Melt With You

Chapter 1

Peyton Anderson was an Olympic gymnast that met the love of her life the moment she stepped on the plane for her first winter Olympics four years ago. His name was a name every Canadian knew, he was nothing short of a legend. His name was Jonathan Toews, and Peyton happened to have the seat right next to him.

She'll never forget the moment she first looked him in the eyes, those rich chocolate brown eyes. Her heart felt like it was about to jump out of her chest, and her stomach dropped like a rock. She couldn't believe this was real and this was actually happening. It was surreal.

They called him Captain Serious, but he was nothing but warm and inviting from the start.

He gave her a sideways smile before she sat down, and once she got settled in her seat, he turned towards her and extended his hand.

"I'm Jonathan, but you can call me Jonny if you want. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Hi Jonathan, I'm Peyton. It's so good to finally meet you, too." She smiled, waiting her entire life to say those words.

Now, four years later, they were both left heartbroken. Jonathan had proposed after Peyton had just won the Gold at the World championships two summers after they met, and she said yes. They were engaged for over a year and a half, but it was broken off at the last minute. Depending on whose side of the story you choose to hear, who was primarily responsible for the break varies.

Either way, Jonathan had just lost the Stanley cup in overtime of game 7 and needed some time to himself. At his last press conference, out of what seemed like hundreds, he got up and walked out. The first thing he did after that was pack a bag and hop on the first flight out of Chicago he could catch. He didn't talk to anyone or answer a single phone call; he was at the airport before he even really knew what he was doing.

Of course he had been recognized, but the people of the city already heard about his actions earlier in the day and those in the airport didn't bother him. The fans were just as disappointed the Blackhawks lost the Stanley cup as their captain was, so there was a mutual understanding about the loss between them as well.

Jonathan shut his phone off completely before he stepped up to the metal detectors, and didn't pick it up again until he landed. He didn't get a chance to look at his ticket, but soon found out he was headed to South Africa when they called his flight number to begin boarding. This is what he wanted.

He would never even dream of skipping out on Chicago when they needed him, but they didn't need him now; and he needed to get away. He found his seat on the plane as soon as he made his way through the gates and checked his suitcase, taking his backpack with him as a carry on. He slipped his phone and keys in the main pocket, letting them sink down to the way bottom, knowing he wouldn't need them for a long time.

He took out a worn paperback book from his backpack and opened it up to the first page, trying not to think of this was how he met Peyton that fateful day on their way to the Olympics.

Meanwhile, in Peyton's Chicago apartment, she was watching Jonathan's press conference on TV- and was utterly confused. Through all those years they spent together, Jonathan rarely ever acted the way he did at the conference. It was so unusual and unlike him to get up and walk away, which sparked a quiet thought inside her suggesting that maybe something was going through his head that wasn't particularly nice to deal with, and he was having a really rough time.

She hadn't passed through the anger stage yet. In fact, she was quite angry at him for what happened. They had planned their wedding date to be in three weeks, after the playoffs and after things began to cool down. He broke their engagement off five months ago. Now, as she saw this on TV, she couldn't care less about the consequences of his actions and wasn't very interested in letting him back in to help him through whatever it was. Maybe it was her; that thought crossed her mind as well. She didn't want it to be.

Everyone in the state of Illinois saw what happened. It was only a matter of time before people started coming to her for answers, but she declined to answer everyone's questions because she simply didn't have any answers to give them. She turned off the TV.

She wasn't going to call him and ask him about it. Whatever he had to deal with he could do on his own for the time being. She had just settled back down herself, and needed to finish healing her own wounds before she could start licking someone else's.

Many, many hours later, Jonathan's flight had landed. He had encountered minimal people asking him anything, which was nice, but he did have a genuine conversation with the old woman sitting next to him on the plane. She didn't know about him or anything related to hockey, which allowed Jonathan to have a great interaction with the woman since she didn't know anything about him. It was just... Pure.

Things didn't go so well when he landed in South Africa, though. He spent over an hour and a half searching for his lone suitcase after his flight landed, finally finding it. He had never been more jet lagged in his life, which made him more miserable than anything be had ever experienced before. He was miserable, but in the kind of way that felt like he wasn't even himself anymore, in his own body. He was so disconnected from his own life, he didn't even have words for what he was feeling. At least besides miserable.

He had no clue what he was going to do now. He didn't have any sort of plan, which he should have thought of on the extensive plane ride, but didn't get a chance to. He had no place to eat, no place to sleep, which just made his misery even worse. The only bright side he got from this trip so far was just being here. The distance was more than enough to separate him from the life he built in Chicago, and although it was stressful, it was a breath of fresh air to not know anybody and to not have anybody know him.

After gathering himself and his thoughts, he bought a bus ticket to a nice hotel that tourists usually stay in and was about to call it a day. Tomorrow he would get other things in order and spend some time at the beach, still unsure of what his plans were for the next few weeks.

Living in a major city had prepared him for this as well as it could, but the city traffic here was a little crazier. It was a mighty task on its own just getting on the bus, but luck soon struck Jonathan. A tall, tan girl with her dirty blonde-brown hair pulled back in a braid boarded the bus. She noticed Jonathan right away, he was terribly out of place and was hard to miss.

She put her surfboard on the rack above their heads and sat down, immediately opening up.

"You're not from around here, are you?" She asked with a smile, knowing it was an obvious question. Jonathan took a deep breath and turned to her, replying

"No. I am definitely not from around here."

Who knew those two sentences would start something unexpected, but just what Jonathan needed.