Chapter 5

(AL)


“Jordan, would you just tell me where we’re going?” I asked him again, exasperated. We had left the arena in his car and had been driving for 15 minutes already and he still hadn’t told me our destination. He smirked, his eyes still on the road.
“I told you, it’s a surprise. Be patient,” he said. I huffed and crossed my arms over my chest in frustration, diverting my gaze out the window. I tried to see if I could recognize any of the street names we passed as we drove by, but none of them rung any bells. Finally, we pulled up in front of a very nice looking, average sized house. I looked at Jordan for an explanation, but he was already getting out of the car. I opened the door and stepped outside, following him up to the doorstep. He opened the door for me and said as I walked inside,

“My humble abode, mademoiselle. Well, actually it’s Sid’s and Geno’s as well, and Max is staying here too for the time-being.” He added sheepishly. “But I’m going to kick them all out one day, you’ll see!” he told me as he put his suit jacket down on a chair. I laughed and watched as he took off his shoes and left them at the door, so I did the same.
“The grand tour, if you will,” he said, bowing and motioning for me to walk up the stairs. I did as he said, and he followed behind me until we got to the hallway at the top of the staircase.

“This here,” he told me, pointing to a door at the end of the hall, “Is Geno’s room, and across from it is a guest room, where Max is staying until he can find his own goddamn apartment.” He said this last part with annoyance, so I guessed Max had probably outstayed his welcome. Jordan motioned for me to continue down the hall, where he opened one of two doors to reveal an extremely clean, simple and well-kept room.
“This is where the OCD hockey phenom sleeps, feel free to takes some pictures as a souvenir,” Jordan said, with a hint of disgust.
“Do you have a problem with Sid?” I asked.
“No, no, not at all. It’s just all the reporters coming in and out all the time to do interviews with him and take pictures of him…well, it gets kind of tiring after a while,” he told me, shaking his head. I smirked at him.
“Sounds like someone’s a little jealous,” I said. He blushed.
“No I’m not,” he said, trying to put on a convincing voice.
“You just keep believing that, bud,” I said, patting his shoulder. He scoffed, closing the door of Sid’s room and opening the one across from it. This one looked like a normal guy’s room; various articles of clothing scattered across the floor, bed unmade, etc. Jordan looked kind of uncomfortable.
“Uh, yeah, this is my room,” he said, searching my face for a reaction. “I would’ve cleaned it, but I didn’t really have any time and I didn’t expect-” I cut him off.
“Its fine, trust me, I’m used to it. I have brothers,” I told him, smiling reassuringly. He sighed, relieved, and was just about to close the door when I noticed something.
“Your room is connected to Sid’s by a washroom?” I asked him, pointing to the open door on the far wall of his room.
“Yeah, how did you know?”
“I used to have the same kind of thing growing up with my brother. But that must get kind of awkward, eh?” I said knowingly.
“You have no idea. It is a huge flaw in our living situation, and the doors don’t even lock,” he told me, grimacing, probably remembering some uncomfortable situations. “But I’d rather share with Sid than Max or Geno; he’s a lot more polite, and it’s like I’ve got my own personal maid for the washroom.” he laughed, before turning around and walking back downstairs. As we passed through the main room, he pointed out the kitchen and the ‘room with the TV’, as he put it. All in all, the house was a lot smaller than I would have imagined a house with four famous hockey players living in it would be. But it was cute.

I sat down on one of the bar stools around the kitchen counter and Jordan leaned on the counter across from me.
“So what are we doing?” I asked him, resting my elbow on the counter-top.
“We,” he began, pulling out a packet of flour from the cupboard and putting it on the table, “are baking,” he finished, grinning widely.






“You baked a hockey puck!” I exclaimed, banging the unbreakable cookie against the table. Jordan just shrugged.
“It’s in my nature, I guess,” he smiled, taking another cookie from my batch. I grabbed the tray away from him, frowning. “These are really good,” he said, mouth full, pointing to the half-eaten chocolate chip cookie in his hand.
“I wish I could say the same about your three attempts,” I sighed, looking at the kitchen sink, which was now full of burnt, rock-hard and just plain disgusting cookies that Jordan had made. He tried to take another one of mine from the tray in my hand, but I pulled it away from him.
“How many have you had?” I asked him in a stern voice. He looked down at his hand and counted his chocolate covered fingers one by one. He then looked back up at me with a guilty expression on his face.
“Five…?” he said, forming a question at the end, to see if that was a reasonable amount. From the look on my face, he could tell it wasn’t. “C’mon, I’m a growing boy, I need my sugar!” he said in a childish voice, and he began sucking the chocolate off of his fingers. The breath caught in my throat and I had to turn my back to him to keep from losing my train of thought. I had never been so happy that I wasn’t a guy, or else I’m sure my blood would have been rushing southward at this moment. I felt Jordan come up behind me and try to take another cookie, and I slapped his hand away, turning around. I was caught off-guard at how close he was to me.
“Y-you’re going to get fat,” I stammered.
“Meh, it might do me good to put on a few pounds,” he said, patting his belly. “Are you serious? You’re huge!” I exclaimed. He gasped, hurt.
“Am not!”
“Um, yeah, ever wonder why they call you ‘The Gronk’?”
“Well, yeah, that’s true…but I’m not that big,” he said protectively, looking down at his over-bearing form looming over me.
“I’d say you’re the biggest guy on the team, no question,” I said, patting his chest.
“But I’m just skin and bones,” he replied, attempting to grab the fat of his belly, without much success.
“What about muscle?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.
“You like my muscles?” He smirked, rolling up the sleeve of his t-shirt and flexing his biceps.
You wish,” I scoffed, though I could feel my face getting red.
“Remember when I called you yesterday?” He asked suddenly.
“Uh-huh,” I responded, grinning slightly at the memory.
“Yeah, well Geno pretty much straight out tackled me to get the phone,” he told me, blushing a bit. I laughed.
“Fine, here,” I said, handing him the last of my cookies. He grinned like a little kid and took it eagerly.
“Thank you!” he said loudly, surprising me by wrapping his free arm around me in a hug with such force that I was lifted off of my feet. I breathed in his scent for a moment before he pulled away and walked over to the couch, collapsing facedown, exhaling exaggeratedly. I sat down on the cushioned chair next to the couch, staring at him. He must have noticed my eyes on him because he looked up at me and rested his chin on his arms. He looked as if he was searching my face for something, some sort of sign or indication. I just stared back, not giving anything away, taking this opportunity to admire his beauty. His features were truly breathtaking, and every inch of his face was chiseled down to flawless detail. His eyes were the most incredible; an amazing blue, like that of the sea or the bright cloudless sky. When he smiled they sparkled like diamonds, making the butterflies in my stomach go crazy with desire.

“Movie?” he asked suddenly, breaking me out of my trance.
“Uh, yeah, sure,” I said, leaning back against the chair. He grabbed the remote from the table, turned on Rogers on Demand and began scrolling through the HD movies.
“Oh, let’s watch the Uninvited!” he exclaimed excitedly.
“A horror movie?” I asked, and he nodded vigorously, smiling widely. “I don’t know…” I said, unsure. I had never been great with scary movies.
“C’mon, it’ll be fun!” Jordan said reassuringly, “And if you get too scared I’ll be right here to hold your hand.” Hmmm, that did sound appealing.
“Fine,” I sighed, and he smiled happily, turning on the movie. Just as it was about to start, he looked over at me.
“What are you doing over there? Come sit with me, I get scared too!” He said, patting the couch. I shook my head at him, smiling, and got up and sat down on the opposite side of the couch, leaving a noticeably large space between us. I didn’t want to seem like too much of a wimp. He clapped his hands twice and the lights turned off.
“Spooky,” I whispered, and I heard him chuckle.

As the movie began, I was instantly cringing and shielding my eyes. Most horror movies start off fine and then the scary parts come later, but that wasn’t the case with this one. It began right away with a terrifying incident, followed by another one and another one. It was just one scary thing after the other. I have to admit, the storyline was pretty good, but even so, I found myself inching closer and closer to Jordan with every passing moment. I stole occasional glances in his direction, but his expression didn’t falter.
“Aren’t you scared?” I asked him in a whisper.
“Terrified,” he responded, “I’m just trying to look tough.” I smiled at him timidly when he glanced in my direction, and he grinned back, a soft look in his eyes. We continued watching the movie in silence, and I brought my knees up to my chest, curled up in a ball. I jumped ten feet in the air when the dead mother fell out of the closet, and Jordan grabbed my hand in his, giving it a squeeze. I looked at him gratefully, and I saw that he was indeed scared; his adorable blond eyebrows were furrowed, and his face was tense. By the time the movie had ended our bodies were pressed together, he was still holding my hand and my face was buried in his shoulder.

“Hey,” he said softly, brushing my hair out of my face. “It’s over, you can look now.” I looked up to see his face dangerously close to mine, and he gave me a small smile. “See, that wasn’t so bad,” he said, rubbing my hand with his thumb. I nodded, unable to generate a more dignified response with his face only a few inches from my own. I leaned away, pulling my hand out of his, and stood up from the couch. My leg was asleep, and I instantly lost my balance, but Jordan steadied me, placing one hand on my shoulder and one on my waist.
“You okay?” he asked, laughing a bit.
“Shut up, my leg was asleep,” I retorted, pushing him away and walking into the kitchen. I opened up his cupboards, pulling out various utensils.
“What are you doing?” he asked me, sitting down at the kitchen counter.
“Making KD, you want some?” I asked, taking a carton of milk from the fridge.
“No thanks,” Jordan replied, shaking his head. “My tummy hurts.”
“Maybe it was those four thousand cookies you ate,” I said as I began boiling the water.
“Maybe it was,” Jordan answered, mocking me. Just then we heard the door open, and Sid’s voice yell,
“I hear cooking noises! Jordy, you’re not cooking, are you? You know what we told you about you cooking by yourself!”
“No, I’m not,” Jordan hollered back, and then looked at me.
“Jordy?” I asked him, raising an eyebrow. He grimaced.
“Long story,” he said, waving away the subject. Sid walked into the room, and when he saw me, let out a sigh and said,
“Thank God,” sitting down in the seat next to Jordan.
“Where are Max and Geno?” I asked him, pouring the noodles into the water.
“They go home with a different girl almost every game night,” Sid stated nonchalantly, as if it were a completely normal thing to do.
“And you don’t?” I asked the both of them.
“Staalsy does,” Sid said, grinning widely at his friend.
“Sometimes, douchebag, ” Jordan retorted, punching Sid in the arm. “Sid never does,” he added, smirking. I looked at Sid.
“That’s surprising; I would’ve thought there’d be girls crawling all over you,”
“And why would you think that?” Sid asked in a flirty kind of way.
“Because…well, because you’re you,” I said, blushing, not sure how to explain it. I shook off his flirtatious tone quickly, I didn’t need anything else to worry about.
“What’s so great about him?” Jordan asked me, frowning, and I could tell that he was definitely jealous of Sid, in more ways than one.
“Ouch, dude, that was mean,” Sid said, pretending to be hurt. He then turned to me, “Actually, there are girls crawling all over me, but I’m just not really into one night stands. Besides, I could never do that, not with my soul-mate waiting for me to come home.” He winked at me, but I just shook my head, grinning. “I’ll have some of that, by the way,” he said, pointing to the boiling pot on the stove.
“You guys are like empty holes,” I told them, draining the KD and putting it in two separate bowls. I handed one to Sid and one to Jordan, who looked up at me, surprised.
“How did you know I was hungry again?” he asked incredulously.
“Wild guess,” I responded, smiling and filling up a bowl for myself before putting a large spoonful in my mouth.