“Are you going to call him?”
Catherine had met her at the house. Campus Security nor the Baltimore PD caught up to Dave before he disappeared from the university. They had agreed to send a patrol car periodically to keep an eye on her house. After spending a wasted hour with the police, she was back home on her couch, sipping hot cocoa with Catherine.
“Of course, just not until after the game.” She looked down into her cup. He’d already texted twice since she’d been attacked. He would be mad that she didn’t tell him right away, but he had a game. He couldn’t come to her and telling him now would only undermine his focus. For now, she was going to forget about Dave and be distracted by hockey. She’d had the Pens’ game on for the last fifteen minutes. Alex’s didn’t start for another forty-five. She could flip back and forth then. She was not going to give up her Pens just because of Alex, but she couldn’t NOT watch him play. She had to. He was dynamic and he played hard. People said he was reckless, but she knew he was just passionate and caught up in the game. He would not put himself in a position to get hurt, but she would still sit with her fingers crossed hoping that with each cross-check, he was the one left standing.
Catherine was quiet. She knew better than to chat over the Pens, just as Sophie had always known better than to chat over the Caps. The Pens were coming hard in the first putting 15 shots on goal already. Geno was like a man possessed. He was definitely going to make his presence known tonight. Max Talbot had already gotten into a fight. It was going to be a rough game in Pittsburgh. Her phone rang out from the side table.
“Time to change channel Pens fan!” the text read. She smiled to herself and picked up the remote. The best thing about her TV service was her DVR. She could watch the Pens game later. It was shaping up to be one she didn’t want to miss.
“I love that you’re dating a Cap,” Catherine giggled, thrilled with the change of the channel. “I get to see so many more games this way.”
Sophie just sneered at her and watched the pregame. She spotted Alex come on to the ice for warm up. He looked massive in his gear. They were in their red home jerseys tonight, her favorite. He skated warm up without at helmet. She loved watching his facial expressions as he shot and did his puck handling exercises. He was serious, but still had that little boy exuberance when one of the guys said something or did something that struck him funny. She could almost see his focus concentrate to one area of the net as he shot. It was almost as if his eye narrowed to a single pin point. That was Serious Alex, the side she hardly ever got to see. Then, he’d score and Happy Alex was back momentarily. Hockey was serious business for him, Happy Alex only came out when they scored.
The game started with Alex, Nicklas Backstrom and Alexander Semin as forwards. Nicky won the faceoff and Alex took off like a rocket. He took a pass from Semin, sent it back to Nicky, who skated behind the goal and found Alex again. He fired a shot from the thirty feet out to beat Henrik Lundqvist just over the left hand glove. 8 seconds. Figures, she thought, laughing with Catherine as they jumped off the couch screaming. The game moved at high speed for most of the first and second periods. At the beginning of the third, the score was 3-0 Capitals. There had been a lot of cross-checking and slashing and several penalties accumulated in the second. That animosity spilled over in the third, when Sean Avery tried to slam Alex into the boards. He was not very successful except to make Alex mad. Alex dropped the gloves and went after Avery. They both lost their helmets rather quickly. They threw punch after punch until Alex wrestled Avery to the ice. The refs broke it up then and they both headed off the ice.
“That was hot,” Catherine said raising her eyebrows.
“Excuse me?”
“You know it was. Alex is hot.”
Sophie smiled. It was hot. Hockey fights were always hot especially if one of your favorite players was involved, as long as no one was hurt. It was unusual for them to get really hurt in a fight. It was the on ice hits that usually caused all the problems. She didn’t like to see Alex fight, she didn’t want him to be injured at all. However, she had to admit, she was aroused by how he handled himself.
“Yeah, well, you just keep your mind on Green,” she teased her friend.
“Oh, please, I’ve seen the way he looks at you. He would never even see me.” Catherine smiled at her. It was the smile of someone who couldn’t be happier for her friend. Sophie knew everything that Catherine thought without her having to say it. Catherine thought that Alex was the best thing to ever happen to Sophie. Sophie was beginning think that she was right.
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