Chapter Twenty Six;

Back at the hotel everyone was in their assigned rooms. Bylsma and the assistant coaches were checking all of their rooms to make sure they were where they were supposed to be and looked like they were getting ready for bed. Everyone seemed to be following all the rules. The guys were in their rooms while the girls were in their own. More than half of them were already in their beds and the rest were getting ready to do the same. Dan was pleased.
He made his final walk down the hallway of the seventh floor, came to the elevator and pressed the button. The doors opened and he stepped inside, pressing the black number nine to go up to his room’s floor. Slowly the doors slid shut with a ding as the elevator went up.

Ashley’s phone vibrated in her hand, “Jordan says the coast’s clear.”
 “I can’t believe we’re gonna do this.” Emily sighed. Though Ashley’s always been one to sneak out and break the rules, Emily never really was. Tonight would be different.
 “It’s gonna be fun! Dan won’t know, don’t worry.” Ashley assured her.
 “What won’t Dan know?” Ashlen, who just walked into the room after ending her phone call with Sidney, asked curiously.
 “Me, Em, Jordy and Geno are sneaking out and gonna go walk on the beach.” Ashley told her with an excited smile, “You and Sid are welcome to join us if you wanna.”
 “Thanks, but I think we’re just gonna hang out in his room.” Ashlen said with a smile, “You guys have fun though.”
 “You too.” Ashley said suggestively. Ashlen laughed and left for Sid’s room.
Emily crossed her arms over the grey Pens hoodie she had on and sighed.
 “Em, please. I know you don’t want to, but for me. It will be fun, I promise you.” Ashley told her with a pleading look in her brown eyes, “You’re my best friend, you gotta trust me.”
 “I do trust you, I guess. But it’s just, Geno…” Emily’s voice trailed off.
 “I know, I know. But it was Jordan’s idea and I was trying to be a good friend and keep your love for Tanger a secret. If I told him you didn’t want Geno to go, he’d know you were hiding something. And if you didn’t come at all, I would be alone and that wouldn’t be good.” Ashley half smiled as she spoke.
 “I guess that’s true.” Emily forced a smile. “The last thing we need on this trip is you and Jordy having a run in with the cops for doing some illegal shit while you’re off on your own.”
 “Ha, you know it.” Ashley laughed, “So you’ll come?”
Emily took a breath and nodded, “Yeah, I suppose I will.”


Ashlen knocked lightly on the door of room 715, being careful not to make too much noise. A mere three seconds passed before the handle turned and the door was opened, revealing Sidney standing in the doorway with a smile on his face.
 “Hello, beautiful.” Sid said and made way for her to come inside.
 “Hey there, handsome.” Ashlen responded and gave him a quick kiss.
 “Not you again!” Marc-Andre sighed, but was smiling. He liked joking around with them.
 “Nice to see you too, Flower.” Ashlen smirked at him. Sid’s arm was around her as they walked further into the room and towards where Marc was sitting on the couch.
 “Whatcha watching?” Sid asked him.
 “Well, I was going to watch a movie.” Flower replied, looking up at the couple standing in front of him.
 “What movie?” Ashlen asked.
Fleury smiled, looking kind of like he didn’t want to answer but he did anyway, “Talladega Nights.”
 “I should’ve known!” Sid laughed, “You just like watching it and pretending you’re Jean Girard and reciting all of his lines when he says them.”
 “Shut up.” Marc-Andre said, not denying it. Ashlen and Sidney laughed some more.
 “Can we watch it with you?” Ashlen asked, half wanting to actually watch it and half just wanting to hear Flower make a fool of himself.
Marc shrugged, “Be my guest.”



 “I’ll go get Jordan, you go get Geno.” Ashley directed Emily once they were out in the dim hall way. Em nodded in agreement and the two went their separate ways. Jordan and Tyler’s room was at one end of the hall, while Geno and Max’s was at the other.
Emily walked to their room in silence. She didn’t have a lot on her mind. She was tired and was just going to have to deal. She figured that once she had a drink or two she would loosen up a bit. She knocked on the door in front of her and waited. Maybe Ash was right, and this would be fun. Maybe.
Oh, how she wished it was Monday.
After a few seconds of waiting she heard the door being unlocked and then it opened. Though she expected to see Evgeni on the other side, the face she saw belonged to Max.
 “What are you doing here?” He asked her, obviously unaware of their plan.
 “I’m here to get Geno. Us and Ash and Jordy are gonna go down to the beach.” She explained with no excitement in her voice whatsoever.
Max opened the door enough for her to come in, and she did.
 “Oh, what are you guys gonna do down there?” Max asked her, sounding rather curious. Geno wasn’t in the room, otherwise he might not have asked.
Emily shrugged, “I don’t know. I guess just walk around. Maybe have a few drinks. Just chill.”
 “No,” Max said quickly, “I mean, that’s a bad idea.”
 “What? Why?” Emily’s expression showed her confusion. Max looked around. Geno was in the other room, changing, so he wasn’t in hearing proximity. Despite that, Max continued the conversation in French, just in case.
 “Don’t drink anything.” He said, looking her right in her eyes.
 “Why not?” She was still confused.
 “Well, you love Kris, right?”
 “Yeah…”
 “And you wouldn’t wanna do anything with Geno that you’d be ashamed to tell him about, right?”
 “Where are you going with this?” Emily asked, though the answer to his question was yes.
Max was quiet for a few seconds, almost as if he were thinking, but finally replied, “Geno wants to get in your pants. Bad.”
 “What?” Emily said in English, not expecting that response.
 “He would do anything to get you in bed. Anything.” Max, in French, said seriously, “Even if it means getting you drunk in order to do it. I wouldn’t risk a single sip if I were you. You’re pretty thin, it probably doesn’t take much to get you real tipsy.”
 “You’re kidding, right?” Emily asked, almost laughing. She couldn’t see Evgeni being like that. Especially with her.
 “No, I swear. He told me.” Max said, sounding just as serious as he looked, if not more. “I’m just looking out for you. I figured, if I didn’t tell you and something happened I would feel like shit. No, worse than shit, I’d feel like a terrible friend that’s covered in shit. So I told you. Don’t be mad and don’t say anything to him, but it’s totally true. Geno wants to get it on tonight. Please, for me and you and Kris’s sake, don’t let that happen.”
Emily nodded, a concerned expression on her face, “Okay, I won’t. I promise.”
 “You won’t what?” Evgeni’s voice asked. Emily turned around to face him. Listening so intently to what Max was saying and with all the new thoughts on her mind, she hadn’t noticed him come into the room. He had on a hoodie and some swim-trunk looking shorts. As cute as he looked standing there with his signature Geno-grin on his face, Emily couldn’t quite look at him the same way.
 “I won’t, uh, tell Jordan that Max thought, um, that Marc beat him in that fight. Yeah, I won’t do that.” She lied poorly, but Geno showed know sign of disbelief.
 “Oh, okay. Well, you ready?” He asked her. She could tell that he was excited and she worried that it was because of what Max had said.
 “Yeah, I think so.” Emily let out a sigh.
 “Okay, let’s go.” He smiled and took her hand.
 “See you guys later.” Max called to them as they walked away. Emily turned to look at him with worried eyes. He shrugged, not able to do anything and mouthed, “Don’t forget.”
Emily nodded and said, “See ya.” Then the door shut behind her. Jordan and Ashley were already waiting down by the elevator, so Geno and Em hurried quietly to where they were.
 “Looky what I got.” Jordan smiled, Ashley holding onto his arm. He pulled out of his hoodie pocket a couple bottles of different kinds of alcohol, “Hotel fridges never fail.”
 “Nice.” Geno chuckled and Ashley grabbed one of the bottles with a grin. Emily faked a smile to fit in. Max’s words were haunting her.
The elevator doors slid open and the four of them stepped in.
 “Going down.” Ashley said and pressed the button for the lobby. The doors dinged and slid shut. Within seconds, they were indeed, going down.


 “They’re so gonna get caught.”
 “Honestly, I’m gonna be surprised if they don’t. I mean, I could hear Ash and Jordan laughing from in my room.”
 “Plus Jordy totally cleaned out the mini fridge before he left,” Tyler said into his phone. He and Lauren were talking on their cells rather than breaking the rules and getting in trouble, which they were both sure Ashley, Emily, Jordan, and Geno were going to do. “I don’t see how they think they can just leave the hotel, get drunk, and come back without someone noticing, ya know? Like, there are cameras and people working here that could easily say something to Bylsma and they’d be done.”
 “It’s whatever, I guess.” Lauren sighed, “There’s no stopping them now. If they wanna pay a couple thousand dollars to go to the beach, that’s fine by me.”
 “Yeah. Speaking of you,” Tyler smiled, picturing her face, “What are you up to over there?”
Lauren grinned, “Just sitting here on the couch, watching TV with Leah. How about you?”
 “Laying here in bed talking to you.” He replied.
 “Sounds like fun.” Laur giggled.
TK loved the sound of her laugh, “It sure is.”



 “I can hear them.” Kris said bitterly. His and Philippe’s room was next door to Max and Geno’s, so when Emily and Geno left their room, he heard.
 “Kris,” Philippe said, looking up from the book he was reading. He was sitting on his bed and Kris was on his own. “Don’t get yourself all worked up. I know I heard Jordan’s laugh out in the hallway too. I bet he and Ashley are gonna be with them. They’re not gonna do anything with them around.”
 “Yeah, like that would stop him from having his way with her.” Kris hated thinking about it.
 “Okay, so maybe Jordan and Ashley won’t stop him, but I know Emily would.” Philippe said, “She told you she loves you. She’s not the kind of girl who would go behind your back and do stuff with another guy.”
Kris sighed. As much as he wanted to believe that Boucher was right about Emily, he knew he wasn’t entirely. Yeah, she wasn’t the kind of girl to do that all the time, but she had done it before. With him. Thinking about all this made Kris get a better picture of why Emily was so worried about Evgeni finding out about their night together. If Kris was this upset and angry just thinking about her going out and doing stuff with someone else, imagine how Geno would feel if he found out she actually had done that to him. Kris decided upon that being one of the worst feelings in the world. He didn’t want to have to feel it first hand.
 “Listen, kid.” Bouch said, noticing the distressed look on Kris’s face, “Why don’t you go to sleep. There’s no use you staying up thinking about all this and stressing yourself out. We got a game tomorrow, you need your rest.”
 “Yeah, I guess your right.” Kris agreed, not wanting to stay up any longer anyway. He was worrying too much. Sleep would help. He hoped, at least.

Chapter Twenty Five;

The rest of their dinner went smoothly. After she had talked with Ashley, Emily felt a little better and composed herself and tried to enjoy her time with Geno and her friends. Ashley also derived something from their conversation, feeling a renewed sense of happiness to have Jordan and the love that they both had for each other. Lauren was also feeling like her and Tyler’s relationship was growing stronger after the waitress incident, and she liked it.
Kris continued to steal glances in Emily’s direction. Occasionally he would catch her eye, making her cheeks turn a rosy shade of pink at the realization that he was looking at her. Her lips would form a subtle grin, but she wouldn’t look directly at him. That’s all it took to lift his mood and improve his attitude a bit. Max noticed.
Although he was with Leah and had a golden opportunity to get closer with her, Max couldn’t seem to concentrate on that right now. The only thought on his mind was actually about Emily and it completely consumed any and all other thoughts on his mind. He looked over at her, she was laughing about something Ashley had said. He shook his head, thinking how ridiculous he was for even considering what was on his mind. Max then looked across the table at Kris, then back over at Emily and sighed. Maybe his theory wasn’t that crazy.
Sidney and Ashlen were acting very flirty with each other, much to Marc-Andre’s dismay. They were giggling and kissing and, according to Flower, being rather obnoxious as they flaunted their newfound love. He didn’t know if they were acting that way to purposely mess with him or if they were honestly like that. He laughed about it as they did things like feeding each other their dinner and kissing each other where they got a little food on their face. Their cutesiness was intense, but he couldn’t deny that they made a near perfect couple.

By the time everyone had finished eating, it was approaching nine o’clock. They were all still seated and talking when Dan Bylsma stood up to make a quick announcement.
 “Okay guys, when we get back to the hotel I want you all to go pretty much straight to your rooms. That means the rooms you were assigned,” He paused and gave a stern, but at the same time friendly look at the girls. It was kind of hard to take Dan too seriously, “We’ve got back to back afternoon games tomorrow and Saturday, plus if you want to check out that festival tomorrow night, so you need to get as much rest as you can tonight. So I suggest you go to sleep a little early. And like I said before, no girls in the guys’ rooms and vice versa. Got that?”
 “Got it, Coach.” Jordan winked with a grin. Bylsma chuckled.
 “I’m being serious, Jordy. I’ll break out the fines if you guys make me.” He said, speaking of the fines the players sometimes have to pay for doing certain things. Like not leaving the arena when practice is long over and other silly things.
 “Might as well make the kids pay up now. Ya know they’re just gonna break the rules anyway.” Billy Guerin joked, referring to the guys whose girlfriends were with them.
 “I’ll tell you what, I’ll just throw the numbers out right now,” Dan proposed, “One thousand dollars cash for each rule broken. So don’t break any.”
 “Well, what are all the rules?” Max asked.
 “You should know the basics. The rest are for me to know and you to hope you don’t have to pay for.” Dan smirked.
As the team continued discussing the fines with their coach, Emily looked over at Ashley and Jordan. The couple both had devious grins on their faces and were holding hands.
 “You’re planning on breaking the rules, aren’t you?” She whispered so only they could hear.
Ashley smiled and Jordan chuckled, “Most definitely.”

Chapter Twenty Four;

After a long day of fun in the sun, the sun was finally setting and everyone was hungry for dinner. They decided to put on some nice clothes and go out to eat at a local seafood restaurant. Calamari Mike’s was the name. Max claimed he heard some good reviews on the place and rounded up the whole team and their ladies to give it a go.
“So since this was your idea, does that mean you’re paying, Maxy?” Marc-Andre asked his teammate as the group walked into the restaurant. They were following a short, red-headed waitress back to banquet room where it was more private.
“Ha, no actually. I was thinking mister a billion million dollars over here could cover it.” Max replied, giving Sidney a love tap on his ass as he spoke.
“Whoa there.” Sid said, startled by the random ass smack. “I’ll pay as long as you stop doing that, man.”
Max laughed, “Deal.”
“Besides,” Ashlen added with a joking smile, “No one touches my boy’s huge ass but me.”
Sid chuckled in agreement. Max placed his hand on Ashlen’s shoulder, “You’re one lucky girl, let me tell you,” He told her, glancing back and forth from her eyes and Sid’s bottom, “An ass like this guy’s is one in a billion.”
“Okay, okay!” Sidney protested, trying to keep from drawing attention to himself. Max, Ashlen, and Flower were laughing. “Enough with the ass jokes, please.” Though he wasn’t really mad, he was getting annoyed.
“Sorry, Sid.” Ashlen smiled at him. He smiled back and kissed her to show that he had forgiven her.
“Yeah, sorry Sid.” Max imitated Ashlen’s voice, or at least tried to, and then puckered his lips for a kiss of his own. Sid wasn’t having that.
“No thanks, dude.” He put his hand up in front of Max’s face.
Max just chuckled, “Your loss.”

Everyone sat down at one of two long tables. The left consisted of Sidney, Max, Evgeni, Jordan, Tyler, Marc-Andre, Brooks, Chris, Eric, Philippe, Kris, Emily, Ashley, Lauren, Leah, and Ashlen. While at the right table were some of the coaching staff and the rest of the team.
At the left table, seated left to right on one side was Brooks, Chris, Eric, Kris, Philippe, Marc-Andre, Sidney, and then Ashlen. On the opposite side went Tyler, Lauren, Leah, Max, Geno, Emily, Ashley, and then Jordan. Everyone was talking casually as the waitress came around and took the drink orders.
Kris looked mildly depressed sitting there looking lost and bored. Max, who was sitting across from him, noticed. He watched as he looked down at his lap and every once in a while stole a glance up at where Emily and Geno were sitting, next to Max. It must have been hard for him to see them together.
Geno was telling her, Ashley and Jordan a story about back at his home in Russia involving his brother, Denis, himself and some of their friends. The four of them laughed as he concluded his reminiscence.
“Wow, Geno,” Jordan laughed, “Maybe I was wrong about you. You and your Russian buddies sound like you know how to have yourselves some fun.”
“You’d be surprised.” Geno just smiled. He was holding Emily’s hand and had them resting on the table. His thumb made circles over her skin as she smiled at him. “You’ll have to come with me to Magnitogorsk sometime.” He said.
Emily nodded, not sure how to respond. “That’d be fun.” She decided upon.
“Yeah,” Geno smiled again, “I told my parents about you. They really want to meet you.”
Oh god. Emily thought, hoping that the slight panic she was feeling didn’t show. She had nothing against his parents, but if Geno told them about her then he had to be serious about their relationship. That comment made what she was planning on doing on Monday that much harder.
“I’ll be right back.” Emily told him, standing up from her seat. She grabbed Ashley’s arm to bring her with her to the restroom. Ash didn’t fight it, easily agreeing to accompany her. It’s just what girls do.
“Do you want me to order your drink?” Geno asked her before she could walk away. The waitress was down at the other end of the table now but would soon make her way to theirs to take their drink orders.
“Uh, yeah. Water’s fine.” Emily replied.
“You know what I like.” Ashley smiled at Jordan who winked back at her as her and Emily hurried back to the bathroom.


“You think she’s alright?” Kris whisper-asked Philippe after seeing Emily suddenly jump up from her seat and leave the table.
“Yeah, her and Ashley are probably just gonna go fix their makeup or something. Girls do that a lot.” Philippe shrugged.
“It’s not like she needs to.” Kris sighed, picturing her face smiling at him in his head, “She’s already beautiful.”


“And what can I get for you, Mr. Kennedy?” The redheaded waitress smiled at Tyler, throwing a flirty wink his way. Lauren’s eyes narrowed at the tiny woman. She had taken Brooks and Chris’s drink orders without a problem. Who did she think she was flirting it up with her boyfriend?
“I’ll just have a Pepsi.” TK replied, as if he hadn’t noticed her looking at him as if he were a piece of meat.
“Alrighty.” She smiled big at him and took her time writing it down on her tablet. How long could it possibly take to write Pepsi? When she finished her masterpiece she looked up from the paper at Lauren with a sour look on her face, “And you?”
“This beautiful girl of mine would like some lemonade,” Tyler spoke for her, smiling, before Lauren could get a word out, “Right, babe?”
Lauren smiled back at him, knowing what he was doing. “That’s right, Teek.” She said, glancing up at the waitress with a smirk. Ginger scowled at her and quickly scribbled it down on the tablet, avoiding looking at the couple as they shared a kiss.
Lauren and Tyler chuckled as the waitress moved further down the table without looking back.
“I think she’s jealous.” Lauren whispered with a grin on her face.
“She should be. You’re insanely beautiful and amazing and I wouldn’t trade you for anything. How could she not be jealous?” Tyler said.
“I love you.” Lauren blushed at his complement.
He smiled and kissed her again, “I love you too.”


“What’s the matter, Em?” Ashley asked her friend once the door labeled ‘Women’ shut behind them. Emily was standing in front of the long row of seashell encrusted sinks, just staring straight ahead at her reflection in the mirror.
“I-I don’t know.” She replied. There was little emotion in her voice or expression. She felt tired. Like she hadn’t slept in days. And her head hurt. Not to mention the nauseous feeling that was stuck in her stomach.
“Is it Geno?” Ashley asked, concerned with what was going on with her.
Emily sighed, “Kind of.”
“Did he do something wrong?” Ash wasn’t sure what to say to help. Normally she was the one that needed the advice that Emily had to give. Now that she was put in that position, she felt she was obligated to do what she could to help, even if she was no good at it.
“No, not him.” Emily replied simply.
“Did you do something?” Ashley tried. Emily turned away from the mirror to face her friend.
“Sort of.” She told her. She wanted to talk about her and Kris without letting any details slip out about what they did.
“Well, what’d you do?”
“Kris.” Emily said, but then quickly added, “I mean, I still have feelings for him.”
“Oh,” Ashley looked at her sympathetically, “Are they strong feelings? Like, more than you feel for Geno?”
Emily bit her bottom lip and nodded, yes. “I mean, I like Geno. He’s really sweet and a great, great friend. But I love Kris. I really do. So much.”
“But you don’t want to hurt Geno because you know how much he likes you, maybe even loves you, and you’d feel awful if you broke his heart since you’re such good friends.” Ashley said, knowing just what to say as if she were speaking Emily’s actual feelings.
“Yeah,” Emily said, surprised at how accurate her response was, “How’d you know that?”
“Remember Mitchell?” She shrugged, and Emily immediately knew the answer to her question. “He was one of the best guy friends I had. When we dated, yeah I liked him, but for him it was so much more. He told me he loved me. I couldn’t bare to break his heart, but I couldn’t go on being with him when I didn’t feel the same way.” She paused and took a deep breath, “It was hard, but he eventually understood it wasn’t meant to be. If we would’ve stayed together we may never have found our true soul mates. Now, I don’t know about him, but mine’s right out there.” Ashley smiled a small smile and pointed to the door, where Jordan was in the room on the other side. “The question is, where’s yours?”
“First of all, thank you.” Emily smiled at Ashley, who smiled back happy she was able to help, “Second of all, I’m gonna have to wait till we get back to the Burgh until I do anything about this. But the answer to your question is the same as yours. He’s right out there. And his name is Kristopher Allen Letang. And I’m madly in love with him.”