Monday morning finally came. A week had felt like forever. Jamie had kept his word, we talked all the time, and he called or FaceTimed me every night until we both fell asleep and one of our alarms woke each other up for school, or practice.
I can't wait to see you behind that bench, pretty girl. Wait for me in the upper concourse after the game. I have something for you.
I smiled at his text that he left for me when he hung up the call this morning. They drove up from Erie that morning so he had to be up and at the arena for 6:30am since they had a three hour drive ahead of the 2pm starting time.
i'm so excited to see you. i have something for you too :)
I sent the message and put my phone down. I went to the shower and turned it on, hopping in when it got warm enough. By the time I got out and back to my room after showering and brushing my teeth there was another text from Jamie.
It better just be your pretty face
I smiled and bit my lip a little bit.
well, that too i guess. in which case yours better just be your handsome face. get a goal for me today, ok?
I set my phone down again, and hung my towel up on my closet door before getting dressed. I put on a pair of black Lululemon leggings, and a tight blue long sleeve shirt with a v-neck. I was planning on putting my newly signed Drysdale jersey on over top when I was ready. I proceeded to put on my makeup. I put on my primer, eyeshadow, foundation, contour, blush, mascara and filled my eyebrows in before using my setting spray. I put on my necklace with a hockey stick dangling from it, a couple rings and my warm & cozy body spray from pink. I put the jersey on overtop and stood in the mirror for a minute, deciding if I like the look. Which, I didn't. I decided to change into a pair of dark wash ripped skinny jeans wth cuffs at the bottom. I liked the outfit a lot better now, so I grabbed my phone and my purse and headed down the stairs. I opened my phone and there was a text from Callie.
Coffee first? x
It has been a ritualistic thing all season for pre-game starbucks at the Rangers, which is apparently not a changing even to other hockey games.
Most definitely, my treat for driving!
I texted back. I grabbed the package of bagels from the pantry, putting one in the toaster. I finally opened my snapchat for the first time today and there was one waiting from Jamie from this morning. I opened it to see him in a light blue suit 'game day fit' he said. I smiled and ran upstairs to my room, sending him back a mirror picture also saying 'game day fit'. I sent it and smiled, looking at the location on snap maps he was already at the arena, so the lack of the response was because of already working with the team. I ran back downstairs to my bagel popping, so I pulled it out and spread the cream cheese on, scarfing it down as fast as possible. Almost as soon as I finished there was a knock at the door.
"Can I please use your washroom before we leave?" Callie asked my mom as she answered the door. I could hear my mom laughing.
"Of course, Callie." She said letting her in.
"Hi Sky, one minute." She said running upstairs to the washroom. I laughed and walked to the entrance way, putting my vans on an tying them up. "Okay now I'm ready." Callie said as she got back downstairs.
"Alright, bye mom I'll see you later!" I yelled as we left the house and got into the car.
"So, is he excited?" Callie asked.
"He is, he said he has something for me." I told her, blushing a little bit.
"That's so cute." She said. She handed me her phone to turn on a good playlist for the 45 minute drive to the arena, plus the stop at Starbucks. I put on her playlist that was a mix of Taylor Swift and One Direction, it's been known as our game hype playlist. We got to Starbucks and order our drinks in the drive through. Callie got a vanilla latte and I just got a black iced coffee with caramel. We began our journey, singing and dancing throughout the whole ride. We got to the arena and texted Claire and Oakley if they were here yet. They live about 5 minutes away rom each other so they carpooled as well. Claire answered Callie saying they were just finding parking, and they ended up right behind us in the lot. We all got out and started walking into the arena. I pulled out my phone where the tickets were, and of course as soon as I told Jamie to not buy the tickets because the four of us were going to go he bought all four tickets right behind the bench.
We sat down in our seats right before warm ups started. We asked the people behind us if they could take a picture of us and they gladly obliged. We stood against the glass with our arms around each other. We all thanked them as they handed Callie back her phone. Callie immediately posted the photo on her instagram story with the caption 'ohlrangers crew takes on a roadie to Missy'. Claire, Oakley and I all reposted it on ours, and I made sure to add 'courtesy of JD' in really small letters at the bottom. Within seconds warmups started and the Otters came out. I could see Jamie's head moving around as he came out, and looked straight up to us. He gave me a little wave and I waved back to him, causing both of us to smile. He kept skating around the ice and taking shots throughout the warm ups. I wasn't paying any attention to the conversation the other girls were having, my eyes and full attention was glued onto Jamie. At the end of warmups Jamie camp over and flipped a puck onto his stick, then into his hand and proceeded to flip it over the glass of the bench to me. I stood up and took a couple steps to the corner where there was a small break in the glass by the tunnel.
"Good luck, Jamie." I said to him as he starting coming through the tunnel. He shot me a bright smile.
"Let's see how well I can pay attention with the most beautiful girl in the world sitting beside the bench." I could feel my cheeks heating up at his comment. "You're cute when you blush." He simply said and walked through the tunnel to the dressing room. I came back over to the seat and grabbed my purse off the ground.
"I'm going to go get a drink, does anyone want to come or want me to grab them one?" I asked interrupting their conversation.
"I'll come with, I'm gonna get a seltzer." Claire said, the other two girls nodded and stood up as well. As we walked through the concourse I kept fidgeting with the puck Jamie threw, looking down and grinning at it every couple minutes. We got our drinks and went back to the seats. The pre-game ceremonies were just starting as we sat down, all the players lined up and the lights starting to dim, so we stood back up for the anthems and the game began. Nothing much happened throughout the game, the Otters won 4-0. Jamie didn't get a point, but he did get a penalty. After the game I practically ran up to the upper concourse to wait for Jamie.
I'll be right up, just getting changed!
He sent. I smiled and slid my phone back in my pocket.
"I'm glad they won at least." Oakley said, the first thing that her and I bonded over was that we both liked the Otters for some reason, so she was right there cheering with me.
"It would've been so sad if they lost, coming all the way out here." Claire said.
"I mean it's not like it's that far, Claire, plus we're here to support Sky." Callie told her.
"That's true." She said. A smile started to form on all the girls faces, as I felt arms wrap around my waist. I giggled at the touch, as Jamie moved his hands to my hips and turned me around to face him. He put one of his hands on my jaw and leaned down to kiss me hard.
"Hi, pretty girl." He greeted as he pulled away slightly. I looked slightly to my left and I could see the girls had walked away to give us some space. "I've missed kissing you."
"Hi, handsome, I've missed kissing you too." I said with a huge smile on my face.
"Oh good, here let me do it again." He said and leaned down to kiss me again. He pulled back and stared into my eyes with a small smirk, before I knew it he moved his arms back around my waist and pulled me into a tight hug.
"Here I have something for you!" I said. He broke away the hug and I reached into my purse to grab a small ziplock bag. "I made some cookies yesterday." I said handing him the bag of my home made ginger molasses cookies. He took the bag in his hand and hugged me even tighter.
"Thank you, baby. These are my favourite." He said kind of muffled as he head was in my hair.
"I know, you mentioned it a few days. Everyone loved my ginger cookies so I wanted to make some so you could try." I said. He opened the bag and took a big bite out of one of them.
"Oh my god, just this alone I'm wifing you up." He said, as he was still chewing. I smiled and let out a breathy laugh. He finished the cookie quickly and reached into his front pocket. He handed me a small velvet bag. I just looked up and stared at him with loving eyes.
"What did you do?" I asked.
"Just open it." He egged on with the biggest smile on his face. I opened the bag and there was a gold necklace with the letter J on it.
"Jamie," I said looking at him with what could only be described as heart eyes.
"No look, I know we haven't known each other for very long, but I knew from the second I laid eyes on you that I would make you mine. And I wanted to ask you if you'd be my girlfriend?" He asked, taking the necklace out of my hands and turning me around. He moved my blonde hair away from the back of my neck as he clasped the necklace. I turned back around and stood on my tip toes, putting my hands around his neck, pulling him into me and kissing him.
"Of course I'll be your girlfriend." I said as we pulled away.
"Good, now come meet my mom."
"What?" I asked loudly. The few friends and families of players that were next to us stopped their conversations and looked at us. "Sorry," I said to them.
"Yeah, come on, she wants to meet you." He said with a smirk on his face.
"What do you mean she wants to meet me? She knows about me?" I asked. He grabbed me hand and started walking away.
"I told her about you the night I met you, I told her that you were the one." He said as we made our way through the crowd. We stopped in front of three other people. People I'm assuming are his parents and older brother.
"Jamie, you had a great game, love." His mom said, as he let go of my hand for her to hugg him tightly.
"Thanks, mama." He said.
"Great game, son." His dad said, also giving him a hug.
"Meh, it was okay." His brother laughed and hugged him as well.
"Thanks guys, I want you to meet my girlfriend, Skyler." As soon as Jamie said the word girlfriend I felt butterflies exploding in my stomach.
"Hi Skyler!" His mom said, pulling me into a hug.
"Hi, Mrs. Drysdale." I laughed hugging her back.
"Oh sweetie please call me Tina. Jamie hasn't stopped talking about you since he met you." She said happily. His dad also then pulled me into a hug.
"So you work in hockey I hear?" His dad said.
"I do, as of right now I'm a game operations intern for the Kitchener Rangers." I replied.
"That's super cool, are you in school?" His brother, Charlie, asked.
"I'm in high school right now, in September I'll be going to Humber for Sport Management." I answered.
"That's awesome!" Charlie replied. We continued talking for a while as families and friends slowly weeded out. His family said goodbye to the both of us and left.
"So the next bit of our games are kind of in the area." Jamie said, picking up my hand and fidgeting with my fingers.
"They are indeed." I said.
"What are the odds you'd try to come to them?" He asked.
"I've been looking into it. I should have my car this week so it's quite probable." I told him. He smiled brightly at me.
"Good, you have to keep me updated." He said.
"I'll look at the schedule and what days of the week they are, it's pretty likely. I can promise that I'll be at the game on Friday!" I said happily.
"Oh good, I didn't think you would be." He laughed. "I've gotta start getting going, but I'll call you tonight when I get home, and I'll see you on Friday." He said. He pulled me in for another hug, and a couple kisses before saying goodbye and walking away. I stood there for a moment and let a deep breath out. Scaring me, there was a hand appearing on my shoulder.
"Ready to head out?" Oakley asked. I nodded and we all left the building, going towards the cars.
"Skyler?" Claire asked as we stood talking for a minute.
"Yeah?"
"What's that on your neck?" She asked, now all giddy.
"Oh, it's what Jamie used to ask me to be his girlfriend." I smiled, reaching my hand up to play with the J sitting on my chest.
"That's beautiful." Callie said, now looking at it. The girls all agreed, and we said our goodbyes getting into the two cars. Callie and I continued listening to the same playlist on the way home. When I got home my parents ordered pizza for us all and we ate it together. A couple hours later, in my room doing some homework I got my FaceTime call from Jamie. We spent the whole night on the phone until I fell asleep around 2am.
The rest of the week dragged on when I knew I had something to look forward to on Friday. My friends all asked me where the necklace came from and what the J meant, to most of them all they knew was I got a boyfriend. My closest friends Eliza, Emerson, Alice, and Nadine all knew who it was and how it happened, they got all the details. They were all super excited for me, especially Alice, she's my only other friend who likes hockey too.
"I picked up my car today!" I said while on the phone with Jamie on Wednesday night.
"That's so exciting baby! How does it ride? What car is it again?" He asked, excitedly.
"It rides so nice, I went out for a little drive with it on my way back and it's so nice. It's a 2018 Golf, it's the really nice metallic blue so it's gorgeous." I said. "It's got a sun roof, seat heaters, and apple car play." I said. We continued to talk about the car for a little bit, his dream cars and mine. We both tried to do homework at the same time. Eventually it just turned to silence while working, every once in a while one of us would say something. The silence was comfortable with him, not awkward or boring.
Friday soon came and there was a special feeling in my chest, knowing I'd get to see my boyfriend that night. Every chance I got to pass by the visiting teams dressing room I took it, and every time Jamie saw me pass by he ran out to kiss me and go back in. He never said anything other than sometimes my name when I was far enough to not realize he was coming. I laughed every time, especially during intermissions when he came waddling out in his skates and equipment. After the game I waited outside the dressing room from him. He came out pretty soon and hugged me immediately, picking me up and spinning me around.
"Did you get to watch it?" He asked excitedly. He was extremely happy considering they lost.
"You saw me watching it at the glass! I watched the puck go into the net!" I said happily.
"Good because that goal was for you, I finally got one for you."
"Jamie, baby, that was only the second game you've played in front of me." I laughed.
"I know but still." He said, he finally set me on the ground. "You know you should come to Owen Sound this weekend, we're leaving tonight and staying until Sunday night. You could get a hotel room, I could sneak out and stay with you." Jamie said smirking at me.
"I think you just ruined the surprise." I told him. His eyes went wide with a big smile on his face.
"Really?" He asked. I nodded.
"Well not yet but I was planning on it. I wanted to ask you what hotel you were staying at first before booking at the wrong one." I said.
"One second." He said, kissing me cheek and running away. He talked to one of the guys in an official Erie Otters long sleeve, so I'm assuming one of the trainers or something. He came running back over.
"The Best Western." He said as soon as he stopped moving. I smiled.
"Okay, I'll book a room tonight." I said smiling.
"Good, I can't talk for long, because we've got a two hour ride tonight, but I will see you tomorrow then. I'll get the tickets for the two games so don't even worry about that." He said. I smiled at his words.
"That's okay, I have to go too." I said. He grabbed my waist, pulling me towards him and kissing me passionately.
"Drysdale come on!" Someone in a suit yelled for him.
"Coming!" He yelled back, breaking away from me only to say that, before putting his lips on mine again. He broke apart after another few seconds. "Okay, I'll see you tomorrow Sky!" He said as he ran away. I smiled and put my finger tip on my lips, already missing the feeling of his being on mine. I walked to the office, finishing up the last little bit of paperwork I needed to while everyone was cleaning up and getting things set up for our next game. We all finished and left. I got into my car and started driving home. As soon as I got into my room I pulled out my laptop and booked a hotel room for tomorrow night in Owen Sound. I got changed and got into bed almost immediately. I set a couple alarms for the morning because I wanted to get there as early as possible. I texted Jamie before going to sleep.
hey baby, text me when you get there, i'm gonna watch a movie and probably fall asleep to it. i hope you have a safe trip <3
I put on a movie on my laptop and set it up on my bedside table before picking up my phone again.
I will, pretty girl, even if you are asleep. what movie are you watching?
I continued to text him for the next 45ish minutes before falling asleep.
I woke up around 9am. I got out of bed and did an everything shower as fast as I could. I got back into my room and started packing my bag. I put three outfits in my small duffle. I wanted to change before the game tonight since I was wearing sweats and a hoodie for the drive, since it was over 2 hours. I packed my clothes, shower stuff, my laptop, chargers, and a book since I might have to wait for him and wanted to be occupied. I said goodbye to my parents before leaving the house. I put my stuff in the backseat of my car and got going. I stopped at Starbucks and got my usual black iced coffee with caramel before getting on the road.
The drive was long but not unbearable, and at that time in the morning on a Saturday the traffic wasn't too bad thankfully. I got into the hotel and checked in, going up to my room and getting settled. I still had a lot of time before the game but I wanted to make sure I was ready.
i just got into my room!
I texted Jamie.
Good, pretty girl, what room are you in? We just got back to the hotel for a couple hours after practice, I'll come visit!
He responded. I told him what room and within a few minutes there was a knock at the door. I got up excitedly and opened the door to be face to face with Jamie. He grabbed my waist, picking me up and carrying me into the room. He set me on the bed and flopped down on his back.
"Wow this is a comfy bed." He said, closing his beautiful blue eyes. "How about we go out for a lunch date?" I smiled and nodded happily.
"Should I change?" I asked, still wearing my sweatpants and hoodie.
"No, you look stunning." He said. "Oh wait, I have an idea I'll be right back." He said. He grabbed one of the room cards that were on the table and ran out of the room. I pulled out my phone and scrolled through TikTok whilst he was gone. About five minutes later he came back into the room with an extra sweater in his hands. "Here, put this one on instead." He said, tossing the sweater gently over to me. I smiled and took the hoodie I had on off, slipping his over my head. "You look so good in my sweater." He said.
"Thank you." I said, blushing.
"Okay come on lets go, we'll find somewhere to eat." Jamie said. I grabbed my purse and keys and we headed out.
"Oh wow this is nice!" Jamie said as he got into passenger seat of the car. He pulled out his phone and googled restaurants, he didn't tell me what it was just gave me directions to drive in. We ended up at a really cute place called C.C. Street Food.
We sat down and ordered pretty soon, and when the food came it smelled, looked, and tasted delicious. We didn't have a lot of time after lunch, but we did go for a small walk around town before getting back into the car and driving back to the hotel. He came up to the room with me and we put on a movie on my laptop, cuddling on the bed. The feeling of his heartbeat against my back felt like home. Feeling his chest move up and down against me, and feeling his breath on my neck. It felt like I was a key and he was the slot I fit right into. The hour that we had flew by like nothing so when 3:30 hit he had to get up and get back to his room with his teammates.
"I know you probably brought your jersey but I want you to wear that sweater tonight, it's a team sweater, that way everyone knows your mine." He said in a low voice as he was saying goodbye.
"I will, I want everyone to know who I belong to." I said fidgeting with the J on my chest again.
"Good." He said simply, kissing me on the forehead, followed by a long slow kiss on my lips.
"Good luck tonight baby." I said as I broke apart.
"Thank you, pretty girl." He said, leaving the room. I closed the door and fell down on my bed again, the sheets a little messed up, and you could see where our bodies lay together on the comforter.