PART TWELVE: POST GAME JITTERS
(PATRICK’S P.O.V.)
Once we were back in the locker room, Coach had some good things to say to us. He seemed to be proud that we were able to pull things together after such a rough second period and he felt pretty good about the win. I got the belt, which was pretty cool. All I really wanted was to be able to enjoy the win and have some time to mentally prepare myself for my visit with Destiny. However, I had barely even been able to get off all my padding before the media began making their way in. That was how it always was. And to make things worse, with my game winner, more people surrounded me than usual. Oh well. I was very accustomed to situations like that.
I was drilled with questions for a while, but eventually the reporters and cameras cleared out, and I knew it was time to see Destiny. I sent her a text saying it was alright for her and her friends to head back to the locker room, and she replied right away with an ‘okay’.
“You ready? You seem a little nervous, there, Kaner,” Toews said, noticing I wasn’t acting quite right.
“Does it show?” I asked, a little disappointed when he nodded yes. “All those reporters probably thought I was crazy. I haven’t acted weird like that around them in years, but all I could think about was her. What’s wrong with me?”
“Bitches, man.” Carcillo must have been eavesdropping. That or he just picked a very convenient time to make such a comment. “Hey, I’m just playing. She’s a nice girl. You have my approval,” he stated, just to make sure I didn’t take it the wrong way. He gave me a really cheesy thumbs up and walked away.
(DESTINY’S P.O.V.)
That was it, the Hawks had won! Even with the not so fun second period, I had really enjoyed the game, and so had my parents and friends. They still didn’t act nearly as excited as Kara, Shantelle, and I, but I knew they were happy. They couldn’t hide their smiles.
Once the game was over, my parents decided to leave. They most likely headed straight back to the hotel, but they told me to text or call when we were done at the UC so one of them could come to pick us up. I was told to try to get the visit done quickly so we could get back as soon as possible, but I doubted that would happen. I wouldn’t miss out on another chance to hang out with the Hawks.
Kara, Shantelle, and I waited around at the UC for a while for me to get a text from Kaner. I was very impatient, as usual, but we found ways to pass the time. I saw a text from Kane pop up on my phone before we could get too bored, and I sprang up from where I was sitting.
“Leggo!” I declared.
“Hold on, I’m about to beat my high score!” Shantelle answered, playing something on her phone.
“Ain’t nobody got time for that, let’s go!” I retorted, stealing her phone from her. She seemed annoyed at first, but as we headed back down to the now familiar locker room, she quickly got over it. When we got to the hallway, we ran into Alecia. She actually caught me off guard. I had almost forgotten that she worked here at the UC with the team.
“Oh, hey Alecia!” I greeted her with a smile.
“Hey guys! Patrick, Andrew, and Jonathan are expecting you. Go ahead and go in,” she answered, running off somewhere. She seemed busy. The whole area did. I figured it was always pretty chaotic before and after games.
We all headed into the locker room and I spotted Patrick right away. I tried to be social and say hi to everyone, but he started walking my way as soon as he saw me and he didn’t really give me a chance to talk to anyone else first. I honestly didn’t really mind, though.
“Hey there game winner!” I told him, embracing him as soon as I could.
“Hi,” he answered, almost shyly, squeezing me tight.
“Good game. Honestly,” I said as I pulled away.
“Thanks. I hope you had fun.”
“I definitely did. I love it here. I’m really glad I got to come to see you play. Well, and to see you in general.” I guessed that my cheeks were probably red like they always seemed to be when I was around him.
“Me too. I actually wanted to ask you something,” Patrick answered. Was he nervous? He seemed to be. This made me hopeful. I figured whatever he had to say was important, and I found myself getting a little nervous too.
“Okay. Ask away,” I said, trying to be cool.
“Well, I know we didn’t get a chance to talk much about it yesterday, but I really like you, and I’d like to get to know you better. I know we both have pretty busy lives, but I’d definitely be willing to try to make something work with you.”
“Okay,” I said, not sure what else to say. The more he talked, the weirder my stomach felt. The butterflies inside it were multiplying with every word that came out of Patrick’s mouth.
“So, would you be interested in having the game winner as a boyfriend?” There was that perfect smile. “I promise I’ll take you out on an awesome first date if you say yes,” he added. Okay, so apparently he was asking me out. My heart and stomach could barely handle all of it.
“Well I don’t see how I could pass up an offer like that,” I grinned.
“So is that a yes?” he wondered, wanting confirmation.
“You tell me,” I said, and I grabbed him and kissed him.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” he said, pulling away for a moment. I thought maybe it was over, but he proved me wrong and continued to kiss me. For a moment, I forgot that we were in the middle of a crowded locker room full of hockey players. I think Patrick did too.
“Get some, Kaner!” I heard someone yell. It was enough to remind us that we weren’t alone and we broke apart, smiling.
“Shut up you guys. You know, you really should be nice to me and my girlfriend,” Patrick announced. Everyone turned to face us. Sometimes I hated having all eyes on me, but I was really happy to be shown off to everyone as Kane’s girl. Most of his teammates came up to him telling him congrats on getting the girl.
“Wait, so you actually agreed to date this freak?” Tazer asked me, pretending to be astonished.
“Yeah, I did!” I replied to him. We both laughed. The team seemed very welcoming to me. They must have liked me quite a bit after hanging out with me at my party. I couldn’t complain. I was just glad my nerves were gone. Only for a split second, though, because Kara, Shantelle, and I weren’t the only ones who were visiting players. Parents and other family members soon started making their way in, and sure enough, Kane’s parents came in.
“Mom and Dad, I’d like you to meet my girlfriend, Destiny,” Patrick said to them, introducing me.
“Hi Mr. and Mrs. Kane. It’s nice to meet you!” I said, shaking their hands. I felt so intimidated. I had seen his parents before, and from what I could tell, they both were really nice and easy to get along with, but I had always felt that way meeting the parents.
“The pleasure’s ours, sweety, but you can call me Donna,” Patrick’s mom said.
“We’ve already heard so much about you. Pat couldn’t keep his mouth shut today or yesterday,” Patrick Sr. told me, and I caught his son blushing.
“Really? I hope he said good things about me,” I said.
“He said nothing but good things about you. We’re really glad we’ve been able to meet you so quickly, because you’ve made our son very happy already,” Donna Kane explained.
After another minute or two, I let Patrick talk to his parents so I could talk to my friends. Quite a bit had just happened that we needed to discuss.
“I hear the wedding bells already!” Kara remarked, and I rolled my eyes.
“Wedding bells? I’ve only been his girlfriend for a couple minutes, I think we should probably take it a little slower than that!” I answered.
“Well hey, it didn’t look like you were taking it all that slow a second ago!” Shantelle told me.
“Yeah, really. I don’t even have to ask you this time, you for sure had some tongue action,” Kara decided. Hey, it was an exciting moment. The last time we had been in the locker room together, we had been alone. It was perfectly reasonable for us to forget that we weren’t alone the second time around. Or at least, that was what I told myself.
“Oh, I’m sure you and Johnny will get some tongue action soon, too. Then I can yell at you for not taking things slow,” I said, and Kara scanned the room for Tazer to make sure he hadn’t heard my comment. “The same goes for you and Shaw, Shantelle. I’ve got my eye on you two!” I added, quieter this time. It didn’t really matter, though. Nobody was listening to us. Everybody was busy visiting with their families, girlfriends, and wives.
Before too much longer, everyone was pretty much ready to leave. I had received a worry text from my mother already, so I figured the timing was pretty good. I began saying my goodbyes to the Hawks, but when I got to Shaw, I was stopped by my new boyfriend.
“Don’t say bye to him and Tazer yet,” Patrick said, speaking to not only me, but Kara and Shantelle as well.
“We were wondering if you guys wanted to go get ice cream with us. It’ll be our treat,” Shaw said.
“That sounds great, actually,” Shantelle answered, and Kara and I nodded. None of us could pass up free ice cream.
“But wait, both of the cars are at the hotel,” I realized, speaking to Shantelle and Kara.
“You guys don’t need cars, you can ride with us. Just tell us which hotel you’re at when we’re done and we’ll drop you off there,” Captain Serious said. Another offer that was too good to pass up.
“Oh, okay!” Kara said. I texted my mom to tell her what was going on. It was a novel of a text, but I had a lot to tell her. Luckily she answered quickly. As unsure as she was about me dating a hockey star, she had liked him when she met him at my party, so she said she didn’t mind. She would just have to accept it and get used to it, and so would my dad. My mom told all three of us girls to be careful and to call if anything went wrong.
The guys grabbed their stuff and walked us out to their cars. We all rode separately with our guys, and it truly felt like a triple date. They all opened our doors for us and drove us to the ice cream place. When we got there, we were amazed at all the yummy flavors. I was really unsure of what to order at first, but when I saw that there was cake batter ice cream, I knew right away that I would get it.
“So, is this considered our first date?” I asked Kaner as we ate our extremely good ice cream.
“I don’t really know if it counts. I’d rather count the one that I actually plan out and put some real thought into as our first date,” he answered, stealing some of my cake batter perfection.
“Hey!” I cried, stealing a bite of his ice cream in return. He pulled his bowl closer to him after that, as if to try to defend it. “Well, even if this doesn’t count as a first date, I’m still enjoying it. Do you have any idea when our actual first date will be?” I asked.
“Sometime really soon. I promise,” he said, and I believed him. I looked over at Kara and Jonathan and then at Shantelle and Andrew. Both “couples” (they weren’t really official yet) seemed really happy. I was too. It was only the first day of this new relationship with Patrick, and I knew that I had no reason to be judging how long it would last or how good it would be or how difficult the distance could get, but I had high hopes. And besides, I was in a great place, right there in that heavenly little ice cream shop. I was happy then, with Patrick, and that was all that mattered to me.