| Brielle sat on her chair, one foot tucked under her while the other spun the chair around in half circles. In one hand she was twirling a pen between her thumb and forefinger, while the other held the cellular phone she was talking into. "Really? Next weekend?" A smile lit up her face as Toby appeared in the doorway, wondering why he could hear Brielle talking to herself from down the hallway. She looked up and waved him inside, holding up one finger, telling him to give her a moment to finish the conversation she was having. "Definately. I'll see you at the airport on Friday morning. Love you too, bye." Toby raised a brow. "Love you?" he asked, teasingly. "Colby's in the weight room, should I be telling him something?" "No, dork," Brielle said, rolling her eyes and deactivating her phone by flipping it shut. "That was my brother, Steve. He's coming to see me next weekend." "He's coming all the way from Anaheim just for the weekend?" Toby asked, picking up a photo of Brielle and her brother. "Yep," Brielle said. "He loves his little sister, what can I say," she said with a smile. "He doesn't have any games next weekend, amazingly enough, because of some work that's being done in their arena, and away games are out of the question because of scheduling. So he's flying in to see me." "That's cool. When was this taken?" Toby asked. "You look young in it." "That was after his first Ducks game," Brielle said, glancing at the photo of herself and Steve on the ice at the Anaheim Arrowhead Pond, after a game. "I was barely seventeen then." Toby nodded, placing the picture back in it's spot. The far corner of her desk was rapidly growing with photos, most of her and the team. She had had a few up from when she coached the Ice Dogs, but they got put away when her friendships with the Baby Pens grew. "Why didn't I know you then?" he joked. "You were hot." "And I'm not now?" Brielle asked, giving a fake gasp for effect. Toby laughed. "Of course you are now. It's taking every fiber of my being to restrain myself from throwing everything off this desk and taking you right here and right now," Toby said with a grin. "I don't think Colby would enjoy that too much," Brielle said, raising her eyebrows in amusement. "Yeah, I don't think Chrissy would enjoy it too much either," Toby said, referring to his girlfriend. "But I didn't come here to talk about our significant others," he said, standing up, walking to the door and shutting it behind him. He turned toward where Brielle sat. "So Ellie, when are you gonna admit that you remember Eric?" Brielle blinked, a sudden wave of nausea hitting her. "What... What on earth are you talking about?" she stammered, trying to keep her composure. "I'm talking about the fact that you played together when you were kids, then when you moved you beat him for the Championship." Toby sat down across from her. "Don't tell me you forgot about that. And don't tell me that that's not one of the reasons that you two are constantly at each other's throats, because it's bullshit." Brielle frowned and began staring at her desk as if it was the most fascinating thing she had ever seen. "How did you find out?" she asked. "I did my homework," Toby said. "I knew there had to be a reason why Eric was opposed to having you as a coach from the second he heard your name, because usually, he's as girl-crazy as Army is. I know, for a fact, that he would be thrilled to have a female as an assistant coach, espically one as cute as you are. I thought, that after he got to know you, it would end, but I was wrong. Then you told me that you lived in Montreal when you were twelve and played in the pee-wee leagues there, and I remembered that Eric is from Montreal and I pretty much put the pieces together. I may be a hockey player and I might've had one too many hits to the head, but I'm not dumb." Brielle looked up to Toby. "I do remember him," she said, standing up and beginning to pace back and forth behind her desk. "I have for the past fourteen years. He's the reason I wanted to be a coach so much. Him and my parents, but mostly him. My team did win the Championship that year, because of a goal I got from a rebound from a shot he took on my goal. When we were shaking hands after the game, he looked at me and said, 'Hockey is a man's game, don't forget that.' I was so pissed, I shot back 'I'll believe that when I see you in the NHL.'" She paused and made herself sit down, looking Toby in the eye. "He called my favorite sport, the one thing I excel at more than anything, a man's game, consequently excluding me from anything having to do with it. I was better than him when I was a kid, I could finish my checks, score goals and skate circles around him, and he had the audacity to call hockey a man's game. I've been trying to prove that it's not a man's game for the past fourteen years, and I will be damned if I get proven wrong by some spoiled, whiney little brat who thinks he belongs in the NHL just because his Daddy's the goal coach for Pittsburgh." "Are you ever gonna tell him that you remember him?" Toby asked. "Bury the hatchet already, it's getting irritating." "Oh I'd love to bury the hatchet alright," Brielle muttered. "Right in his head." "Ellie, stop it," Toby said, rolling his eyes. "Didn't you two ever get along?" "When we were on the same team, yeah," Brielle muttered. "We were best friends. Wherever you saw Eric, I was there too. We were always together, nothing could keep us seperated for very long." "What happened?" "I moved. I'm pretty sure he resented me because I left him. That's what I got out of it anyway. The first game we played against each other, he knocked the hell out of me on the ice and didn't say a word to me after the game." Brielle shook her head. "But that's the past. For all I know, he still hates me and resents me because I won off his rebound. But whatever, the past is the past." "Ellie-" "Toby, I don't want to talk about it," Brielle said, looking up with a stern look in her eye. She stood up and walked toward the door, Toby obidently following her. "And do me a favor and please refrain from saying that you want to take me on my desk when Steve is in, okay?" she said, opening the door. "I don't know," Toby said, with an evil gleam in his eye. "I don't know if I'll be able to resist you for that long." "You'll be able to resist her," Colby said, turning the corner and running into his girlfriend. "She's mine, not yours," he said, putting an arm around her shoulders and kissing her on the forehead. "Yeah, yeah," Toby said, laughing. "I know." He looked at Brielle. "Everyone does." |
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