'in the end i was an endless night sky. empty and wishing for your stars, - JmStorm'

The rest of the night at Jamie's place had gone by uneventfully; I didn't accidentally fall asleep and stay at his house or anything like that. As great as that would have been to be honest. I left around quarter to eleven after watching some more Batman movies and having some talks with Jamie. Not about anything special, mostly me asking him about being in the NHL. And him asking me about teaching. It was nice. One of the best nights I had had in a long time.

I had just gotten back to my apartment after a morning spin class and some shopping at the nearby mall when my phone went off. I set my bags down and pulled my phone from the waistband of my spandex leggings. Seeing it was Jamie I picked up quickly.

"Hockey Star! What's up?" I greeted, moving into my living room.

Soft laughter on the other end, "I don't think I'd go that far and call him a hockey star."

My brows furrowed. Not Jamie. It dawned on me.

"I can only hope that Jamie knows you have his phone, Seggyseg," I said grinning as I sat on the couch and grabbed the converter.

"Ohh, I like that one! Seggyseg. Yeah, that's me," he said chuckling, "and no, of course he doesn't know I have his phone, there's no fun in that."

I rolled my eyes and turned on a recording of Criminal Minds, "That's true. But he might think killing you is fun, so whatever floats your boat I guess," I said with a sigh, while still smiling.

He laughed on the other end, "Jesus Christ, I do like you! Jamie said you were funny!"

"Well, Jamie said you were lazy," I said laughing.

That seemed to make him laugh even more, "Well, I guess that's how we know he wasn't lying then!"

I shook my head with a smile, "Is there a reason you sought me out?"

"Yes!" he said happily, "So, we're going out to the bar tonight after the game, win or lose. Wanna come?"

I was taken aback, was he inviting me because Jamie didn't want me to go or something? Why wouldn't Jamie invite me if he wanted me to go?

"Oh. U-um, well...I huh."

"The only reason I'm asking," he said quickly, "is I think Jamie was too nervous or something to invite you! I asked him at practice if he did and he was like, huh huh huh huh."

"Why would he be nervous?" I asked.

Tyler laughed, "Because it's you! Because all of the guys are gonna be there! He's probably afraid we'd embarrass him!"

"Or," I offered, "because Jamie and I are just friends and maybe he doesn't want me to hang around with him and his friends?"

"What?" he asked incredulously, "No, that's...no. He's just too nervous, trust."

I laughed, "Trust? I met you once in a bar and talked to you twice on the phone, donut."

"Just come to the club!" he said with a laugh in his voice, "Don't bitch and complain just do it!"

"What the fuck?" I asked laughing and resting my head on the back of couch, "You're not my boss!"

"That's what Chubbs always says!" he told me excitedly, "But tonight I am! So you be there at 10:30. I'm gonna take your number from his phone and save it mine so I'll text you!"

I shut my eyes, "I'm gonna tell Jamie all about this!"

"Yeah, well, tell him at the club tonight, Jo- hey, Jamie!" Tyler said, cutting himself off mid-sentence.

I silently laughed to myself while I listened to Jamie's muffled voice in the background, Tyler defending himself, and the phone being taken from Tyler.

"Jesus, Josie, I'm so sorry. He's...he's a complete idiot," he said apologetically.

I laughed loudly, "Jamie, stop apologizing for him! I don't mind it!"

He breathed out a small quick laugh, "I can't help but to apologize because he's dumb."

I shook my head, "Don't worry about it."

"I invited her to the club!" I heard Tyler say in the background.

"What?" Jamie asked quickly, "Just a sec, Josie," he said, "You invited her?" he asked as he covered up his phone.

I felt my stomach drop. He didn’t sound like he might have been happy. Maybe he really didn't want me to go to the club with him and his friends. I felt damn near rejected. I took a deep breath and released it slowly to calm myself down. We weren't dating, he didn't owe it to me to ask me to go anywhere with him and his friends.

I quieted my breathing as I heard Jamie move his hand away and heard Tyler chattering in the background as Jamie laughed quietly.

"Sorry about that Josie," he said, talking to me again.

"It's okay," I said quietly.

He cleared his throat, "I was gonna ask you to come out with me tonight only if we won," he told me.

"You don't need to, Jamie," I said curtly, "it's really okay. You don't owe it to me or anything."

"Just a second," he said, and I heard him move around and then it was quiet in the background, "I want you there," he stressed to me, "I just...I get really bummed when we don't win, and I just didn't want you to see me mad like that. I want you with me whenever I go out with my friends or just me or whatever."

Whoa.

"Jamie...I don't care if you're an asshole if you don't win. I'm an asshole if I lose at Skee-ball. See, now we know something new about each other," I said as he laughed, "I'm not saying you need to invite me places or anything. You don't need to. We're just friends, you know? So it's not a big deal. I was more worried you didn't want me there so I wouldn't embarrass you in front of your friends or something."

"How would you embarrass me?" he asked in disbelief, "I was more nervous that my friends would embarrass me and then you wouldn't talk to me anymore."

I grinned to myself, "Trust me Jamie, it would take a lot more than your friends to get me to stop hanging out with you."

"In that case," he said teasingly, "do you wanna come and hang around at a club with us tonight?"

I laughed a little, "I'd like that.
--
I did as Jamie had instructed, with Tyler yelling in the background, to go right to the bouncer and tell him my name and he would have someone else in security come and take me to the VIP section that some of the teams and the WAGs were at.

The club was already packed when the guard led me inside. People were everywhere. I wasn't much of a nightclub person, but I wanted to see Jamie and to really get to know his friends.

He led me to another guard that was blocking a group of people that were behind a red rope, he let me in quickly. I stood and looked at the group awkwardly before Jamie jumped up and came over to me, wrapping his arms around me in a tight hug.

"Thank-you for coming," he whispered to me.

I squeezed him tight before letting go of him, "Thank-you for inviting me."

He kept an arm around my shoulder and turned to face the group, "Everyone, this is Josie. Josie, you met most of them that night, the only difference is that the women are here too, and Antoine."

"Same thing!" Tyler called earning a laugh from the group and a shove from Antoine Roussel that was sitting next to him.

"Anyways," Jamie said as he laughed, "Sharpie and his wife Abby," he started from my left and kept going, "Cody and Heather, Jordie and Jess, Tyler and no one, Rous and Viv, Spezza and Jen, Demers and no one."

I waved to everyone as they smiled at me; Jamie led me to the seats next to Jordie and Jess, with him sitting next to Jess and me in between him and Tyler.

"Here she is!" Tyler cheered, putting his arm around me, over top of Jamie's.

"The trouble maker!" I said turning to look at him and pinching his cheek.

Tyler laughed, "Yo, I love you!"

I shook my head and faced forward again as Jamie laughed from next to me, "You're a weirdo but you're okay," I shrugged.

"Jamie, switch seats with Josie," I heard someone say. I looked and saw Jess looking up at Jamie.

"Jessica, don't freak her out!" Jordie said from next to her.

"Yeah, maybe another night, she hasn't been out with us before," Jamie told her. They didn't notice that I was listening to their conversation.

"It's okay!" I piped up, "Switch spots, Jamie!"

Jamie looked down at me quickly, "You don't have to," he told me.

I smiled up at him and felt my heart burst when he smiled warmly back at me.

"I want to; I won't know people unless I talk to them."

He squeezed my shoulder and stood up and I followed, we moved seats and sat back down.

"I'm Jessica," she said with a smile and held out her hand, "it's so nice to meet you!"

I took her hand and shook it, "Josie," I smiled as I let go of her hand, "Nice to meet you too!"

"Jamie has not. Stopped. Talking. About. You," she said, emphasising each word with a clap making me laugh.

"Yeah," Jordie chimed in, "he seriously does not shut up."

I laughed an d shrugged lightly, "I don't know what to say," I said with a laugh, "I'm sorry that he's probably bored you guys with shit about me!"

They laughed with me, "Oh please!" Jess said, "I feel like I know so much about you! And plus I'd rather hear about you rather than- ouch! Jordie!"she cried, looking over at her boyfriend who was looking at her sternly.

He gave her some sort of look but I couldn't see Jess's reaction, when she turned back she looked a little red, "Sorry, I'm happier to hear about you rather than Hockey. Every day with these boys is hockey!"

I laughed and relaxed into Jamie a bit when I felt him put his arm around me again, "Jamie is definitely way more into Hockey talk than I've ever been."

"You should come to a game and sit with us up in the box!" she told me.

"I figured she'd like sitting at the glass before sitting in the box," Jamie said from above me.

Jess scoffed making me laugh a little, "Did you even ask her?"

"Come on," Jordie said standing up, "you're getting nosey," he said as he pulled her up by her hand making me and Jamie laugh.

"It's really fine, Jordie," I promised, "Honestly, I don't mind."

"You're too nice," he told me, "Be a miserable bastard like me!" he said as everyone laugh and they disappeared into the crowd of people.

I turned so I was facing Jamie again and smiled up at him, "Do you want a drink?" he asked me.

I nodded and he leaned over and handed me a beer that was in an ice bucket on top of their table, "Thank-you," I said when he took the cap off and handed it to me.

"Were you much of a club kid in Toronto?" he asked me.

I swallowed the beer and shook my head, "Not really. I don't mind it, but it's not really my scene."

"Homebody," he stated.

I smiled and nodded, "Yeah, I mean, by the time I was club age I had been dating a guy for a few years so there really wasn't a reason to go out."

"You were already dating someone for a few years when you were 19?" he asked me, surprised.

"Yeah," I sighed, "High school shit, the usual," I said casually.

He looked at me with a small smirk, "We haven't known each other long," he said, "But I know you well enough to know when you're full of shit."

I laughed and shrugged, "What can I say?"

"What's the story?" he asked me as some of the others in the section, including Tyler filtered out.

I shrugged, "It's as cliché as they come," I told him.

"But it happened to you, so it makes it important to me," he said.

"Well," I began, as I looked up at him, "his name was Zac. We met in High School, and it was regular, ya know? Friends for a while, and then we started to date. Um, we dated through the first couple years that we were in University. And as luck would have it, he was fucking one of his professors."

"No!" Jamie yelled.

"Yes!" I yelled back, "And she was 32 and he was 20 and I couldn't understand it. I was like, what the hell? Like, do you love her or did you need to pass the class, like what's up?"

Jamie laughed, "So, as it turned out, at first it was that he needed to pass the class, but then he started to develop some feelings and so did she and blah blah blah. And yeah, he dumped me for a 32 year old mother of three."

"How did you even find out about it?" he asked shocked.

I chuckled, "Well, like I said, they started to catch feelings. So Zac sat me down and was like, listen I need to talk to you about something. And he told me and I kept asking him if he was joking, I couldn't believe that what he was telling me was true. Like to me there was no way it could be true. But it was, and he told me he was in love with her and that he needed to be with her. And that if I cared at all about his happiness that I needed to let it happen."

"How did you react, I woulda killed him!"

I smiled sadly at him, "I was in love with Zac, Jamie. I was still so in love with him then, and I couldn't...if he wasn't happy then I would rather sacrifice my happiness to make him happy, ya know? And it was hard, like, really really hard. But I just couldn't deal with him being unhappy. So he broke up with me and he was living with her within a week. He left the university and went to a college in the area so they wouldn't get in trouble."

"Are they still together?" he asked.

I nodded, "Oh yeah, that was...oh shit that was like, four years ago now. I saw photos on Facebook of her birthday party he threw for her. One of our mutual friends liked it so I saw them that way. All I want is for people to be happy. If people aren't happy being my friend or being around me, please don't be around me for my benefit, make yourself happy, ya know?"

"Do you still love him?" he asked me softly.

I breathed out a small laugh, "No," I answered bluntly, "not at all. He's not part of my life anymore, and that's okay. It took some time before I felt okay about what happened. But every single thing happens for a reason. That’s why I left Toronto and came down here. This is where I met David. We dated for a little while before I dumped him, and that's what brought me and my friends out to the karaoke bar that night where we met.

"I'm okay with every single thing that happens to me because I know that it's bringing me to a better place in my life. You can't see the stars without the darkness, you know? That's the way I choose to live my life."

"Well," he said with a small smile, "as bad as I feel for you, I'm happy that everything made you come down to Dallas. I couldn't imagine not knowing you now."

I laughed softly, "We've only known each other for almost a month now, Jamie. I don't think it's hard to remember a life before little old me," I said with a little smile.

He shrugged, "I don’t care that we haven't known each other that long," he told me, "You’re important to me."

I smiled and looked down at my legs, feeling goosebumps erupt over my skin.

"You're important to me too," I told him, looking back at him and then gently touch his arm.

We stayed like that for a few seconds. Which felt like hours. Just the two of us. No one else mattered, just me and Jamie.

"Aw, so cute," I heard.

I looked over to the entrance of our VIP area and saw Jordie come in with some of the guys behind him.

Jamie playfully threw him the finger as I moved my hand back to my lap.

"How was the dancing?" I asked smiling as Jessica sat down beside me.

"Sweaty," she said with a sigh, making me laugh, "I don't know why I even bother dancing at a nightclub."

I smiled, "Probably looking out for a better dancer than Jordie," I told her.

She started laughing and the guys looked over at us, "What happened?" Joride asked.

"Josie just called you out on your shitty dancing!" Jessica yelled to him.

The guys all joined in laughing and Jordie looked at me, "Yo, who the fuck are you?" he questioned with a small laugh.

I shrugged as he continued to laugh, "Sorry," I said innocently.

"Sure you are," he said sarcastically.

I smiled as Tyler came and sat down roughly between me and Jessica, "Man, where have you been all of Jamie's life?" he asked me, putting an arm around my shoulder.

I laughed, "Where were you for all of his life? You're the ones with the romance going on."

Tyler sighed and nodded while we all laughed, "That is true. Chubbs and I do have a bond."

I laughed and nodded, "I know, man! That's what I'm saying!"

"Yeah, and I'd appreciate you butting out of that," he said smiling.

"I just want the two of you to be happy," I sighed.

"Thank-you for giving it your blessing," Tyler said.

He and I looked at each other and began laughing.

"Y'all are fucked," Demers said from a few seats away while he laughed.

I shook my head as Tyler began joking back and forth with Demers; I turned to Jamie and smiled brightly at him.

"Having fun?" I asked him.

He smiled back at me and nodded, "And you?"

"Yeah! Your friends are great! Thank-you for inviting me after Tyler already invited me!" I said nudging him lightly with my elbow in his side.

He laughed and looked down, "I thought they would all be a bit more obnoxious than they've been! Especially since my brother is here!"

"He's with his girlfriend, he doesn't care!" I grinned, feeling my heart rate pick up when he put his hand on my thigh.

"Which I'm so happy for!" he laughed, squeezing my thigh, "You'll eventually get the stories from my mom or something."

I felt my entire body flush as soon as the sentence had come from his mouth, he didn't seem to notice how serious that was to me since he reached for his beer bottle and took a swig of it.

"You, huh...you want me to meet your mom?" I asked him.

He looked back at me with a small smile, "Well...yeah. I mean...I know we're just friends right now. But you know that I care about you and like you. I wanna see where this goes," he paused and his face changed, "Unless...unless you feel differently?"

I quickly put my hand over top of the one resting on my thigh, "Trust me, I feel the same," I told him.

He smiled down at me and kissed the top of my head, I laced our fingers together and closed my eyes and inhaled deeply in bliss.

This has been what I had been waiting for. This is what my life had been building up to. I had been hoping that one day I might find someone like Jamie and it would be magical. And I have to thank my lucky stars that every moment had brought me to that exact moment. Next to Jamie, our hands locked together, talking to each other and to the group of his friends and teammates around us. It just all felt really good, and honestly, I never wanted this feeling to go away.

Notes

Thank-you all for reading!! It means so much to me! Let me know what you think!!!!