Saturday, March 21, 2009

From the brink of Disaster to Paradise-Day 40 A Second Meeting

We had a special delivery today. One of the hockey wives had given birth to her first child. I was the only one working in the nursery at the moment and when her husband arrived to see the baby I was shocked to see him there too. They scrubbed up and I handed cam Ward his daughter. I walked to the fridge to get her bottle and handed it to Cam as well. While he fed her I went over to wash the dishes left by the previous shift. While I wash the coffee mugs I noticed that he was beside me drying them. I looked at him and he smiled.

“Nice shirt,” he said. I looked down at the Hurricane t-shirt I wore under my smock.

“It was the only shirt I had clean,” I teased. His booming laughter filled the room and my heart fluttered.

“Are you doing anything tonight?” he asked.

“Not that I know of,” I answered.

“Good, you’ll have a ticket waiting for you at Gate 3.” He dried the last mug and then went to talk with Cam. I stood frozen at the sink for at least 2 minutes before going to put the little girl in Cam’s arms back to bed. The rest of the day I couldn’t stop smiling. Had Eric Staal asked me out? No he just saw that I was a fan and invited me to see his team play. When Maria came to relieve me from my shift she just smirked as I rushed to sign out.

Stopping quickly at my apartment to change, I made my way to the arena headed for Gate 3. I thought I blended into the crowd pretty well. I wore jeans, a canes sweatshirt, and a hat with the number 12 on it. I got my ticket from the call office and made my way to my seat. When I got there I was pleasantly surprised at the location. It was lower bowl, center ice, across from the benches. I was even more surprised at who they were next to. Now I may not have followed the NHL very closely but I could guarantee that my seat was next to Henry and Linda Staal, Eric’s parents. I slid into my seat hoping they would ignore me. My wish was granted, at least during the game it was. Along with my ticket was a locker room pass and a note that said ‘show up or else :)’. I dilly-dattled to the locker room so that the guys had plenty of time to shower and dress. When I got there I was let in immediately. Eric’s parents were talking to Cam congratulating him on the shutout and new baby. Eric was tightening his tie and when he saw me he gave me a big hug.

This is what it means to be held (Held-Nathalie Grant)

“You came,” he said. I nodded, blushing when I noticed his mom’s gaze on our encounter. I felt awkward the rest of the night and escaped as soon as I could saying I was tired and had to work early.

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