I was anxiously waiting in the dark parking lot staring at the rink doors, willing them to open with my eyes. I hugged myself in my long down coat, trying not to freeze in the late February night. I felt kind of awkward standing around the rest of the families and girlfriends of the players, not knowing who to socialize with. Grey’s team just finished up their game and it was tradition to wait for them afterwards. They would come out freshly showered with their suits back on and chat for a couple of minutes before having to get on the team bus that drove them back to the university.
I actually found him hotter after the game than before it. Just thinking of him walking out made me feel giddy like some kind of groupie seeing their rockstar crush. He always came out all tousled and his suit- sans tie- was always crumpled and never on straight. That boy lost so many ties at different rinks around the country that I told him he should start signing them so people could return them to him.
I usually didn’t make the trek to away games, but I think Grey really wanted me to be here this time. As a senior, he was getting to the end of his college game days and I knew this made him nervous. I was happy to play the supporting girlfriend though. Being from Vancouver, over a 24-hour drive away, his parents rarely made it to games. It’d been like that since we started dating. He’d lived with a billet families since he was 15.
Guys started walking out the heavy rink doors, and I stood on my tiptoes in my sorel boots to try to catch a glimpse of him. I was so incredibly attracted to him that I still couldn’t believe how lucky I’d gotten… to have someone I loved as much as him and he loved me back too? And to get it right the very first time? I would never get tired of being with Grey, I just hoped he felt just as strongly about me. And I was hoping we’d be done with long distance sometime soon. It was easier back in high school and we didn’t take advantage of it. I had to laugh at that. We could’ve been intimate with each other for years before we were but Grey never pushed me, he let me be my innocent high school self. I loved the guy for it.
“You see him?” A gravelly voice from behind me asked, making me whirl around and lose my balance.
“Easy babe,” Grey chuckled and wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me into him effortlessly.
My face hit his large chest and his woodsy smell enveloped me. He had a way of making me feel so wanted and secure.
He gave me a hard squeeze, “Thanks for coming, babe, means a lot.”
“Anytime for my guy,” I returned, looking up at him.
He bent his head down and gave me a kiss, earning him a few catcalls from some guys already seated on the bus, freshmen no doubt. I couldn’t help but let out a giggle.
“You coming back to my place?” He asked with raised eyebrows.
“Want me to?”
“You don’t have to ask that babe, you know the answer to that,” he said pointedly.
“I know… I just like hearing you say it.”
“My bed, is your bed, my tiny princess,” he said, wiggling his eyebrows.
I swatted at him, but smiled. “Well then, I’ll be there,” I said softly, kissing his chest and looking up at him.
“Damn, babe. Now I’ve gotta be thinking about you in my bed for the next hour on this sausage fest bus ride. I wish I could go with you.” He gave my low pony a tug and stuck out his bottom lip, making him look like a little boy mid-tantrum.
“And let the team miss their captain? No way,” I reached up to touch his scruff. “Love this, by the way.” The beard was a new thing he’d been trying out. The last time he’d tried to grow it he only did it because he could- not because it looked good. He had been around 18 and it was very patchy. Now it was sexy. I caught myself staring at him a couple times lately, wondering how the 16-year-old boy I fell in love with had become so manly.
“Love you,” He kissed the top of my head and gave me one last squeeze. “Missed you this week.”
“Love you too, and missed you just like you missed that last shot.”
“Yeah, yeah,” he smirked. “I’ll see ya soon… and I won’t miss,” he gave me a slight spank and I like out an exaggerated gasp.
“So confident there, aren’t ya bud!” I whispered up to him.
He backed away like he’d been shot, “My girl! Calling me bud?”
I reached his hand and pulled him back to me and made him hug me again. I loved when he called me his girl.
“I do gotta go Jules, but I cannot wait to hold you tonight,” he whispered down to me.
I felt myself blush as I looked up at his dark brown eyes. With that, he headed towards the bus.
I started walking towards my car but spun around to him.
“Wait! Put your hat on before you catch a cold!” I quickly called to him, which earned a couple hoots from the bus. I grimaced and felt my cheeks heat up, feeling a little bad that I probably embarrassed him, but it was true! It was freezing out and he just showered.
But Grey showed no signs of embarrassment, he just gave me a wink as he pulled his beanie from his coat pocket and over top his damp hair.
I took that as my que to find my car and head to Brecklin University.
As I started towards the parking lot, I felt a buzz in my down jacket and fumbled to unzip my phone.
Grey texted: I love being loved by you, baby.
A giddy bubble of happiness rose in my chest, the kind of feeling only Grey could give me. The kind of feeling I hoped would never end.
Grey lived alone in a brick townhouse-type of apartment next to train tracks that ran through the edge of campus. The outside reminded me of project housing. Inside it was minimally decorated, but so Grey. He’d hung a couple of Canadian and hockey flags up around the living room, but not much else. I preferred his place over his friends- who had a bunch of posters of sports illustrated models in half dress lining their walls. One of the player’s girlfriends even helped purchase some of the model shots, which to me was absolutely insane. Grey laughed at my horrified face when he told me about that. “You’re not gonna buy me porno pics?” He joked. I shot him a look that said ‘no f’ing way.’ That was not my style, and Grey knew that. “Only got eyes for you, babe,” he’d say, and I knew he meant it.
Grey’s place had a tiny living room with a lopsided couch, connected to a kitchenette where he made us Grey Gourmet Grilled Cheeses, as he deemed them. Upstairs were two rooms- one empty, where he ended up keeping his hockey bag and some weights, and a cot for when friends came to visit. The other room was his. His queen size bed with a plain royal blue comforter took up most of his room. He’d recently added a side table that he proudly made, which had a bible laying on it and a framed picture of us from high school. The last piece of his room was a desk- littered with notebooks and papers from class and barely ever touched.
He had zero organizational skills when it came to classes. School was not his thing- it never had been. I’d practically dragged him through his junior and senior years of high school. He’d told me a million times that school was just a means to an end for him- and his end was to play hockey. The other thing he hated about school, and I knew this was true about him, was that he hated people telling him what to do. In high school, when a teacher said to read a certain chapter, he always had the urge to say- you can’t tell me what to do! His aversion for school was fine by me. I just loved him. I didn’t care what he did- my grandparents did though. So, I tried hard to help him with school and help him from some kind of “back-up plan,” as my grandparents called it, just in case hockey didn’t work out.
“How’s he going to support you?” My grandparents would ask all the time. They didn’t hide the fact that they didn’t approve of our relationship. Every time I stepped out of line or didn’t act in accordance to their definition of the perfect granddaughter it was always Grey’s fault, even if he had absolutely nothing to do with it.
I had a hunch that their dislike of him probably had something to do with hockey and my father, but every time I pushed for more information I was cut off and rudely shut up, so I eventually learned to stop trying. It sucked, but whatever. Grey was my person and had been since sixteen. I knew he would be my forever with a calm confidence I couldn’t even explain.
I made the drive all the way up to Brecklin- about an hour and a half for me- almost every other weekend- pretty much every time the hockey team had a home game or game close enough to drive to. I loved this drive. It was so much better than the long hours that used to be between us when I was at college the last three and a half years. I had wished to go someplace closer, but my grandparents financed it and their only condition was that I attended their alma mater. I did so grudgingly, but finished school a semester early. I had recently moved back home and was just coaching skating. I went to school for education and hoped to be an elementary school teacher… but I’d have to wait until the spring for interviews for the next school year. That was alright with me though because it gave me a little break and I loved being able to see Grey more often- wasn’t as often as when we were kids, attending the same high school and training at the same rink- but for the time being, Brecklin felt like our little oasis.
Pulling off the highway, my music was interrupted by a text. Looking down I noticed it was Grey.
Hope you’re already in my bed when I walk in the door…
I caught myself smiling reading it and I quickly typed back, How about I stop by the store and grab us some wine first?
I slowed my driving, stalling for a bit, wondering if I should continue to his place or turn towards the grocery store, but it didn’t take long for him to respond.
You take me for a rookie, Jules? That hurts. Already bought and ready for you… so bed, yeah?
I laughed out loud to myself in the car and quickly typed back I’d see him there.
