NHL Imagines

Olli Maatta (Pittsburgh Penguins)

I frowned at the tall blonde boy sitting across the room from me. I had caught him looking over at me a couple times, but he still hadn't made any move to come over to me. My friends had pestered me to go and talk to him, but I wasn't necessarily the most smooth-talking person either.

After they became impatient with my insistent protesting, they decided to go mingle themselves, leaving me alone at our table. The bar definitely wasn't packed, but there were enough people to make me lose sight of the handsome stranger the next time I turned towards him.

"His name is Olli," a deep accented voice came from beside me, making me jump and let out a sound of surprise.

The person that sat across from me definitely wasn't a stranger, but it nevertheless made me confused to see him sitting in front of me.

"Evgeni, right? You're Anna's husband?" I let myself laugh lightly at his confused state. "She attends my yoga class. She's one of my top students,"

He smiled knowingly. "I saw you looking at my friend. He plays on Penguins with me. Very good kid. Just doesn't talk a lot,"

"I kinda got that," I giggled. "But you said his name was Olli? Tell me about him,"

Evgeni shook his head and pointed to where Olli sat. "That's his job to tell you. If you don't find out things about him from him, you probably won't learn anything,"

I sighed. "It's really not that hard to tell me,"

"Come on, now you have reason to talk to him," he spoke brokenly, walking back to the awaiting group.

My fingers gripped my phone tightly as I sat and debated on going over to speak to him. It wouldn't hurt to meet someone new and it definitely wouldn't kill me to try and get his number, so what was I so hesitant about?

"What the hell," I whispered to myself, gulping down the rest of my drink and making my way over to him, only ending up disappointed when I saw that he was no longer in his previous spot.

A tap on my shoulder had me jumping after being startled for the second time that night. My face turned warm when I saw it was the boy of interest.

"S-sorry, I didn't mean t-to scare you," he mumbled, rubbing his forearm sheepishly.

"It's okay," I laughed softly. "I was actually just looking for you,"

"For me?" his wide eyes met mine. "Why would you be looking for m-me?"

I tilted my head at him and raised an eyebrow. "I just wanted to talk to you, you know, learn some stuff about you. So far, I know that you're a hockey player and that you're extremely introverted. I'm hoping I can change that last part though,"

He ducked his head down and motioned to the seat across from where he was, sitting after I did. "So... um, w-when did you start watching hockey?"

"Hm? Oh, no, I don't watch it. I know your teammate Evgeni. He drops his wife off at my studio every other morning. We just talked not that long ago,"

"Oh," he uttered, looking away from me once again.

I felt a pang of hurt in my chest as we sat in silence, him not once making eye contact with me. I let out a long breath and grabbed my phone from the table, getting ready to stand up after realizing he didn't want anything to do with me.

"Wait," his hand gripped mine quickly, his face turning red. "I'm sorry. I just- I'm not good with trying to talk to people. You're just making me super nervous and staring at me like I'm a lost puppy isn't really helping,"

A small smile made its way onto my face. "That's why you didn't get up,"

"He is nervous because he is talking to pretty girl," Evgeni popped up from behind him, ruffling his hair playfully.

Olli swatted his hand away and rolled his eyes, muttering something under his breath in a different language.

"You ask pretty girl on date, no?" the Russian persisted. "It would be big a mistake if no,"

I tucked a piece of my hair behind my ear, biting the inside of my cheek to stop a smile from starting. I didn't want to embarrass the poor guy anymore.

"Pretty girl say yes?"

Olli practically shoved him out of the booth. "Christ, Evgeni. She won't respond to you or your annoying pressure. Let me ask her myself if you're going to be like that,"

Evgeni winked at me on his way passed the two of us.

"You don't have to go on a date with me. I just wanted to get him away," Olli groaned, rubbing a hand over his tired face.

I frowned absentmindedly. "I was actually going to say yes to a date,"

"Really?" he rushed. "You're not saying that just to say it and then bailing on me, right? You even said yourself that I'm shy, I don't know how well a date with me would go. It's happened to me before,"

"Olli, I wouldn't say yes to a date if I wasn't planning on going," I assured him. "And whoever skipped out on a date with you is out of their mind,"

The corners of his lips twitched upwards and a light blush covered his cheeks. "That's probably the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me,"

"Pretty girl say yes, no?" a familiar voice shouted from further down the room.

When I turned back to Olli, he was pinching the bridge of his nose and staring up at the ceiling. "Give me the strength to not hurt him,"

Requested by maattamestnikov :)