Chapter Two: Try Try Again
“Nix you’re hogging all the covers.” I groaned as I shifted in bed and pulled on the material.


“You know this wouldn’t be a problem if you had gone home with Jamie.” Nix’s voice was sassy even though she had just woken up.


“How do you know that he doesn’t take all the covers Nixon.” I was laying on my back now, staring at the ceiling.


“Well you’ll never know how great he is in bed.” She shot back and turned to stare at me while I rolled my eyes. “Adelaide how many times have you had a one night stand, and you had the Captain of the Dallas Stars in your pocket and turned him down.” I thought about the ending to the night before.


We stayed at the bar for a while, having a few more drinks, and getting to know each other a little bit more. Then Jamie and I made our way to the VIP section sitting down at a booth, watching as his friends and my friends made out furiously.


“So how’d the game go tonight? Who’d you guys play?” Jamie smirked at me and took another sip of the glass of whiskey he was currently nursing.


“I take it you’re a hockey fan.”


“You could say that.” I smirked at him, and he chuckled the sound reverberating through his arm that was touching mine.


“We played Buffalo.”


“And I’m assuming that you won.” For the first time I saw Jamie get cocky and a smirk graced his face.


“Of course we did, and you’re lucky enough to be talking to the first star of the game.” I grinned at him the various alcoholic drinks I’d had throughout the night hitting me.


“Well then I think the first star of the game deserves a reward.” Leaning up slowly I planted a kiss on his cheek purposefully catching the edge of his open lips. Giggling I pulled away, only to laugh more as Jamie reached over and tugged me into his lap.


“Is that all I get?” His face was close to mine and his husky voice tempted me to lean in and close the distance between his lips and mine.


“Depends, what do you want?” Jamie grinned down at me almost predatorily and dipped his
head. Just as our lips were about to touch I felt weight on the booth next to us.


“Hey Pres! Jamie!” A rather intoxicated Seguin greeted in a loud voice. “Preston I think Nixon is ready to go home.” I furrowed my brows. Weren’t they just making out a minute ago?


“What did you do Segs?” Tyler huffed as I accused him of it.


“To be completely honest with you, I don’t know. We were having a good time and I suggested getting out of here and she just kinda shut down.” I sighed starting to wriggle off of Jamie’s lap, having to push off his arms that tightened around me. I looked up at him smiling sadly.
“I’m sorry, I have to go with her.” Jamie nodded but grabbed my hand.

“Do you want me to take you both home and then you can come back with me.” I sighed, I knew he was upset I was leaving and I wanted to stay with him. I liked him and he made me feel things I hadn’t felt in a long time but my friends came first.

“I’m sorry Captain.” And with that I hurried out of the bar after Nixon.


“Nix…he’s..he’s not like all the others, he’s different.” I don’t know if it was something in my voice or what but Nixon shot up in bed, eyes wide.

“Holy shit El, you actually like him!”

“No I don’t!” She shot me a look with her piercing green eyes and I groaned pulling the covers over my head. “I just…god, I don’t know! He just wasn’t someone that would be fun for the night. I enjoyed spending time with him and that doesn’t happen often.”

Nixon frowned at me. “You’re allowed to be happy Adelaide.”

“Anyways who knows what would have happened had you not thrown that little fit last night. What was up with that anyways? I thought you and Tyler were having a good time?” I knew I was changing the subject and refusing to deal with my problems, but I didn’t care. Nixon shot me a look like she knew what I was doing but let it slide.

“We were,” she sighed and ran a hand through her black hair. “Then he asked me to go to his place and I knew I didn’t want to be one of those girls that he humps and dumps.” I fought the urge to snort at her terminology. “Anyways if I would ever be one of those booty calls girls to a hockey player he’d have to be a Canuck.” I laughed now, you can take the girl out of Vancouver but not the Vancouver out of the girl.

Eventually Nixon left, promising to track Avery down and come back later for movies and dinner. After she left I got out of bed stretching, before heading to the shower. Before I got in however I checked my phone only to see some very drunk texts from Tyler. One of which read:

Jamie hasn’t shut up about you since we left the club, and I’m sorry but while I like you, you are not that interesting. Please come over here and hop on his dick so he’ll shut up.

I grimaced at his language and then groaned at the situation I got myself into because honestly had I seen the message last night when alcohol was still flooding my system I couldn’t guarantee that I wouldn’t have slipped next door. I was hoping that a shower would help me get the thoughts of what could have happen with Jamie, but the warm what cascading against my skin did the exact opposite as I had vivid flashbacks to our time on the dance floor.

When I first pulled Jamie onto the dance floor I was unsure if it was a good idea. He was awkward to say the least, his large frame moving stiffly to the music, and his hands hovered unsure where to go. Still moving to the beat of the music I grabbed his large hands in mine ignoring the chills it sent down my spine. Placing his hands low on my hips I leaned up to speak in his ear.

“Relax Captain.” My words must have triggered something within him because the next think I knew his hands were gripping my hips firmly and he was dragging me to press against him. I laughed loudly throwing my head back, hair cascading down my neck, and continued to dance. For a while our movements were almost playful and flirtatious and then as the song shifted to some new remix, our chemistry changed.

Things suddenly got a lot more heated, as our bodies started to writhe together. A small trickle of sweat fell down my neck under my hair and both of our breathing was labored. I moved as close to him as I could, standing as straight as possible. My hand moved to the curve of his neck, the other to his strong shoulder as he bent down slightly so our faces were as close to level as possible.

“Jamie.” His name was a gasp on my lips as he pressed himself against me and when our eyes met his were incredibly dark. He looked at me with hooded lids as we shared a moment before someone knocked into the back of me. I stumbled a little, hitting his chest. As he straightened out and glared at the man behind me it was the first time I had yet to see him intimidating off the ice. It was then I suggested we get a drink.


The water starting to get cold snapped me out of my trance and I quickly finished my shower. As I dried off I checked the time on my phone. I had an interview today with the Dallas Cowboys to work for part of their media team and I absolutely could not be late. After I got all ready to go I looked at myself in the mirror. I was dressed in a crispy white business shirt that was gracefully tucked into a black pencil skirt, with black and gold ankle boots on my feet. My hair was pin straight opposed to it’s normal, wavy/curly texture, and my make-up consisted of just simple winged liner and a bold lip.

Checking my watch I saw it was half past eleven which meant I had enough time to stop by the Starbucks around the corner. Grabbing my purse I was out the door. Once there I realized I needed a lot more caffeine than I thought.

“Can I get a venti iced mocha with 5 shots of expresso.” The lady looked at me a bit concerned, but nonetheless let me pay for my drink and placed the order. It took a little longer than I expected to get my drink but when I did I stuck the straw in and quickly turned around only to bump into a very large, solid chest.

“Fuck.” We both said as I felt my cool drink spill all over my white dress shirt.

“I am so sorry.” The voice had my head snapping up at lightning speed.

“Jamie.” I breathed his name out almost too quiet to hear. His eyes had been staring at my chest and I cringed when I looked down and saw that my shirt had become see through and the deep purple bra I had been forced to wear since the rest of my laundry was dirty, was easily visible under the soaked material. Having someone look at me that way made me blush. At the sound of his name however he raised his gaze and when he saw it was me his eyes widened.

“Holy shit, Preston I’m-” As much as I wanted to hear his rich voice go on and on about whatever he wanted to talk about, I had checked my watch and the time shocked me into action.

“I’m going to look like such a bitch, but I have to go okay? Don’t worry about it.” I squeezed his bicep before hustling to the door, throwing my empty cup it the trash along the way.

“Preston!” Jamie called after me but I was already out the door and heading back to my apartment to change before my interview. It took the entire drive to the stadium to get his brown eyes out of my mind.


*****


The couple of days after anything important are always stressful, but the days after my interview with the Cowboys were killing me. For some reasons most of my classes that week didn’t require me to come into the classroom so for most of the day I just laid around in my pajamas, vegging out on the couch and binge watching Netflix, or hockey. The other part of my time, the time I actually spent outside of my apartment, whether it be socializing, going out to eat or going to school, was spent trying to avoid Jamie and Tyler, but especially Jamie.

I didn’t quite know what to do after my awkward encounter with Jamie at the coffee shop. Most of my insecurity and awkwardness about the situation was coming from the fact that I wasn’t sure where I stood with the Captain of the Stars and I wasn’t sure where I wanted to. A long time ago I has sworn off relationships but something about Jamie made me want to throw that out the window. If you could even call what we had together at a bar for one night a ‘relationship”. But could I let someone get close to me again? Could I let someone in after all this time? Unable to deal with my thoughts I laid down more on the couch, tugging my blanket tighter around me and drifted in to a peaceful, dreamless sleep.

A few hours later I was woken up by my phone buzzing on the glass table and I was quick to roll off the couch and grab it, putting it to my ear as I laid on the ground.

“Hello?” I almost groaned into the device, arching my back until it cracked loudly.

“Hi, may I please speak to Adelaide Preston if she is available” The formality in her voice had me realizing that this wasn’t just a normal phone call and I sat up as straight as possible.

“This is she.”

“Oh hello, Mis Preston how are you?” Her voice instantly got more chipper and I had to remove the phone from my ear for a second. “This is Danielle, the one who interviewed you just a few days ago, and I was just calling to let you know that we all loved you down here and would like to invite you back to do some screen tests and ask a few more questions.”

“Oh, I completely understand, thank you-- wait what? Second interview? Sorry, I just expected with the call being so late in the day it would be bad news.” Danielle laughed lightly, and after assuring me that the Cowboys were in fact interested in me and scheduling times for the second part of my interview process I hung up the phone. It took a second for everything to soak in before I was up, off the floor and shrieking jumping up and down. This was the biggest break I’d received since coming to Dallas, and I had to thank the person who made it all possible.

Not caring that I was in my pajamas, or that I wasn’t wearing shoes I hurried next door banging on the door as hard as possible. As soon as the door opened I threw my arms around his solid torso and buried my head in his chest.

“Thank you.” I said as sincerely as possible. “Thank you so much Ty, for getting me the interview. They invited me back! I know I’ve watered your plants, and taken care of the dogs a
few times but you didn't have to do it. Thank you so so much.”

“Um.” My stomach dropped and I jumped back when I heard the voice. Jamie stared at me in bewilderment as I backed up from hugging him but then I heard loud laughter and turned to see Tyler. I quickly made my way to him, determined not to acknowledge the mistake I had just made.

“I’m hoping you heard that because I’m not saying it again.” I muttered throwing my arms around his neck.

“I’d do it for you anytime, Preston.” He hooked an arm around my shoulders. “I’m glad it worked out.” He placed a kiss on my cheek. “You deserve it. Even if you tried thanking the wrong person.” I pulled back and turned to look at Jamie.

“God, I am so sorry.” I grinned sheepishly. “We seem to always have interesting encounters.” Jamie nodded, swallowing loudly as his eyes darkened.

“Interesting is definitely one way to describe it.” All I did was stare back at him, the tension in the room, thickening by the second until Tyler decided to ease it a bit.
“Okay,” Tyler said starting to back out of the room. “This,” he motioned between Jamie and I, “-is awkward, and I don’t do awkward. So talk it out, bang it out I don’t care, just work it out while I go shower.” And with that he was gone and I was left standing in the room with Jamie alone.

“Preston-”

“My name’s Adelaide.” I finally corrected him, not wanting to discuss what we were about to. “Preston is my last name and Tyler’s just a little shit who likes to call me by it. Most people call me that actually. Only my closest friends call me Adelaide or some variation of that, and most of the time I never correct people because normally I don’t care. But I like you, I like you enough to tell you that my real name is Adelaide and that it’s okay if you call me that.” I was rambling until I finally caught myself biting my lip, and tucked a strand of hair behind my ears. Jamie had stepped closer and he grinned at me as my cheeks flared a bright red.

“Adelaide,” my name rolling off his lips, made me feel as warm as drinking hot tea and honey, but also sent shivers down my spine. Suddenly I wanted no-one but him to call me that ever again. “I never got your number at the club, and I don't know how many drunk texts Tyler sent you, or even everything that went on that night. But I know I had a genuinely good time with you. I wanted to call you, take you out for dinner, do something where we would both be sober. I had a good time the other night and I thought you did too?” I was hesitant with my answer but as much as I knew I tried to hide it I knew Jamie could see that I had no viable excuse.

“I, um, I-“

“Come on Adelaide, I’m dying here. At least let me take you out for coffee to make up for the other morning and if you want nothing to do with me after that I’ll leave you alone; you’ll never have to see me again.” His almost desperate tone caused my stomach to turn and the hopeful look in his eyes set me on edge. All of this reminded me of the boys that came before, the ones that broke me down and walked away from the pieces. But, Jamie wasn’t like those other boys, that I already knew for sure. I thought about the odd times we’d now run into each other, and I though about the second rule on the list, one of my favorites. Finally making sense of the jumbled emotions swirling in my head I smirked and stuck my hand out.

“Give me your phone Mr. Benn. You’ve got yourself a date.”

“Rule #2: once is an adventure, twice is a coincidence, but three times might just be fate”

Notes

Next update Saturday. There's rule #2.