The Foster Girls #3: Elizabeth

Chapter 12: Rig

Another loss.

Another fucking loss that we couldn't afford.

Another loss that I knew was my fault both as center and captain of the team.

I wanted to put my fist through something as we skated off the ice, but I was already on shaky ground with the coach. Since I'd blown it with Elizabeth, the last six months of my life had been shit. That moment of self-destruction had just snowballed into the hellhole my life was now. My game was suffering, my life off the ice was spent burying the pain in booze and fights. I'd give anything to take that moment back, to rewind, to not throw away the one person who mattered to me, who got me. She'd been my peace, the woman who settled my soul and made me want to be a better man and I'd treated her like that.

Her words replayed on an endless loop. "Don't, Rig, please."

But I'd done it. I'd kissed the puck bunny, right in front of Elizabeth. To prove a point. And what point had I ended up proving? That I was the biggest prick to ever walk the face of the earth.

The second my lips had touched the nameless blonde's, it was as if I'd been struck by a skillet to the face. Except my moment of realization had come after I'd bent my head to kiss the girl. There was no kissing if it wasn't Elizabeth. There was no one but Elizabeth. I felt nothing for this girl, no desire, no attraction, nothing. In the two seconds I'd had my lips on the blonde's, Elizabeth had taken off. It had used up precious moments to unwind blondie from around my body – apparently lip contact turned her into a koala bear – but I'd finally managed to make it outside, seeing only a taxi speeding off down the street. No Elizabeth. I reached for my phone to call her but realized I'd left it in the bar. When I ran back to grab it, my teammates had swarmed around me, cheering and toasting to my hat trick earlier that evening. And stupid mistake number two of the night...I'd stayed to drink with them, thinking it made sense to give Elizabeth time to cool off. When I finally left the bar two hours later, I'd poured myself into a taxi and taken it to the apartment complex where I'd met Elizabeth five months earlier. Stumbling to her door, I'd pounded on it, hoping she'd feel obligated to answer so the neighbors wouldn't get pissed at the noise. She'd ignored my texts and calls, but she couldn't ignore my pounding on the door.

After I'd been banging on the door for a few minutes and shouting her name, the older woman down the hall stuck her head out and glared at me. "She's not home. I saw her leave."

Mistake number three...I hadn't questioned the woman. Had I known that Elizabeth had left with two suitcases, I would have panicked. But I figured she'd gone to her best friend's to avoid a scene like this. So again, I thought I'd give her time to cool off. I was so drunk, I fell into my bed and slept for a solid nine hours. When I woke up, I began the rounds of texting and calling her non-stop, my heart beating wildly in my chest. Every hour I walked over to her apartment and knocked, but she either wasn't answering or she wasn't home.

Where the hell was she?

Frustration erupted as I realized I didn't know any of her friends' last names or where they lived or worked. As of Friday night, Elizabeth had shut down all of her social media accounts so I couldn't connect with her or her friends that way. It was as if she'd just disappeared from the planet. She had no relatives, only friends, and I never even bothered to get to know them. I didn't even know the name of the fucking company she worked for. The one time we'd been out, it had been an accident that my friends had run into us. I'd never wanted Elizabeth to meet my teammates as if she was my significant other. Selfish much, asshole?

I'd run into her friend -- sister? -- one night outside Elizabeth's apartment. She refused to tell me where Elizabeth was, but she had accepted my card with my contact information.  I checked my phone out of habit once I returned to the locker room, and I saw I had a text that came twenty minutes earlier.