All Things In Good Time

Katherine woke to find herself in the institutional surroundings of her room in the Olympic Village. She rubbed her eyes, rolled over and grabbed her phone from the nightstand. It was 6:00 pm Sochi time, almost six hours since she landed in Sochi and two hours since the gang of Penguins invaded her room. Katherine checked through her text messages and there was one from Geno reminding her to text him when she woke up and one from Paul.

Katherine swiped the message alert from Paul and to her surprise, she was excited to read the text.

Donnell, I hear you’re in Sochi.
When you’re done with your power nap, come over to Bolshoi.

“Hmmm,” Katherine said out loud. She knew that hockey didn’t start until the following day, so she was wondering what Paul was up to. With a double check of the time stamp on the text, Katherine noticed that it was sent about 30 minutes ago. Even if she was freshly showered, which she very definitely was not, she still would be running very late to meet Paul at the ice arena. So, Katherine decided to send her first text from Russia.

Martin, arrived safe and sound.
Sorry, I did just wake up.
How about grabbing some dinner in about an hour?

Much to Katherine’s surprise, her phone rang out the text alert.

Is this a date?

Katherine laughed at Paul’s response. She thought about how much she missed his laugh and the way his eyes would crinkle when he asked a question. She was missing Paul more than she was willing to allow herself to admit.

I think it is more like I am starving and I need supervision.

Another quick alert brought a response from Paul.

The guys said you were looking pretty rough.
Get a shower and I’ll meet you in 45 minute.

With that, Katherine unzipped her suitcase, gathered her toiletries bag and headed to the small bathroom in her room.


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Paul got the text from Sid that Katherine was spotted heading to her dorm in the USA’s section of the Olympic Village and an invitation to join him, Olli, Brooks and Geno as a “welcoming committee” for Katherine, but he declined. Paul was enjoying spending time with his family while they were in Sochi and he knew that he would catch up with Katherine sooner or later. When Sid reported back that the guys had invaded Katherine’s room and that she was going to meet up with everyone later on, Paul decided to send a welcoming text of his own. He was on the way to the Bolshoi Ice Area to check out the facilities and arrange a tour for his family and he thought he would invite Katherine. From Sid’s description of Katherine, Paul was pretty sure that she was face down and drooling on a pillow.

Paul just shook his head. The things you remember about people. He always loved the way Katherine would curl up against him while they slept, but he could do without the drool she would sometimes leave on his shirts. He missed the flowery sent of her hair, her addiction to Burt’s Bees lip balm, the way his pulse would quicken when getting a text message from her, he missed the little things about Katherine. Paul and Katherine had been through a lot in the past few months and he was more than willing to give her the space that she needed, as long as that space didn’t include James Neal. When Katherine pulled away from Paul, he had a sneaking suspicion that something happened between her and Neal, but he never asked, he never prodded. There was a history with the two of them and when she saved Neal’s ass from a major suspension, Paul could see Katherine distancing herself from James and himself. Paul knew Katherine and when the time was right, he trusted her to be honest with him. Paul also knew that Katherine was here in Sochi, not Cabo, and if he was going to win back the woman he loved, he was going to have to do it on foreign soil.

Paul stood in the large ice arena with an even larger group that was made up of his mom, dad, sister, aunts, uncles and cousins. They were all there to support Paul, as they had always done in the past. Paul knew that this was probably going to be his last Olympics and he wanted to have a good showing for not only himself, but for his family, his country, and of course for Minnesota.

“So, what do you guys think?” Paul looked around at his family. “Think we can do some damage in here?”

“I think you guys will do well here.” Paul’s dad Dale remarked. “It will take a couple of practices to get use to the size, but it will all come together. “

“Hey, did you text Katherine?” Paul’s mom Bev asked. “I thought she would be joining us for the tour.”

“She just returned my text, a little jet-lag, so she’s going to meet me in a little bit.” Paul advised his mom.
Bev gave Paul the worried mother look; the look that says, I-know-you-like-this-girl-but….

“Mom, we’re just grabbing some dinner, nothing more.”

“Well, then you should probably get going,” Dale told Paul. “We’ll catch up with you two later on at the pavilion.

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Katherine stood in the shower with a head full of shampoo, swearing that she could count the water droplets as they came out of the shower head. As she was waiting for all the shampoo to rinse out of her hair, Katherine couldn't help but think about what a whirlwind month February had been for her. The month started innocently enough with the blow-out Super Bowl party that Rob and Beau decided to throw at her house and the accidental disclosure by Matt Niskanan that James had started dating someone new and that it seemed like it was getting serious.

Katherine could still picture Matt standing in her kitchen, not realizing that she was back from using the bathroom, going on about the new woman in James’ life; blonde, built, former model, now in broadcasting. Katherine’s head was swimming at the Barbie-like description of the woman who was now beside James’ side. Geno noticed Katherine first and quickly gave Matt a swift swat on the head. Matt, noticing that Katherine walked back in the room only had one word to say in his defense.

“What?” Matt said while shoving a chip piled high with guacamole into his mouth.

Katherine could vividly remember just smiling, grabbing her phone and the bottle of Ketel One. A quick search of James’ name brought up a picture and there she was. Or more like, there they were. Katherine felt like someone had just kicked her in the gut, but she couldn’t figure out why. She was the one who broke things off with James, not once, but twice. She was the one who wanted to get on with her life without the distraction of James in it. So why did it hurt her to see him with another woman?

And even now, she couldn’t help but shiver in her now cold shower in Sochi.

Notes