How The Cookie Crumbles (24 page)

“What about the future, do you think about what you’ll do after hockey?”

“Frankie, do you ever not think about the future? Don’t you ever just relax and enjoy stuff now?”

I stopped and looked up at him. “I have been, I’ve been having fun with you.”

“I’ve had fun with you too. My little buddy.” He laughed.

“You could have fun anywhere, Jake,” I let out a little sigh.

“What’s up, Frankie?”

“I’ll miss you, Jake. I’ve enjoyed getting to know you this summer.” Especially when you acted like a person and not a walking erection, I thought, but I didn’t say that.

“Yeah, it’s weird, but I liked hanging with you too.”

“See, being friends was a good idea!” I gave him a hug, and he held on to me and smiled down at me.

“Life can really suck. I wish the girls that wanted to have sex with me and that I wanna have sex with were the same.”

“You’ll just have to settle for all those gorgeous L.A. women with the Brazilians.”

He stroked his beard and grinned at me, “Anytime, Frankie. A shave for a shave.”

And then he pulled me close to him and kissed the top of my head. I looked up at him, and he bent down and kissed me for real. His lips were soft and his beard was soft too. He pressed his mouth against mine gently, and for once it seemed like a tender kiss, a kiss that wasn’t just foreplay. A kiss that was real. He kissed my cheeks and the tip of my nose. Then he pulled me tight against him, and kissed my lips again, harder. Finally he stopped, dropped his arms, and left me a little breathless.

It felt so good, but it also felt like goodbye.

I guess I already knew this in the back of my head, but I realized that I probably wouldn’t see Jake again. He lived in L.A. and I wouldn’t be returning to Kingston. Suddenly I felt so sad, and before I could help myself, I started to cry. A few tears came out silently and I looked down, but he leaned closer and turned my face up.

“Frankie, are you crying?”

“No,” I replied. Honestly, what a stupid question. “I have allergies.”

He wrapped his arms around me again and squeezed me tightly. “Yeah, I think you’re allergic to leaving me.”

“Oh, ha ha. It’s just sad, I mean, maybe we won’t ever see each other again.” My mouth went all crumply.

Jake groaned loudly. “Shit, Frankie, the day I understand how your mind works….” He didn’t say anything for a while, but he held me tightly and I felt better. I leaned my head against him and put one hand up on his firm chest.

Finally, he sighed and spoke, “Look Frankie, do you think you’d like to go to a hockey game?”

“What? When?”

“Our first game of the regular season is in Vancouver in October. I could get you tickets.”

That would be fun. And I would like to see Jake again. “Okay,” I said, smiling.

Jake shook his head and muttered something about crazy chicks.

The End of Part One

Part Two:
Hockey Season

29. Welcome Home

The best thing about going away is coming back and seeing your home with fresh eyes. I loved being back in Vancouver; I loved the mountains, the ocean, the Asian restaurants on every corner, the cool days and the cooler nights and especially seeing all my friends and family, even my brothers.

Glen and Allan had picked me up at the airport and we stopped at Duffin’s Donuts on the way home since I was starving after my plane ride. (Seriously, five hours on the plane with nothing but Bits and Bites or super-expensive sandwiches is too cruel. And hopefully Rex didn’t get hungry and eat someone’s Chihuahua while down in the cargo hold.) Duffin’s was this crazy restaurant where you could get doughnuts, Chinese food, fried chicken and pretty much anything else your heart desired. My favourite was their torta sandwich. We all got tortas and a dozen doughnuts to go. We would have preferred to eat in, but Rex was still doing his wailing thing, so we needed to get him home before someone called the Humane Society.

We ate on the drive home. The sandwiches were packed with tomato, lettuce and avocado plus whatever meat you ordered, and we ate carefully since if we spilled food on the leather upholstery of our dad’s beloved Porsche Cayenne, we would be in serious trouble. The only reason Glen got to drive it in the first place was because I had so much luggage.

Once we were finished eating, I mentioned meeting Jake in Kingston. There was a moment of silence in the car.

“You know Jake Cookson!” said Glen.

“Jake fuckin’ Cookson!” exclaimed Allan.

“Woooooooooooo,” said Rex.

“Yeah, he’s a friend. Is he a big deal?” I wasn’t going to mention to my brothers that he had hit on me, or Allan would have me paired off faster than you could say “Free game tickets.”

“A big deal? He’s, like, one of the best young defencemen in the NHL. He was a top draft pick, he made the Kings on his first tryout, and he was a finalist for the Norris this year.” Allan knew all his NHL stats by heart.

“Yes, but he didn’t win it,” I pointed out.

“Didn’t win it! It means he’s one of the top three guys in the whole league, and he’s, what, 22 years old?” Allan looked pained that I would even question Jake’s greatness.

Glen jumped in, “Not to mention his playoffs this year. The guy was killing us on the power play; he’s got a deadly point shot. And remember the huge hits Cookson delivered? He’s a stud.” Both of them nodded at this statement, and Rex seemed to agree as well. But then Rex already liked Jake.

Glen finished up their worship of St. Jake. “How can you not know all this, Frankie? You saw the playoffs, do you not remember him?”

“Apparently not.” How was I supposed to remember every player on the ice? I had enough trouble keeping track of the Canucks. The cute ones I could remember, but the others not so much. And Jake would not have been a cute one.

Allan was all excited. “So, how well do you know him? Are you going to get tickets to the games when the Kings come here? Can I score some swag?”

“I don’t know.” Jake had said I could go to that opening game, but I suspected that he was disorganized enough to forget all about it. So I wasn’t going to count on him unless I had the actual tickets in my hot little hands. Plus, I wasn’t taking Allan anywhere near Jake if he was going to act like a crazed fan. My brothers’ reactions were making me realize what a big deal Jake must be.

Luckily for me, Rex’s crooning got even louder and we couldn’t talk anymore until we got home.

“Darling, it’s so good to have you back home.” My parents were so happy to see me, and my mom kept making some affectionate exclamation every ten minutes. She had prepared a wonderful dinner of salmon with a maple ginger glaze, brown rice, grilled asparagus, and a salad of baby greens with blue cheese, pear, and candied pecans.

My grandmother was happy to see me as well. She gave me a big hug and a kiss, and then asked, “Any nice fellas in Kingston, Frances?” Sometimes I wondered about her memory, but when it came to boyfriends, she was perfectly sharp.

“No, nobody,” I told her, and she frowned.

“She was hanging out with Jake Cookson!” Allan proclaimed, but only my Dad was interested in that bit of news. Allan made a face at me. “Too bad you couldn’t date someone like that, Frankenstein.”

I was trying to remember why I had missed my brothers when my mother interrupted to tell me all about a grow-op found in a rental house two streets away. British Columbia always had its own brand of news.

Rex was surprisingly nice to my mom’s cats, so Kingston might have mellowed him a little. Or perhaps it was the salmon leftovers he had for dinner. I had decided to spend a week at home with the family and then move back into my apartment to get ready for school.

When I finally got back to my place, Bianca and Lauren were ecstatic to see me. For July, they had sublet my room to this girl Lauren knew from high school and she had turned out to be mega-weird, so now they were relieved to have normal me back.

Bianca followed me to my room while I unpacked. She wanted to hear all about Andrew and Chloë.

“The main thing is, is he good enough for her?” Bianca wondered. “In high school she always got crushes on impossible guys.” That was too true; back then Chloë seemed to prefer an imaginary social life to any sweaty reality.

I nodded, happy to have good news. “Andrew is a great guy, and he’s crazy about her. They’re both smart and thoughtful and slightly nerdy. He’s geeky cute, which is just her cup of tea.”

“And what about you, Miz Taylor? Who did you meet in Kingston?”

“Lil’ ole me? Nobody.”

“Wait, you mentioned some hunk in an email…I can’t remember his name.”

“Liam? Just an anagram for lame. Well if you’re dyslexic.” I pulled out my new pillow, and put it on my bed. It was hot pink, lime green and orange, and I knew it would look perfect in here.

“Frankie! You expect me to believe that you didn’t date all summer? You can get a date faster than anyone I know. Remember when you took out the recycling and someone asked you out?”

That reminded me that Jake was one of the reasons for my dating drought, and I wondered if I should mention Jake. But he wasn’t really a date, and Bianca was a hockey fan. I didn’t want to go through all the enthusiasms I endured with my brothers. Apparently NHL players were not just like us.

“Well, if you really didn’t date, maybe I should tell you this….” Bianca hesitated, and twisted a lock of her black hair nervously. “Matt’s been around a few times, looking for you.”

“Really? Tell him to f-off if you see him again.”

“Frankie! Good for you! He said you blocked his calls and emails and you took down your Facebook.”

“I did, and I have no interest in seeing that jerk again.”

I had forgotten all about him when I was in Kingston, and now that I was back I realized he wasn’t that important anymore. And I had definitely learnt a lesson about jumping to emotional conclusions.

I got back to school, and I had an awesome schedule with Fridays off. Fourth year felt different already: everyone was either nervous or excited about graduating. Some people were already thinking about grad school, while others were worried about jobs. And Bianca said that some people in her engineering program were trying desperately to hook up, as if they wouldn’t have a chance after graduating. Not a problem for me, since in Art History, cute straight guys were as rare as finding a Group of Seven painting at a garage sale.

30. Kings at Canucks

I half-suspected that Jake might forget all about the hockey game once he was back in L.A. After all, he had forgotten to pick up the cupcakes, and I hadn’t heard a word from him since I left Kingston, except when he added me on my newly resurrected Facebook. Then one night in late September, my cell rang.

“Hey Frankie, it’s Jake.”

“Jake? How did you get this number?” I had switched up numbers while I was in Kingston and now reverted back to my Vancouver one.

“Nice to talk to you too, babe. I got it from Andrew.”

“Oh sorry, well… how are you?”

“I’m great! It’s great to be back in L.A., y’know, hanging out with the guys and working out with the team.”

“How did you do on your fitness test?” This was something that he and Brad had been working towards at the gym.

“Okaaay.”

There was something in his voice that wasn’t right. “Really? What happened?”

“Well, I had to retake it, but no big whoop.”

I guess that meant he had failed it the first time. I found it really hard to put together the super player my brothers talked about with the Jake I knew. “So, what else is new?” I asked.

“Not too much, I’m back living with Domer and Link.”

Jake had talked about his roommates and best friends on the team, Luke Dominick and Ryan Linklater, so the names were familiar to me. I had seen a few photos and they were both big and athletic-looking, as you’d expect hockey players to be.

“So did you still want to come to the hockey game? It’s on October 9th.”

“Sure, that would be fun.”

“Okay, I’ll see about tickets for you. And I guess we’ll meet up after the game?”

“Yes, for sure. It’ll be nice to see you again, Jake.”

“Yeah, you too, Frankie.”

There was a brief pause, and then we said goodbye. After I hung up, I wondered if this was going to be a good idea. We got along great in Kingston, but summertime was completely removed from real life, and without Andrew and Chloë around, maybe we wouldn’t have anything to talk about. Plus half our conversations seemed to be about why I should sleep with him, which got old pretty quickly.

Well, no big deal. It would be nice to touch base and I had to admit, I had missed him. Maybe he wasn’t the sharpest tool in the drawer, but I always felt cheered up when I talked to him. Maybe it was his goofy personality or his sunny optimism. And the game would be a good time; I’d been to a few Canucks games, and they were always fun.

“I’ve got two tickets to the Canucks home opener versus the Kings,” I announced to Bianca and Lauren who were in the living room, pretending to do homework, but actually watching Real Housewives of Vancouver.

Lauren merely raised her eyebrows, but Bianca went into full suck-up mode. “Two tickets? Have I told you that you are my bestest, nicest, sweetest friend ever?”

“What about beautiful?” I asked.

“Oh beauteous, the most gorgeous ever! I’m considering plastic surgery to look exactly like you.”

“I think one Frankie Taylor is enough for this planet,” Lauren remarked. She was no hockey fan.

“I’ll consider taking you,” I said to Bianca. I had her in mind right away, but maybe she would offer to do my share of the housework or something first. I loved cooking, but cleaning the bathroom not so much.

“How did you get tickets anyway?” Lauren asked. The Canucks sold out every game, and tickets were super-expensive.

“I have a friend who plays for the Kings.”

“You do? Who?” demanded Bianca.

“Jake Cookson.”

“You know Jake Cookson?” Bianca said, eyes wide. Not this routine again. At least this time Rex was not joining in, he was snoozing in an armchair.