Thin Ice (Corey Crawford)

Because of Me

Samantha

I go over to Corey's house one night after a game so we don't keep my mom up and we hang out on the couch. We watch sports center and it's not long before my face comes up on the tv.

"Ahhh can we please change it" I beg.

"Why" he pouts.

"I hate seeing myself on tv" I argue.

"But I love watching you. You're so cute" he smiles big.

"I always look silly" I defend.

"You said beautiful wrong" he jokes making me roll my eyes. This man will be the death of me, I know it.

"Please turn it off" I whine.

"Nope" he says turning it up.

I listen to what the guy was saying and that's when my heart stops. "The 2014 Olympics American hero Samantha Miller has decided to take her time in considering her options for playing hockey. She has received many NHL offers including for her home town the Chicago Blackhawks. The team just coming off their second Stanley Cup in just four years wanted to add the goalie sensation to pair her beside her current boyfriend Corey Crawford.

But for now she says she is going to continue to train and think about her next move. The 26 year old claims that her path to playing in the NHL isn't as easy as signing the first contract laid in front of her. She wants to do it the right way and lay down a path that fits her, not one she would be forced to mold to.

So now we wait to see if the first girl in the NHL will be here sooner rather than later or if it falls through. We are all rooting for her and hope that one day soon we will see her in the NHL. She's proven herself as a player already and now we wait to see how she will change the hockey world once again."

Corey turns the tv off before turning to me. I can see he was upset and I just hope this doesn't get ugly fast.

"You turned down the Blackhawks" he asks.

"Not exactly" I try.

"Well you didn't sign so you kind of did" he argues.

"I don't even have a agent" I defend.

"I told you my agent would represent you. He's really good at what he does and he works with the Blackhawks a lot. He knows what he's doing" he says.

"I don't want to take him from you. I don't want to take your spot from you or your team from you" I explain.

The room falls silent as he just looks at me. "This is because of me" he asks. "You don't want to do this because of me?"

"Not entirely, no" I answer.

"But the reasons you won't sign with anyone else is because they're far away. So the team that plays in the town you live in offers you a job and you still turn them down. It sure as hell sounds like it's because I play here" he claims.

"You've earned your job here Corey. You played in the minors, you went up and down for years trying to earn your spot here, right now. And they're trying to hand me this job just because I'm a girl. Just because they would be the first NHL team to have a girl.

I'm not signing because it's not the right time. If this all dies down and they still want me. If Raanta is gone and they need a good goalie tandem I would love to play with you. I can't think of something I would want more than to play with you. But until I know I can play with you and not against you I'm not signing anything" I defend.

"Listen.... I could take you giving up nursing for me. I could take you taking your time to figure out what you want. But now you know what you want and I don't want to be what's in between you and all your dreams. Sam these opportunities don't come up all the time. In fact this has happened just once and this is it. Think about your dad and his dreams, your dreams. I'm not worth letting all this slip away" he insists.

"But you are" I whisper. "Corey I know hockey won't always be there for me and you will. But I have every reason to believe if I get a agent and I think things through we can both be playing here successfully one day. I just don't see that happening right this second. I'm not ready and everyone knows it but no one wants to admit it because they want history. I want it too but I don't want to be known as the girl who ruined hockey or the girl who could have done it all by didn't because she didn't know what she was getting herself into. It's not like I'm denying them or telling them I will never play for them. It's a matter of when not if" I defend.

"This team is championship pedigree. Some of the best players in the world are on this team right now, not in the future. You really want to pass up on this" he questions.

I let out a long sigh as I nod my head. "I do" I say softly.

The rest of the night was kind of awkward. We didn't fight, we've never fought before and I don't think this classified as one. But it wasn't comfortable either.

"You want to stay the night" he asks me as it gets close to two am.

"I can go home if you want" I assure him.

"I would really like it if you stayed" he claims.

"You're not mad at me" I ask.

A large sigh passes his lips as he shakes his head. "No, I'm not. I'm not happy but I know you're only doing this because you love me and your family and you want to be there for us. And I love that about you" he claims.

"I would like to stay" I smile and he smiles back.

He grabs my hand before we sneak off to his bedroom. I change into one of his shirts and I brush my teeth with the brush I kept here. I climb into bed and wrap Corey's arms around me. I feel his heart beating against my chest and it made me smile.

"Are you okay? You're holding me tight" he asks me.

"Yeah. I'm just tired and still have a headache from when they girl tried to take my head off" I laugh.

"That was over two weeks ago, you should get that checked out" he tells me.

"I have a physical tomorrow because if I wanted to play anywhere I needed one. Even though I'm not playing I figured I should still get my head checked out because it's bothering me and I've been nauseous. If it's a concussion I haven't been doing anything for it so I should probably get that taken care of" I admit.

"I'll take care of you" he claims and I smile.

"I know."