It was another day, another early morning. I couldn't wait to get back to my apartment and crash but I wasn't even half way through my day. I sighed and showed Nikki how to do her solo for the fourth time today. I was growing tired of redoing the same part over and over with her. I was ready for her hour to be up and when it was, I sent her home but not before I told her that I’d pull her solo if she didn’t practice it more. We never did competitions which is why I was being hard on my girls, granted the competition was against the whole studio, and was practice for the main team but my girls were excited none the less but I wasn’t about to let them make a fool of me in front of Abby and the whole studio. I took a deep breath and started to clean the studio up. I still had my group practice in an hour but until then I had nothing. I looked up at the clock, 45 minutes until the girls would start showing up. I sighed and rubbed the back of my neck, which was stiff from all the stress. I heard the studio door open and I turned around to yell at whoever it was but the words caught in my throat when I saw James standing there.

“Hey, the girl at the front desk told me I could find you here,” He said with a smile.

I bit my lip, “What are you doing here, James?”

“Well,” James started. “I haven’t seen you in over a week. I thought you were avoiding me.”

I rolled my eyes, the Penguins had been out of town for the last week, so how was I supposed to see him, “It’s two way street, James. You could have easily have tried to see me.”

“I was out of town,” He mumbled looking down. “I was hoping you’d let me take you out for lunch.”

I looked up at the clock and sighed, “I can’t, sorry. I have a class soon, plus you still have to earn that.”

“Look, I’m not asking you out, well I am, but what I want right now is to get to know you, as a friend and if something comes out of it then fine,” James said with a sigh. “I’m not asking you to fuck me, just get to know me.”

I smiled, “Fine, how about this, I get out of here after my next class, why don’t we do a quick dinner before the Pens game, my friend wants me to come tonight because I’m actually free.”

“You’re going to the Penguins game tonight?” James asked as his face paled.

I smiled at his reaction, “Yea, Vero has being dying for me to go for weeks, but school and work have kept me busy.”

“Vero as in Marc-Andre’s girl?” He asked his eyes narrowing.

I bit my lip, “Yea, do you follow hockey? I could get you tickets for tonight. It’s bound to be a good game, and I finally get to see the new guys play.”

“I don’t need tickets,” He mumbled.

I laughed and shook my head, “I know.”

“What?” James asked confused. “You know what?”

I rolled my eyes, “That you are James Neal, number 18 of the Pittsburgh Penguins. You play Winger, and the night I met you was the day after you first game as a Penguin and you most likely were washing clothes to pack for the road trip that you just came back from. You played for Dallas before being traded to the Penguins with Matt Niskanen.”

“You knew who I was when we met?” He asked while his brows furrowed. “Why did you act like you didn’t?”

I sighed, “Because I figured you deserved a moment where not everyone was down your throat about being traded. I thought you could use a breather. I’m sorry, I should have told you that I knew who you were, I was just trying to give you a break.”

“I appreciate the thought,” James said with a laugh. “But I was going insane trying to figure out how to break the fact that I’m a hockey player to you. It’s refreshing to know that I don’t have to now.”

I nodded, ‘But don’t think that I’m going to treat you any different. You’re still just James to me, my neighbor and I’m still going to give you a hard time, just ask Staal, he’ll tell you.”

“I wouldn’t expect anything different from you,” He said with a small smile. “I’m going to go but I’ll be back in a few hours for that dinner, you owe me, until then.”

I watched him leave with a smile on my face there was something different about James Neal. I couldn’t place it right now but something about him made a smile spread across my face and my heart beat a little faster. It wasn’t something I felt since Adam, and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to feel it again. I shook my head and started setting up for my class. I pushed all thoughts of James Neal as my girls entered to start the class because nothing was more important than dance, right

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