Ride (Reposted)

February 2013

Emily walked out of the gun range after blowing off some steam. All she had done is do coffee runs all afternoon, that's not what interns do. Interns learn and eventually do things on their own.

It was payback for taking a week off to go back to the East Coast for her grandmothers funeral.
That's when she bumped into a solid figure. Furrowing her brows she almost muttered 'watch it' but then she looked up and she saw the same set of brown eyes she met almost a month ago.

Mr. Dallas Stars himself, Jamie Benn.

She did some digging.

"Jamie?" She smiled up at him.

"Emily? What are you doing here?" He asked her.

He remembered her name.

"Blowing off some steam. Rough week at work, you?"

Jamie shrugged, "Just shootin a couple of skeets with the guys."

"Winds good today. It's a perfect day for skeet." Emily fiddled with her fingers, trying not to look nervous.

"Yeah, that's why we decided to come. You like to shoot skeet?"

"Yeah, but I'm more of a rifle, .30-30 Winchester and bow kind of girl. Shotguns are no good for moose."

"There's a back story to this." Jamie blushed, he looked just as nervous.

"I'm just a girl who likes to hunt. And fish. 'Murica." She made the Rock and Roll hand sign.

That rendered a laugh out of him.

"I'd uhh, like to, uhh, get to know you a little bit better. If that's okay with you."

What was this? The confident hockey player she met in a night club was actually super shy and nervous to talk to girls.

"Yeah. Absolutely. Here's my phone, feel free to put you're number in." She dug her phone out of her purse, handing it to him.

"Can I uhh, text you anytime?"

"Absolutely. Your buddies are waitin for ya. I'll text you my number back." She nodded her head in their direction.

"Okay. I'll, um, talk to you later I guess." He smiled.

"Yeah for sure! It was good seeing you." She grinned.

He waved to her, "Yeah it was good."

She gave him a quick wave before retreating to her car, sliding in and texting Reese right away; "ran onto Hockey McDallas Stars, got number! Score for me!"
Reese quickly responded back with a winky face.

Emily made sure to text Jamie with her name. Hopefully he would respond and want to do something this evening later on as he did have a game tomorrow.

***

Jamie sat in a booth in Kenichi, waiting for Emily to show up.

He was surprised that she had agreed to do something so soon. After finding out her last name he couldn't help himself but find her on Facebook but found it was locked up tight, besides for her current city listing as Montreal, Quebec and her hometown being listed as Lahr, Germany. And her profile picture was that of a group of girl all bundled up with snowboards, and her
banner picture was of a Gilbert rugby ball.

Seeing her come up the side of the table she slide in across from him.

She had changed out of her sharp dark red dress with a zipper all the way down the back to a pair of black jeans with the knees ripped out, cowboy boots and a white t-shirt and a blazer. And her long thick hair that was up in a tight bun earlier was down in waves.

"Hey how's it goin? How was skeet shootin?" She asked, her eyes lighting up.

"It was good. You were right the wind was perfect." He smiled at her.

"Sorry it took so long to get down here, my cab driver was an idiot, even when I spoke to him in his native language."

"That's fine. What language was that?"

He was interested. They bantered a bit over text earlier, he felt comfortable.

She rolled her eyes then smiled, "Arabic. What's good here?"

He was dumbfounded. Most people around here spoke Spanish, but not Arabic. He didn't even know anyone that spoke it until now.

"Everything's good. And you speak Arabic?"

"Yeah. I can read and write it too." She answered like it was nothing.

"Are you fluent in anything else?"

"Farsi, which is Iranian Persian, French, English obviously, Greek and I know a small bit of German. You?"

He needed to make sure his jaw wasn't on the table, "A little bit of German and French, enough to get by for conversations. I played in Germany for three months before Christmas. And learned French in school obviously.

"Ahh, right. The good old lock out, fuck you Bettman." She laughed, her laugh was infectious.
"So you know." He stated as she looked over her menu.

"When you're picture is plastered everywhere. It's not hard to notice. And the missing tooth gave it away, nice to see you got that fixed." She winked.

"Fair enough. How do you know so many languages?"

"Well, that's funny actually. My mom is Persian, she actually moved to Canada when she was 4 before things started to get bad again in Iran, so her first language is Farsi, then Arabic then English. My dads Greek and Scottish, so that's how I learned Greek is from his side. And french from school, and living in Montreal."

"And the German?" He asked, in German, she smiled.

"I was born there." She responded in German.

"Born?" He had to switch back to english. Mind blown.

"Yeah in Lahr, dad was stationed there when I was born then we moved to Greenwood when I was like a year old. Just decided to learn a little bit of it. It's an easy language."

"Compared to Arabic yeah. Where's Greenwood? Sorry for all the questions."

"Nova Scotia. It's a blink and you'll miss it military town. And it's fine. You'll get yours after."

"Okay," he laughed, "military brat. Where else have you lived?"

"Greenwood for five years, Charleston, South Carolina for another 6, back to Greenwood for a year and Charleston for another one and then to Trenton, in Ontario, I go to McGill that's why I lived in Montreal."

Smart, Gorgeous, multi-lingual, multi-cultural, world traveller, Canadian, country girl, is there anything this girl couldn't be?

"And you ended up in Dallas?"

"Yeah, I'm an intern at Fossil. Marketing major, I also intern in the Merchandising department. What about you, what's your story?" She asked as the waitress came up to the table.

They ordered food quickly before resuming back to their conversation.

"Umm, just an average Canadian upbringing I guess, played hockey since I was like 4. Baseball too. No interesting heritage. Pretty boring. BC born and raised." He shrugged.

"Any siblings?"

"Two older. Jordie and Jenny. Jordie actually plays down in Austin, and was called up. Thats who I was with earlier with some of my teammates. You?"

"One younger. Alex. So your the baby."

"Yeah. Ever been to Victoria?"

"No actually. I was going to intern at Lululemon in Vancouver but this was a better offer. I'd love to go."

"This summer you should come out. That is if you want."

"I'd love to. I can probably miss a few games and take time off work."

"Games?"

"Yeah I play for the Peterborough Pagans rugby club. Sometimes I play soccer too. Haven't since high school."

"Are you insane?"

"Slightly." She grinned.

They talked more over dinner, learning about each other. He was glad she never went home with him as a quick fuck or some honey he pulled along for the season. Because he really liked her.

He liked that she protested footing the bill, wanting to pay for half at least.

"You don't have to take a cab home. I can drive you." He suggested pointing at his truck.

"No. I'm all the way in Richardson, you don't have to go out of your way." She shrugged, dialling on her phone.

"You took a cab from Richardson?"

"Yeah." She acted like it was no big deal, "I've taken longer cab rides."

"I'm driving you home. What's your address."

She bit her lip and got a look in her eye like she was debating on saying something. The look drove him wild.

"Okay, Mr. Grey." She laughed.

He didn't get the reference.

"Should I even ask?" He looked at her side ways.

"50 Shades of Grey. You haven't read it?"

It all made sense.

"Really? My mom read that." He shuddered.

"Yeah. I did. I wanted to see what all the hype was about. No shame." She got out between giggles, "I think every woman read it."

"That's gross. My trucks over here."

"If it makes you feel better I didn't get off on it. It was horrible." She tried to comfort him as she followed him to his truck.

He stopped and gave her a side glance again, she had a devious look in her eye.

"Right. That's what they all say." He shook his head, "your a reader?"

"I love reading. I can sit for hours and just read. You?"

"No I can't read." He deadpanned, he rendered her speechless. "I'm joking. Just like sports magazines and shit. Something you do on a rainy day?"

"When it's raining I'm usually in the mud, but since I moved to Montreal it's more so been like that." She called over his Escalade.

He waited for her to climb in the passengers side before asking "you go to mud bogs and what not?"

"Yeah! I friggen love the mud bogs. You go to them back home? And in rugby we get a little dirty. Soccer too."

"Despite the rain we get on the Island I don't think we have them. I usually golf in the summers. You golf?"

"I guess you're going to have to come out to Ontario and I'll take you to the Augusta mud bogs. And my boobs are too big to golf."

He couldn't help but take a quick glance at her chest. They were quite large, he wouldn't mind doing things to them.

The drive to her apartment was a little bit quieter, her letting out the occasional yawn.

He pulled up in front of an apartment complex, turning the truck off as he turned to face her as she undid her seatbelt.

"I guess this is me." She smiled.

"Yeah. I had fun." He smiled back.

"Me too." She bit her lip.

He liked it when she bit her lip.

He wanted to kiss her. He just didn't know if it was appropriate, so he thought he should make light of the situation last time they met. "Do you still not kiss random boys in night clubs?"

This made her laugh.

"No, I don't kiss random boys in nightclubs I don't know. But if said boy in his truck right now wants to kiss me he can." The fire in her eyes said everything.

He licked his lips before holding her face in his hands, she wasn't waiting so she pressed her lips against his.

They were so soft, and tasted like strawberries. He bit her bottom lip asking to let his tongue in. Which she obliged too.

Her tongue fought with his as he felt her fingers lace through his long hair. It was the best one he had in a long time. Since Kacey, even then she was everything Kacey wasn't and he had known her properly for maybe eight hours.

He didn't know how long they sat there kissing for, but after a while she pulled away. Her face red and a sheepish smile on her face. He knew he had the same look on his face.

"Don't be a stranger Jamie Benn." She said quietly.

"I won't be Emily Rankin." He said back.

She smiled at him once more before giving him a quick kiss on the cheek, sliding out of the truck and walking up to the entrance of the door and giving him a quick wave before disappearing inside.

He started the truck back up and pulled away, heading back downtown, on cloud nine.

Notes