I leaned back on the couch and closed my eyes.

"Hey, Phil. Wake up." Kelly was leaning over me, her hair down and tickling my face. I was lying down.

"Hi, beautiful." I wasn't fully awake, and this seemed like a happy dream of us together. I pulled her on top of me and kissed her. She kissed me back. Her lips tasted a little tomato-y. The pressure of her body was giving me a hard-on.

"Um, Phil. We're not alone anymore." She squirmed out of my arms and sat down beside me. I realized I was stretched out on her living room couch with a throw over me and a pillow under my head.

"What happened?"

"You fell asleep. I pulled you up onto the couch, and you didn't even wake up. You're heavy." She stuck her tongue out and then giggled.

I half-sat up and ran a hand through my hair. "Shit. What time is it? What about our dinner reservation?"

"I cancelled it."

"Fuck. I'm sorry, you must be starved."

"I am, but I made us dinner." She looked extremely proud. "I'll go get it."

She came out with a tray. There were two plates of spaghetti with meat sauce and a salad. "Would you like beer or wine?"

"Beer, please." She was so cute. I was pretty sure that this was the only meal that Kelly could make. She came back with two beers and two glasses of water. April followed.

"I thought I walked into Pleasantville," April declared. "You're snoozing on the couch, and Kelly's in the kitchen cooking."

"Did you want some dinner too?" Kelly asked.

April shook her head. "I ate when the normal people did. It's after ten, you know."

"Did I sleep that long? Shit, I'm really sorry, Kelly." Yeah, I was certainly going to win the dating game. Hey baby, want to go out? You can watch me lie unconscious on the couch and then cook-which is only your least favourite thing.

"It's okay, Phil. I know you've been working hard. It was fun to make this and surprise you."

"The real surprise will be the food poisoning later," April added.

"I used one expired cheese and you're never going to let me forget it," complained Kelly. "Nothing happened."

"This is a great dinner," I declared. It was. I knew it was only bottled sauce, but Kelly had done it all for me. I took another helping of salad. "Is there more spaghetti?"

Kelly nodded and happily popped up to get it.

"Praising Kelly's cooking is definitely a sign of something," April declared. "Love or insanity."

"I heard that," Kelly said, as she came back in the room. "Isn't it your bedtime?"

"Why, Miz Kelly," April drawled. "Should I be leavin' you alone with your gentleman caller?"

"Yeah, you should. Good night, April."

April cackled and disappeared into her room. Kelly sat down on the other end of the couch.

"Whatcha doing way over there?" I asked her.

"Oh, I don't know. If I get all affectionate, I feel like I'm giving you the wrong idea." I realized how tough that must be for Kelly, who loved cuddling.

I patted the seat next to me. "You can trust me." I had been following her stupid rules even when I hated keeping my hands off her.

She flashed a happy smile and nestled in right next to me. I put my arm around her. That felt so right.

"How's work going?" she asked.

"You don't want to hear about all that boring shit."

"I do. I think you're so lucky."

"I am? How do you figure that?"

"My job is a total nine-to-five gig. But that means it's dead end too. You work long hours because you're important and they need you."

I chuckled. That was one way of looking at it. Another was that the junior guy was slave labour.

Kelly continued. "I wish I'd prepared for real life better. You always knew you wanted to go into engineering, right? And now you're doing it. You must be so excited."

"It's true. Hoff and Elliott both work long hours too, but everything they do is on paper or electronic. What I love is that we're building something. At the end of the project, I'll be able to stand back and say, 'Hey, I made that.' Along with hundreds of other people, but whatever. Of course, if it falls down, I'm denying any involvement."

She laughed merrily. We talked about work: mine, and hers too. She told me about this media internship program she was hoping to apply for at work.

"Do you think you should apply for other jobs in the meantime? Maybe get you a little closer to your goals, and you could still apply for the intern-thing."

"I don't have any technical experience, so the only way I could get an interview would be because they know me. But maybe I could take part-time broadcasting courses in the fall. I'll look into it."

It was a good sign that she was thinking about staying in Vancouver this fall. Kelly yawned, and I realized how late it was.

"Let me help you clean up," I told her. We took the dishes into the kitchen where Kelly had left a big mess. It was a small kitchen, and it didn't take long to get things shipshape.

"I want to apologize again for tonight." I stroked Kelly's hair and kissed her on the forehead.

"Stop it, Phil. I don't mind staying home. You don't need to impress me, and I'm not really into fine dining the way April is. The only way it could have been better would be if there was a hockey game we could watch."

"Nope, it was perfect already. I really liked that you cooked dinner for me."

"Don't get used to it," she laughed.

"Well, I guess I better go."

What I wanted more than anything was to stay over with her. That would be the best ending to a hard day.

18.

Statue of Limitations

Before I knew it, it was time to fly to Toronto for the NHL Awards. Jimmy's nervousness and April's excitement made me realize what a big deal the event was. I wasn't excited about having to walk a red carpet in heels and a fancy dress, but I figured that everything else would be fun. April had helped me find an appropriate dress and arranged for her friend, Magenta, to do my hair and make-up. Apparently, I couldn't even be trusted to dress myself.

I arrived the afternoon before and met Jimmy at our swanky downtown hotel.

"Hey, you." I gave him a big hug, and he squeezed me back.

"How was your flight?"

"Great. I'm starved though. Can we go eat?"

I dropped my suitcase and garment bag and looked around our room. "Oh my God, the bathroom has a glass wall. And there's only one bed in the room."

"So?" he replied. But there was a tiny smirk on his face.

"So? How can we sleep in the same bed, and not-you know." Was I an idiot to assume our hotel room would have two beds? When I travelled for hockey, we had them, and I knew Jimmy did as well. This room oozed seduction, which would be perfect if we were actually having sex.

"It's a big bed," Jimmy pointed out. It was king-sized bed, but no bed was going to be big enough to keep the two of us apart all night.

I exhaled. "Look, maybe we can ask for a room with two beds. I bet they have them."

"Don't do that." Jimmy sounded panicked.

"Why not?"

"Because it's like I'm whipped doing this whole deal with you. If anyone found out we weren't even having sex...." He sighed loudly.

I stared at him. "Are you serious? All that counts is that people think you're a stud?"

"Stop. You're putting words in my mouth. It's great being with you, but of course I wish we were having sex. Don't you?"

I did. And it wasn't like I told anyone that we weren't having sex. It was all so frustrating; the dating game had been a stupid idea.

"Sorry, Jimmy. I'm frustrated too."

"Better get some food into you," Jimmy suggested. I'd deal with all this later. We were supposed to meet his parents for dinner, but first Jimmy had arranged to meet one of his teammates, Grant Mossman. He met us in the lobby bar with his girlfriend, Kaitlin. Kaitlin was as blonde and beautiful as I assumed all the Blackhawks girlfriends would be. She seemed really friendly. Jimmy wanted me to know people before I got to Chicago, but I wasn't really worried. I never had trouble making friends, and we could all bond over hockey. After drinks and yummy tapas, Kaitlin insisted that we made the traditional chick trip to the washroom I looked in the mirror and realized I should have taken a shower after my flight. The fancier the mirror, the scruffier I appeared.

"James is such a cutie-but he's so young." Kaitlin was reapplying lipstick even though hers already looked perfect.

"I guess." Jimmy was only twenty, but he had already accomplished so much. He acted way older than me.

"Are you two high school sweethearts or something?" Kaitlin stared at me in the mirror. The contrast between her model-perfect looks and my all-natural appearance was huge.

"No, I actually live on the other side of Canada."

"No way! You guys are like two peas in a pod," she said. But there was something in her tone that made me think that wasn't a good thing.

"What do you mean?"

She widened her eyes and smiled. "It's only that I heard you were older, and I thought that James could use someone more-savvy-you know, to help him manoeuvre his way through the sharks."

I made my eyes equally wide. "You mean the San Jose Sharks?" I asked.

She squinted at me, wondering if I could really be that out of it. "Oh, never mind. Let's go."

Kaitlin was clearly a bitch, but I wasn't quite sure what her motivations were. She wasn't after Jimmy, because she had her own boyfriend. But she definitely wanted to get rid of me. Still, I felt there was a bit of truth behind her words. Everything Jimmy had told me about Chicago made me think that it was a big city with a lot of challenges. Sure, I could listen to his problems, but was that enough?

We went out with Jimmy's parents to a nice French place for dinner called Le Select. It reminded me of our French dinner in Vancouver, which gave me a quick rush of lust.

When I stayed with his family in New Brunswick, his mom seemed to be warming up to me. But tonight she seemed to have cooled off. Or maybe she was concerned about Jimmy, who seemed stressed. He was worrying aloud about the awards ceremony.

Paul was charming as always. "Well, the voting is all done now, Jim. Nothing you can do, so don't distress yourself. Let's enjoy dinner."

Agnes muttered to me. "He used to be more relaxed when you were around-what happened to that? Well, at least when you go to Chicago with him, there'll be someone for him to turn to with his troubles."

Apparently Jimmy was assuming the win here and had told his mom I'd be moving in with him. That made me a little nervous. But she was right about Jimmy's unrelieved tension-all due to the lack of nice, relaxing sex in our relationship.

It was disconcerting to find out that Agnes wanted me to take care of Jimmy. Frankly, I felt like I was getting pressured from all sides and with nothing to look forward to other than tricky sleeping arrangements and the chance to screw up on a red carpet. Why did I think this awards weekend would be fun?

By the time we got back to the room, I was exhausted from the long day. All I wanted to do was sleep, but I needed to take some precautions first.

"Kelly, you're being ridiculous." Jimmy spoke up from his side of the bed.

I had taken the extra pillows and built a wall on the bed between us.

"Oh please, like you're not going to try to have sex with me? You'll be one of those sleep-fucking guys. You'll wait till I'm unconscious and then do it."

"If I give you my word I won't have sex with you, will you take these stupid pillows off? There's not enough room for me to sleep."

"Jimmy, you're naked! Like that's not a clue."

I had tried really hard not to look at him before he got into bed, but failed miserably. He looked so hot that I would be the one who turned into a sleep-fucking person. He was cut, tanned and smokin'. The pillow wall was also to keep me from attacking him.

"I never wear anything to bed," he protested.

"I bet you do on road trips. You could have worn something, you know, for decency's sake."