The Road to the Cup ~ Wattys 2015

Meet the Boyfriend

I was speeding as I drove to get back to Consol in time for our noon pre-game skate. We made it, but just barely. Sidney and I ran into the arena and strapped into our gear and threw ourselves on the ice in record time. I had never tied a skate faster than I just had. "Where did you two come from?" Johnston asked. The team was huddled around the bench and looked at us expectantly.

"Michigan," I gasped, out of breath from our sprint.

"Michigan?" Robert was confused.

"We went to my house for Thanksgiving. It was kind of last minute," I explained.

"Well, Crosby, you better be ready to work off all that turkey," Johnston said and I chuckled; he had put away almost half of a bird last night.

"Sure thing, Coach," Sidney replied.

I did a few laps with the team to warm up. "How's Cassie?" Beau asked, not even trying to hide the fact that he was dying to know.

"She's great. She landed a part in her school's musical which I may or may not have already told you. And, she was asking about you yesterday."

"Really?" Beau grinned. He was absolutely glowing.

"Really," I said, "She was hoping that I had brought you with me. And you should've seen my cousins with Sidney yesterday. There's a pair of boys who play hockey and are huge fans, but they didn't recognize him. They freaked out when I told them it was him. I'm surprised that he was able to listen to them for so long," I smiled.

"He's really good with kids. Wait 'til we go to the children's hospital around Christmas time, you'll get to see all of us with them," Beau replied.

"Alright, I'll be there."

"When's the play?" Beau asked.

"In a few weeks. We'll be in town then, don't worry. I was gonna drag all of you to see it, actually," I admitted.

"Drag us where?" Olli asked.

"To go see my sister's musical on opening night," I replied.

"What are we doing?" Kunitz said.

"We are going to the theater," I said dramatically.

"I love the theater," Fleury said.

"Do you love Les Misérables?" I asked.

"Yes! That's my favorite. It's better than Phantom in my opinion," Fleury replied.

"Well, that's what we're going to see. My sister is in it and opening night is the day before our next game in Detroit."

"Fantastic!" Fleury said.

"Alright, team, let's get started," Johnston said.

The boys did well, and I thought that they would be ready to go for tonight's game; we would be playing the Minnesota Wild. "Ready to go?" Sidney asked.

"Did you tell Annalise?"

"I'll text her on the way over," he waved me off.

"Then I'm driving," I said, leading the way out. He sent a text to Annalise and thirty seconds later, his phone started ringing.

"Hello, Anna," he said. Anna? They've already started calling each other by nicknames? "Yes, I said I was going to start going out to lunch with Erin again. No, I'm not cheating on you. No, I went to celebrate Thanksgiving with my best friend. Yes, you've met my best friend. Yeah, it was fine. No, I'm not going to cut my hair!" He cried indignantly.

"Anna, my hair is a stupid reason for us to fight," he sighed. "No, I don't want to break up with you. Why am I hanging out with someone else? Because this was our pre-game ritual, Annalise! I haven't been playing my best since I stopped," he paused and out of the corner of my eye I saw the pained expression on his face as he listened to what she had to say about that. "No, I'm not blaming you. I just want to play my best. You know that this is my job and that it's important to me, we've talked about this before," he was pleading with her now. "I'm sorry that you feel that way, Anna. Goodbye," he hung up.