Swipe

The week after Jamie left was a strange combination for Elle. On the one hand, it was business as usual but on the other hand, she couldn’t take two steps in her apartment without thinking about the feel of him, the smell of him, or the taste of him. She had many moments where she just stopped and let herself get swept up in it all.

She couldn’t stop smiling.

He sent her many texts, detailing his own distraction.

The two day trip had just ruined them both.

Elle’s last day before the Canucks headed off for their last East coast trip of the year was punctuated by a phone call, first thing in the morning. She blinked awake to the sounds of birds tweeting, the ringer that Jamie had set up on her phone just for him. She was smiling when she answered.

“Good morning, handsome.” He’d called a couple of mornings already. Her greeting was familiar. She heard a chuckle and rolled to her back, instantly alert. That wasn’t the sound of Jamie laughing. Rather, it was his shorter best friend.

“Finally. Finally you acknowledge our attraction. It may break Jamie’s heart, but I know we’re meant to be together.”

Elle rolled her eyes, hard core. “That’s a bad thing to joke about, Tyler.”

“Yeah, yeah. I know.” He sighed, sounding like he regretted the statement.

“Good morning anyway. What do you want and why do you have Jamie’s phone?”

Tyler was moving around on the other end, the sounds of doors opening and closing. “We’re going for a run. He’s changing and stupidly left his phone unattended. So I called. Because you don’t talk to me anymore.”

Tyler began his standard running commentary of catching her up on all the things he’d been doing since they’d talked the week before. She rolled out of bed and padded to the kitchen. Her first order of business was starting a pot of coffee. She finally interrupted his train of thought when he started describing the trip he had planned to Iceland over the summer.

“As fun as Reykjavík sounds, I have to pee and I don’t want to do it when I’m on the phone with you.” She laughed as she said it and Tyler joined in.

“That’s all right. Benny is coming back down the stairs. But, hey- are you actually coming down in a few days? Cuz if you are, I have a place I need to take you too.” Sure enough, he could hear Jamie’s voice in the background, sounding angry that Tyler was on his phone.

“Yeah, I going to try.” She was going to tell him more, but Jamie came on the line. She repeated her earlier greeting.

“Good morning to you too, beautiful. Sorry Segs bugged you.”

“I got to hear your voice, it’s all good.”

“There is that. Perhaps I’ll spare him, just this once.”

They both laughed before making plans to Skype later. They hadn’t gotten around to phone sex yet with their schedules, but Elle had the distinct feeling that it might happen tonight. The thought kept her spirits up as she made her commute to the airport. The Canucks were hosting the Wings the next night and Detroit was set to arrive midday from DTW.

That same thought, Jamie on Skype, kept her smiling up until the moment that she walked through the doors of the charter offices to find her arch nemesis sitting behind the secretary’s desk.

Henri Guerin was her former boss, when she’d worked the main terminal. He was an insufferable francophone out of Quebec who was more concerned with his appearance than his work. She had never quite understood how he’d ended up an assistant manager of a major hub. She’d also had no idea how he hadn’t been canned a dozen times over for his poor performance.

When he caught sight of her, a grin spread across his face. He looked handsome, in a smarmy asshole sort of way. That look probably had a great deal to do with his job placement. “Elle. My favorite minion.” Guerin threw his arms wide, almost welcoming her into her own home office.

She didn’t even try to disguise her irritation. “What do you want, Guerin?”

“Oh, now now. That’s no way to treat your new supervisor.”

Elle felt the color drain out of her face and it was almost like the world went greyscale. He did not just say what she thinks he just said. “Come again?”

Now he stood. “I have been promoted! Euh, maybe not promoted, really. I was more moved by my request.” His grin looked dangerous. Elle blinked at him a couple of times. She took a sharp turn, barging straight into Rob’s office. Rob was her boss. This couldn’t possibly be a thing. No way, no how.

Rob was typing on his computer and he sighed, deeply, when she stopped in front of his desk. There was no point in talking until he finished whatever note he was working on because he wouldn’t listen. She shifted from foot to foot, waiting. And waiting. And finally he hit enter meaningfully and looked over at her.

She opened her mouth and he held up a hand. “I know. I know you’re angry but I had no control over this decision. If anyone is to blame, it’s you.”

Elle paled, thinking about what she could have possibly done to bring down this sort of punishment. “Last week when I called in? The security thing?”

Rob nodded gravely. “Last week when you called in.”

“Well, shit. How bad is it?”

Rob ran his hands over his face. He knew what Elle had gone through under Guerin the last time and he looked about as pleased about it as she was. “I shouldn’t tell you this, but I’m totally against this move. Basically you’re on probation with Guerin overseeing your work.”

She sucked in a breath. “Shouldn’t I have gotten a notice or something before I walked in on him looking like he owns the world?”

Rob looked a little sad. “Yeah, it’s in your mailbox.” He gestured to the main office, where Guerin was still skulking and where her mail would be waiting for her. She hadn’t been to the airport in a few days and who knew how long it’d been sitting. “How long is he going to be babysitting me?”

The man in front of her shrugged a shoulder. “A week? A month? Until the season ends? I don’t really know. I suspect he’ll be around until my boss’s boss is sure you’re not dropping the ball anymore.”

Elle cursed under her breath again and glared out the window. This was such bullshit. When she voiced this, Rob agreed but there wasn’t much he could do. “So, the fact that I filed two sexual harassment complaints against him just mean nothing upstairs? Because that’s really fucked up Rob. That’s why I applied for this job, to get away from him.”

He held up his hands in defeat. “Oh, believe me. When I found out who they were sending down yesterday I spent an hour on the phone with the head office.”

“Yesterday? You knew about this yesterday and didn’t bother to warn me?”

“I couldn’t have done anything about it yesterday no matter what. At least today I can keep emailing and calling people. But, I gotta tell you, it looks like he managed to get your complaints expunged. He came back squeaky clean when HR searched for an overseer.”

This whole thing was a cluster fuck. She growled. “That’s fucking wrong. Please tell me you let them know our history.” She was the tiniest bit relieved when he nodded. “Well, good.” Her eyes caught sight of the clock. She rolled her head back and forth, stretching the tight muscles of her neck. “How underfoot is he going to be?”

Again Rob had no real answers. “I know he’ll be in the lounge for the most part whenever you handle a flight. I don’t know if he’ll be around for check-in but I guess you should plan on it.”

Just fucking great, she thought. “Perfect. I guess I better head out. The Wings will be wheels down in fifteen.”

Rob gave her an exceptionally sympathetic smile and before waving her out of his office. Guerin was waiting and she growled at him when he attempted to make nice as she stalked past. “Unless you’ve got a critique you keep your mouth shut.”

“Euh, Belle. Why are you so angry?”

She didn’t bother with a reply, the door slamming shut behind her as she headed to check-in. She had a job to do.

It was a hell of a long ten hours later when Jamie connected with her over Skype. He could see, instantly, on her face that something was very wrong. “Heya beautiful, why the long face?”

She shook her head, her brain still working through all the shit she’d been through since they’d talked that morning.

“I got put on probation because of the mix up last week. You remember, the baggage handlers? Well, main office decided that I needed a baby sitter and they sent up that boss from the main AirCanada terminal to watch after me. Do you remember me complaining about that guy?”

Jamie frowned, recognition flooding his own expression. “Yeah. That’s the guy I’m going to punch if I ever see him in person, right?”

“Right. He shadowed me all day. It was awful.”

Jamie coo’d at her, and Elle described all the stupid things Guerin had put her through that afternoon, up to and including him calling her out for being on a first name basis with three of the Wings players. She’d deadpanned that she’d known them for four years and they had asked her to use their first names but Guerin still scolded her.

He’d had a notebook, too, to take notes on her behavior.

It had made her furious. And nervous. But more furious.

Jamie listened patiently. By the time she was done ranting she was too keyed up to even think about sexy times over Skype. She really just wanted to curl up with him. Which reminded him. “I won’t be able to come down next week, either. I’m in mandatory classes the whole time the Canucks are gone.”

“Classes?” He frowned again. “For what?”

“Courtesy and hospitality classes. I had to go through all of this almost a decade ago. I have to re-up my certification I guess.”

Jamie looked totally deflated through the web cam and he unsuccessfully swept his hair back from his eyes. He seemed almost as upset about this situation as she felt. That was comforting at the very least. After a long moment of staring down Jamie’s disappointment, she let out a weighty sigh. “I’m sorry. I was really looking forward to seeing you in a few days.”

He tried for a reassuring smile. “It’s okay. I’ll just have to sneak back up there sometime soon.”

That got a laugh out of her at least. She felt better by the second as he slowly talked her out of her sadness.

She wasn’t grinning when she finally fell asleep but she wasn’t quite so angry any more.

-------

Jamie was still thinking about Elle having to bail on her visit when he was called into Nill’s office the next afternoon. Practice that day had been a little rough; he’d been up late canceling plans for Elle and then had laid in bed, checking their schedules once more for some simultaneous free time.

There was nothing. No time when he’d have a couple days or she’d have a couple days. It was so late in the season that even when he had three off, he knew there’s be practice and meetings.

Nill gestured for him to enter and take a seat. He was surprised to see Coach there as well. This couldn’t be good.

“Benny, thanks for coming up.” Nill leaned forward, like he always did when he was about to monologue. Jamie gave his a slightly confused smile because when you were called to the GM’s office, you went to the GM’s office.

“Um, thanks for having me, I guess. What can I help with?”

Coach said nothing as Nill detailed the last ten games for Jamie. He’d known he’d been on a slump since they’d come back from the All Star Break but he supposed he hadn’t really thought too much about how bad it was. He’d been pointless in four of the last five outings. Not unusual for a player, but Jamie was a points guy. Besides being the captain, and fighting from time to time, his purpose on the ice was to get the points.

“Now, I understand every player slows down production every once in a while, that’s normal. What’s not normal is how distracted you’ve been lately, and I think that probably has a lot to do with the drop in points in the last month.”

Jamie felt his heart freeze in his chest. Because he knew he’d been distracted. He plead with Nill mentally not to say anything about women. About Elle.

“It’s come to our attention that you were in Vancouver last week.”

This was it, he thought. He’d been caught and they were going to strip him of his captaincy and send him down to Allen.

Jordie was right. He was going to end up in the CHL. He started to come up with excuses, shifting uncomfortably. He had to visit his parents. There’d been an emergency at his summer house. He’d needed to fly up there and kick the shit out of Bieksa for their last game because did they see that hit?

“Benny, relax.” Coach’s voice sounded a lot calmer than his expression looked when Jamie dared glance at Ruff. “We get it. Trust us, we do. We were both 25 year old hockey players once.” He couldn’t even begin to imagine what either Nill or Couch had looked like at his age. He didn’t really want to. “And, we know this is the first time you’ve ever allowed yourself this sort of . . . distraction.”

There was that word again. Jamie was starting to hate it because they were all talking around a person, a grown-ass amazing woman. He was almost offended on her behalf.

“And, given that this is the first time, we’re willing to let this slide. As long as this doesn’t happen again. Do you understand?” Nill spoke this time. Although his words seemed friendly there was a distinctly sharp edge to them. Jamie didn’t know whether to be affronted or cry with relief. He wasn’t going anywhere. Not yet. Not so long as he could keep his head in the game.

He nodded dumbly and stood when the other two men did. They shook his hand and wished him a good game that night and sent him on his way. He was 80% numb as he wound his way down to the player parking lot. It was deserted, the team long gone for their game-day afternoon routines. Jamie didn’t even think about where he was driving and his heart was set by the time he pulled into Segs’ driveway.

Segs was, predictably, playing video games. Jamie could hear the sounds of the Xbox as soon as he opened the front door. He wasn’t really expecting the female voice to cry out in frustration and the sounds of a short tussle.

Fucking Segs. Messing around with a girl the very fucking day Jamie gets called out for stealing time for Elle. Time that was shared with the world because of Segs. He was frowning hard when he rounded the corner through the ridiculous receiving room and discovered the tussle had, in fact, turned into a make-out session.

“You should really save it for the game Segs. Don’t want to waste all that energy.” Damn, he sounded cold. The girl shrieked and practically jumped away from Segs. Segs himself was rolling his eyes and straightening his shirt when he leaned up from the couch.

“You’re cheery Benny. Oh, no Therese, come back. I promise he won’t hurt you. He’s just a grumpy old man.”

Now Jamie’s eyebrows hit his hairline. He actually knew Therese. Therese was the last girl Segs had wined and dined then dumped without a second glance. She was looking flustered, her normally light-copper skin pale under his gaze. Jamie leaned against the door jam. From what Segs had said, this girl had gone through hell because of him and now she was back.

She gathered her purse and her shoes quickly, pushing past Jamie. He muttered out a hello which she didn’t return, before his stare shot straight to the blond on the couch. Segs just smiled like the cat that got the canary. “You know. I really like you. You are absolutely my best friend in this town aside from Jordie. But I sort of want to kick your ass right now.”

Segs’ smile faltered at Jamie’s tone. “What? Why? Because of Therese? We talked things out, made it really clear that we were both just sort of in it for the sex. And I’m sorry I was getting it on before a game. All your hints and stories from Vancouver get me going. Elle is a beautiful woman.”

Jamie’s fingernails bit half-moon cuts on his palms as he commanded his feet to stay put. To not stalk across the fucking room and flatten Segs. He took a deep breath, letting his hands relax. There was nothing to be gained with anger at Segs. Segs hadn’t meant to spill Jamie and Elle’s secret. He hadn’t meant to hurt Therese the first time and Segs would make an effort the second time around not to hurt her again. He wasn’t a gentleman but he wasn’t a god damned asshole. Not usually at any rate.

With that thought, Jamie deflated and walked to the couch. His whole body slumped into the soft cushions and he covered his face.

“Oh, shit. Something else happened. Is it Elle? She’s okay right?” Jamie could hear Segs digging around for his cell, probably to see if she’d texted him at all.

His voice was muffled, mouth still covered by his palms. “Nill and Coach had a talk with me today about ‘distractions’.” He did raise his hands to make quotation marks. Segs’ was giving him a wide-eyed and panicked look.

“Oh, fuck. That’s not a good thing.”

“No Segs. No its not.”

He felt Segs grip his bicep tightly, trying to comfort him. “I am so sorry. I never meant to tell anyone. I didn’t even think anyone in the front office would find out. Dude. I am so so sorry.” Jamie patted his friend’s hand, relieved when it fell away. It was nice of Segs to apologize but really, if anyone was to blame it was Jamie himself for going to Vancouver in the first place.

“Well, what did they say? You’re not going anywhere, right? This is the first time you’ve ever so much as stepped a toe out of line. You’re not a constant fuck-up like me.” Jamie rolled his eyes at that last statement. Segs fucked up in Boston. Segs would never fuck up in Dallas, not hockey wise, so long as Jamie was around. He wouldn’t allow it.

“No, it was just a verbal warning. A strong, fucking terrifying verbal warning. But just that.” He sighed deep and looked at Segs for guidance. “What the fuck am I going to do? I can’t not think about Elle. She’s always everywhere. When I wake up I think about how she’s not in my bed. When I make food I think about how I only have to cook for one. When I take a shower-“

“Alright, enough. I get it. You’re already stupidly codependent.” Tyler was laughing as he waved Jamie’s diatribe short. “But it’s only been a month. Maybe just scale it back. Just a little. Until the season ends.” Jamie huffed. He’d had that thought on the way over there. It was not a pleasant thought. “Hey, four months max. And you can win her the Cup and then tell her to move her happy ass down here so this doesn’t happen again.”

Jamie was once again struck with the feeling of being affronted or wanting to cry. “Sounds easy enough.”

Segs grinned, quick and brilliant. “Absolutely.”

Jamie held his gaze. “And how the fuck am I going to tell Elle?”

Segs didn’t have a response for that one though. His smile fell away and he looked away. How the fuck indeed.

Notes

See! Regular updates again! I'm just gonna start apologizing now for the next three chapters or so.