Chapter 3

I walked into my office on Monday morning. I was purposefully avoiding Paige because I wasn’t exactly in the mood to discuss my non-date at the hockey game the previous Saturday. What was I going to say to her? I added another 2 seconds on to the amount of time I’d spent conversing with Patrick to up the total to 5 seconds? Ridiculous.

As I began to get situated for the day I kept thinking back to the game. I’d spent way too much time thinking about Patrick and the hockey game, and being invited to another one. I didn’t like how my mind was wandering there. I also knew that Paige seemed to be able to read my mind and she’d be all over me about that. Another reason to be avoiding her.

I’d also spent some time thinking about Nathan. I’d come up with a possible opportunity to help him get back on track. I’d have to clear it with Isaiah first and make sure Nathan was up for it, but I felt like it could work. Speaking of Nathan, he didn’t waste much time in coming into my office.

“Miss Tunney?” he asked, knocking lightly on my open door. I looked up and smiled at him while I waved him in.

“Come on in, Nathan. What can I do for you?” I asked. He sat down on the couch along one of the walls in my office.

“I was wondering if you’d thought any more about the game on Friday?” he questioned. I tried to hold back the smile that was threatening to break out.

“I have thought about it, but I think I want to do a little more thinking. Why don’t you come back at the end of the day and I’ll give you my final answer?” He nodded, seemingly satisfied with the answer for now.

“Okay, I’ll see you after the last bell. Bye, Miss Tunney.”

Oh yeah, I think as long as Isaiah cleared it, my idea was going to work just fine. I’d wanted to tell Nathan I’d take him, but I wasn’t going to put my job into jeopardy, which was why I’d told him to come back after school. At the very least I’d intrigued Nathan enough to keep him in school for the whole day.

I called over to Isaiah’s secretary and made an appointment to see him around lunch time. I then spent most of the rest of the morning working on my sales pitch to him. I didn’t want Isaiah to turn me down. When it was time to meet him I walked down to his office and greeted his secretary.

“Come on in, Gabrielle,” he said to me, holding open his door. I walked in and he shut the door behind me. “Have a seat.” I sat down in a chair across from his desk and waited until he sat down in his seat.

“How’s your day going?” I asked him with a smile. He looked at me suspiciously.

“Don’t try to butter me up, Tunney. What do you want?” He’d caught me. Thankfully we got along well, and I could hear the hint of amusement in his voice.

“I have a proposal and I just want you to hear me out before giving me an answer,” I started. He narrowed his eyes and nodded.

“Okay, I’ll hear you out completely, only because I’m intrigued. Continue.” I took a deep breath before going on.

“I took Nathan Oliver to a hockey game on Saturday. There’s a whole story behind it. It wasn’t my idea. The thing is, Nathan loves hockey and had a great time. If you could have just seen the look in his eyes the entire time you’d see how much being there meant to him. While we were there I started to come up with an idea. Nathan would do just about anything to go to the Blackhawks games and – " Isaiah put a hand up to signal that I should stop talking.

“Get permission from his parents and you can take him to all the games you want.” My jaw dropped in disbelief. That hadn’t been nearly as difficult as I’d been expecting.

“Really?” He smiled across his desk at me.

“I know you, Gabrielle. You’re not doing this for the wrong reasons. If you are suggesting this, you have a good reason for it.” I smiled back at his trust in me.

“I do. I was thinking of giving him a kind of ultimatum. If he stays out of trouble and stays in school getting good grades I’ll take him to a game, weekends only of course. If he gets in any sort of trouble he loses a number of games based on how serious the trouble was. The thing is, it’ll open him up a bit to me. We won’t be in a school setting so it won’t seem like he’s talking to a counselor, but just to a friend. I’m hoping it’ll help get him back on track.” I finished my speech even though I already had Isaiah’s permission. I wanted him to know where I was coming from.

“I think you know more about psychology than me. If you think it will work, it probably will. Is there anything else?” I grinned and shook my head. “Good. I’ll see you later.”

I got up and walked back to my office, a smile on my face the entire time. Now I just had to call Nathan’s parents and get their permission to take him. When I walked over to my desk I found a note lying on top of everything. It was from Paige.

You were gone all lunch, but you’re not getting out of telling me about Saturday. Meet me at 4 at our place. –Paige

I sighed and rolled my eyes but knew there was no way around it. I tossed the note in the garbage and then looked up Nathan’s home number. I called and was surprised when his mother answered and sounded pretty lucid. I explained the situation to her and she grunted out her permission before hanging up on me. Oh well, she’d said yes at least.

The day finished and Nathan was in my office almost immediately. I sat him down and explained the deal. When I was done he eagerly agreed to it. We shook hands on it and he left my office with a grin and a yell. I finished up some work before heading out of school to meet Paige. Just as I stepped foot in the parking lot, my phone rang.

“Hello?” I answered after not recognizing the number on the screen.

“Hi, is this Gabrielle?” a male voice asked.

“Yes, it is.”

“Hey, it’s Patrick Sharp,” the voice told me. I found myself smiling when I heard who it was.

“Oh, hi! How are you?” I asked.

“Good, thanks. How are you?” he returned.

“Good. I’m actually just on my out of work.”

“Sounds like I have great timing then,” he joked.

“Yes, you definitely do.”

“So I was calling about the game on Friday. I know it’s still real early in the week, but I thought I’d check to see if you’d made up your mind yet.”

“Actually, I have. Nathan and I would be happy to accept. Thanks again for the offer. It’s really sweet of you to do this for him,” I told him.

“It’s really not a problem at all. I’ll just do what I did last time so the tickets will be at will call for you,” he explained.

“Sounds good. Thanks again, Patrick.”

“Not a problem. I’ll talk to you later.” We hung up and I got into my car and drove to the coffee shop where I was meeting Paige.

“What are you smiling about?” she asked when I walked through the door. I looked at her like she was crazy.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” I got in line and waited to order.

“I know you better than that. What’s going on?” I turned to her and sighed.

“I’ve actually worked something out with Nathan and Isaiah. If Nathan stays out of trouble, I’m going to take him to the Blackhawks games. He’s desperate to go, so hopefully it’ll work out,” I told her.

She made a face in disappointment, obviously expecting something more. She turned and walked over to claim a table while I waited in line. I ordered a latte and some food and made my way over to the table.

“So how did everything go on Saturday? Maybe you’re going to the games with Nathan so you can see Patrick more?” she questioned, lifting an eybrow.

“Everything went okay. The Blackhawks lost, but Nathan had a great time. We had passes for downstairs and Patrick gave Nathan a game used stick with autographs from the whole team. Then he invited us to go to the game this Friday.” She squealed way louder than necessary. “What is your problem?”

“He invited you back?!” She squealed again and I rolled my eyes.

“Yes, he did. He actually just called me on my way over here to confirm it.” I immediately regretted my words as soon as they left my mouth. Thankfully, before Paige could say anything else my food came up. I got up from the table leaving Paige staring after me.










“Have you talked to that chick since Saturday?” Burish asked Patrick after practice on Monday. Patrick shook his head.

“No, I haven’t. I was going to call her today and see if she was going to come on Friday,” he replied.

“You like her, eh?” Brent Seabrook called over.

“I don’t know her,” Patrick denied.

“That doesn’t mean you don’t want to,” Duncan Keith joined in. Patrick just shrugged.

He couldn’t exactly deny that. There was definitely something about Gabrielle. He’d noticed it the first time he’d seen her. He couldn’t put his finger on it but it was that thing that had made him offer her the tickets the first time. It was that same thing that made him offer the tickets the second time.

He called out a goodbye to the guys left in the locker room and made his way to his car. He signed a few autographs and headed home. He thought about Gabrielle some more and wondered why she kept popping into his mind. Sure she was hot, that much he knew, but there were attractive girls everywhere and no one had stood out to him like she did.

He tried to shake her out of his mind and move on with his day. Then he realized that she’d told him to call her to check about the game on Friday night. He’d originally planned on calling her later in the week, but something told him to call her today. He put it off until he figured she was out of work before he did.

He hung up with a smile after. There was really no reason for him to be smiling. It wasn’t like the conversation had been great. He’d simply asked if she wanted the tickets and that was that. But he knew he was smiling because she’d accepted them. Sure, she was bringing that student of hers, Nathan, but she was coming. A little while later his phone went off, signaling he had a text.

Coffee at 4 on Wednesday?

It was from Gabrielle. He smiled at the simple text. She wanted to see him before the game. He texted back agreeing to meet up and she gave him the address of the coffee shop. He liked how ballsy it was of her to ask him out and he looked forward to Wednesday.