Monday, July 7, 2008

Love for the game, Love for the guy-One-Shot

“She’s Hot,” I heard my teammates say. Granted this is what they were always saying. They were never with a girl for more than a day. Today they were talking about the woman that had joined the penguin’s staff. We had yet to officially meet her but that didn’t stop the guys heads from going straight into the gutter. I mean I love these guys but they can be too much at times. “I wonder how many of you she turns down in the first hour,” I muttered as I laced my skates up for practice.
If you don’t know who I am, we’re going to fix that problem immediately. My name is Marc-Andre Fleury. I was born on November 28, 1984 outside of Montreal. That of course makes me 23 years in age. I am 6 foot 2 inches and 180 pounds. I was drafted 1st overall in the 2003 NHL draft by the Pittsburgh Penguins and I’m in my 3rd year as their starting goalie. Now that those are over with let’s get on with my story. Where were we? Oh, yeah, my teammates were being perverts and discussing our new staff member. From what I could tell she was slender but not a fake thin…if you know what I mean. She looked like the type of girl that actually ate but worked to keep her figure healthy. That’s the word I was looking for…she looks slender yet healthy. She looked to be about 5’6” or 5’7” in height too.
“Hello…hell….oooo,” She whispered snapping her figures. “Are you with me Fleury?” Crap she’s talking to me? “Huh, what?” I may have sounded dumbstruck but then again I think I was. “I said: Hi, I’m Sara, the assistant goaltending coach. Obviously you didn’t hear me.” Her voice sounded annoyed but when I looked up she was smiling. “Marc-Andre, call me Marc.” I said reaching for her outstretched hand. I think she was expecting me to shake it or at least that’s what I gathered after I kissed her hand and saw her shocked expression.
“Hey Sara, why don’t you take Marc into one of the workout rooms and get to know each other. Do some strength exercises with him.” I looked up at Meloche. Was he serious? He always helped me with my strength exercises. O top of that does he not realize that everyone in the room heard him. I’m in for it now. Thanks a bunch. Well I can’t say no. Guess I better get these skates off and hit the workout room.
Lucky for me she kept conversation simple. Questions ranged from favorite color to hockey history. At that topic she got a little edgy and I figured she didn’t want to talk about it.
The guys had finished their practice 20 minutes before we finished our workout. I thought most of the guys had left by the time I hit the showers myself. Sara was actually kind of cool. She worked me hard but not harder than I was capable of. She was 21 and had already graduated university with a sports med degree. Her hair is brunette with little bits of blonde that appeared to be totally natural. And her eyes wow…wait what am I thinking! I can’t fall for her but crap I already have. I mean she’s kind yet demanding at points. She seems to know what I can do even better than I do. I was still hitting myself upside the head as I stepped out of the showers and over to get dressed.
I could just barely hear a conversation going on outside the locker room door. The raised voices were those of my teammates. Wait! That sounds like Sara. What’s going on out there? I quickly threw on my pants(Ummm shirtless) and rushed over to see what was wrong. She sounds upset. I pulled the door open to see Jordie, Tang, Sid and Geno on one side of the hallway and Sara on the other. She was curled up in a ball on the floor sobbing like there was no tomorrow. “What’d you guys do?” Ok so I was a little angry. Jeeze. I didn’t need her quitting just because I have some idiot teammates trying to hit on her or something. “We just wanted her to join our pickup game. She said no.” This came from Jordie. “But we kept bugging her and this happened,” added Geno. I gave them a look telling them to leave and steeped across the hall towards Sara. I slid down the wall to sit beside her. “Sara,” I whispered trying to get her attention. She continued crying only quieter now. I didn’t know what to do so I followed my instinct. I gently pulled her close to me whispering quiet nothings into her hair. Nearly 20 minutes later she sat up but was still leaning against me. “You wanna talk about it?” I murmured. She nodded. She leaned into me even more while reaching into her back pocket. She flipped her phone open and handed it to me. Woah! It was our midget team picture. Dwn right in front were the goalies…me and her? “Petal?” She looked up at me and smiled. “Flower.” I can’t believe it took me this long. This was the girl that was as good if not better than me and was two years younger. I opened my arms to pull her into a tight hug. We had been best friends that one year we had played together. “Why’d you quit?” I didn’t know whether or not I was pushing it by asking her or not. “Remember my dad,” she sobbed. “He was there every game, yeah I remember him.” “He passed away not a week after we won the title. He had a brain tumor and refused any help. Without him my world collapsed. He was my everything. I haven’t laced up my skates since.” Her tears were flowing freely. I pulled her chin up so she was looking a t me. I wiped away her tears with the pad of my thumb. “I think I want to try again, but only if you’ll help me. “ “Your dad is so proud of you Sara.” With those few words I kissed her unleashing every emotion that I felt.

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