“Are you not ready?” she asks me, coming in, and I take in her outfit. “It’s Ed Sheeran night.” She pulls her jacket down to show me her plaid shirt. “You forgot.”
I rub my hand through my hair. “Yeah, I guess I did,” I say, walking away. “Let me get changed and we can go.” I head to my bathroom and turn on the shower. “I’m going to be thirty. Make yourself at home.” I shower and pull out a pair of black jeans and a dark gray T-shirt as I whip my leather off my hanger and put it on. The last thing I put on is my black boots. “Okay, I’m ready.” I walk into the room and she closes the television and gets up.
“Steve was really pissed when I took back those extra two tickets.” She starts walking for the door. “Who is joining us?” she asks and I look down as I slip my sunglasses on.
“I guess we will find out now, won’t we,” I tell her, making my way over to the rink, which is now set up for the concert. I still go into the entrance that the players go to and walk down the hallway, but there are so many people running around it’s a mad house. We make our way out to the ice, which is now covered with a wooden floor. The lights are dim and the DJ plays some songs as we find our seat two rows from the stage.
“Holy shit. Look at these seats,” Denise says, sitting down and pulling out her phone.
I make her sit at the end as I sit with the empty seat beside me. I hold my breath till the opening act comes out. James Blunt sings “You’re beautiful” and all I can do is look around at the full arena. Well, full minus the two seats next to me. I inhale deeply, knowing they will probably stay empty. Denise screams as he continues singing when I see the people move back, making way for the person that got the tickets for the seats next to me. Allison. She walks looking down at her feet to make sure she doesn’t trip on anything and I know the minute she looks up that she’s surprised to see me, as the person behind her pushes her forward.
“What?” She smiles and puts her head down, her hair falling around her.
She whispers to the girl next to her, who tilts her head back and laughs. She smirks at me and I see it’s Karrie’s best friend Vivienne.
James Blunt leaves the stage and we all clap and Denise looks over and sees Allison. “I knew if he took the tickets away from me it would have to be a good reason,” she says and Allison laughs.
“Well, this answers my question,” Allison says. “All day I was calling people and thanking them for the two tickets that showed up this morning, and each one didn’t know what I was talking about.” She laughs as she knocks me sideways. “Well done.”
“I’m going to get something to eat and drink,” Denise says and Vivienne jumps up.
“I’ll come.” She follows her out and we watch them making their way through the crowd.
“Allison,” I say quietly. “I…” I shake my head, looking down.
“You’re just full of surprises, aren’t you?” She sits down and turns to me. “Last night…” She doesn’t have time to continue because a couple of people have stopped me and asked for pictures. Then when they finally leave Denise and Vivienne come back and hand us both water bottles.
“I know you don’t drink when you are training and working, so I got you water,” Denise says and she holds up a hot dog and bites into it. “I think it cost me fifty bucks.” She continues chewing as I watch her. The whole time I keep looking over at Allison, who is talking to Vivienne, but then the lights go out, and we all stand up, waiting for Ed to come out. And then he just walks across the stage with his guitar as he starts singing.
Allison stops clapping and her hands go down to her sides and they brush against mine. At first, I think it’s an accident, but then she slowly does it again as her fingers graze mine. I look down at our hands close together. Her delicate hand moves next to mine, and I take it. I turn my hand around this time, rub my palm down her inner wrist, and snake my fingers into hers. Her hands open up and entwine with mine as Ed Sheeran sings “Castle on the hill.” Our hands stand still, both of us afraid to let go, as my thumb rubs her.
It’s at that moment I know I’m more far-gone than I thought. It’s at that moment I know I can’t walk away from her. It’s then that I know my whole life I’ve been waiting for this one fucking moment. I know that whatever hell I went through before it was all for this moment right here.