find anything from the first day she had met the team. It was like the video footage had vanished. She frowned as she tried to remember any details of that day, but it had disappeared somewhere in her mind too.
Elia finally got to sleep around two, wrapping herself up in an unzipped sleeping bag. She had set an alarm to wake her up early in the morning, but she didn't need it. As soon as the morning sun came in the window she opened her eyes. She had been waking up early for too long and her body was used to it now. After taking a shower she walked into her closet. It was full of clothes she had never worn, most of them sent from designers and her stylist that she never listened to. The clothes she actually wore were in a pile on the floor, exactly how they had come out of the dryer. Today was different though, she needed to look good. Sexy. She needed help. Elia called up her favorite womanizer, Paul Bissonnette.
“Hello Elia,” Paul answered the phone.
“Hey love, I need some advice.”
“You need advice from me? How interesting, do go on.”
“So I have this friend, and I want to try and push this into a more than friends situation--”
“--Is this friend named Jonathan Toews?” Paul interrupted.
“What?...Who it is doesn't really matter.” Elia stammered.
Paul was laughing, “Right, okay, continue.”
“I need to wear something alluring, something that says let's be more than friends, but still hockey game appropriate.” Elia said.
“Your ass looks great in Yoga pants, done.”
“See, that is my problem, I think this guy is a boobs guy. I've never seen him with a girl that didn't have huge fake rack. And you know--”
“--yeah, you have a very average set, but you also don't do them any favors, running around without a bra all the time.”
“Okay can you stop criticizing and help please?”
They spent the next hour going through Elia's closet on Facetime. Elia was shocked to learn that men weren't that into high waisted shorts or pants, printed pants, statement necklaces, peplum tops or dresses. In the end Elia was wearing dark grey suede skinny jeans, and a slim fit long sleeved black v-neck top with triangles cut out along the side.
“If you've been friends with this guy for a while, and he has already seen what you look like normally, do you really think showing off some cleavage is going to make a difference?” Paul asked.
“I don't know, Plan A is just hoping that if I look sexy he will be inspired to seduce me. Plan B is to get us both really drunk and make a move and if he isn't into it I'll just be like 'lol I was so drunk,'”
“Funny, that's what you've said the times we've made out drunk.”
“Don't read too much into that Biz. Alright I have to finish getting ready, bye!”
She went into her bathroom and opened a drawer under her counter. It was full of M.A.C. makeup and a ton of brushes she wasn't sure how to use. She put everything into a bag to bring with to Abby's house. Somebody was going to have to help her with this. She drove over to Kane's first to pick up Amanda, then they headed north towards the Sharp house. Elia apologized for breaking and entering the night before. She was still adjusting to the new boundaries between her and Patrick. Amanda accepted her apology, and even promised that one day she and Pat would return the favor. They had one more stop at Southport Grocery before arriving.
Abby greeted them at the front door when they arrived., she had not even taken a shower Madelyn was being fussy. The three of them walked to the back of the house into the kitchen. With the baby in one arm and a fork in the other Abby attacked the bread pudding pancakes Amanda had set out on the counter. Elia started to try and tell her what had happened the night before, but whenever she thought about it her sentences stopped coming out right. Amanda took over, telling Abby everything she knew. Abby was grinning and chewing at the same time.
“I knew it,” she said, her mouth full of pancakes, “Pat and I have been calling this for years. I knew it. Have you talked to him since last night?”
“No, I figured I would see him after the game,” Elia said. Amanda and Abby were shaking their heads at her. Amanda took Elia's phone and started sending a text to Jon. Elia grabbed it back from her.
“Hey, I had a lot of fun last night,” it said. She wasn't sure that made sense in the overall context of their day. She was surprised when she got a text back right away, “Me too, are you going to stop by the locker room before the game?” There was no way they would be ready in time for that. She texted back “possibly.”
“Okay, how about I take the baby, and you get to doing my hair?” Elia said, reaching out to take Maddie. Elia sat down on a chair as Abby ran upstairs to get her curling iron. Amanda started doing Elia's makeup. Abby came back and they debated the possibility of whether or not Jon was into Elia. Both Patricks believed he did. Abby made Elia read through her and Jon's text log, and soon both Abby and Amanda were also in favor of the theory.
“Your boobs are really all up and saying hello today,” Abby commented, looking down from above her head.
“You are just standing really close to me, and keep looking at your baby who happens to be next to my boobs.” Elia contended. The top was working.
Once Elia's hair was done Abby warmed a bottle for Maddie and then ran upstairs to get herself ready. Elia and Amanda went into the living room to sit down while Elia fed Madelyn the bottle. She was starting to try and hold things, and every so often grabbed on to Elia's hand.
“How is everything with you and Kaner?” Elia asked Amanda, emphasizing the word 'Kaner' for Madelyn. They were doing great, Amanda was doing well. Elia tried to ask questions with the word Kaner in them but was trying to get to know Amanda too. The girl was busy. In addition to working at Boundary, she was in her final year at an interior design school, and interning at a design firm. The company she was interning for did mostly commercial work, and was known for their very minimalist modern designs. Amanda was very excited to have gotten in with a firm that did that kind of design.
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication,” she said.
“Leonardo DaVinci. Very nice. I couldn't agree more.” Elia seconded. She wasn't sure how Kane had found Amanda, much less convinced her to date him, but she was glad it had happened.
Abby came back downstairs in a sweater and leggings, with her hair up in a bun and barely any makeup. Since she didn't want to move the car-seat they all got into the Sharp's SUV to drive down to the United Center. Elia brought a breakfast sandwich with to eat in the car. Neither Abby or Amanda were interested in stopping by the locker room. They were heading up to the box with Madelyn and the diaper bag. Elia's heels clicked against the floor as she walked down the empty hallway. It was close enough to game time that the guys were probably about to head out for warm-ups. She was right. When she walked in to the room, half the guys were already standing up to head to the ice.
“Hey guys!” she said loudly, feeling a little awkward for the first time. Kane looked over at her from where he was sitting, noticed her hair and makeup and started laughing. Jon was in his pre-game stare mode, and didn't seem to notice she was there. Dave Bolland did though, and shouted over to her, “El what's with your face? Are you sitting with those 300 guys again?” Damn it Bolly, she thought. “This is how I always look Bolly,” she yelled back at him. At the sound of her voice Jon looked over at her. If he noticed anything different, she couldn't tell. He nodded at her, then tried to gather everyone to head out to the ice. He looked at her one more time before they went out to the rink. And that was it. She stood in the empty room for a moment, trying not to freak out. The equipment manager, Clint Reif came in with some extra sticks. “Oh hey Elia,” he said when he saw her, “You look really nice today.” “Thanks,” she said, turning to leave.
It was a morning puck drop, so Elia had planned on not drinking, but Sylvie and Chaunette already had beers when she got up to the Blackhawks box and handed her two. In an effort to keep everyone from finding out she had a crush on Jonathan, she pulled Abby and Amanda into the bathroom to update them on the situation. On one hand, Jonathan was always like that before games. On the other hand, what if it was about her.
“I really can't believe you are being so weird about this El,” Abby whispered.
“See what I was talking about?” Amanda said to her, trying to stay quiet. Abby nodded.
“I'm not being weird!” Elia whispered loudly. Someone was knocking at the door.
“Jim is done singing, the game is going to start,” Sylvie was yelling through the door. The three girls came out, trying to act like they weren't talking about anything. Abby put Madeline back in the infant carrier and they went out to sit down to watch the game. Corey Crawford was playing amazing but the Redwings still got a goal past him in the first period. To start the second period Chaunette and Sylvie announced a new drinking game: they were going to drink every time Corey blocked a shot. Elia felt bad that she was grateful for Pavel Datsyuk being out of the game. She needed to stay at least partially sober to hang out with Jon after the game. Jimmy Hayes scored a goal and the girls wanted to do a waterfall. Sylvie started drinking, and then Chaunette, and then Elia. Nobody could stop until the person before them stopped. What was this, college? They were getting pretty tipsy by second intermission, and Elia was thinking she needed to find some water.
“See, we are just as fun as those Toronto people,” Sylvie was saying.
“So you don't need to move to Toronto permanently,” Chaunette added.
“Why would you think I'm going to move to Toronto?” Elia asked, taking a drink. “You guys are the best WAGs, and I've really gotten around when it comes to WAGs.... Don't tell Cuthbert.”
“New drinking game, we drink every time the Hawks take a shot and every time Crow makes a save,” Chaunette said.
“Oh sweet Jesus,” Elia said. “I can't wait to go back to Toronto where they don't try to kill me with draft beer!” She looked over at Abby for help.
“I'm not going to start drinking with you, I'm still pumping.” Abby replied. Elia and Amanda cringed.
Through the rest of the game Elia managed to maintain her intoxification level by taking a drink of water along with every drink of beer. Unfortunately she was also having to go to the bathroom every five minutes. Marcus Kruger scored in the third period to put the Blackhawks ahead. It was the last goal of the night. After the game she walked Abby and Amanda back to the car. They wished her good luck and told her to call them later. She thanked them for helping her get ready and then walked back to the United Center, stopping to chat with the parking lot attendants first. Instead of heading to the Blackhawks locker room, she took the long way around to say hello to her favorite United Center employees. The visitors locker room had a new security guard at the door. Elia stopped to introduce herself. Jesse, the previous attendant, had been putting himself through school and graduated in January. She was asking “new guy” what his story was when one of the Detroit players came out of the locker room.
“Oh hey Downs,” he said.
“Oh hey Commodore. I didn't know you were here, did you play?” Elia asked. She may have been drunker than she knew. Mike shook his head. He didn't look happy about it, and quickly changed the subject to something they both enjoyed: horse racing. Normally Elia could talk for hours on the topic but she had planned to be in the trainer's room in fifteen minutes.
“I went to the Keeneland all ages sale last month, but got out bid on the only two I was interested in...” Mike was going on and on.
“I've got a three year old filly out of a Secretariat mare I'll sell you dirt cheap.”
“Yeah? Who's the sire? Bad race record?”
“I don't race two year olds. Just a Storm Cat, nothin' special there. Bought her cheap at a yearling sale because of a bad 'scope, she had a bilateral laryngeal defect. Flew in a doctor from Australia who has been doing experimental surgery putting in like an airway shunt.”
“It worked?”
“She's got the fastest mile time of any of my three year olds in training. Breathing fine.”
Elia had videos in her email. They were sitting down in the hallway when the rest of the Redwings started pouring out of the locker room fully dressed. She stood up too fast, almost falling over from the blood rush. “I gotta go Mike, DM me later!” Elia yelled as she started to run down the hallway. She didn't want to think about what she was doing to her feet as she sprinted across the lower level of the United Center towards the Blackhawks locker room in her heels. It was hard enough just to keep balanced. On her turn into the final hallway she collided with tall figure, seeing a blur of long dark hair before closing her eyes.
“Elia!” Carcillo yelled, as he held her arms, steadying her.
“Oh god, wardrobe malfunction!” she yelled, concealing herself against Dan as she fixed her top.
“Are you okay?” a voice asked from the other end of the hall. Elia pushed herself away from Dan, quickly fixing her hair, and trying to look like a sophisticated woman.
“Oh hey Jonny. What's up?” she said casually. Dan looked at her funny, then reached out and brushed some dust off her back. Jon was looking from Dan to Elia and back to Dan suspiciously.
“So, do you still want to get something to eat before I leave? I was thinking we could go to Big Star, and then there is this arcade bar that just opened by my house,” Elia said.
“Yeah, that sounds great,” Jon replied.
“I love Big Star, I'm in.” Dan said. A look of surprise crossed Jon's face for a moment before it went back to his normal disgruntled resting face. On the outside, Elia looked perfectly fine. On the inside she was silently screaming and cursing Dan Carcillo's name.
To Elia, the drive to Wicker Park was the most awkward ten minutes of her life. Jon and Dan didn't seem to notice anything unusual, talking about some college hockey game that had been on tv that week. They were so content talking to each other Elia was the one feeling like a third wheel. During the winter, when the patio couldn't be open, it was often difficult to get a table at Big Star. The taco joint and whisky bar had been trendy since it's opening two years ago. Since it was in between meal times though, they were able to get a booth along the wall. Elia was hoping to slide in next to Jonathan in the booth, but the guys insisted she sit first and Dan sat down next to her. They had been sitting down for fifteen minutes when a server came over with some queso fundido and drinks.
“The queso, a Balcones' True Blue,” he said, setting a double shot down in front of Elia.
“Oh, I'm not in that kind of drinking mood today Gabe,” she started to say. The server looked at her confused, and started to pick it back up. “Fine, I'll drink it.” she said, changing her mind. He took drink orders from Jon and Dan and walked away. The guys were staring at her.
“They know I love the queso, okay? There is nothing weird about it.”
The queso was the best thing on the menu in Elia's opinion. They ordered some tacos when Gabe returned with their drinks. None of this was going how Elia had imagined it in her mind. Dan was pulling out some head phones now, wanting her to listen to a song he was working on for them. It was a pretty good song, actually, she thought as she listened. Jon got up from the table, saying he had to go wash his hands or something. As soon as he was out of ear's reach she pulled the ear pieces off and glared at Dan.
“You need to leave!” she insisted.
“What? Why?” he was looking at her confused.
“You're being a major cock block right now!” she said, looking around to make sure nobody was listening. The best thing about hipsters was that they were too cool to care what Elia was doing all the time. Nobody was even making sideways glances at them. She looked back at Dan, who was staring at her gape-mouthed. Slowly his bewildered face turned into a sly grin.
“You're trying to get with Jon?” he said quietly. He started to laugh, “Is that why you are done up like a little harlot today?
“I am going to assume you mean harlot in a good way, and you better not tell anyone about this or I will stab you. Can you please leave?”
“We all drove here together,”
“I have two cars in my garage, I leave the keys in them!”
The more stern she tried to be the more Dan was laughing. When Jon arrived back at the table Elia was in the process of trying to give Carcillo a purple nurple, and he was holding both her wrists with one hand while pushing her forehead back with the other. They both stopped immediately when they noticed Jon. Carcillo was trying to smooth out his shirt, and stood up.
“I uh, just remembered, I have to feed my neighbor's cat,” he started to say.
“That's so sweet of you, to do that... for your neighbor,” Elia said.
“Yeah, well my neighbor is paying me a lot of money to watch the cat while he's gone.” Dan replied.
“Oh, what, like $20?” Elia asked.
“Oh no, more like $200. My neighbor really loves his cat. Anyway, Captain, I'll see you tomorrow. Elia, good luck.” he shot her one more toothless grin before he left.
Finally, they were alone. She looked across the table, at the gorgeous dark brown eyes, looking at her from beneath a furrowed brow. His beautiful mouth, curled down into a frown. Wait, he was frowning at her?
“What's up with you and Dan? You two are acting stranger than usual today.”
“I'll tell you all about it one day,” Elia said wistfully. She steered the conversation away from Dan Carcillo and back to a more neutral topic. The tacos arrived shortly there after, and once they had eaten they decided to head over to Emporium to play some games. They walked down Damen, then cut through Wicker Park and walked over to Milwaukee Avenue. Emporium was a new bar that had opened with much fanfare. In addition to a great selection of craft beer it also boasted nearly 100 arcade video games. Jon and Elia stopped at the front of the first bar to get tokens and some PBR then walked into the second room, looking for Mortal Kombat. There was a second bar, and a movie projection screen at the back of the room.
“Oh, look at that,” Jon said, pointing to the screen. They were playing The Legend of Zelda movie. Elia's first ever acting job. They watched momentarily as Elia, dressed as a Gerudo princess, talked to Link in a dungeon. There was no sound playing, the bar was playing music instead.
Jon looked back at Elia, smiling, “You make those puffy pants look good.”
Elia felt herself blushing, was that a flirtatious statement? “I still have them you know, I could put them on anytime.” And then you could take them off, she thought, stopping herself from saying it out loud. She tried to read his facial expression but couldn't tell how he had taken it. They couldn't find Mortal Kombat in that room, so they went back to the main room, and walked to the back. It was in the far corner of the bar.
“I call Scorpion,” Jon said as he put tokens into the machine.
“You can't just call Scorpion, plus you should obviously be Johnny Cage,” Elia argued.
“Just because we have the same name--”
“--I was referring more to the cocky attitude,” she said.
They played a few rounds against each other, but it started to get too competitive. Jon was talking a lot of trash, and backing it up by kicking Elia's ass. She decided to even things up by trying to hold onto his joystick hand while delivering crucial blows. It didn't work out so well, because Jon's hands were big enough to play one handed, while Elia could only do one thing at a time. Mostly though, she just wanted to hold his hand. They changed over to a two person cooperative game for a while, before deciding to get some more drinks and change to the Frogger machine. It was a one person game, so they took turns playing, trying to beat each other's score.
Elia had been at it a while, getting farther than either of them had before, when she noticed Jon had moved closer to her. It was probably just because some people had started playing the game next to theirs, she thought. She felt him press up against her hip slightly. The Arcade Fire song that was playing ended, and Bruce Springsteen's I'm on Fire started to play over the speakers. Jon ran his hand across the small of Elia's back, resting it on her waist, lightly pulling her in to him.
Tell me now baby is he good to you,
Can he do to you the things that I do,
Oh no, I can take you higher,
Ooh oh oh, I'm on fire
Elia felt her heart skip a beat, and her stomach jump into her throat. Her frog jumped into a semi truck. She didn't say anything, but stood up from the game, and turned slightly to face Jon. His hand didn't leave her body, only moved to the closer side as she turned. She felt like she couldn't breathe.
“I love this song,” she said, trying to take a deep breath.
Sometimes it's like someone took a knife babyEdgy and dull and cut a six-inch valleyThrough the middle of my soul
“Me too,” Jon said, putting his other hand on her hip now. She tried to move her body, but felt paralyzed. She looked at his mouth, then back to his eyes. He was staring down at her intently. She looked down at his chest, willing her hand to move.
At night I wake up with the sheets soaking wet
And a freight train running through the middle of my head
Only you can cool my desire
Jon was pulling her closer now, slowly. She gained control of one of her hands, putting it on his hip before sliding it up under his shirt and around to his back. She looked back up at his face, and saw the look of surprise in his eyes. Was that too much? She wondered. The world around them had evaporated, but a loud voice snapped them both back to reality.
“Hey, are you done with the game?”
All hands dropped, and Elia felt the oxygen filling her body again.
“Uhh, do you?...” Jon started to ask her.
“Umm...I think we're done with the game?” She asked to no one. They moved a few steps out of the way so other people could play. Elia was trying to re-orient herself to real life when her phone started ringing. She pulled it out of her pocket.
“Oh shit,” she said, answering it. “I'll be there in five minutes!” She hung up the phone. “It's 5:30, I'm supposed to be leaving for the airport right now,” she said to Jon. Her ride was waiting for her. The day game had thrown everyone's timing off. They left the bar and Jon grabbed Elia's hands as they crossed Milwaukee and walked back towards Elia's house. He didn't let go the whole time, but he didn't say anything either. What had just happened? Back at the house Jonny helped Elia bring her suitcase outside. They paused on the sidewalk for a long embrace. As they pulled apart Elia felt him hesitate just a moment, and she looked up into his eyes. This is it, she thought, but instead he just said, “Call me when you get to Toronto, okay?” She nodded.

Notes