About You

Chapter Nine

"Alright, let's hear it" Will finally had Alex cornered as they made their way out of the dressing rooms. Alex closed his eyes, silently cursing Will, who sometimes, was just so damn relentless.

"Can you possibly give me, like a minute?" Alex asked, irritated. In response, Will rolled his eyes, putting a supportive hand on his shoulder.

"My dearest Alex," he began, shaking his head. "Love doesn't wait a minute my dude"

"Weird way to word that, but fine" Alex grumbled. He stopped dead in his tracks and William stopped beside him.

"Let's hear it then" William persisted.

"Alright, I know about living in the now, and enjoying the time we have here, etc etc" he began slowly. "About how you said I should just enjoy the time we had together now, but dude that's almost over. Tomorrow is the finals, and after that we're gone; out of here, back home"

"And?" William asked, wanting Alex to cut to the chase. He had a feeling he knew what this was about, but he wasn't about to make it easy on him by any means.

"And I won't see her again" Alex whispered. The words came out so quietly, he wasn't even sure William could even hear them.

"Says who?" Will asked, confused.

"Well, I mean..." he trailed off, seeing Will's point, but knowing he wasn't understanding his.

"Exactly. Nothing's stopping you. They do have planes, trains and cars you know" he replied with a hint of sarcasm; but Alex decided to ignore him.

"She lives here, and between the season being in Columbus and the off season in Sweden, how could it possibly work?" Alex wondered aloud, tired of thinking so much on the subject.

"Again, so? Planes, trains, cars..." Will trailed off slowly.

"Do you think she'd want that?" Alex asked.

"Did you ask her?"

"Well, no" Alex admitted sheepishly.

"Then...?" Will arched an eyebrow. "You don't know anything until you ask. Maybe she loves to travel. Maybe she would be willing to travel to see you. Maybe you'd be willing to travel to see her"

"Of course I'd be willing to travel to see her" Alex told Will, having an "ah-ha" moment. "I see what you did there" he added, feeling grateful at the same time as annoyed with William. He was helpful, but sarcastically so.

"I didn't do anything; you just realized it by yourself" Will said with a shrug. "Are you going to talk to her about it?"

"I want to, but"

"You know," William began, and Alex immediately didn't like the tone of his voice. "They say, whenever you say a sentence, followed by the word 'but', it means you didn't mean a thing you said before" Alex shook his head in confusion.

"I'm sorry, what?" Alex asked, confused by his explanation.

"Do you really want to talk with her about it?" William asked, eyebrow raised.

"I do, but I don't" Alex sighed.

"Alright, I'll bite. Why?" William asked.

"What if she's not interested? What if she doesn't want the same things?" Alex reaffirmed his fears.

"And again, how will you know unless you talk to her about it?" William scoffed lightly. "Look, I'm sympathetic towards you, I am. But you're only going to keep putting yourself in this hole" he reminded him.

"I know, I know. I'm just scared ok?" Alex finally broke.

"I get it dude, trust me I do" William again sympathized. "But, if she's as into you as she appears, I don't think you'll have a problem. Just talk to her" and with that he patted Alex on the back, leaving him with his thoughts.

Immediately, Alex took out his phone, sending Ivy off a text.

Alex 🏒 - hey, you busy tonight?

Ivy ☀️ - I am not. What's up?

Alex 🏒 - interested in a movie at my place?

Ivy ☀️- as in your hotel I'm guessing 😂

Alex 🏒- 🤣 yeah sorry. What do you say?

Ivy ☀️- name a time

Alex 🏒- see you in an hour. 🙂

Putting his phone away he knew this was what he had to do. He needed to talk to her about it, and the sooner the better.

****

"What's on your mind?" Sara asked Elias, popping a piece of popcorn in her mouth. While Alex and Ivy were having a movie night, Elias and Sara decided to follow suit and did the same. They popped in Finding Nemo, but spent most of the time either laughing and joking, or kissing like teens in a dark movie theatre.

"Just thinking about how great these last few days have been" Elias smiled, pressing a kiss to the top of her head.

"I know, I'm pretty incredible eh?" Sara teased, and Elias rolled his eyes.

"Yeah. You are incredible" Elias spoke quieter, and Sara looked at him with interest.

"So are you" Sara replied, equally as quietly.

"I know the tournament is over after tomorrow's game, but can I ask you something?" Elias asked, and Sara nodded, a little confused.

"I happen to know a guy, who knows a guy, who can hook you up with tickets to a pretty decent hockey game next year" Elias spoke nervously, hoping she would catch on.

"Oh yeah?" She asked, not quite understanding where he was going with this, much to his dismay.

"Yeah, it's a little cold in the winter, but there's a lot of cool things around the area too" Elias spoke very cryptically.

"Sounds like a cool place" Sara smiled softly, again still confused.

"In Calgary" Elias blurted, and Sara's eyes went wide with realization.

"You- you want me to come to a game next season?" Sara asked, and Elias nodded.

"I'd love to, but I don't think I can afford to" Sara frowned, and Elias almost laughed.

"Don't worry about the cost" Elias shook his head. "Don't worry about that; I'll take care of it"

"I can't ask you to do that" Sara's eyes were wide.

"You're not asking, I'm telling you this is what's happening" Elias laughed, and Sara shook her head.

"You're ridiculous" Sara's snorted.

"So?" Elks asked, eyebrows raised.

"So...?" Sara played dumb.

"Will you come to a game?" Elias asked. It only took a moment for her to respond.

"Of course" she whispered, a bigger smile not being able to be on either of their faces.

"Good" Elias whispered, leaning in to press a soft kiss to her lips once more.