“Hello princess!” Dennis opened the door with a big grin on his face, scooped Story up and pressed a kiss to her temple. He motioned for Patrice to come in and went ahead to the living room. Only then did he let Story down and she immediately set off to her sister’s room to play with her. Good for the two men, because Dennis could see that something wasn’t quite right.
He hadn’t seen Patrice this pissed off in ages, at least not off the ice. But right now he looked ready to murder someone, and was white as snow.
“You don’t look so chipper,” he eventually said and sat down on the sofa together with Patrice. “I take it, your talk didn’t go so well?”
“That might be an understatement.” Patrice heaved a sigh. He combed his hair back with his fingers and smiled bitterly. “I mean, at least she listened to me, but said that it wouldn’t be a good idea to go for a coffee. She’s busy, I’m busy, but in the end I’ll go visit her tomorrow after the game.”
“And how exactly is that a reason to be so pissed off?” Dennis couldn’t understand Patrice. He would get the chance to talk to her in private, spend some time with her and he was pissed off? There was definitely more to this story than he had said so far.
“Well, I’ll get to hear about my son and why she didn’t tell me about him.”
“What?” Dennis exclaimed, eyes wide from shock. “This is some kind of joke, right?”
“No, it’s not.” Patrice rubbed a hand over his face. “He looks just like me when I was a kid, so I simply asked her and she confirmed my suspicion. I really don’t know what to do or think.” He looked at Dennis like he was expecting some help. After all, he was the father of three children. “It’s really overwhelming right now.”
“Of course it is. You just went from ‘I’ll try to go out with a woman I met years ago’ to ‘I’m a Dad’. And she didn’t say why she’d never told you about the kid?”
“No. But she’ll try to explain it to me tomorrow. Lucas will stay the night at a friend’s house, so she’d got the evening to herself. That’s why I decided to drop by after the game. Otherwise it would have taken another couple of days, maybe a week, until we’d finally talk about this. The sooner we have that talk, the sooner I can start to get to know my son.”
“So, you definitely want to be a part of his life.”
“Of course I do!” Patrice leaned forward, elbows on his thighs. “It’s not the boy’s fault. Emily decided not to tell me about him, so he should get a chance to decide that for himself. And I’ll support her financially.”
“One thing is for sure, though. She’s definitely not after your money, or she would have come to you right after he was born.”
“That’s true.” Patrice nodded and thought for a moment. “He likes ice skating. He asked her if he could go ice skating on Sunday with a friend.”
“That’s one thing you’ve got in common already.” Dennis gave him a pet on the shoulder. “You’ll be a great Dad for him, don’t worry about that. You’re already really awesome with my kids or Ferry’s. They adore you.”
“Yeah… I’ll just have to wait and see what happens tomorrow after the game. Emily said that she had her reasons not to tell me, so I’m really curious what she’ll say tomorrow.”
Patrice stayed a little longer and talked to Dennis about the game the following day. He didn’t want to think about Emily anymore right now. It was confusing enough as it was. He didn’t have to spend all his time thinking about her now. At least that worked while he had company. Once he reached his own apartment, he couldn’t help but think about the situation, about Emily. Never in his life had he thought that Emily would lie to him like that. At least now he knew why she’d suddenly stopped contacting him.
He thought back to the last time they’d seen each other. It had been the morning when Emily had to go to the airport and fly back home. Emily had spent the night in his room. She’d already pecked all her belongings the previous night. He’d held on to her in bed, not ready to let her go.
“I have to catch me flight,” she’d whispered, not even struggling to get free anymore. Instead she’d turned around to kiss him once more and wrap her arms around him.
“You don’t want to go, eh?” He’d held her close, buried his nose in her hair and took a deep breath. He’d not smell her shampoo for a long time. Back then he hadn’t known that it would be years till he’d see her the next time.
“No,” she’d mumbled against his chest. “I’d much rather stay here with you.”
“I know. But I have training camp to go to and all that stuff. And you have to get back as well.” He’d lifted her head to kiss her lips. “And we’ll stay in touch, okay? I promise.”
Yeah, he’d kept that promise. She’d never promised him this, she’d just nodded and then broken off all contact, ignored his mails and whatnot.
Patrice went to what he called his ‘office’. It wasn’t really an office, just a room with a desk, chair, computer, lots of books, and boxes that contained photos and stuff. He pulled out one box and rummaged through it until he found the one framed photo he was looking for. It was a picture of him and Emily in Disney World. He was hugging her from behind, both of them were laughing. It was about a week after they’d met, and they’d gone together with their friends to Disney World, but the two of them had wandered away after some time, to spend time alone.
“Jesus,” Patrice mumbled to himself, put the photo away, put the box back in its place and went to the bathroom to take a long hot shower. He needed to stop thinking about this and get a good rest. He’d head to bed right after his shower so that he would be focused for the game the following day.
And focused he was. And still pissed off, so he played a bit more physical than usual, put all his frustration into the game. His behavior helped them win the game, because it inspired his teammates, lit them up, and made them fight along with him.
“What was up with you today?” Milan Lucic asked him after the game, a big grin on his face. “You were on fire.”
“Yeah, that’s what frustration does to you.” He wasn’t in the mood to talk to anyone, especially the media. Nobody except for Dennis knew that he had a son so far. He’d tell them soon enough, but right now he needed to accept it himself and deal with the new situation.
When he told the coach that he didn’t want to talk to the media, he was confused, but accepted it. It was very rare for Patrice to not answer questions, so he must have had a good reason. Coach Julien didn’t ask any questions, figuring that Patrice would tell him what was going on in his own time.
He took a quick shower, got dressed and grabbed his things. He gave a small nod to Dennis Seidenberg, before he headed out of the room, out of the building and to his car, so that he could drive to Emily’s house. His hair was still damp from the shower, but that didn’t matter to him. He couldn’t get there fast enough.