Wrong Impression

 

“You’re dumb.”

“I am not.”

“You. Are. Dumb.”

“Shut up, Kris.”

“Dumb!” He got up from the couch and walked away.
____

Sidney wove through the crowd with a beer in each hand. Instead of handing one to Maureen, he tilted his knees into the sofa and sat on her lap, straddling her.

“Jesus, Crosby! You weigh a ton!” He was cutting off the circulation.

“Kris says you’re being dumb.”

“Oh my God. You two are impossible.”



“All alone at the party,” he said in the fake-whining voice he used to make fun of himself bitching on the ice.

“I can’t feel my legs.”

“Tragic, really. But if you’re just going to mope over here all night, at least I can keep you company.” He finally gave her one of the drinks. “Just think, a lot of women would kill to be in your position right now.” He leaned over into her face. Their position was in fact very compromising: Sid was extremely gorgeous and spent most of his time pretending he didn’t know it. She spent her time giving him shit about it.

“So do something about it,” Maureen said, getting so close their lips were almost touching. A hot blush rose up his neck. Crosby was no match for her when it came to this game, and he knew it. He sat up a little, pressing more heavily into her thighs. She groaned.

“Someday, I will,” he said matter-of-factly.

“Hmmm,” she scoffed. “All talk.”

He rolled off and wedged his ass in between her and the end of the couch. “You’re all talk. You’d never get with Gronk then.”

“For fuck’s sake,” she swore under her breath.

“How long since you two talked? Weeks?”

Maureen just put her head back against the couch.

“He’s looking at you right now,” Sid said, gazing into the middle distance like he wasn’t watching.

“Was he watching you straddle me?”

“Yup.”

“Almost kiss me?”

“That too.”

“Did he look like he was going to Hulk out?”

“Uh, no.”

She slapped Sid’s leg. “Told you so.”

Sid turned toward her. “Oh come on, Mo. Jordan does not see me as any kind of threat. I have no game and everybody knows it.”

He giggled like a girl, which made her giggle. Sid may have had some idea how devastatingly hot he was, but he truly had no game. Not the way Max had game. Sidney was all flowers and holding hands and calling your father ‘sir.’ Or would be, if he ever tried it.

“You don’t need game. You’re Sidney Crosby.”

“Sidney Crosby, tragic spinster,” he nodded. “Gronk’s still looking at you.”

When she stood, he practically tipped over into the empty space on the couch.
____

Maureen stood on the back porch at Max’s house. It was warm for autumn, but the wind was picking up. She wrapped her scarf around one extra time and looked out over the yard. Suburbia gave you stars, that was for sure. Couldn’t see these from her apartment downtown. Not that she had a backyard to stand in anyway.
____

“She’s out back,” Kris said.

Jordan looked up from the iPod he was shuffling. “And….”

“Don’t be an ass, Jordan.”

He put the music down, reaching for his beer on the windowsill. The house party was in full swing and people started dancing to the song he chose. It was mostly teammates, their girlfriends, a few random friends and some fresh female faces. Max could always be counted on for that.

“She saw me with that girl at Tre, we were practically having sex in the VIP rom. Total beer goggles. She must think I’m gross.”

Kris laughed. “She doesn’t.”

“She should. I don’t deserve to be with someone like her. She’s for Crosby. Or you.”

“She isn’t.”

“You don’t know she likes me.” Jordan finished his drink, started peeling the label from the bottle. “Has she ever said anything to you?”

“Did you see Crosby in her lap before? How many women in this room would be outside, alone, after that?”

Jordan had no answer for that, so he just rolled his eyes and looked toward the back door.

“You haven’t talked to her in weeks. If nothing is going on, then what the hell is that? It’s making everyone uncomfortable.”

Jordan shifted his weight. “What do I say? Sorry you saw me groping some skank, can I grope you now too?”

“That would probably work.”
____

Jordan looked at Maureen through the window. Her face was tilted up toward the stars. With a small sigh of resignation, he pushed the door open. It was chillier than he expected in just long sleeves.

“Hi Gronk,” she said without turning around.

He stopped a few feet directly behind her. “How’d you know it was me?”

“Psychic,” she answered, because she couldn’t say I was hoping.

“So, uh… sorry we haven’t talked in a while.”

“18 days.”

“You counted?” he asked. Wow, that long?

“I missed you.”

She was one stride away. He wanted to wrap his arms around her from behind, hold her to his chest and apologize. Apologize for disappearing for no reason, for becoming a stranger after they’d been friends for so long. He wanted to tell her the truth.

I’ve liked you for a long time. I tried to hide it and ended up over-pretending with someone else. Right in front of you.

He cleared his throat. “I missed you too.”

“That was quite a show you put on at the club.”

Jordan was quiet again, with no answer. He just said, “Sorry.”

She shrugged her shoulders. “Nothing to me.”

“You sure?”

This time she didn’t answer.

“It’s something to me,” he finally admitted.

“Something like what?”

He took one big step and slid his arms around her waist. She tensed for a moment, then she gave in and melted against him. She slid her hands over his where they met at her waist.

“Something like this.”

“You sure?” she asked.

“Please don’t make me go back in there alone, Maureen. Kris and Sid have been all over me.” He felt her laugh shake them both.

“They are impossible. Like two Jewish grandmothers.”

Jordan laughed shortly, then turned serious. “They’re good guys, Mo. I know you’re all friends, but I think either one of them would like to be with you. They’re a lot… better than I am.”

She finally turned around. Her chin touched the middle of his chest as she looked up at him. Her arms met around his back.

“You could be better,” she said.

“I would be better with you.”

Maureen lifted onto her toes but came nowhere close to reaching Jordan’s mouth. He tilted his head down to kiss her lips. The first lips he’s kissed since eighteen days ago when a rash decision had almost cost him the chance. The first lips he’d really wanted to kiss in long, long time.
____