The season was going by pretty fast, it was somehow already the beginning of December, which was shocking to me. My team was great so far, they all learned pretty fast which I loved, and seemed to work pretty well together. And just like I assumed, so far there were no issues through the season with Jamie being on the team and me working for them. It was scary to think that my internship was almost over and I'd be up for a job with the team.
I was in the office working on the final touches of the script and schedule for our game against Vegas tonight. That's one team I would love to go in person to watch and shadow their game operations and entertainment, they seem to have their shit together.
"Skyler, we have an issue." Scott said, knocking on my door and coming in.
"Oh? What's the problem?" I asked him.
"Well, we just heard that your school is going in person next semester." He said.
"Shit." I replied. I closed my eyes and leaned my head back.
"Well, Bob said he'd figure something out for you, right?" Scott asked. I nodded my eyes still closed I didn't want to open them because I knew I would start crying. Even though Scott wasn't great at getting things done, we did start actually getting along over the past couple months, once he learned that my relationship wouldn't hinder on my job.
"Yeah, he did, but I'm not sure what he'll be able to do." I said, after a minute or so, finally opening my eyes again too.
"You'd be surprised, I'll go talk to him, because I know we want to keep you." Scott said, giving me a soft smile and turning to walk away. I stood up almost immediately, grabbing my phone and keys, walking outside to get some fresh air. I walked over to my car in the lot and exhaled deeply.
"Fuck!" I yelled. I wanted to break something, I couldn't tell if I was mad, upset, annoyed, or what. Maybe a mix of all three. I couldn't give up my life here anymore, everything was here. Except school, I guess.
"Skyler? Are you okay?" I turned around and saw Dallas Eakins the head coach walking up to me.
"Yeah, I'm good." I replied, using my index fingers and running them directly under my eyes to wipe the tears that started to fall.
"You don't seem fine." He said. There was a common theme of everyone at the office treating me like I was their kid.
"I'm good, just might have to move my entire life and leave half of it here." I said, not even worrying about the tears that were now free falling.
"Oh shit, that's not good. What's going on?" He asked.
"I don't fully know yet. School is going back in person next semester, in Toronto. A million hours away, nowhere close to here, my job, my boyfriend." I said, trying hard not to punch my tire. Dallas didn't answer, he just pulled out his phone and started typing away before sliding it back into his suit pocket. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't be having this outburst in the middle of the parking lot. Not very professional of me."
"That's okay, you need to feel this, it's a big thing. Come here kiddo." He said, reaching his arms out and pulling me into a hug. I guess this is the one good thing about being treated like everyone's kid, I always get all the support I needed, from anyone who's a parent, it feels like my parents are around to an extent. Within the hug my phone started vibrating, whoever it was I didn't want to answer. "You should get that." He said, pulling away from the fatherly hug. I nodded, wiping my tears away again. My makeup was definitely ruined. I pulled my phone out and it was Scott.
"Hey Scott, sorry I just stepped outside for some air." I said, answering the phone.
"That's okay, come on in whenever you're ready and come to my office when you can." He said, hanging up the phone. I slid it back in my pocket and sighed, wiping my face again. I leaned down to look into one of my side mirrors, seeing the mascara dripping down my cheeks just made the feeling even worse, that's one of the worst feelings is already being sad and now you just look sad too.
"Thanks for the hug, Dallas, I appreciate it, I should go back in now though." I said, smiling at him.
"Alright, I'll follow you in." He said, and we both started walking to the entrance. I walked down the hallway to Scott's office and knocked on the door.
"Now, I know I said I didn't want any fraternization while on working hours, but I think you need this right now." Scott said as soon as he saw me. His office wasn't lined in glass, so when Jamie came around the corner I couldn't help but dropping to my knees and crying even more, just the thought of saying goodbye to him to be that far away for so long was hurting more than anything.
"Hey, it's okay, come here." Jamie said, lifting me up from my underarms and wrapping his arms around me tightly. "Come on, let's go to your office and talk." He said. I nodded with my head against his chest, I knew I was going to get black mascara stains on his white collared shirt, and honestly probably some snot too, but I didn't care, I knew he didn't either. We walked over to my office and I broke down again.
"I don't want to say goodbye." I got out, with heaving breaths in between each word.
"What do you mean?" He asked, pulling me away from his chest. He lifted his hand and wiped the tears from my cheeks.
"School. It's in person again next semester. I have to leave." I somehow got out.
"Oh, baby, we'll figure it out. It'll work out, it always does." He whispered, lightly setting my head back on his chest. He kissed the top of my head and started gently stroking my hair.
"I don't want to leave. I don't want to leave you, or my job." I said. His touch was helping me calm down, the tears started easing up, and my breath was slowing down.
"I know. We're going to do everything we can to make sure you don't need to." Jamie said. "Come here, come sit down." He dragged me over to my desk chair, pulling up the cushioned stool I had in the corner and setting it in front of me, sitting down on it. He grabbed my hands in his and started playing with my fingers, softly drawing shapes on the back of my hand with his finger.
"What if I still need to. I can't imagine they're going to make an exception for one student out of thousands across the college." I said. His eyes were locked with mine, I could see the sadness in his eyes, but I couldn't tell if he was just being empathetic or if he was scared we were going to have to say goodbye too.
"They might. Especially considering the situation. Bob's talking to them right now, pretty girl. I'm sure it'll all work out. And if it doesn't with Humber then we'll transfer you to a school here, and they'll have to deal with it." I nodded. My throat was dry, my eyes were dry, my skin felt tight. Everything felt wrong. I had a pit in my stomach.
This was the end. I could feel it.
"It's going to be okay." Jamie said, leaning over and kissing my forehead, love radiating off of him. All I wanted to do was accept it and give it back to him, but I could barely even say anything. I got to start living my dream, with the love of my life, and it was about to be ripped away from me.
It felt like hours had gone by, Jamie left to get ready for the game after 40 minutes, he tried to stay but I wouldn't let him. It wasn't worth it.
"Skyler? How are you doing?" Scott asked, coming into my office. I was staring blankly at the wall, I hadn't moved since Jamie left, I couldn't. Even though I really had to pee.
"Okay." I replied.
"Do you want to take the night off?" Scott asked. "Go sit in the seats with the girls? I can handle tonight alone if you need." I shook my head.
"No, I'm good. How much time do I have? Do you think I can run home and fix myself up?" I asked, I hadn't looked at the time in a while.
"Yeah, you have time. If you miss the meeting with the crew, you miss it. Not a big deal. Are you sure you're okay to work?" He asked.
"Yeah, I want to, I want to throw myself into the game. It'll help, I promise." I said. I figured out how to move and stood up, grabbing my bag, phone and keys. Scott moved out of the doorway and let me out, I locked the office door and got to my car and back home as fast as possible. I took my makeup off and redid it as quickly as possible, grabbing an energy drink out of the fridge and running back out to the car to get to the arena. It didn't take too long to get back, I got back into the office and dropped my stuff off, just in time for the meeting to start. I grabbed the script for our host and the schedules for the crew, locking my office door again and going into the arena to the Game Operations room. That was where our game crew got to hang out, eat, keep their stuff, and were all of our props and everything was held.
"Hey guys, sorry I'm slightly late." I said as I opened the door to the crew sitting down. I ran through the game with them, telling them what activations they were on and running through the intermission activities. "Alright, any questions guys?" I asked as I finished up.
"Yeah, just one, are you leaving us?" One of the girls, Kennedy asked.
"What?" I asked.
"Well, we heard that Canadian colleges and universities were going back in person. We were talking about it and wondering if you were leaving us in the new year." Alex asked.
"Honestly, I don't know. We're trying to figure it out." I replied.
"It would suck if you left, I don't like Scott all that much." Paisley said. I laughed a little bit.
"He gets better once you get to know him. But yeah, I don't know. I really hope not, my whole life is here now." I said.
"Plus your boyfriend." Brendan said.
"That too. Anyways, is there any questions about the game?" I asked. I had a couple more things I needed to finish up and drop off to people around the arena before warm ups started, plus I try to say hi to the girls every game. No one answered, so I took that as a no. "Okay then, text me in the group chat if you guys need anything." I said as I left the room. I went around the building and dropped off a couple folders, before also going to a meeting with the production team for the game plan. Pregame went super smoothly, so I got to watch warmups in peace. I didn't have a whole lot to do during the game, other than just making sure everything was running properly and everyone was doing their job. I got to hang out in the Zamboni bay for warm ups, which was luckily in the Ducks zone. Jamie came over and tapped his stick on the glass, giving me a failed version of a thumbs up with his glove on. I nodded in response and he smiled brightly at me.
First period of the game was pretty good no one had scored or anything, Jamie got an assist on the first goal of the game in the second period on Trevor's goal. We were winning 4-2 at the end of the second which was pretty awesome, just hoping they don't blow the lead. Going into the third, Vegas scored bringing them within one, and a couple minutes later, Jamie took a beautiful wrist shot and scored. I was with a couple of the crew and started cheering loudly for him. All I could ever think when he scored was how proud I am of him, especially seeing as somehow most points he gets are away games so I don't get to see them very often. They ended up winning the game 6-5, a win is a win.
"Skyler, can I talk to you for a second?" Bob asked, as I was filling out my last bit of paper work for the night after the game.
"Of course." I responded. He came into my office and sat down across from me.
"So I talked to your admin today, and we can probably work something out. I won't know for sure until sometime next week, but given the circumstances it seems like it'll be okay. I promised them that you were here because we had already hired you as the assistant manager of game operations." Bob said. My eyes went wide, because of everything he had said.
"Really?" I asked, I could definitely hear the excitement in my own voice.
"Yes really, it'll be worked out. I know you were worried about it earlier. Go home, get some rest. you can finish this up in the morning. Will we see you tomorrow for the meeting?" Bob said. I couldn't wipe the smile off my face now.
"Yeah, I'll be here. I've got class basically right before so if it runs late I might have to be a couple minutes late, but I'll be in my office for the class at least." I replied. I started packing up my things as Bob nodded, smiling, and left the office. It took a little bit to get out of the parking lot since there were still some fans around trying to get out, but I made it home still in pretty good time. The boys were a couple minutes behind me.
"You seem a lot happier than I heard earlier." Trevor said as he and Jamie walked into the house.
"Yep, Bob said they might've figured something out, but they might not know until next week for sure." I said. Jamie walked over to me as I was cleaning up the living room a little bit, and wrapped his arms around me.
"I'm so happy for you." He said softly.
"And I am so proud of you, you got two points tonight!" I said happily.
"I guess that would help with your mood too wouldn't it?" Trevor asked as he walked upstairs. "I'm exhausted so I'm gonna watch some netflix in my room for a bit." He said, leaving us.
"I told you it'd get figured out." Jamie said, leading me over to sit on the couch. "Stop trying to clean at 11pm, you can relax now." He said, taking the rag out of my hand and throwing it on the table.
"I know, but it needs to be done."
"I'll do it before I leave for practice tomorrow." He said smiling at me.
"I love you, you know that right?" I said, finally sitting down beside him and leaning into his chest.
"I do. And I love you, you know that right?" He replied. I smiled and nodded, looking up at him. I leaned my head up and kissed him, his hand roaming my body and landing on my bum, giving it a little squeeze. "There's no game this weekend, is there anything you wanna do?" He asked me.
"Just be with you. I wanna do something, but as long as I'm with you, I don't care." I said, kissing him again. There's nothing in this world I love more than just his presence.
"I can work with that." He said, a smirk playing on his lips. We sat on the couch and cuddled for a while, just before I fell asleep on his chest, he lifted me up and brought me upstairs to our room. "Let's go take your makeup off, pretty girl, I know you'll hate it in the morning if I didn't make you do that." He said, his voice soft and loving. I looked up into his eyes, and all I could see was love. I got up and walked to the washroom, taking off my makeup and brushing my teeth before coming back into our room and changing into my pyjamas. I got into bed and curled up next to Jamie, he put one arm out for me to lay partially on him, and he pulled me as close as possible.
The weekend soon came and just like Jamie said, we were attached at the hip all weekend.
"How about we take a walk along the beach and around there today? I have a plan for later but nothing throughout the day." Jamie said.
"What's the plan for later?" I asked him.
"You don't get to know yet."
"Jamie, you know how I feel about surprises." I said.
"And you know that it's never going to change." He replied, his smile growing.
"Are you proposing?" I asked, partially trying to get a little rise out of him.
"Not yet, you just wait, you'll never guess when it's happening." He said, walking over to me and putting his hands on my waist.
"I bet I will. It's happening soon, I just know it." I told him, smiling brightly at him.
"How would you know that?" He asked, trying to slyly move his gaze to the closet and back to me. He has the ring.
"Well, for one, I know you, and two, our two year anniversary is in two months. And I told you I didn't want to get engaged before that." I answered. His smile had turned to a smirk.
"Shut up, you know nothing." He said. I knew it, he has the ring. He's planning it. I couldn't wait to tell the girls. All three group chats, my girls from high school, from the Rangers, and the lady ducks.
"Well, if we're going out I have to get ready, so kiss me and leave me to put my face on." I said, now trying to wiggle out of his grasp.
"Okay, okay, fine. Let me kiss you then gosh." He said, trying not to laugh. He kissed me passionately, every feeling in his chest had come out on his lips. "I love you."
"I love you most." His minty breath lingered in the air. He kissed me one more time before going downstairs, most likely to get something to eat, he had been complaining that he was hungry for the past twenty minutes. I grabbed my phone and went into the washroom, putting on some music and then texted all three of those group chats the exact same message.
guys. i think he's going to propose soon.
I put my phone down while I waited for a response and started doing my hair and makeup. I didn't really do much to my hair, I put it up into a pony tail and straightened it out, being lazy and did it when it was already up, and I left a couple pieces out in the front, curling them to give a little more character.
Rangers group chat:
Callie: GIRL WHAT???
Claire: WHAT DO YOU MEAN????
Oakley: EXCUSE ME??????
Claire: FASTER BITCH ANSWER US
I laughed at the responses from them.
idk i'm getting the vibes that he's going to. plus we had a little chat today and when i brought it up he looked at the closet, so i think he already has the ring.
Oakley: OH MY GOD. THIS IS CRAZY
Callie: WHEN DO YOU THINK????
i'm pretty sure it'll be some time just after valentines day. i told him a while ago i didn't want to be engaged before we'd been together for two years and he's been eager for it. our two year is feb 17 so i think it'll be really close to then
We continued talking about it, and the Lady Ducks group chats was a very similar conversation. The other girls went a little different.
we killed 6 people group chat:
Emerson: oh, really?
Eliza: Huh that's weird.
Alice: Shocking girl.
Nadine: Never would've thought.
oh sorry guys, i thought that would've been a little more exciting. my bad.
I was a little upset of how they responded. It seemed a little weird, maybe they just don't want to be my friends anymore since I'm so far away, which is weird because all of them have moved from each other for university too. Eliza is in Ottawa, Emerson is in Niagara, Nadine is in Kingston, and Alice is in Oshawa. I don't know it just seems weird. I want to tell Jamie because it actually makes me upset, but I shouldn't because then he'd know that I know for sure he's going to propose.
"Are you ready yet, baby?" Jamie yelled from downstairs.
"Just a minute, lovey dovey!" Trevor yelled back in a high pitched voice, making me laugh loudly.
"Trev, can you come here?" I asked, and the door immediately slammed open. "Okay, don't break it." I laughed out.
"What's up girlfriend?" Trevor asked, and I continued to laugh.
"Can you look at this please?" I asked, now showing him the group chat. I knew he'd probably tell Jamie, but he might leave out me knowing about the ring.
"Sky, this is sad. Are you okay? Do you want to tell Jamie?"
"No, I don't want to tell Jamie. He'd know I'd know." I said. He threw my phone on the bed and came over to me, hugging me tightly.
"Hey, it's okay. You have so many friends here now, you don't need them, especially if they're going to treat you like that." He said. I nodded, trying not to cry and ruin my makeup that I just finished,
"I'm good. I'm good. I just wanted a second opinion that their response was weird." I said.
"Definitely weird, but it'll be okay. I'm sure they're probably just busy and not able to do a big response right now." He said.
"Thanks, Trev." I said and he just nodded and left the room.
Should we tell her that we know?
Was the only notification on my phone. From Nadine in the group.
WRONG CHAT
Came in from Alice.
Nadine: Well, I did feel really bad for that response. Jamie asked us to hide it from you.
Emerson: Congrats I think now?
Alice: Cats out of the bag
Eliza: Guys we can't say anything else, she'll know too much.
I started laughing. At least I know they're not mad at me.
guys i almost cried that was so mean :(
Eliza: Girl I hope you know how hard that response was. None of us knew what we could say
you could've faked it I would've known less!
Emerson: Come on girl you know none of us would've thought that far
true lmao. don't tell me when, just make sure my nails are done within a week
I put my phone away after sending the last message, and grabbed my purse and walked downstairs, with a big smile on my face.
"What's that look for?" Jamie asked as I got up to him.
"Oh nothing, just happy to spend the day with you." I said happily, stepping on my tip toes to kiss him.
"I love you, pretty girl." He said against my lips.
"I love you most, pretty boy." I replied, touching my lips against his again.
"Ready to go?" He asked. I nodded and kissed him one more time. We walked out to the car and got in, Jamie started driving down to the beach.
"I'd take that ring." I said after some silence, just us listening to the music.
"What?" Jamie asked, laughing a little bit.
"You heard me." I replied. "I already know what our first dance song is going to be."
"Oh and I don't get a choice I guess?" He asked.
"Nope."
"Okay, put it on." He said. I grabbed his phone that was connected to the car. I searched it up and put on You Make It Look So Easy by Eric Church, my favourite artist. He listened to the song silently. "I like that. It's perfect." He said, smiling softly.
"Really?" I asked, looking over at him, he glanced over at me and had stars in his eyes. He parked the car in the lot, unbuckled his seat belt and shifted his body to face me.
"I hope you know I will drive home and get that ring right now if you want me to." Jamie said. He grabbed my hands and kissed them hard.
"Do you have a plan?" I asked him.
"For the proposal?" He asked.
"Yeah."
"I've had it planned out for almost two years. I planned how I was going to ask you to marry me the day I asked you to be my girlfriend."
"Well, then execute the plan. If you can do that today, do it. If not, wait. I don't want you to scrap that plan if you've had it for that long." I said smiling.
"Are you sure? I don't need to wait longer to get on one knee." He kissed my hand again.
"I don't need you to wait, and I don't want to wait. But if there's a plan, there's a plan."
"I know how you feel about plans." He said. Jamie turned and got out of the car. He didn't seem very happy with the response.
"Jamie." I said as I got out, I knew he for sure wasn't happy since he always opens the door for me.
"What, Skyler?" He asked, stopping and turning around to look at me.
"Why are you upset?" I asked.
"Do you not want to marry me, Skyler?" He asked, throwing his hands up in the air.
"What?" I asked.
"Tell me, do you want to marry me or not?"
"Yes, yes I want to marry you." I said, letting out a quiet exasperated sigh.
"Why do you care so much about the plan then?" His voice now raised.
"Because you put effort into it. I don't want that to go to waste. You talked to my friends about it. You care about it." I responded, raising my own to match his. He sighed.
"You're right." He said quietly, and I didn't respond. We don't fight much, but I hate when we do. It makes my stomach turn and my heart race. "How do you know I talked to your friends?"
"I told them I thought you'd propose soon. They were dry and didn't seem interested and then Nadine sent a message to that chat with everyone instead of a different one, kinda letting the cat out of the bag that you talked to them." I said. His soft smile came back and he started slowly walking back towards me.
"I'm sorry."
"I'm sorry too."
"You have nothing to be sorry for. I'm the one who got mad and raised my voice." He said, now pulling me into a tight hug, his hand resting on the back of my head. "I'm sorry, and I love you."
"I love you most." I whispered against his chest.
"This doesn't change anything, right?" He asked.
"Never. Just a tiny argument. We've had worse." I said, pulling my head away from his chest and looking up at him. He leaned down and kissed me lovingly. "Now put that plan in place and put a ring on it."
"Oh, I am all over it." He said, kissing me again.