Hall of Fame

“What are you doing after this?” Tyler asked as he shot pucks into the boards next to the bench after morning skate on Friday.
“I don’t know,” I shrugged; it was cute how he actually thought I had a life outside of all this.
A cheeky smile covered his face as he skated over to the bench were I sat. “Well you owe me a breakfast date.”
“Do I?” I challenged as he skated in front of me and I instantly regretted it because as he stood in front of me I could hear my heart pounding in my chest, and I was pretty sure he could hear it to. Don’t give him any ideas Brittany, your better than this, I took a deep breath.
“You do,” he nodded, stopped and leaned on the boards in front of me.
“Well I hate to break it to you, but its past noon,” I informed him with a shrug, “breakfast is over.”
“Then we’ll go for brunch.” He shrugged and I could tell that he really put a lot of thought into this.
With a shake of my head and a roll of my eyes I smiled, “whatever,” I shook my head as a smile slid onto his face, once again, curiosity got the best of me.
* * *
So that is how at a quarter to one I found myself in the small diner eating ‘brunch’ with non-other than Tyler Seguin. It was a small quite diner, which I was thankful for. I didn’t need word getting around that Seguin was spotted with a woman, especially if that woman was me. I was definitely not a fan of the spotlight, plus as the team’s employee I wasn’t technically allowed to form ‘relationships’, if you know what I mean, with my clients.
“So is this like your dream job?” Seguin questioned a ting of curiosity in his deep voice as he stirred his water with his straw.
“Sort of,” I shrugged as he stared at me from across the table. “I mean I’m glad I got a job with an NHL team, but my dream team would have been the Canadians.”
“The Montreal Canadians,” a speck of discussed buried in his deep voice as he raised of his dark eyebrow and leaned his right ear closer to me as if he heard me wrong.
“Yes,” I confirmed, for once not pulling away as his dark eyes stared into mine and my heart felt heavy in my chest and I couldn’t help but wonder if he felt the same way, why would he, guys like him do not fall for silly girls like you, my subconscious reminded me.
With a shake of his head he inverted his eyes to his phone, “I guess I can look past that.”
“Good,” I joked, a hand over my heart, “because I was so worried you would hold that against me.”
With a roll of his eyes he took a sip of his water. “So why the Montreal Canadians,” he asked, once he returned his water to the table.
“Because I just really like their organization,” I shrugged. I was a hockey fanatic, which meant I watched all those stupid shows, but 24CH was by far my favorite one.
He shook head, “so how many favorite teams do you have?”
I shrugged, “a few,” which was partly true. “I have my 3 favorite teams, and several teams that I will root for, and then 3 teams that I just like to see lose.”
“Is that a nice way of saying that you don’t like them,” he flashed his white teeth.
I shrugged, “I thought it sounded better than saying that I hate them.”
“You hate them,” he gave a long deep whistle as he leaned back against the seat. “And what teams might that be?”
“The Red Wings, the Flyers, and the Bruins,” I told him, “in that order.”
“So the Red Wings and Flyers I understand,” he shrugged, “but the Bruins, what do you have against the Bruins?”
“They’re a dirty team.”
“They’re not that bad.” He rolled his eyes and I just shock my head. I guess it shouldn’t have surprised me that he would still stand up for them, but that would only make this that much more fun. I thought to myself as I countered his argument, and he countered mine. We debated until are food came and then there was silence. Afterwards I declined his offer of going back to his place, that only means one thing¸ because I didn’t think that was the best idea, plus I had things to take care of before I had to be back at the arena tonight.
* * *
I took a deep breath as I stood outside of the locker room door; I wouldn’t say that I was nervous but I could defiantly feel the chills in the air, a mixture of excitement and nervousness and it was getting to me. It wasn’t surprising though, this was the first game of the season after all. This is the game that would determine what needs to be worked on, how the team will fit together and an indicator of how the rest of this season would go.
I turned back to the door ready for what laid ahead when I heard my name. I slowly turned around to come face to face with none other than Tyler Seguin.
“What’s up Tyler?” I asked as he looked down at me.
“I was hoping I would catch you before you went in there,” he took a deep breath as he tugged at his bottom lip. “I have something for you.” I could see his adam’s apple move down his throat as he swallowed and held a white Stars’ sweater to me.
“Tyler I was kidding,” I laughed out of shock as I held up the signed Rousell sweater in front of me.
“But I wasn’t,” a huge smile covered his face as he watched me turn the sweater every which way. “I’m sorry I couldn’t get him to bleed on it for you, so I got him to sign it instead.”
“Well I really appreciate this Tyler, but I can’t accept this.” I told him, he only wants one thing in return, my subconscious was quick to remind me as I attempted to hand the sweater back to Tyler, but he only crossed his arms over his chest.
“Don’t worry about it, Rousell owned me anyway,” he shrugged.
You know how many other girls he’s probably used that exacted same story on, my subconscious told me. I nodded, I definitely wasn’t the first girl he’s probably done this for, and I knew I wasn’t going to be the last.

Notes