How The Cookie Crumbles (15 page)

“Frankie’s with me,” I told him. Frankie shot me a look, but for once she shut up.

“No shit.” He looked completely stunned. “Hey man, I’m sorry. I had no clue. I didn’t touch her or anything, really… nothing happened.”

I was glad to hear that. “No worries. We’re out of here now.” We all hopped back in the car, but this time Andrew got in the back with Chloë, and Frankie sat beside me.

Nobody said a word until we were a few minutes away, and then Chloë started giggling. “I’m sorry, I just feel so relieved. You were wonderful, Andrew,” she said, leaning against him. “Are you okay, Frankie?”

“Yes, I’m fine,” Frankie said, calmly. “Thank you so much for coming out to get me. Really, you’re all such good friends.” She smiled back at Chloë and Andrew. “Andrew, you were so brave. Thanks for standing up for me, and I’m so sorry Liam tried to hit you. Are you okay?”

“Yeah, don’t worry, I’m good,” Andrew said casually, but I could tell he was pretty stoked that both girls were admiring him.

“What about me?” I demanded.

“You’re a knight in shining armour,” Frankie said with her usual sarcasm, looking over my shorts and t-shirt, then she smiled widely at me and patted my arm. “No seriously, thank you so much for coming to my rescue, Jake. You’re a real sweetie.”

That was more like it. She didn’t seem to be too upset. I thought she might want to go home, but she declared she wasn’t letting Liam ruin her evening and we went to the club. We met up with Tolly, Ratty, and a bunch of other people. They had taken over this balcony section. I partied for a while, talked to the guys, and danced a little. After an hour, I noticed Frankie sitting by herself in a booth. She looked unhappy.

I sat down beside her. It was pretty loud in there, so I leaned in, put my arm on the seat behind her and spoke right into her ear.

“You okay?”

“Besides the fact that I’m an idiot, sure.” She shook her head.

“You’re not an idiot, Frankie. You’re one of the smartest girls I know.” In fact, I always had the scary feeling that she was two steps ahead of me.

“Really? How come I got stuck at that party in the middle of nowhere, and had to get you guys to rescue me? Who does stupid things like that?” She sighed, and unpinned her hair and stretched her neck. I liked it when her long hair was down, and reached out and took a strand in my hand. Her hair felt soft.

“I dunno, maybe you trust people too much?”

“Maybe. Maybe I can’t tell the good guys from the bad guys anymore. And I used to pride myself on being such an expert on guys.” She was quiet for a minute, deep in thought. I was thinking that it might be a good time to put the moves on her. But she was acting a little weird too.

“You know what bugs me?” she asked.

“What?”

“The fact that I have a certain genetic package and that makes guys assume things.”

“Sorry, I don’t get what you mean.”

“Translation: big breasts mean I’m a slut.” She frowned. “Where does he get off? I’m a university student, I come from a good family. Just because he met me while I was working in a café, he assumes I’m some naive, hot-for-it chick who’s going to be bowled over by an expensive dinner?”

“Uh….” I didn’t know what to say. I mean, she did have great tits, and any guy would want to get his hands on them. Sitting right beside her, I could see down the front of her dress, and it was a pretty sweet view. Man, her bra was blue like her dress, did she have matching underwear for everything? And I hadn’t taken her out anyplace expensive, but mainly because she wouldn’t even go on a date with me.

“Men. Is that it at the end of the day? They just want to have sex?”

“Uhhh… no?” I didn’t want to get into trouble when Frankie was all pissy. I had already seen her tear a strip off one guy tonight. But I couldn’t deny that I did want to have sex with her. I moved my arm away.

“You’re such a nice guy, Jake.” Frankie smiled up at me. “I mean, we haven’t had any trouble being friends, right?”

I nodded and drank some more beer.

“More guys should be like you,” she declared and then drained her drink. “I’d like another.” I signalled the waitress, and she ordered some retro drink, while I got a beer and shots for both of us. Frankie knocked back her shot and smiled. “Dance with me, Jake.”

Okay! Was this going to be the night she got hammered and then accidentally slept with me? I grabbed her hand and led her down to the dance floor. There was a pretty sweet DJ and he was doing some techno mix that was fun to dance to. Frankie and I were dancing, and she smiled up at me, but it was too loud to talk much.

“Jake, you’re sure a good dancer,” she yelled in my ear.

“You too!” I yelled back.

Then the music slowed right down, and I put my hands on her hips and pulled in towards me. She reached up to put her arms around my neck and pushed her body right up into me. Suddenly, we were interrupted.

“JAKE! Remember you promised me we’d have the next slow dance!” It was some girl I had been dancing with earlier. She was hot, but she wasn’t Frankie.

“Oh hey, I’m kind of busy now… Lisa” I pulled her name out of the back of my brain.

Frankie stood back and looked her over, and then looked at me and smiled. She gave me a push towards Lisa, saying, “Don’t let me stand in the way of your good times.” And then she left.

20. I Yam What I Yam

I couldn’t deny that my feelings about Jake were shifting a bit. I still wasn’t really attracted to him, but Chloë was right, he was a nice guy. That night at the club, I felt tempted to explore things between us, maybe using alcohol as my excuse. But just in time, I realized that he was a guy with his own social life and lots of girls who were genuinely interested in him. It would be wrong of me to fool around with him because I was confused. In the clear light of day, I realized that our being friends was the best thing, and I wanted everything to go on as before.

One day, after we had worked out, Jake was waiting for me when I came out of the gym change room. He fell in step with me as we left the building.

“We won’t be working out together for a while,” he told me as we got outside.

“Why not?”

“Did I not tell you? I’m going to Vegas for the NHL awards. They’re on in a few days. And then I’m going back to L.A. for some team training stuff. I’ll be gone a few weeks.”

That was unexpected. I wondered if all the players went to these things. “Are you up for an award?”

“Yeah, the Norris.”

That was one of the best things about Jake, he never bragged or anything. To be honest I still found it hard to believe that he was an NHL player, he seemed like such a regular guy.

“Uh, what’s that for?”

“Best defenceman.”

“Well, good luck.”

He smiled at me. “Are you working tonight?”

“Nope, I’m off.”

“Do you wanna hang out?”

He looked shyly uncertain, and I realized he hadn’t been coming on to me lately. Plus, he was going to be gone for a while. “Sure.”

So we hopped into his car and went back to my place so I could drop off my stuff. It was too early for dinner and the weather was beautiful, so I suggested we go out for a walk and I could make dinner later. We walked through the neighbourhood and surprisingly Jake hardly said anything. He was usually all jokey and fun, so it was unusual. I was worried enough that on the way home I stopped by the corner store to get some Diet Coke for him.

Chloë called and said she was going out to dinner with Andrew that night, so it was just the two of us. I was cooking fish fillets on her Griddler, and I did some yam fries, a couscous and chopped veggie salad, and a green salad. I figured that might not be enough carbs for Jake, so I added some grilled bread.

We ate out in the backyard. It was a perfect evening, except for the mosquitoes. Jake stared at the yam fries. “Your cooking always looks like it’s going to be something I really love, then it’s not.”

“They’re yam fries. Put ketchup on them and you’ll never know the difference. Really, it’s like you’re five years old.” I didn’t bother to mention that yam fries were healthier because that would turn him right off.

As usual he complained first and then ate seconds of everything. To be honest I would rather have that than people who rave about how good your cooking is and then leave most of it on their plate.

Jake remained a little preoccupied during dinner and then afterwards I noticed he was biting his fingernails.

“What’s bothering you?” I asked him.

“What? What makes you think something’s bothering me?”

“You have nervous tics, like nail-biting. But mainly because you’re so quiet.”

He didn’t say anything, but I wasn’t giving up. “So you’re leaving for Vegas? Sounds like a fun time.”

“Yeah, it will be.”

“Do you think you’ll win the Norris award-thing?”

He frowned, “My chances aren’t great.”

“That’s the spirit. Why wouldn’t you have a good chance?”

“Too young, haven’t done enough or proved enough.” He made a face.

I reached over and brushed his hair off his forehead. “You’ll get wrinkles if you keep frowning like that.”

He didn’t say anything else, but he still looked worried. Most of the time he seemed so relaxed, but I guess stuff around hockey bothered him.

“Jake, stop. You can’t do anything now, right? The season’s over.”

He looked at me and then blurted out, “I just worry about letting people down. I want to do well because so many people put their trust in me.”

“People, like your family?”

“Yeah, plus the people at the Kings. But mainly my family.”

“You’re young, you have a chance to win now and maybe win later.” I assumed he did, I would have to ask my brothers how good he really was.

Jake sighed, and then everything burst out. “Fuck, sometimes it all seems like a fluke. I do my best and I work real hard and then the expectations just keep going up. In the media they’re comparing me to Bobby Orr, I mean he was only the top defenceman of all time.” Jake stopped and was thinking hard. Then he shook his head. “It’s not like my parents are putting any pressure on me, they’re proud whatever happens. I just don’t wanna let them down.”

I wondered what it was like to be in Jake’s position, so young and already a big deal hockey player. “Did you always know you were going to the NHL?”

“No, that’s the funny thing. I mean, I knew I was good, but there were lots of holes in my game. I scored a lot of goals, but I was weak in my own end. So I had to work on that part of my game. But when I got chances to play at a higher level, like internationally, I thought, hey I can keep up with these guys who are the top prospects, maybe I’ve got a good shot. Even getting drafted high is no sure thing, and making the team right off is no guarantee you won’t get sent down. All my life, lots of people have said I wasn’t going to make the next jump, but I always did.”

“Were you happy when you made the Kings?”

“Yeah, sure. But it’s not like one big event, it’s kinda gradual. You know, you play one game at a time and they keep saying you might get sent down. One day I was over the ten game limit, and I realized that was it, I wasn’t going back to Junior. My family was happy right from the beginning, they were like, ‘We knew you’d do it!’” He smiled a little, and then frowned again. “My whole life it’s been like that, I get drafted and people are all like, he got taken too high, he’s not worth it. I don’t pay attention to that crap, I work hard and play my game. There’ve been doubters my whole life and I’ve ignored them. But sometimes at night, before a big game or something, it’s like all that bad stuff comes back to you and it’s hard to shut it out.”

I felt I was finally getting to know the real Jake. But I also sensed that he didn’t want me to make a big deal out of his outburst. I reached across and patted his hand. “It’s okay, just go and have fun in Vegas. If you win, great, but if not you can come back here, and… I’ll let you beat me in chin-ups. No better still, I’ll cook you a completely unhealthy dinner you’ll love.”

He finally laughed. “Thanks, Frankie.”

Jake

Talking to Frankie was making me feel better. When I was with my guy friends, it was hard to admit stuff, especially shit that made me sound weak. And to be honest, who’s gonna feel sorry for a pro hockey player? Everyone wants to believe that I’m living the dream. And I was, but that didn’t mean that things didn’t bother me like anyone else. Not all the time of course, usually life was great, but sometimes stuff got to me.

Maybe having a girl for a buddy was going to be a good thing. Though it would have been a lot easier if she stopped wearing those halter-tops.

21. Of Mice and Men

When I woke up one morning, my bedroom door was slightly ajar. I swung my legs out of bed and stepped gently on… a dead mouse! I screamed and Chloë came running in.

“Oh my God! There’s a mouse on the floor and I just stepped on it.”

“You squished a mouse to death?” Chloë was wide-eyed, but only half-awake.

“No, the mouse was already dead. What, did he just drag himself upstairs to die?”

“No! It’s Rex! I put him in the basement last night and he must have caught the mouse.” Chloë looked extremely pleased with herself.