Saturday, July 23, 2011

Chapter 9

Hello to some of my new followers, welcome! and thank you for the lovely comments... isn't it fun to have someone in a story that everyone can hate?? LOL This is kind of a short chapter... check here tomorrow and Chapter 10 till be posted by 8am ET!





It was great to be back in Toronto, especially since we had a full day off after practice before game day.  My hometown of Markham is just northeast of the city, so I headed home to spend the day with my parents.  It had been a huge change for me to move to Tampa after I was drafted into the NHL, I really hadn’t been away from my home since I played for the Sarnia Stings when I was in the OHL, I was able to commute to Newmarket, allowing me to keep a fairly normal life, unlike a lot of the other hockey kids.

“What time do you have to be back for curfew?” my Mom asked as soon as I walked into the door.

“10pm,” I sighed as she pulled me into a hug.  “I am supposed to be meeting a couple of the guys from school for dinner if it’s okay…”

Her laughter rang out happily into my ears, “Steven, you are on your own now; you don’t need to ask permission to hang out with your friends.”

I left out a laugh, “Yeah, I just didn’t know if you had any plans.”

“Nope, except for lunch on the stove,” she said with her smile that I always picture when I do something right in life.  That smile has always been there throughout my life and I couldn’t imagine it not being there.  There is only one other smile that I long for now…Liv’s.

“So what’s new?” she asked as I grabbed a glass of ice water.

I took a deep breath and said, “I’m in love.”

She stopped stirring the vegetables she was sautéing and turned around with a raised eyebrow.  “I’m assuming this just happened because you haven’t really mentioned anyone,” she said slowly, almost looking like she was debating on feeling my head for a fever.

“Well, we just basically met a week and a half ago.  She is one of Eric’s nurses; you know the little boy that Downie and I visit at the Children’s Hospital?” She nodded and I went on.  “Her name is Olivia and she’s from Leipzig, Germany.  She got involved with agency nursing and is here for 2 years…” My mom had an “I’m impressed” face on.  “She looks like a young Reese Witherspoon and has the heart of an angel,” I gushed like a teenage girl.

“But?” Mom asked, sensing something was wrong.

“She’s basically engaged to an asshole from back home.  He’s an aristocrat, and their families have essentially a standing agreement that when he finishes University, they will marry.”

“So how did you two end up in this predicament if she is already engaged?” My mom asked in her worried tone.

I left out a nervous laugh, “It’s all Downie’s fault.”  My mom just snorted and rolled her eyes.  “He’s the one that introduced us; he invited her to one of our practices and we ended up taking her out to lunch afterwards.  She didn’t have any friends because she’s still new here and the nurses at the hospital are wary of her because of her thick German accent…but the 3 of us began hanging out and well, the rest is history is guess.”

“But I’m missing the part where it is okay to date someone when she is already engaged; arranged marriage or not,” she said quietly.

I took a deep breath and ran my hands through my hair.  “He is abusive.  He is a piece of shit mom…”

“She could just be saying this…”

“No that’s the problem she doesn’t see anything wrong with it.  She thinks this is normal.  I’ve seen the bruises myself because he showed up unexpectantly the other day.  She told me that it is her duty to be with him because her family expects it of her, but I can’t let her do it.  It’s killing me now to be here and not in Tampa to protect her…”

“You have to be very careful to be involved with something like that,” my mom said slowly.  “I understand you feel the need to protect her and that you obviously have feelings for her, because I think this is the first time you’ve ever come home and talked to me about any girl, but I can’t help but worry you could be involved in something that is out of your league.”

I nodded my head and said, “Believe me, I have thought about all of that.  Downie, Marty, Vinny, Gagné and me went to the front office yesterday and we gathered a bunch of information on how to make her an American Citizen.  It doesn’t look like it should be too hard since she already has a work VISA for the States.  I just haven’t been able to tell her about it yet because Andreas is still visiting.”

She sighed as she put my lunch plate in front of me.  “Have you thought about talking to her parents?”

“I have thought about it, but it seems that her father treats her mother the same way Andreas is treating Liv, so I’m thinking…”

“…that will definitely not help,” my mom finished with a furrowed brow.  She took a bite of her food, chewed for a moment and said, “If you love her then I guess you have to do what you have to do.  I know you are young, but your father and I were young when we fell in love, so I can’t stand here and preach to you about that.  Just please, please make sure you don’t do anything hasty.  I’m glad to hear that the front office is involved because that will hopefully help cover your ass.”

I couldn’t help but laugh a little at this.  Mom always did a good job at keeping a neutral opinion to things, but she would always stand behind me in her own way.  Her last sentence was definitely the, “Go get ‘em” speech.

“So a nurse, eh?” she asked.

I couldn’t help but smile, “Yeah, she is so good with the kids too, especially with Eric.”

“How is Eric?”

I looked down at my food and shrugged before saying anything.  “It isn’t looking good.  The doctors are giving him maybe 2 months.”

“Oh, that is so sad…”

“Hammer and I want to do something for the family.  We want to pay for home hospice for him.”

My mom’s eyes lit up and I already saw her puffing out her “proud mommy feathers.”  “That is very noble of you both.  When are you going to tell them?

“On Saturday, we are bringing him and his family to the game against Colorado.  It will be his first time attending a game.  Olivia is going to be there to make sure he is okay and what not…”

Mom got up off her chair and walked around the counter towards me.  She pulled me into a hug as tears began rolling down her eyes.  “Steven, that is definitely one of the best things you could ever do for someone.  I’m so glad you have not forgotten where you have come from.”

Tears began filling my eyes and I couldn’t help but just hold onto my mom for a couple more moments and thank the Man upstairs for everything He had given me.





“Are you on your break?” Steven asked quietly, like whispering into the phone might keep me out of trouble if I wasn’t on break.

“Ja, silly jüngen,” I joked into the phone.  “Ja, I’m on break, otherwise I would not be answering my cell phone.

He laughed, “Yeah, I guess that’s true.” 

“How are you doing?”

“I am well, Danke.  I just got in from partying with some of my high school buddies after the game.”

“You totally kicked ass tonight, even if you didn’t score a goal.  I was happy to see Marty score.”

“I’ll tell him you said that,” he said.

“So how was your time at home?”

“Too short,” he laughed.  “No, it was really nice to get back with my friends and hang out with my family a little bit.  I told my mom about you,” he finished hesitantly.

I sucked in a breath.  “You did?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh, I see.  That was nice of you.”

“She wants to meet you.”

I smiled.  “I would like to meet her, too.”

“Good, because they are coming down for Christmas and I promised to have you over when she makes dinner, although, I was hoping you’d say you’d spend Christmas Eve with me too.”

The smile on my face became even bigger and I felt a fluttering in my stomach.  “I have to work Christmas night, but I think I could spend Christmas Eve with you,” I said slowly to act as nonchalant as possible.

“We can start our own traditions for the holiday,” he said hopefully.

“I like that idea,” I said, but I couldn’t get it out of the back of my head that I was basically letting him believe in this fantasy that we were going to be together forever, making me feel guilty as hell.

“Well, I have to go.  Downie is bitching at me if you can’t hear him whining from across the room.”

I laughed, “Sleeping Beauty needs all the rest he can get if he has any hope of looking as good as you.”

“I heard that!” I heard Steve yell into the phone.  “Payback is a bitch, Olivia!  You are now going down!”

I doubled over in laughter.  “Guten Nacht Steven.”

“Guten Nacht, meine Liebe.”



The week was going by painfully slow for me.  I dreaded going back to my apartment every morning to find Andreas sprawled across my bed, snoring, obviously hung-over by his evening activities.  Of course he would never admit it; but he seemed to be enjoying his time in the States, it was just sad that I had nothing to do with his happiness.

“You have the day off?” he asked on Friday morning.  I had last night off also, but lucky enough that he had another business meeting scheduled for most of the evening, allowing me to watch the boys play the Bruins.  I was already up, eating a bowl of Cheerios and watching the highlights of the terrible game the Bolts had in Boston, cringing at the replay of Downie getting hurt.  I then cringed when I heard Andreas’ voice, knowing that my chance of calling the boys was now gone.

I turned around and smiled sweetly.  “Yes, I am.”

“Good, I wouldn’t mind heading to the beach for the day or something,” he said, surprisingly cheerily.

My smile broadened.  “That sounds like a great idea!”

A weak smile crossed his face as he nodded his head and turned back to the bedroom to get changed.  I was getting off the couch when my cell phone vibrated across the table.

“Hallo?” I answered quietly.

“Hey Liv,” Steven’s sleepy voice filtered through.

“Hi!  I was going to call you, but I didn’t want to bother you…”

“You could never bother me,” he said over top of me.  “I need to see you,” he pleaded.

“Um, I can’t today.  Andreas just said something about heading to the beach…”

“What beach?”

“Siesta, so that way we can play tennis,” I answered.

I heard him sigh into the phone with obvious frustration.  “So things are going well?” he asked, sounding like he was being tortured and obviously a little jealous.

“Nothing has changed, Steven.”

“Okay.”

“Please, don’t be upset,” I pleaded quietly as I fought the tears from coming.

“I’ll talk to you later.  Have a nice day with your fiancé,” he said bitterly before hanging up on me.

I sat there for a moment looking at the phone in my hand, cursing myself for even getting involved with him.  I knew this situation would only end up hurting him and already it was showing.

“Olivia?” Andreas called from the bedroom.

“Ja?”

“Are you coming to get ready or not?”

I sighed, stood up and sulkily walked down the hall to my fate.





“This is going to be the best night ever!” Downie fidgeted excitedly in the passenger seat of my car as we headed off early to the arena.  I knew he was bummed not to be playing due to his high-ankle sprain, but I also knew he was just as happy to be sitting with Eric.  In truth, I was a little envious because with the funk I had been in lately, I was not in much of a mood to play tonight.  “What has the steering wheel done to you?” he asked.

I furrowed my eyebrows and looked at him confused.  “What?”

“You have a death grip on the damn thing and I’m afraid you are going to hurt it.  What is wrong with you?  You’ve been in a foul mood since we left Boston.”

I ground my teeth and stared at the red traffic light.  “She went to the beach with him yesterday,” was all I could say.

“Yeah?  You’re point?  What, are they just supposed to sit and stare at the apartment walls?  He is here to visit with her and as far as I am aware he doesn’t know she is seeing anyone,” Downie chirped.

“She shouldn’t be with him,” I growled.

“Yeah, no shit Sherlock, but I’m pretty sure you had realized this wasn’t going to be an easy task.  It’s going to take time,” he stressed as he looked out his passenger window.  “Jealousy isn’t going to help anything either.”

“I’m not jealous,” I lashed out angrily.

Steve left out an obnoxious snort and loudly said in a sarcastic tone, “Okay, yeah, sure, and Santa Claus is real.  Dude, you’re acting like a jealous fucking ass.  Buck it up bud; you need to be a better man than this for her.”

I sucked in a breath ready to go off on him but something inside my head told me he was right.  I blew out the air as the rest of our trip to the arena was marked with tense silence.  I needed to get my head on straight, we had a game tonight and besides, this evening had nothing to do with me; it had everything to do with Eric.

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