Shadows (Patrick Kane)

(39) My Person

Patrick

Being a professional athlete the holidays always seem to be missing something. We play through all the major ones like Christmas and New Years and Thanksgiving and a lot of times we don't get to be with friends and family. There's times we're not in town or we are in town but there a winter classic or some kind of promotion that required our attention in those days. It never seems like the holidays are genuine when you're involved in a sport.

But Halloween was the one holiday where I feel like the hockey players get it right. And it's not even technically a holiday, you don't get off of work for it, it has no sentimental or religious reasoning. An American take of a old Celtic tradition but made to appeal to us. Any excuse to drink and dress up really.

The Blackhawks always do something fun for the guys and their families on holidays. For Halloween they rent out a bar and we all invite our significant others. We dress up and for a night we just have some fun, we don't talk about hockey or the kids. It's honestly my favorite night all season. 

And for the first time I was bringing someone with me. I can't tell you the amount of shit I got for coming to these things alone the past seven years minus the lockout season. I was batman without my Robin. Cheech without my Chong. I never win best costume because something was always missing. And this year I got to come with someone who was capable of shutting it all down.

There was a lot of good movies to choose from this year for costume inspiration, but Sophie insisted Guardians of the Galaxy had the best costume ideas. And I wanted to go as groot because who doesn't want to be a homocidal tree who has one line the whole movie, but she was going as Gamora and thought it would be weird to go to the party together dressed as a tree accompanied by the daughter of a maniac. So she buys me a star lord costume which I was okay with because Chris Pratt had a cool character. She spends almost the whole day painting herself green for this. 

"I thought you said you weren't going to bars anymore" she yells from the bathroom. I have been done getting ready for quite some time now and I was ready to brag to everyone that not only am I not alone this year but I have the sexiest girl in the galaxy with me.

"This is different. I'm invited to this and I won't be shunned for hanging out with my team during a team event" I defend.

"So I'm not a good enough reason to come to the bars" she asks.

"You know that's not it" I scoff.

"I know. I just like giving you shit" she giggles. What a pain in my ass she can be.

Finally she leaves the bathroom all ready to go. She had on a skin tight latex suit and her jacket from the movie. A wig that really didn't really look like one brought her red hair down to her sides. The makeup was perfect and honestly, she looked a little too good. But I sure as hell wasn't going to complain.

"Damn, look at you" I say barley above a whisper.

"How did I do" she asks as she does a little spin.

"You look sexy. Which is weird because you're green" I admit.

"You don't look too bad yourself Star Lord" she teases. Her fingers grab my jacket as I pull her into me.

"Oh" I ask obviously getting flustered about how close she was to me.

"Maybe we should dress up more often" she smirks.

"Don't tease me like this" I beg as she chuckles.

"Alright. Let's go save the galaxy" she insists.

Like always we arrive fashionably late. Couldn't tell you the last time we got to something like this when we were supposed to be. If it wasn't for work I wouldn't put money on us being here when we're supposed to.

Sophia knew most everyone here. Of course she knew the guys for she's met them all at media day and on the red carpet or doing interviews. They all loved her and even Jonny couldn't deny that he was wrong about her.

But the girls she didn't know as much. She met a few of them at Duncan's charity night and had seen a few more in the playoffs last year. But it's not like she spends her time in the boxes like everyone else. And she's not even a part of this wives and girlfriends group. But there's no group for girl best friends so she gets roped in with them. I have no doubt she can handle them. They might be crazy but they don't have anything on her. She's not possessive or rude or anything like that. She's been a part of professional sports her whole life. She knows what it means to be in this room and what we're trying to do here. She's crazy because the way she lives her life scares people. When we first met she talked about how we can't be afraid to upset the balance and she's not. Never was. That's what makes her crazy. She can paint herself green and still be considered one of the most beautiful people in the room. And she knows it. But she's not afraid to challenge conventional standards of beauty or how a woman should act. She's undeniably herself and I love that.

"Oh! We need a bunch of pictures" she claims as she grabs Sharpys wife Abby's hand and pulls her towards us.

"Is this going to end up of NBCSN" I whine.

"Of course it is. Now come on" she insists.

She grabs my hand with her other one and pulls us to the back. Everyone comes in for a picture and we line up real nice. We aren't good at pictures but it was tradition to do this. So I stand next to Sophia not sure how to approach taking a picture that would be seen by more than just us and our families. I didn't want to send off the wrong signals but it's obvious we came to this couples party together. I hate making her have to explain our situation, especially since each day it seems to get more and more complicated. But she rests her hand on my chest as she looks into my eyes for a moment. A kind smile sat on her face letting me know that she was okay with this.

So my arm wraps around her and I pull her into me. I move a piece of her wig off her face so it doesn't end up in the way in the picture. She presses a soft kiss on my cheek and I can just feel the eyes on us. For not a lot of people understand our relationship. How we are so insistent on staying friends yet like to show affection so much. I know we don't need to explain ourselves. We were happy and that's what's important.

They snap the picture and Soph sends it out to everyone. She was quite the hit tonight and I'm happy other people see why I'm so insistent on keeping her around for as long as I can. She was my person and I don't want to lose her. Ever.