Something So Perfect (Something So 2)

“I need a nap, babe,” he says, and I put my head under his chin and fall asleep to the smell of him and the beat of his heart.

***

My watch says it’s almost eleven-thirty. Matthew has been off the ice for over an hour. It was a crazy game with us losing with four seconds to go. When you travel with a team, you know that the plane ride will be a quiet one, whereas if they win it’s a sigh of relief. A couple of players walk out all giving me a nod. I nod and then look down at my phone. Max comes out next all alone, shrugging his arms into his jacket.

“Hey there, beautiful.” He smiles at me, making my stomach queasy. “Looks like you’re still slumming. If you ever decide to upgrade, give me a call,” he says, tipping his head down and walking away.

“Upgrade,” I say out loud while he stops walking. “You don’t upgrade from a Rolls Royce to a Ford.” I smile at him. “Besides, word from the puck bunnies is that it’s always cold around you.” I smirk at him while he walks back to me.

His stance hard, his eyes vicious, his teeth together. “You think he gives a shit about you?” he throws back, laughing. “You’re just another bitch on the road.” He leans in. “Maybe high and mighty, but at the end of the day, you’re just a pussy.”

I don’t even bother answering because he is yanked away from me, Matthew turning him and pinning him to the wall with his arm at his throat. “You so much as breathe in her direction one more time and I’ll fucking bury you. I don’t give a fuck what the consequences will be.” It takes Phil and Luka to get him off of Max, who coughs, getting some air into his lungs.

“You’re a fucking maniac, Grant. I’ll be bringing this up with all the necessary people,” he says, tying his jacket.

“You do that, fucktard,” Matthew says, shrugging the guys off of him and walking to me. “Are you okay?” he asks me, his one hand palming my face.

“I’m fine, are you?” I ask him, looking around to see that the equipment managers saw the whole thing along with some of the press. “You know this is going to make it to SportsCenter.”

“Don’t give a shit,” he says, grabbing my hand and walking out of the arena following Luka and Phil. We make our way on the bus where Max is running his mouth.

“He’s fucking lucky I didn’t wipe the floor with him.”

Luka starts laughing. “I thought he was going to piss himself he was so scared of Matthew.”

He gets into a seat followed by Phil, who says, “Piss, I thought for sure he would shit himself.” He looks at Max. “Don’t bullshit anyone. The only reason you got to walk out of there tonight is because he held back.”

I don’t say anything. I just hold onto Matthew’s hand, pulling him down into the seat next to me. “Just ignore him.”

“He’s a fucking piece of shit. Who the hell goes after a woman? I tell you who. A penciled dick asshole, that’s who.”

I turn in my seat. “You feel better?” I ask, shaking my head.

“Why, you got something to make me feel better when we get home?” he asks. His eyebrows wiggle.

I lean in. “Tomorrow I’m going to ask the doctor something really important and if her answer is what I’m expecting I’m going to get something really hard!” I turn and stare out the window. “Keep that in mind, Grant.”

The coaches come in and look at Max and then at Matthew. “Fucking SportsCenter is running a fucking brawl,” he says. I don’t say anything and neither does Matthew. “Next practice I want you in my office before the skate,” he says, sitting down.

I open my phone, searching SportsCenter and there front and center is Matthew pinning Max to a wall. The headline makes me shake my head.

“Frustration off the ice.”

I turn my phone so Matthew can see it, but he just turns it off. The rest of the trip is done in silence, no one daring to say anything. By the time I get home, I’m dead on my feet. We wake the next day, rushing to the doctor’s, both of us nervous and a little scared.

Matthew sits in the waiting room, shaking his legs while I fill out a paper about my health. Once I give it back to the nurse she calls me in. She tells me to undress and that the doctor will be right in.

Matthew walks to the wall that shows you the different stages of the baby in the stomach. “Oh my, this baby is huge. You think our baby will be this big?” he asks me.

I shake my head while taking off my clothes and sitting on top of the table. “I hope it isn’t too big.”