Hockey boy

tonight

  Alex's POV

    As I woke up the next day I could not get her smile off of my mind. She was so sweet and nice and treated me just like a normal man, no special treatment or anything. It was 7:00 when I woke up I have never awaken this early. As I got out of bed I looked out of my window and looked out the sun rising, and Katie was getting into her car. This morning it seemed like everything was in the right place, and ment to be. I watched as her car pulled out of the parking lot and on to the busy street below.

    I left for practice at 9:45 today we are practicing at the Scottrade Center. Today's commute downtown took longer than usual, but it gave me time to think about her and tonight. Does she think that I was just trying to be nice? Does she like me back? Questions like these swirled through my mind on the 45 minute trip to work. Once I got to work I suited up and went out for warm-ups. Today at practice it seemed much longer than usual I could not wipe the thought of her out of my mind. The way her hair flowed over her soldiers, her smile, and the way she stayed calm after finding out what I did.  There is something special about her and I know it. I guess the boys could tell there was something different about me because some were teasing me and some were asking if I was okay.

     Practice was done around 2 the same time we got done yesterday maybe I will run in to her again. As I pull into the parking lot I see her walking to the door. She stops and smiles as I drove by, as I get out of the car I realize that she is waiting for me. "How was work today Katie?" She smiled and answered "better than yesterday, how about you?". "Well hard but fun like always", I didn't want to add the part about the boys teasing me. As we walked up the stairs I thought about yesterday and at this time yesterday we were total strangers, we didn't know anything but each others names. "Soooo.. what are the exact plans for tonight?" It took me a moment to think,"well" I said "number one do you have another plans for tonight?" She waited a moment I assume to think "I have a few papers to grade but that should only take me about 20 minutes." I smiled "okay so how about this around 6 I will pick you up for dinner then after dinner we can go skating." She laughed "what" I asked. "So you're adding dinner now Mr.fancy pants?" I laughed "is that bad" I asked. "No, I just thought it was going to be as simple as one friends teaching another friend how to ice skate." I thought for a second as we reached her door, she reached for her keys "I'm sorry if you don't want dinner than I'll pick you up at seven and just go ice skating." She laughed and opened her door "dinner is fine I'll see you at six." "Okay six", I said as she closed her door.

        Why am I so stupid, she just wants to be friends and you ask her to dinner. I was already stupid enough to ask her to go ice skating with me. Once I got into my room I laid out my clothes, and took a shower I even knew I smelled bad I wonder what she thought. After I got out of the shower it was four o'clock and I had to wait 2 more hours till our "friends" night out. All I can do now is think what is she doing, picking out her clothes, grading her papers, watching television, or maybe talking to her boyfriend. Wait, what if she has a boyfriend, what does he think about this, or does he even know about me, what if he finds about me and thinks she is cheating and trys to beat me up or even worse beats her up. I need to settle down I'm going to freak out and start to sweat and I just took a shower, so I sit back and watch the news. At 5:15 I go ahead and get dressed, I put on a nice plaid shirt and a pair of new dark wash jeans, I was going to dress nice but I don't know if she knows I want it to be a date. As it came time to go pick her up a ran a comb threw my hair one last time and walked out my door.

        On the walk over my mind was going crazy I just wanted to turn around and leave it at that. I knocked on her door it seemed like 10 minutes before she came to the door. She looked beautiful, she was wearing a pair of light wash jeans, a white shirt, and aqua cardigan. At first I didn't recognize her she was not just beautiful like always she was stunning, I looked down at my feet so she didn't think I was staring at her. "Is this okay" she asked politely. "Yes", I responded "it's beautiful". She blushed and looked down at her bare feet. "Come in" she said "let me get my shoes on". Like a woman always telling us to wait 5 more minutes. As I walked in she scurried into her bed room. A couple of seconds later she reappeared with a pair of black flats. She stuffed a pair of socks into her purse. "What's that for", I asked before realizing how stupid of a question that is. "So when we go skating", she responded with a smile on her face. "You ready", I asked with a slight smile on my face ready for tonight. "Yes", she said "maybe I will finally learn how to skate". I laughed as we walked out of her apartment heading towards the stairs.

        Once we got down to my truck I opened the door for her and then went over to my side. I started the truck, and that was the only noise for the first couple minutes. "Soooooo" she said quietly "where are you from".  "I'm from Seattle." I said kind of regretting it but I don't know why. "Oh, a Seattle boy", she said now I'm worried. "Is that bad", I said afraid that there is a bad mix between her and Seattle. "No I love Seattle, when I was in 7th grade that was where are cruise to Alaska's port was, it is a beautiful city." "Okay" I said as I breathed a sigh of relief. "So if you don't mind me asking, where are we exactly going for dinner?" I took a deep breath, "it's this new place called Pi, it is a pizza place." Ohhh..ok", she said in a small voice. "What is that not ok?" "It's fine, it's just I'm kind of lactoseintolerant, just a little though." I looked up the street where pi was "well, we can go somewhere else", I said feeling bad. "No don't feel bad, I shouldn't have told you, and I can eat some cheese, I can just eat soup or something." "No No no.... I feel bad tell me someplace else." We sat there in silence until she said "no don't worry about it I CAN STILL EAT SOME  cheese please let's just eat and be happy ok." "Okay", I said feel like this will never work out the way I planed. We rode in silence until we got to pi, and I went to get her door for her. "Thank you", she said as she got of the truck "and Alex wait". I stopped and waited for her to catch up "don't worry about what happened in the truck, it's all my fault I should have never brought it up. I've been like that since I was a little kid it hasn't stopped me from eating pizza at a pool party or ice cream at a fair I just have to be careful on what type of dairy I eat cheese is one that I can eat, and I'm sorry I ever brought it up sooo let's rewind and start new on tonight okay." "Okay" I said as we walked to the door.

        Once we got their and I opened it so she could get threw I stepped in the and the hostess said "Hello Mr. your usual table is ready in the back". "Thank you", I said to her and lead Katie to the back. I pulled out the chair so that she could sit down "okay and thank you", she said as she sat down. "Are you always like this on dates", she asked in a very questioning tone. She's considering a date now that's good "well that depends" I said. "By what" she said smiling as our waters came and she ordered. After I ordered I responded "well it depends on a couple of things like if I think the girl deserves it, which doesn't happen often, but neighbors are neighbors right." She sat there and smiled "and what else" she responded. "Well" I said with a smile on my face I could tell I was blushing.  "I think I get it now" she said blushing as well. We sat there and had casual conversations until our food came. We ordered a meat lovers pizza, with onions on half, and mushrooms on the other. She grabbed a piece and took a bite the cheese kept pulling like a string, she smiled and started laughing, as she kept pulling the cheese, it was one the cutest things I've ever seen. Once she finally got done with that piece she noticed that my half was nearly gone. She laughed while I said "hey I have a game tomorrow", which made her laugh even more. We boxed up the rest of her half. When they brought the bill she took out her wallet "so do you want to do half and half" she asked. "No no no I got it", I said. She was about to argue then I said "do you want to leave the tip". She nodded her head and layed a 20 on the table. We left for the ice rink I know it is going to be very interesting there.