It Feels Like Forever || auston matthews

Chapter Eight

"Auston do we really have to do this?" Riley asked Auston as they were outside of a very fancy restaurant. The two were dressed up nicely, Auston wearing a pair of slacks, with a dress shirt and tie, Riley was wearing a dark blue long sleeve dress that goes down to her knees, with a mesh strip at the bottom, top, and at each wrist. They looked like a proper couple. 

"Yeah we do Riles. It's been four months, the boys are starting to question if you're real or not, and they're not just gonna keep taking Mitch's word for it." Auston said, grabbing her hand and intertwining their fingers. Riley's other hand held a dark blue clutch to match her dress, it had a small bit of fabric detail, and a gold flower in the middle. 

"Why can't we just go to something a little less formal for this?" She asked. Auston looked down at Riley, and spinning her slightly so they were facing each other. 

"It's a team dinner, they're all bringing their girlfriends or wives, and while I have you? I'm not taking Will again, that was weird last month."  Auston said. He placed a finger underneath Riley's chin. "And plus, I want to show you off to my friends. Show off how beautiful, and amazing you are."  Auston leaned down and kissed her on the lips, softly, but passionately. 

"I don't know I could still go home and then laugh at you and Will, I liked the pictures he was sending me, those were funny." Riley said. "I guess you'll have to convince me a little more." Auston smiled at how cheesy she was trying to be, but nonetheless he leaned down again, finger still on her chin ad kissed her once more. 

"How about now?" He asked. She shrugged once more, Auston simply dropped his finger from under her chin. "Did I mention you're going to meet your all time favourite player, Patrick Marleau?"  Auston asked, making Riley's eyes light up right away. Ever since Riley was a little kid, she's watched Patrick Marleau play, and she's loved it.

"Wait seriously?" 

"Well yeah he's on the team is he not?" Auston laughed. 

"Okay well let's go then!" She said, and started to walk towards the front entrance, Auston wouldn't move though, she only flung herself back into him. Of course, causing Auston to laugh. 

"Nah I think I wanna go home now. You don't wanna be here anyway." Auston said, trying not to smirk. Riley stood right in front of him, on her tip-toes and kissed him. "Okay, that was worth it let's go in." Auston said, the two of them now laughing lightly. 

"You're an idiot, Matthews." Riley told him as they walked into the restaurant. 

"Hey, table for two?" The hostess asked as they got into the waiting area. 

"Actually we're here for the Toronto Maple Leafs dinner." Auston said.  The hostess grabbed a clipboard that was on the desk and flipped a page over.

"Name?" She asked looking down at the clipboard.

"Auston Matthews and Riley Jackson." Auston said, looking slightly down at the board. The girl crossed off their names with a highlighter and put it back in it's place. 

"Follow me." She simply said. The two followed close behind. Auston in front, still holding Riley's hand behind him as he kept pulling her along. He could feel her hand start to shake slightly in his, and in response he started rubbing her hand in his thumb in small circles. They got to their small sectioned off room and said thank you to the hostess, going to two out of four of the remaining open seats, and sitting down. The seats happened to be right across from Mitch Marner, and girlfriend Stephanie LaChance. 

"Hey babe I've missed you!" Steph started saying, smiling brightly at her. The two had become good friends since Steph and Mitch started dating.

"Hey, !" Riley greeted. 

"So Riley, you haven't answered my snaps today, what's up with that?" Mitch asked. Riley looked at him, rolling her eyes and laughing a little.

"I am so sorry you are not my number one priority every day, all the time."  Riley said sarcastically, throwing her hands up in the air in surrender.

"Yeah, 'cause that spots been taken, I'm her number one priority." Auston said, pausing. "All the time."

"Idiot, Matthews, idiot." She whispered quietly, but Steph still heard her from across the table, and she laughed a little. 

"Aha! You must be the famous Riley Auston won't stop talking about!" Mike Babcock said as he walked into the room with his wife Maureen. Riley stood up and shook Mike's hand from across the table. 

"Hi, it's nice to meet you!" She said, as friendly as possible, without sounding too nervous. This was worse than meeting Auston's family. By that point everyone had now shown up to their team dinner, and they were all quietly looking through their menus before ordering. Soon the waitress came over and they all ordered. 

After a little while in the dinner, everyone had finished eating and they were all just talking, Auston decided it was a good idea to introduce Riley to her hockey hero, Patrick Marleau. 

"Come here." He said, grabbing her hand and dragging her away from the table. 

"What? Why? Where?" Riley asked, still complying. She saw though where in the table they were going, her hand immediately flying up to her mouth, covering where was now a gaping hole as she was in complete awe. 

"Hey Patty?" Auston asked, looking over at his father figure of the team. He looked up and smiled. 

"Hey Aus, what's up?"

"This is my girlfriend, Riley. She's a huge Patrick Marleau fan, and has been for as long as she can remember." He said. Riley took her hand away from her mouth, it was shaking a little bit.

"Hi Riley! I've heard so much about you from both Auston and Mitch, you seem great for Auston and seem like a great friend to Mitch! And thank you for supporting me!" Patrick said. 

"Really? Thank you! And thank you for being such a great player, and always doing your best on the ice, it's nice to see you loving what you do!" Riley said. For some reason she immediately started regretting it. Auston thought it was cute though. He loved how nervous she was, and how happy she got when Patrick said that Auston spoke about her. He loved how happy she was just in the moment when she was seeing the person who got her into hockey in the first place. 

Auston had only wished to himself that he could make that big of an impact on her life. He wanted it more than he could even be able to express.