Just You and Me, Kid

It was finally happening it, and he didn’t want it to. He’d been dreading this moment, yet wanting to get it over with, and now it was here. Everything had come to a point, and if he avoided it a little while longer, it was like it didn’t happen.

Kasperi tried to keep Satu out of this, but it was getting harder to hide. The fact that Hannah kept trying to call him didn’t help.

“Aren’t you going to answer your phone?” Satu asked as she eyed Kasperi’s buzzing phone on the coffee table.

He glanced at it and shrugged. “No, it’s just a...um, an ex.” He swallowed hard and turned back to the tv, unable to look Satu in the eye.

“An ex?” She asked with interest. “Want me to deal with her?” She was about to pick up his phone when Kasperi snatched it up and put it safely in his pocket.

“No, it’s fine. She’s, um, not mentally stable,” he added quickly and continued flipping through the channels.

“Well, if you want to talk about it, or if you need any help, I’m here for you.”

“It’s cool, I got this,” he flashed her an unsteady grin.

Kasperi had anything but ‘got it.’ He was losing what was left of ‘it’ faster than he could keep up with hiding it. Random staring off into space could no longer be put off as ‘just tired’ or ‘thinking about the game’ because there was no more hockey, and no one was ‘just tired’ that much. Satu had already asked him a couple of times if he was sick, and so far he’d managed to convince her he had allergies. However, allergies didn’t often cause fits of anger, bouts of emotional crying, and lack of interest in everyday life.

Kasperi needed a break, before he broke.

“We should go somewhere,” he said to Satu one afternoon. “Go away for the weekend.”

“Like on a vacation? That sounds fun. Where do you want to go?”

“I don’t know… Somewhere.”

“Let’s go on a road trip”

“Like, in the car?” he looked at her totally shocked. “For real?”

“It’s going to be so much fun, trust me.”

“The trust is there, but it is fragile. You really think a roadtrip is the way? We could just fly to Stockholm.”

“No Kassu, I have it figured out now,” She got close to him and drew the picture in the sky. “We take the car and we’ll listen to bad 80’s romantic Finnish music, and we’ll drive to Turku.”

“Turku???? Why that place?”

“The history, the romance, the booze and the history.”

“You said history twice, Satu.”

“Well, there is a lot of history.”

“Swap the 80’s music for Suomirock and we have a deal.”

“I knew I could count on you.” She stood up on her toes and wiggled her cold nose against his cheek before kissing him. It’s those little things that make him smile all the time. She can stay bubbly even though everything is going shitty. Kasperi is just loving how it’s rubbing off on him.

The road trip itself was everything Kasperi expected. Lots of singing/screaming out loud. Stops along the way to enjoy the view. Him laughing at Satu when she needed a pee break but there was nothing but bushes. Her laughing when Kasperi got freaked out by a bee that was trapped in the car. If it wasn’t for his sore legs he would have wanted the ride to last a lifetime.

Satu ended up booking a room in a B&B at the edge of the city. She found that hotels lacked character, and it’s always better to support small business owners. He couldn’t really tell her no. He has spent so many nights in hotels that he’s started to hate the blandness of them all. He didn’t want run-of-the-mill everything in his life. He needed special things…. Special people. He needed Satu.

After they checked in and left their bags in the room, they managed to go to the city center.

“Do you smell that?” Satu said, with an ever growing smile.

“What?”

“Coffee ! ! !”
Kasperi couldn’t contain himself, the pure joy on her face was contagious. He dragged her along to the source of the smell, a small coffeeshop. It was at that moment, while Satu was sipping her strong black coffee and Kasperi was gazing at her eyes surrounded by freckles, that he realised: he was falling for her, hard.

They ended up walking around the harbour. Since it was already summertime there was a market going on. They decided to get a couple of boxes of strawberries. They tasted sweet, or, as Satu put it, ‘they taste like Sunshine’. It was a moment that couldn’t get any better.

“Let’s go, we’re going to be late.” Satu stood up and began gathering her things.

“Late for what?” Kasperi was confused.

“We’re going to a gig tonight.”

“Who, What, Where??? When were you going to tell me?” Kasperi really didn’t need any more changes. He immediately started to think about all the changes that have happened over the last couple of months; change has just sucked lately.

“You,” Satu grabbed his face between her hands, “need a break and I know just the thing. A friend of mine is performing with his band and you’re going to unwind…. Doctor’s orders.”

“Dr. Who??”

“Dr. Love,” Satu said with a cheeky smile.

Satu took Kasperi to a Frosttide gig. The heavy metal was just what he needed. The heavy vocals and guitar drove away all his thoughts until everything went numb in his head. There was just him and Satu grinding to him on the music.

They started kissing passionately.

“Let’s go back.”

It was the only sentence Satu needed. He wanted her, just her.
When Kasperi and Satu arrived back at the B&B they couldn’t stop touching each other. It was like they needed each other to live, like air.

“Oh my…” It was barely words coming out of his mouth, “you want to kill me”

Satu was expecting this on their romantic trip so she put on her most sexy underwear: a blush coloured lace set.

“Just shut up and get here.”

Further words weren’t necessary. Only 2 sentences were said until the next day started. While they were gazing in each others eyes, Kasperi said “I love you” and Satu repeated the same words.

Unfortunately the peace didn’t last. Kassu woke up, sweat dripping, kicking around. He didn’t know what the dream was about but he woke up thinking he heard a baby cry. It felt like he was dumped into an ice bath emotionally. He’s avoiding things, ignoring things. He can’t keep it up.


Meanwhile, back in Kuopio….

“Sami! What is this?!” Petra stormed into his office holding some papers. Sami looked up at his wife from his desk; she was on the verge of tears. “Paternity test? Sami, what have you done?”

Sami froze. He considered taking the blame, to save Kasperi’s reputation, but that would only lead to more problems. “It’s not what you think,” he shook his head tiredly. He had been working privately with his lawyers to get a paternity test for the past few months ever since he found out about Beth. He didn’t want to get Petra involved because he knew she would worry about it more than necessary. Kasperi already had enough stress, he didn’t need his mother adding to it.

“Oh really? Why does it look like you’re trying to get a paternity test from some 22 year old girl in California? When did this happen Sami?!”

“Please, Petra, calm down,” he came around the desk and tried to put his arm around her shoulders but she pulled away. “It’s not what it looks like. I didn’t know how to tell you, but-”

“You’ve been cheating on me? Sleeping with a younger girl? What is this, a mid-life crisis? And now,” she choked back a sob, tears slowly slipping down her face. “A baby?”

“Petra, please, it’s not what you think,” he tried to pull her close but she pushed him away again. He took the documents from her hand and turned the page and pointed out the paragraph where it mentioned the father.

“No,” she started shaking and fell back into his arms. “No, not Kassu, this is impossible. Sami, this isn’t possible!” She fell into his arms sobbing and he stroked her hair gently.

“I’m trying to find a legal way out of this, some way to force this girl to get a paternity test and prove it’s not his. It’s just this girl, Beth, she’s so confident that it’s his, even though she’s admitted to sleeping with other guys, I just,” he shook his head, “I don’t know.”

“We’re not forcing this girl to do anything! We do not need our lawyers to attack her, she needs our help.” Petra took a deep breath and started to calm down. “She’s scared, probably. I was terrified when we first had Kassu, but I had you with me. We were married, and in love, and so happy, but I was still scared. I can’t imagine what she’s going through, being alone with this child. She needs our help, not a court ordered paternity test.”

“And what about our son? He needs our help too; he is 18, just a kid, he shouldn’t have to deal with this.”

Petra pulled out of her husband’s embrace and gave him a skeptical look. “You know he probably got himself into it.”

“You think this is his fault? That he deserves to have his career ruined because he had unprotected sex once?” Sami shook his head, and pulled the papers away from her.

“I didn’t say he deserved any of this, but he knows better than that! He’s gotten reckless, ever since he started playing with Kalpa. You said you would look after him, but-”

“This is not my fault! He was fine when he was here playing for Kalpa, it was when he went off to Pittsburgh that things started to go downhill. Yes, he got himself into this mess, but it is still our responsibility to help him! He is our son, Petra, we have an obligation.”

She looked at him hard before responding. “Yes, but a forced paternity test isn’t the way. We’ll talk to the girl. It’s obvious she needs some help, anyway.” Petra walked away, ignoring Sami’s pleas. She was on a mission to help Beth, and in doing so, hopefully help Kassu. She couldn’t think about him being a father; he was too young, he was still her little boy, but she couldn’t let Sami attack that poor girl with a paternity test.


Kasperi returned from Turku feeling better than he had in months. He felt on top of the world, and had Satu to thank for that. It was late, and he went to bed expecting to fall right asleep, but something was keeping him up.

He was lying on his back, staring at the ceiling, trying to fall asleep. He’d pulled the blackout curtains all the way, and even put a pillow over his head, but the ever-persistent light kept him up. He’d finally gotten used to it over the past few weeks, but tonight he couldn’t seem to block the light out.

His phone vibrated, and instinctively he picked it up and opened the text without seeing who it was from.

It was a picture of a little baby swathed in cloths, a tiny blue knitted hat on his head. His eyes were open, and big and green.

He almost didn’t even notice who was holding the baby: ‘Hannah,’ he whispered and almost dropped his phone. Hannah holding a baby, a baby that looked very similar to her. Kasperi hadn’t expected Beth’s baby to have so many of Hannah’s traits, since the two sisters didn’t look too similar, but this picture could easily be mistaken for Hannah holding her child. He imagined if she and Olli had a baby one day, it would probably look like that.

‘Hey,’ he thought to himself with a laugh. ‘I didn’t say “If Hannah and I had a baby,” I guess I’m truly over that.’ Before Satu, he would have looked at this picture and imagined that it maybe was their baby, with those big green eyes, and that nose….

And then it hit him.

It was his baby.

Notes

Thank you for reading! Sorry it's taken a while to update, we're both pretty busy!