Yeah.
Their Frankie’s were one and the same.
Because of fucking course they were.
Dating someone with an interest in hockey wasn’t something Jules was interested in anymore but of course the first woman to pique her interest in months was her professional hockey playing brother’s goddamned coach. Nice one, universe. Reaaaaaaaal nice.
Chapter 5
“No, I don’t think it’s right that she was seeing other women without mentioning it but I don’t know…maybe it’s like a Swedish thing? I don’t want to offend any Swedes but I’m not familiar with their dating customs, Syd,” Frankie said as she punched in the code to her condo building’s door. It beeped and clicked open. “But did you ever consider just, oh…I don’t know…asking your teammates about it?”
Frankie crossed the lobby floor towards a bank of elevators, giving the security guard a curt nod and a friendly wave. She pushed the button for an elevator and quickly stepped inside when the doors opened and just as the doors began to close an arm flew out between them to keep them open.
“Sorry, sorry. Thank you, I just didn’t feel like wait…oh.”
Well if this wasn’t a nice surprise. The woman Frankie met in the fitness centre,the very pretty blonde who had introduced herself asJules,the woman Frankie’s thoughts had drifted to more than once since their meeting,nervously smiled at Frankie as she stepped into the elevator car.
“It’s you,” Jules said with a friendly smile.
“Hey, Syd,” Frankie said into her phone, “I'm sorry but I’ve got to call you back.” She hung up tucked her phone into her back pocket then focused her attention on Jules. She was wearing a pair of boyfriend cut jeans with a floral patterned tank top, her short hair loose beneath a baseball hat with ‘Northern Ontario Pond Hockey’ stitched onto it. She was so naturally beautiful that Frankie was certain she turned heads wherever she went
Huh, she’s a hockey fan then? Frankie thought.
“It’s me,” Frankie said, returning her smile. “Fancy meeting you here…inside the elevator…in the building where we both live in.”
“It’s almost like it was bound to happen eventually.”
Frankie looked at her, their gazes locked and she felt it. A buzz, a kind of energy between them she couldn’t quite make sense of but the soft smile on Jules' face, the playful glint in her eye, it was intoxicating and they didn’t even know each other.
“Should we uh, should we press the buttons for our floors?” Jules asked, breaking whatever trance Frankie had slipped into.
With a slight shake of her head and a glance at the keypad, Frankie laughed. “Right, yeah. Obviously. I’m 14 and you’re…?”
Jules furrowed her brows for a second, looking a little confused before she straightened and reached past Frankie to push the button for floor 17.
The elevator car began to rise and they stood in silence for a second or so, Frankie tearing her eyes away from Jules to look at the little screen that changed numbers as they the elevator car travelled up.
“So…how’s things? How's that pesky jet lag treating you?”
Frankie absolutely hated small talk but what else were you meant to do when you were in the elevator with a person you’d interacted with for all of five minutes? What she really wanted to do was ask Jules out for a drink that night, to go grab a bite to eat at one of the many restaurants Halifax offered that she hadn’t yet ventured out to on her own.
She wanted to come back to one of their condos and work out all of the stress she’d been feeling in ways that left them as sweaty as their workout but then sheremembered her job, the weight of it all on her shoulders, the world she’d been thrust into and everything that came with it.
How could she date right now? Not that what she wanted to do with Jules wasdatingbut she was only human, she had eyes, and Jules was gorgeous. Gorgeous and staring at Frankie again, studying her with an inquisitive look. Frankie realized she’d once again gotten lost in her head while admiring the bright blue pair of eyes sparkling back at her.
“Are you okay?” Jules asked.
Frankie blew out a breath and waved her off, hoping it wasn’t glaringly obvious how she’d just been staring at Jules and thinking about what it might be like to get her into bed. “Yeah, yeah. I’m just tired, so I guess that’s your answer. The jet lag is tough and my new work schedule has been a lot to adjust to.”
But maybe asking Jules out is exactly the kind of thing Frankie needed to. She rarely admitted it to anyone, even to herself, she was lonely. Her friends were scattered across North America and beyond playing and working in the world of a sport they all loved so much, she was estranged from her family, and at the end of the day she wanted to settle beside someone on the couch and talk about her day.
For years, that isn’t what she had wanted. For years, she was content to work and to havefun,which usually entailed an array of one night stands with women she’d met at a bar. The next morning she would wake up and head to the rink. It was easy, it was predictable, it was safe.
But something had changed.
When the league had come calling with the assistant coaching position, Frankie decided that this time she would change, she would grow up. Her life couldn’t just be her job, even if her job was now ridiculously elite.
Her life, both at the rink and outside of it, would be better if she gave herself the opportunity to let someone in. Could that person be Jules? Well, considering Frankie didn’t even know if Jules dated women and they were still strangers, probably not.
