NHL Imagines/ One Shots

Valtteri Filppula- Tampa Bay Lightning *Requested

Tuesday's were always stressful for me. I had a full schedule with work from 7 to 3 answering phones for a dentist office. And also, the night shift at Memorial Hospital, where I basically do the exact same thing.

That starts at 8 at night. Which gives me 5 hours to do whatever I want- sleep.

When I tell you I am the most tired person in the world, I mean it.

"See ya later, Mary!" I call to the other secretary at Keihr Dental Offices. She's an elderly lady who wears pink and smiles a lot, but doesn't say much. She's one of the only people I can tolerate lately. She waves back and I'm smiling as I leave through the back door.

It's a great day in May- sunny and warm which is certainly unusual in Buffalo, New York.

I have to walk around the building to get to my car- a 2001 Accura with at least 80,000 miles on it. But thankfully, I've never had major repair charges to undertake. God knows I can't afford it.

I put my bag in the back seat and adjust my mirrors, so the sun isn't glaring back at me everywhere I look. I see that my eyes have bags under them- they always do- but they looked bad today. A sigh escapes my chest.

And to make things even worse, Accura won't start. I groan and step out of the car. I don't have time for this and I don't have money for this.

"Need help?" I am startled slightly by a voice, but I see that's it's a nice looking guy who seems innocent enough. I lift my sunglasses onto my forehead as he does the same. He has nice eyes.

"Sure." I know nothing about cars, and am honestly surprised I've made it this many years with my limited knowledge.

He comes forward timidly and opens the hood. No smoke comes out like I expected, but he makes a "hmm" sound. I hope that means he knows what's wrong.

"Can you try to turn it on?" He asks, and I nod. If he knows best. It makes a dreadful noise and after a few seconds, I cut it, hoping that was enough.

When I get back to the front, he's already fiddling with something. "I think you need a new torque converter," he says. I have no idea what that is, but I nod.

And sigh.

"Well thank you for taking a look," I say and move to get back in the driver's seat. Mystery man scratches his neck and displays a whisp of a smile. "You can't drive with a busted torque," he says.

I mentally face palm. "Right." I can't even try to act like I knew that.

"I can drive you wherever you need to go," he offers but I can tell he's nervous. He's never done this before.

"Really? You would do that?" I ask. In all my years, no stranger had ever been this kind.

He nods. "Yeah you look like you're having a bad day," he says, but not meaning anything cynical by it. He has an accent that I can't quite place, but it makes me float every time he speaks.

"Bad few months, as a matter of fact."

Bad few years as a matter of fact.

We call a tow truck and instead of following it to the nearest body shop, we drive around and even stop for an afternoon meal; I had skipped lunch today, and he (who I learned was named Valtteri) said he's always hungry.

He was easy to talk to and our hands brushed against each other's quite a few times over the center console between the seats. Until finally I just held his hand in mine, so we wouldn't have to keep playing these games. Dint get me wrong, I love those games. But I also love holding a guy's hand.

And then the sky got slightly darker, but not dark enough for the day to be considered night. Except it could be. The digital clock in the center of the dash board displayed 7:47.

"I don't want to end this, but can you drop me off at the hospital? I have work," I explain, hoping that he would understand. Understand that I had a shitty day turn into an amazing one, but I have to get back to the shitty part.

We pulls up to the side entrance to the hospital with four minutes to spare. Valtteri brings my hand to his lips, and brushes them against my trembling skin for just a second. "I'll see you around, then?"

I nod. "You better."

for HarryBaeStyles :)