Don't Let Me Down

Aria rubbed her eyes with her hands and yawned, knowing that she should have ordered the larger coffee that morning. She pulled up her sweater sleeve to check the time on her watch and saw that the game had to be ending soon. Any minute now the crowd would come out of the Garden into the cold New York air, ready to buy some more hot chocolate. Quickly, she glanced up at the screen that was outside of the arena to check the current score. The Rangers were playing Pittsburgh, and she knew that there was always some tension whenever these two teams faced off. However, she smiled when she saw that the Rangers led the Pens 3-0, with seconds left in the third period. She reached behind her head and pulled her hair out of the loose bun, her golden curls falling to frame her face. She clapped her hands to round up the girls and alert them that the crowd would be coming back.

“Alright, girls. The game is almost over so the people will be coming out again. I counted the money you worked hard for before and we still need $700 to have all we need to go to Washington D.C.”

The girls all started jumping up and down and Aria did her best to hide her true feelings, as she knew that reaching the goal after the game would be tough. Fans leaving the Garden all dispersed in different directions, and their pre-game adrenaline was replaced with running to catch a train or a cab. She knew she’d likely have to lay out the rest of the balance for the trip, and a dance teacher living in Manhattan had little spare cash. In the end, she’d always do it for the girls.

Just as she suspected, crowds of people began coming out of the Garden, mostly with large smiles on their faces. A few people wandered over to their hot chocolate stand, buying a few cups and tossing some bills into their collection jar. Every time this happened, the girls would break out into a dance and Aria couldn’t help but laugh. She saw the money piling up as she saw the crowd dying down. As the last few fans exited the arena, one or two bought some hot chocolate and were on their way. Aria took the jar in front of her and began to count the newest addition, hoping her chunk of the bill would leave some room for rent money. She bit her lip and saw that the girls had miraculously collected about $400, meaning she’d have to foot the other $300. She told the girls but didn’t mind much, since they had worked so hard to get to D.C.

They began packing up when some of the players began to exit the Garden in their normal clothes, freshly showered, and off to celebrate the win against the Pens. The girls continued to jump around, singing some random pop song that made Aria shake her head. She was about to fold up the table when she saw one of the guys approaching her. It was Mats Zuccarello, the same one who had snuck up on her when she was on the ice before. She watched as he whispered something to Derick Brassard, waving him away. Brassard looked confused, but turned and walked away anyway. Mats walked over to Aria and smiled, his face lighting up immediately.

“Hey, you’re the girl from the ice. Guess you weren’t lost after all.”

He reached out his hand to greet her as he spoke up again, “I’m Mats--”

“Zuccarello. I know.”

It came out colder than she had anticipated, so Aria cracked a tiny smile. She could feel a slight blush fill her cheeks and she reached out to shake his hand, embarrassed. He could sense her slight discomfort and bit his lip slightly, his light eyes meeting hers. Mats ran a hand through his damp hair and looked at the sign on the table, curious.

“What are you doing out here, anyway?”

Somehow, the girls hadn’t noticed Aria talking to Mats. They continued to pick up the remaining cups and napkins, talking about all the things they would see in Washington D.C. She stared at them for a moment before looking back up at Mats.

“Well, I teach dance. The girls got invited to a competition in Washington D.C. so we were raising money to go by selling hot chocolate before and after the game. Thought we could compete with the obscene Madison Square Garden concession prices.”

Aria was surprised to see that he looked genuinely interested in what she was saying. He smiled and moved just a little closer to her.

“Well, I can’t fight you on that one. Their prices are insane. How did the sale go?”

At this point, the girls had noticed that Aria wasn’t paying attention to them and was instead talking to who they thought was a strange man. They all began to gather around the two.
“Well, we’re about $300 short of what we need. So, I’ll pay the difference and we’re good to go.”

Mats nodded his head and reached into his back pocket, retrieving his wallet. He took out a couple of bills and went to hand them to Aria. She gave him a confused look and shook her head.

“I can’t accept that.”

Mats nodded his head and instead turned to the younger girls, knowing that they would have no problem accepting it.

“So you guys want to go to Washington D.C.?”

They immediately started jumping up and down and nodding their heads. Mats handed them the money and they put it in the jar before hugging each other and dancing around in circles. Aria shook her head in disbelief, walking a few feet away from the girls and waving Mats over to join her.

“Do you always carry $300 with you?”

He laughed as he put his wallet back into his pocket, before looking at Aria.

“I don’t. But I sure am glad I had it today.”

Still skeptical of his motives, Aria crossed her arms over her chest and tried to put on the toughest face she could.

“Don’t you have some team celebration at a bar to attend?”

Mats moved even closer to Aria, and her heart began to beat faster. She mentally cursed her body for falling for his moves. Though he was only 5’7”, he still managed to hover over Aria at a height of five feet.

“I do. But there’s always time for a detour with a pretty girl.”

Aria shook her head and couldn’t help but laugh at the comment, wondering how many girls before her had heard the same thing.

“You say that to all the girls?”

Mats shook his head and once again looked into her eyes.

“Only the dance teachers.”

Aria rolled her eyes and went to move back over to the girls, but Mats kept talking.
“You should come to the bar.”

She spun around and looked at him. He actually looked nervous to her, and for a minute, she seriously considered it.

“I have to wait for the girls’ parents to come get them, so I could be a while.”

Aria exhaled a deep breath, not wanting to scare him off, but also not wanting to lead him on. He just gave her that big smile and shrugged.

“I can wait with you if you’d like.”

Honestly, Aria didn’t know what to think. She was about to tell him he didn’t have to stay when parents started showing up. It was fine until some hockey-loving fathers showed up, coming over to Aria and Mats. Lily’s father walked over with a huge smile on his face.

“Aria, you never mentioned that you were friends with the top-scoring Ranger.”

She opened her mouth to correct him, but Mats had already reached out his hand and was introducing himself. He began to sign autographs and Aria chuckled. She always thought autographs were a silly gesture. She stood awkwardly as the two men continued to talk, but when she looked over at them, she saw that Mats’ eyes were locked on her. She turned and immediately started fidgeting with the hot chocolate table. They were officially closed for business after Zuccarello’s generous donation. Finally, all of the parents seemed to disperse with their daughters, but not before getting some autographs and pictures. Aria rolled her eyes and packed the rest of the stuff up, getting ready to leave.

Mats came over and helped Aria with the last few items.

“So now that the parents are gone, are you going to come to the bar with me?”

Aria had to commend his persistence. She draped her bag over her shoulder and walked closer to him, only half-certain about what she was about to say.

“I already have plans with my roommate tonight.”

Mats put his hand over his heart and scoffed, but in a friendly manner. He nodded and started to walk away from the Garden with Aria. They got to a point where they were going in different directions and Aria turned to face him.

“Bye, Zucc.”

He bit his lip and ruffled his hair before replying.

“Can I see you again sometime? It seems a little unfair that you know my last name, but I don’t know yours.”

All Aria did was spin around and walk away, only leaving him with a big smile as she took off down the busy Manhattan avenue.

Notes

Chapter 2! I'm really liking this so far and I hope you are too.

I put them against the Pens because I have a soft spot for them. If you do too, you should check out my Kris Letang story.

Let me know what you're thinking! Likes, dislikes, say hi.

xo - Erin