Chapter Seven

The next morning I didn’t even feel like getting up. It seemed like one of those days where you could just hang out in bed all day without a care in the world. But, my body betrayed me, and my thirst soon overtook my need for the comfort of my blankets. I came downstairs and unfortunately walked right into a conversation when I entered the living room.

“Oh Maddison! I am so sorry!” Bridget said, pulling me into a spine cracking hug. I pushed her away from me and stood awkwardly in the middle of the room as Geno and Kris stared at me.

“Yeah, whatever,” I muttered.

“I honestly was way out of line, that will never, ever happen again, Baby Sis,” she said. Her tone of voice disgusted me and I folded my arms across my chest.

“As mortifyingly embarrassing as this all is,” I started, pointing at my disheveled hair and pajamas, “why is everyone here?”

“Well, I thought I’d make it up to you! We’ll all do a real date, something nice. And here’s the kicker, you can choose whatever you want,” she said with a fake smile plastered to her face.

“Don’t you have practice, or a game, or something like that?” I asked, directing my question at either Kris or Geno.

“Nope, today is an off day,” Geno said, smiling. I couldn’t help but to return his smile, but mine quickly faded as Bridget perched herself on his lap.

“So what are we doing?” she asked eagerly. I racked my brain trying to think of something that she hated and I came up with going to the movies. She always said how pointless it was to sit in the dark for an hour and a half without even being able to talk to the person you were with.

“How about the movies?” I asked, innocently.

“That sounds like a great idea,” Kris answered enthusiastically. I smiled at him, but mostly at my sister’s scowling features and turned towards the stairs. After showering, getting dressed, and putting on make-up, I rejoined the group and we piled into Geno’s car and headed for the movies. I decided on some horror flick only because it’s Bridget’s least favorite genre. After getting popcorn, stopping to let the guys sign some autographs, and more complaining from Bridget, we finally filed into a row, Bridget, Geno, myself, then Kris. Throughout the movie, I let Kris grab my hand when he saw fit and I took great pleasure in the fact that Bridget spent 97% of the time with her head in her lap. It was nearing the end of the movie and all of a sudden some “zombie” jumped out of someone’s closet unexpectedly and I involuntarily grabbed for Geno’s hand. He took it and squeezed mine back with a low chuckle. He held my hand for longer than necessary.

“You know, it’s not real,” he leaned down to whisper in my ear. I got chills from his mouth being that close to me.

“You know, you can let go of my hand,” I retorted without thinking and instantly regretted it after he released his grip. I still felt my hand tingling as we walked out of the movie theater and got back into Geno’s car.

“Where to?” Bridget asked from her place in the front passenger’s seat.

“I don’t know. Are you guys hungry or something?” I asked.

“Primanti’s!” Bridget shrieked excitedly. “I mean, if you want to Maddison.”

“Doesn’t matter to me,” I said. “But can we do takeout? I don’t feel like going in there with two famous hockey players.” Geno and Kris laughed as Geno started the car and headed to the nearest Primanti’s. I opted to go inside in an effort to get away from Bridget for any length of time, no matter how brief. When the food was finally ready and I began to make my way to the door, someone caught my arm.

“Maddison, is that you?” the guy’s voice came from my left-hand side. I looked up to see Jerry Thompson standing there.

“Oh, Jerry, wow. It’s been a while,” I said unenthusiastically. I tried not to let those memories that wanted to come flooding back anywhere near me.

“You look…gorgeous. Are you visiting?” he asked. I thought about lying to him, but I figured he’d probably see me around some other time, since this was now my permanent residence.

“Actually, no. I live here now,” I replied, averting my eyes.

“Oh, no way! That’s awesome, what made you change your mind?” he pressed. God, he was nosey as hell.

“I just needed a change of pace,” I lied easily. He seemed to find this answer sufficient.

“Well what have you been up to?” he questioned. Holy hell. I just wanted to get out of there.

“Oh you know this and that. Just catching up with family,” I said quickly, hoping he’d take the hint.

“You’re living at home?” he asked. One more question and someone was getting a face full of the nearest drink.

“Yup,” I said. One word answers. He had to get that.

“Well, I’ve been pretty busy myself. I’ve got a job at the Penguins organization. You know, the hockey team?” he said, smiling at me. Really? Must everyone I know be connected by some freaky six degrees of separation?

“Oh wow, that’s pretty interesting,” I said, feigning surprise.

“Yeah, I’ve seen your sister, Bridget around quite a lot. She’s dating Malkin, right?” he asked.

“Good news sure does travel slow. She’s been dating Geno for more than a year,” I said.

“Oh, yeah, yeah, I knew that,” he said, looking away from me. “Well it’s been great catching up, I’m sure I’ll be seeing you around quite a bit.”

“Yeah, I’m sure you will,” I answered without a bit of excitement and with that, I stalked off towards the car.

“What the hell took you so long?” Bridget asked when I plopped into the back seat.

“I ran into Jerry,” I said as Geno started the drive back to the house.

“Thompson?!” she asked in surprise. “That’s so funny. He works for the Pens now, you know.”

“No actually I didn’t know until he told me just now. He says he’s seen you around quite a bit. You never thought to mention this?” I retorted.

“Nope, didn’t seem important,” she responded with a shrug of her shoulders. I let it go. If she didn’t think it was necessary to tell me that she’s been having contact with the guy who broke my heart into a million pieces was important, she wouldn’t think anything was. I was so concerned about Jerry that I didn’t even notice that we weren’t going back home. Instead we pulled up to an apartment building. Once we were parked, everyone followed Geno into the building, up the elevator, and into a penthouse apartment. The place was absolutely gorgeous. I had no idea why anyone would ever want to move out of a place like this. There was no way you could find anything better.

“Make yourselves at home,” Geno said, invitingly. I placed the bag of food down on the table and gave myself a little tour. It reminded me of what I had back in New York.

“I’m moving in,” I announced, taking a seat at the head of the table.

“I’d be honored,” Geno said with a smile, taking a seat to my left. We ate our late lunch happily, me nibbling on a fry here and there and Geno and Kris shoving ridiculous amounts of food down their throats. We spent the rest of the day and evening watching T.V., playing pool, air hockey, and cards, and just getting to know each other. This day didn’t turn out so bad after all. Around eight o’clock Bridget had some ‘dire work thing’ that she just had to attend and at about eight thirty, Kris took leave from us as well. After cleaning up the bowls of chips and salsa, I made my way out onto the rooftop balcony which did indeed offer a spectacular view. Geno came outside a few minutes later and stood next to me.

“This reminds me so much of home,” I stated, looking towards the city.

“Home? Oh, you mean New York,” he said.

“Yeah, but to me that still is my home,” I replied, looking up at him.

“Well, that’s understandable. I mean you loved it there. When you love something, it’s kind of hard to leave it. Unless of course there’s a good reason,” he said. Just as I was about to nod my head in agreement, he bent down and placed a light kiss on my lips that soon turned to something deeper when I wrapped my hands around his neck. Kissing him was everything that I thought it would be, plus something more amazing. When we finally pulled apart I knew my cheeks were flaming red and he looked flushed.

“I, um, I should go,” I stuttered, making my way towards the front door.

“Maddison, I’m sorry,” he began.

“No, don’t be sorry! I liked it,” I said before I could stop myself. “I mean, it wasn’t bad. It was just wrong. Does that make any sense? Anyway I texted my brother to come pick me up before and he should be here soon and now I’m rambling and--” I wasn’t watching where I was going in my haste to make it to the front door and I backed right into Brett.