Picture Perfect | Claude Giroux Philadelphia Flyers story |

Have Your Cake and Eat it Too

"Woah, what? Seriously?" Jules asks sincerely, "I thought you were going to keep it friendly."

"Yeah I know but c'mon Jules," I scoff, "it's just flirting- flirting never killed anyone, it's just fun."

"Yeah but c'mon Kat," she scoffs, "you're gonna keep it cool? You can't have your cake and eat it too."

I roll me eyes at the cliché saying, "well who says I want to eat the cake?" I ask as I grab some leftover Chinese food in the fridge, "maybe I'm just fine looking at it," I retort, grabbing a pair of chopsticks out of the kitchen drawer and dig into the cold rice.

"Everyone wants to eat the cake- you can't just look at it forever," Jules chirps back while i stuff my mouth full of rice.

"Well if this good looking of a piece of cake, truuuust me, I can stare at it forever," I say before I fill my mouth again with the cold contents of the paper take out box.

Jules arches her eyebrow in reply to my comment, "that may be so," she starts to say and then takes the carton of food out of my hands, "but if you stare at it for so long and never eat it, it's going to go stale and then it'll be in the trash, gone," Jules challenges. She then takes the chop sticks from my hands with an arched eyebrow.

I look to Sean whose face is twisted in confusion- this whole allegory was probably incomprehensible to him, but to us, it made complete sense. "Well until it goes stale, which isn't anytime soon, I'll be enjoying looking at the cake, flirting with cake- hell I may even take a lick off the frosting," I defend with a smile, referring to Claude as a piece of cake was too entertaining, even though Jules was being pretty serious about not getting hurt. I head back into my room to unpack my things with a water bottle in my hand before Jules can say anything else to me. I know she's just trying to look out for me but I can fend for myself- and besides it's just flirting.

"Sounds good- I feel like I haven't walked around the city in forever" I type a message and send it to Claude- I tried to think of something at least semi flirting but the warning from Jules shook me up a bit. Was he saying this stuff to another girl too? I can't be the only girl- I'd be stupid to think so. Just then I get an incoming message from G, "Me neither- I'm happy it'll be with that cute face of yours tomorrow- don't dress too amazing like you always do- I don't wanna be put to shame in my own city." I may not be the only girl but I was going to dumbly believe that I was.

I throw my hair into a top bun and change into a pair of large sweatpants and a large, baggy flyers shirt with Simmonds' number on the back. I spend a few hours unpacking and then organizing my entire room to keep my mind from thinking about Claude- even though opening and not responding to his snapchats was incredibly hard. He sent me endless streams of pictures of him unpacking and selfies with every filter there was- this boy obviously had too much time on his hands.

"Kaaaaaat," Jules sings outside my door, "dinner has been delivered!" By the time I get to my feet a different, deeper voice was calling my name. I open up the door to see Brayden beaming at the kitchen table holding up bags filled with Philly cheese steaks from Geno's, "glad you could join us ya hermit," he laughs heartily. I can't help but laugh- his whole happy personality was contagious- it felt good to see him so positive, especially with Luke leaving recently.

"You're the best, Bray- I feel like I could even say I feel some love for you right now," I tease with a laugh. His face flushes pink and he hands me the wrapped up cheese steak, "love? Don't play with my heart Kat I know it's just the best cheese steak in town making you feel this way," he teases back.

I look to Jules who is feeding Sean some of her food- I could almost throw up with the amount of love emanating off the pair. I scrunch up my nose and look to Bray who's sitting to my left, "I may lose my appetite," I whisper and I feel Jules' hand hit my arm almost immediately, "Oh you know I'm just kidding, y'all are the cutest," I stick my tongue out at her.