Passing Through

Part Five

Chapter Five

"You look amazeballs."

Natasha looked up from her position at the back of the kitchen, where she was craning to apply mascara in a small badly placed mirror, to see Steph leaning against the wall. She'd worked so late, that she was getting ready for this ladies night in the back of the cafe. It was the only way.

"I don't feel like it." She stood upright, "amazeballs, really?"

Steph laughed, "had Jacob sleeping over last night. It's a teenage thang apparently."

"Well, nothing about today is 'amazeballs'."

She laughed again, "really? You are about to spend the evening with about thirty hot men!"

Oh, she knew that, and she was terrified. The last time she'd socialised with big burly hockey players, she'd been an innocent teenager, and it hadn't ended well. This was different, she had to keep reminding herself.

"Not making me feel any better, and remember, I'll be the other side of the room with the hoards of screeching women. This will be nothing more than an ego boost for these bloody men."

Steph lifted an eyebrow, and she grimaced, "this isn't my thing, Steph. You know that, I don't want to go."

"You are more beautiful than any of the women there, you deserve a fun night." She walked up to Natasha and tugged at the clip in her hair. "You need to figuratively and literally let your hair down. All work and no play is making you a very dull girl." Fluffing her friend's hair theatrically, she let it fall in dark red curls around her shoulders. "You have lush hair, you NEVER wear it down."

"I work with food, I can't have my hair down."

Steph scoffed, "and you rarely go out."

She poked out her tongue, then sighed, "do I really look ok?"

There were no mirrors in the downstairs part of the building, other than the small mirrored tile she'd been craned over above the sink. She turned fully to her friend and grimaced. She was wearing skinny jeans, she wasn't skinny, but she felt comfortable in them, and her heeled boots, her loose top fell off one shoulder. She wanted to look casual, the last thing she wanted was to look like she was trying, that she wanted to catch eyes. Natasha planned to go, be social, then leave, as soon as possible.

"I told you, you look edible, those men are going to have their socks knocked off."

Natasha rolled her eyes, "will you give me a lift over there? The rink is kind of on you way home."

Bo's anxiety levels were through the roof, pre game is was adrenaline that fuelled him, but as he laced his skates, the very last thing that luck and superstition dictated he did; he feared heading out to the ice. Vaughn and a few of his cronies were all back slapping and excited, and that was almost worse, that they were embracing this, relishing it.

Jax Perez, nicknamed Porno, after a porn actress who shared his surname and some swore was his sister, bumped his shoulder, "come on Pen." Penalty was now his locker room nickname courtesy of their captain. "It's not that bad."

He turned to him, "it's like a bad dream, never felt like a prostitute in all my professional years."

"But you did before?" He asked with a chuckle, "there's no pressure, just run with it. I don't think it's as bad as a charity auction we had when I was back in the AHL in Cleveland. This psycho 'won' me for an hour of yard cleaning...you should have seen what she was wearing when I turned up. NO amount of charity made that worthwhile."