Chapter 5

I walked into work the next morning and headed straight for my office. I went through my normal routine of putting away everything I’d brought in with me before checking my schedule for the day. Not long after I got there I heard a knock on my door. I looked up and smiled when I saw Paige poking her head in.

“Good morning,” I greeted her cheerfully. Her jaw dropped as she walked into my office.

“What did you just say to me?” she asked. I furrowed my brow in confusion. What was so offensive about ‘good morning’?

“I said ‘good morning’,” I repeated. She crossed her arms over her chest and narrowed her eyes at me.

“Now why would you do that?”

“Because it’s the morning. What’s your deal?”

“You’re not yelling at me. Are you using some sort of weird psychological thing on me? You’re being nice to me to get back at me somehow?” she questioned. Then it hit me.

“Oh yeah, I’m mad at you,” I said. She grinned over at me.

“You don’t sound very angry.”

“Don’t mistake my good mood for forgiveness. What you did still wasn’t right,” I told her.

“I don’t care if it was right or not, I just care about how it went. Tell me!” she exclaimed sitting down in a chair across from me.

“We walked for a bit, talked, had dinner. Nothing big,” I explained. Her eyes opened wide and her smile grew.

“You went to dinner?!” she yelled.

I knew it was best to just answer her questions now rather than blow her off and face them later when she’d had time to mull over them. I prepared myself for the rapid fire exchange that was about to go down. It was how Paige worked, and honestly it was easier for me as well.

“Would you quiet down? And yes.”

“Where?”

“A tapas place a few blocks from the coffee shop.”

“You went someplace you had to share little plates of food?”

“It looked good.”

“Who picked the food?”

“Both of us.”

“You agreed on stuff?”

“Everything.”

“How long were you there?”

“Just over two hours.” She paused and that wasn’t good.

“You ate at a tapas place for more than two hours?” she asked slowly.

“We didn’t eat for two hours. The food was gone in the first hour, and we talked the rest of the time.”

I realized my mistake as soon as I finished talking. I’d said too much. Paige had thrown me off by slowing down causing me to divulge more. It was a tactic she knew worked well with me when she wanted to know more than I was giving up. Damn her.

“Hold on, you met someone that eats the same food you do and you managed to have a two hour conversation with him? Marry him, and marry him now,” she joked.

I glared at her, not appreciating the joke. I was known by others as a picky eater. I didn’t agree with that assessment, but everyone accused me of being one. I just wasn’t adventurous when it came to food. I knew what I liked and what I didn’t, that’s all. The bell signaling the start of homeroom rang and saved me from any further conversation with Paige. She shot me one last grin before leaving my office for the day.

The next evening I pulled into the school parking lot a couple hours after leaving. It was Friday and I was picking Nathan up to go to the Hawks game. I saw Nathan sitting out in front and smiled. It was Halloween and I’d half expected him not to show up. I was relieved when I saw him.

He chatted away during the car ride. I did more listening than talking but I didn’t mind. The more Nathan talked, the more comfortable he’d get with me, and the more he’d open up. I thought about what a victory it was just to have him with me and out of trouble on Halloween, notorious for hijinks. I knew that even after the game ended, there was still plenty of time for Nathan to go out, but he wasn’t out there right now.

The game was exciting and the Hawks won 5-2 over the Stars. Nathan was the same way he was the previous game. He cheered the whole game, and during stoppages he talked animatedly about anything and everything. We used the passes Patrick had left us and went downstairs and stood in practically the same place as the game before.

As we waited I couldn’t help but feel a little anxious to see Patrick again. I hadn’t talked to him since Paige’s set up. We’d seemed to get along well, and had a lot in common, but I wasn’t sure how he’d felt about it. I tried to tell myself he wouldn’t have stuck around as long as he did if he hated me, but it wasn’t sticking.

The more anxious I felt, the more frustrated with myself I got. What was I worrying so much about? Patrick and I weren’t dating. That hadn’t even been a date we’d gone on. At least not to me. We’d been thrown together by my conniving friend and tried to make the best of it. Get a grip, Gabrielle.

“Are you okay, Miss Tunney?” Nathan’s voice broke into my thoughts. Great, I’d been ignoring him since we’d gotten down here. Way to gain his trust.

“Oh, yeah, I’m sorry. I guess I’m just tired. What were you saying?” This time I listened as Nathan talked on.

“Hey, Patrick!” Nathan exclaimed a few minutes later. I turned around to see Patrick walking over to us, smiling, looking as amazing as before in his suit.

“Hi guys. How are you?”

“Really good. Great game tonight. And thanks for the tickets,” Nathan gushed.

“It’s not a problem. I’m glad you enjoyed it.”

“Definitely. I hope you guys can keep this up. Miss Tunney promised me that she’d take me to games on the weekends if I do well in school,” Nathan told him. Patrick looked over at me and I thought I saw his smile grow.

“Is that so? That’s really nice of her.” I found myself starting to blush as I smiled back at Patrick. “Did you enjoy the game?” he asked turning to me.

“I did. I don’t know much about hockey, but I’m quickly growing to like it,” I said.

“Good. Then it won’t be torture to drag this kid here then,” he joked. Nathan and I both laughed.

“Sharpie, can I catch a ride with you tonight?” another guy in a suit asked walking over to us. I recognized him as the same guy that had come over the game before.

“No problem, Burs,” Patrick agreed. The other guy thanked him before walking away and talking to a few of the wives or girlfriends.

“Burs? Is that the guy who gave you the ringtone?” I asked remembering “Barbie Girl” playing on his phone the other day. Patrick laughed.

“Yeah, that was him. I still haven’t figured out how to get him back for that,” he said.

“Barbie Girl?” Nathan asked, snapping my attention back onto him. Shit, I’d forgotten he was there. What was wrong with me?

It was a cardinal rule in my book to not discuss anything from my personal life in front of students and I’d just done it. Maybe it hadn’t been much, but it definitely implied that Patrick and I had at least talked to each other away from Nathan. Patrick unfortunately didn’t know my cardinal rule and filled in the blanks.

“Yeah, Burish changed the ringtone on my phone to that God awful ‘Barbie Girl’ song the other day. Then when he knew I was out with Gabrielle he called hoping to embarrass me. It worked,” he explained. Nathan looked between Patrick and I in surprise and I felt myself blushing again.

“You two went out?” he questioned.

“Well, we didn’t exactly,” I started. I paused trying to think of something to say.

“She just wanted to talk to me about bringing you to the games. I told her I’d provide the tickets for any games you were going to come to.” His response caught me completely off guard. He glanced over at me quickly and smiled.

“Really?!” Nathan asked excitedly.

“Yeah, so we’ll have those seats all season,” I told him, going along with the lie. I didn’t like lying, but it seemed much easier than getting into the truth right now.

“That’s awesome! Thank you!” Nathan exclaimed to Patrick.

“They were going to go unused otherwise. It’s not like I have anyone else to give them to,” he said glancing at me again. I didn’t have to read into that comment.

“Sharpie, we gotta go!” the same guy from before, Burish, called.

“Yeah, sorry about this. We’re on the road tomorrow so we’re flying out tonight. I’ve gotta get going. It was really nice to see you again. I guess I’ll be seeing you at the next game,” Patrick said.

Nathan and I said our goodbyes before making our way out of the rink and to the car. He spent a great deal of the car ride talking about how cool Patrick was for giving us those tickets. After I dropped Nathan off I went home. I tried to get to bed early, but thoughts about the night were keeping me up.

Patrick basically saved my ass by covering for me and making up a story to tell Nathan. I never let my guard down like that in front of students, but I’d screwed up tonight. He’d rushed in and rescued me without even knowing why he was. That touched me, and what touched me more was the fact that he was offering us tickets for the rest of the season. I still couldn’t believe it. I never would have asked him for tickets. I thought about turning them down, but decided against it. Nathan would never forgive me if I did that.

The more I thought about Patrick the more I liked him, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. On one hand I was scared and wanted to run away. Guys and I just didn’t mix. We never had. It had been years since I’d even allowed myself to get close to one, which just made this even more nerve-wracking.

On the other hand I was lonely. I hadn’t realized how lonely I was until the other night with Patrick. For years I’d told myself that I could live by myself and be happy. I thought I had been. I’d shunned every guy that had ever come along making myself believe that I would be happier on my own. Now Patrick had put a crack into that logic. I hardly knew him, which made it a very small crack, but it was a crack nonetheless.