How The Cookie Crumbles (25 page)

“Yes, I know him. I met him in Kingston.”

“Wow! How small is Kingston, anyhow?”

“Pretty freaking small,” I said and immediately felt disloyal to Jake. “But you know, still a nice place and everything.” However it was true: eventually you would run into any celebrity who lived there, even he was only a hockey player.

A few days before Friday’s game, a big package arrived for me at the apartment. I opened it up and found an L.A. Kings jersey, with Jake’s name and number on it. It looked like he had scrawled his signature on it too. Or possibly a bird had stepped in ink and dragged its foot across the jersey.

I held it up, and Bianca came over to take a look.

“Wow,” she said, “I think it’s a game-worn Kings jersey.”

“Gross,” I replied. “So it’s all sweaty and everything?”

“I don’t know, I assume they clean them. But they’re worth more. Frankie, I can’t believe that you’re dating a hockey player, and you don’t know anything about hockey!” Bianca sounded disgusted.

“I’m not dating Jake, we’re just friends.”

“So that’s why he sends you his jersey and expensive tickets?”

“Knowing Jake, there’s a catch,” I replied. Sure enough, there was a note with the jersey, which read:
Frankie, your two game tickets will be at the Will Call, but you have to wear this jersey, and everything that comes with it. Jake.

Bianca was reading over my shoulder. “Oh, he means you’ll have to suffer all the crap that comes from wearing an enemy jersey. Good thing it’s not a team we really hate, like Chicago.”

I pulled the jersey on. Jake was about ten inches taller and a whole lot wider, so I was swimming in this thing. I looked like a kid playing dress-up. Catcalls from Canucks fans would be the least of my worries.

Saturday found Bianca and me eating an early dinner and then getting ready. “Hurry up, Frankie! We need to get there before the warm up. I love the warm up!” She was in the living room where she was watching some kind of pre-pre game show, while I was still putting on my makeup. “You know, Jerome is so jealous that I’m going to the home opener!” Jerome was the latest lucky engineering student to win the dating Bianca sweepstakes.

“Hold your horses, I’m almost ready.”

“I can hardly wait to meet your ‘friend!’” I couldn’t see her, but I sensed she was making air quotes, as she still could not believe there was nothing sexual between Jake and me.

“Look, Jake’s a nice guy. But that’s it.”

“Frankie, he’s a really good player. And I think he’s cute.”

Possibly, if you squinted in bad lighting. I came out of my room and saw the back of Bianca’s blue Canucks jersey. She was such a fan; if I hadn’t taken her to the game, she probably wouldn’t have spoken to me for the rest of the year.

“Okay, I’m ready. How do I look?”

“Oh my God!” Bianca turned and stared at me, her mouth open. “What the heck have you done?”

I had deconstructed the jersey and remade it into a fitted tunic/dress which I was wearing with sheer black tights and over the knee boots. In my opinion it looked way better, but Bianca didn’t seem to agree.

“You took a game-worn, autographed jersey, worth hundreds of dollars, and turned it into one of your craft projects! Are you insane?”

I frowned at her. “You don’t need to shriek. I wish Chloë was here, I bet she’d like it.” I grabbed my big black leather hobo bag. “Let’s go.”

We arrived at Rogers Arena in plenty of time to see the warm up. My jersey was attracting a little attention, and a few suggestions that the Kings sucked, and Cookson in particular sucked. The fact that I was here with someone in a Canucks jersey seemed to mediate things, as if we cancelled each other out.

“Really Bee, you should have worn a Kings jersey too. A King is paying for your ticket.”

“Never!” she declared firmly.

“How did you get to be such a big hockey fan anyway?” Bianca’s parents emigrated from China, so hockey wasn’t naturally in her background.

“I guess it was bonding with my dad. My sister was the perfect one; she was always bringing home great marks and going to be a doctor. I was like the son my dad never had. My dad loved sports and I started watching the Canucks games with him.” She smiled happily.

We found our seats and Bianca assured me that they were good ones.

“Do you want to go down to the glass?” she asked me.

“Where’s that?”

She pointed down to the first row, where people were standing and watching the warm up. Mainly kids, teen guys, and some pretty girls.

“Why would I want to do that? I can see perfectly from here.”

“I thought maybe you might want to wave at Jake or something.”

“It’s okay, he texted me when he got here. We’re meeting after the game.”

“For dinner?”

“I don’t know, isn’t it kind of late for dinner? We’ll say hi. And I’ll thank him for the tickets. You’re coming too. Oh look, there he is.”

Jake was skating around in a circle and taking shots. It was funny to see him on the ice in his uniform. He looked like a real hockey player. I knew that sounded funny but I guess all the time I saw him in the summer, he was just a guy. A guy who was a lot of fun, but not a big hockey star. He never bragged. Even though I knew in the back of my mind that was what he did, it never seemed like reality. He just didn’t fit my idea of what a hockey player was like.

Jake

It felt great to be out on the ice again for a real game. Practice and preseason were fine, but being back with the guys, working together as a real team was one of the best parts of hockey.

During the warm up I had a look around the glass, but I didn’t see Frankie anywhere. I hoped she didn’t bring a date, because that would be just the kind of thing she would do. Well, she had brothers she could bring anyway. There weren’t that many people in the stands yet, and I had an idea where her seats were, so I spotted her walking down the stairs with a girlfriend. Frankie stood out in my Kings jersey. She had done something to the jersey, and now it was all tight and showing off her body. And she was wearing high black boots with it! Thigh-high leather boots were like a fantasy for me. I could still hear her voice in my head, “How do I dress hot, Jake?” Fucking unreal. How could she not know how hot she looked?

Gil Dupont skated up beside me and looked up as well. He was always checking out the talent during warm up. “I see we’ve got some fans here. Very nice. Very, very nice.” He watched Frankie turn around before sitting down. “Hey, it’s your jersey, Cookie. She wants you!”

“She’s a friend,” I told him.

“Shit, man, I know who you’ll be doing after the game!”

If only. Frankie was a cock-block all the way. No time to think about that shit anyway, it was game time.

The game started out pretty evenly. No scoring in the first period, although according to Bianca, the Canucks had the better chances. I was kind of torn; I had cheered for the Canucks my whole life, so it was tough to change. But I actually knew Jake and he had gotten me the tickets, so I felt a loyalty to him too. At first, I tried cheering both teams on, but that was just stupid, saying “good shot, good save” in the same breath. Then I tried to be neutral. It was tough though, because the two guys behind us kept bugging me about the Kings and Jake: pointing out every time he got hit or gave away the puck, not that that happened very often. I knew that they were probably trying to pick us up, but when they started making jokes about him eating burgers between periods, I started to feel angry and defensive. I mean, it was one thing for me to say those things and another for strangers. Plus under his equipment he wasn’t fat, but I wasn’t about to explain how exactly I knew that.

As the game went on, I had to admit I was amazed by how good Jake was. He had a real sense for how the play was unfolding and where the puck would end up. The Kings went to him to lead the charge up the ice, and he was the guy running the power play too, with a wicked slap shot from the point. He was kind of dirty, hitting people all the time, and crosschecking them in front of the net.

The Canucks went ahead in the second period on a power play goal. Everyone around me was little happier and stopped bugging me. Jake had one amazing shift near the end of the second where he was everywhere and delivered crashing hits on two Canucks. Jake was focussed, intense and really good. He was so different than the laid-back slob I knew.

And he was making me feel… hot.

31. Postgame Meal

The Kings tied things up in the third period, and when the Canucks took a penalty in the overtime period, the tension ratcheted up. Bianca reminded me that the Kings scored at will on the power play in the playoffs last year. Jake wasn’t helping by firing tough shots at the Canucks’ net and thus gaining me a lot of new enemies in the arena.

When the Kings won in the shootout, there was a lot of grumbling in the stands. Bianca explained that it was common knowledge that once it went to the shootout, the Canucks were toast. Apparently the team never practiced for shootouts, which seemed to be a strategic lapse.

Ever since the end of the second period, I had been taking deep breaths and trying really hard not to have sex thoughts about Jake. I couldn’t believe that I watched him play one game of hockey and now I was all hot for him! Jake would think that I was the worst puck bunny ever. Truly though, it didn’t have to do with his hockey playing exactly; it was more the way that he was so intensely focussed on the hockey. I could see that there was another side to him, that he wasn’t always joking and goofing and he could be serious about something and excel at it. All summer, the only thing I noticed he made any effort at was getting laid.

Mental head slap! Come on, Frankie, it was time to take a big step back and think. What were my requirements for Mr. Right?

Competent? Okay, Jake was obviously more than competent at something and that was hot for sure.

University education and a career plan? Well, it’s not like Jake was suddenly a graduate of anything other than Hamburger U, but I guess he did have a career plan.

And finally…good looking? That was getting harder to judge all the time. He wasn’t magically changing into a ten, but I couldn’t deny that I had been finding him increasingly attractive. He had the nicest smile, his body was okay, and there was this boyish sweetness about him. Probably there was a moral lesson somewhere around here, but I really didn’t have time to think about it right now.

I had to steel myself to act naturally around him and not be different or weird or come on to him in any way. And that wouldn’t be hard, would it? We were just seeing each other for a few minutes anyway. I texted him asking where the heck we were supposed to meet in this giant arena, and we waited to find out. He eventually texted me back with some obscure location that required asking three people for help before we found it.

When Jake finally came out, I was really sunk. He was wearing a suit: a gorgeous dark, slim-cut suit with a white patterned shirt. He always wore way too much pattern, but here it looked okay. Okay? Who was I fooling; he looked hot. I had never seen him dressed up in real life, and I loved guys in suits. He would have looked even better if he had taken the time to dry his hair and shave, but that would require a personality transplant as well.

“Frankie!” Jake came striding over and gave me a hug. Then he held me out at arm’s length. “I’ve never seen my jersey look so good,” he commented.

“That’s because it never has,” I told him confidently. Yes! I was off to a great start, I could totally do this. “You look good too,” I said. I figured that was fine, especially since I didn’t drool when I said it. “No tie?”

“It’s in my pocket,” he said, patting his jacket. “Want me to put it on?”

God no, then nothing could stop me from jumping him. “Uh, it’s okay. Jake, this is Bianca Leung, my roommate and crazy Canucks fan.” They shook hands and Bianca was suddenly star struck and didn’t say very much beyond nice-to-meetcha.

“So, great game, Jake, you’re a really good player,” I told him.

“Frankie, you sound surprised,” he was laughing at me.

“I am, I thought real hockey players would be better at chin-ups.” Then I giggled nervously. Crap, Jake never made me feel so self-conscious before. “So, I just wanted to say, thanks so much for the tickets, and the jersey.” Which I promptly cut up into something new.