18. Octavia
OCTAVIA
Octavia got home from babysitting her nephew and was ready to crawl into bed and sleep until Monday.
She didn’t know how her sister worked and had the energy to be a present parent who was always posting about some social outing or other with Tyler.
She was giving him the childhood they didn’t get and she did it on a tiny fraction of the income their parents had.
Octavia changed into her pyjamas and poured a glass of wine, then settled in front of the TV to watch the pregame panel.
Nathan’s face filled the screen immediately and she relaxed further into the couch, a bashful smile hijacking her lips.
Fuck he was hot, his brown hair was styled in perfect waves, he had a day’s worth of scruff, and the polo he was wearing left absolutely nothing to the imagination.
No one would be wondering what kind of body he had under that thing as it hugged his chest and biceps.
He answered all the questions thoughtfully despite a couple sounding like canned responses.
She didn’t blame him, it must get exhausting being asked the same stupid shit over and over again.
When he looked directly in the camera, it felt like he was looking at her, butterflies spread south immediately while a few detoured north, fluttering annoyingly around her heart.
That’s how he’d looked through the screen last night when he’d told her to keep her fucking eyes on him as she came.
It was how he always looked at her, intense, like he could see every thought passing through her mind.
Lost in thought she didn’t hear the last question, but she figured it was about missing something at home by the answers from Nathan’s teammates. Wives and children.
“I’m looking forward to seeing my girlfriend,” Nathan said, his eyes still on her, and then he laughed and shook his head, his gaze snapping to the interviewer. “And sleeping in my own bed again.”
Girlfriend?
She leaned back as that word sunk in. A month ago, she had expected to have a boyfriend. She just thought he’d be someone else. She never saw Nathan coming. Now you see him coming constantly, she thought, making her wish he was coming home to her straight after the game.
By the first intermission, Toronto was up two nothing. Nathan had scored the first and assisted on the second. He celebrated both the exact same way, as happy for himself as he was for his teammate. She loved that about him.
There he was again with a microphone in front of him. This time his hair stuck out at random angles before he slid his hand through it, his tattoos peeking out under the wrist wrap he had on. Why is that so hot? she wondered.
“Seven goals in the last five games. You don’t seem to be slowing down. Do you think you can maintain this pace going into the playoffs?”
“I’d like to. I feel like I’ve found my game again and it feels great. We’re going to try and keep this momentum going for as long as possible, it’s only February, so there’s still loads of hockey left.”
“Had you been playing like this in the last couple of months, you would have no doubt been picked to go to your first All-Star game. Does it bug you a bit that your game exploded after the teams were announced.”
Nathan laughed and shook his head. “Steve, I’m old, I could use the break to rest my body.” If Octavia hadn’t had her eyes glued to the TV she would have missed the cheeky glance paired with a sly grin at the camera.
“Well, good luck in the second.”
“Thanks,” he said before glancing up once more and turning to walk to the dressing room.
Octavia grabbed her phone and googled the All-Star game. The break was in two weeks, which meant he’d have a week off of playing.
Next she googled, What do players do during the NHL All-Star break?
Apparently, those who are not playing in the NHL All-Star game usually spend time with their family. Some go on mini-holidays somewhere warm. A few players have been known to attend the All-Star weekend as spectators.
Next, she sent an email to her boss to see if it was possible to take that week off. February wasn’t usually a popular month to take off since most of the people on her team had kids, which meant they waited until the spring holiday when their kids were off school.
For all she knew, Nathan would already have plans. If he did she’d cancel her time off, but at least this way she was prepared. Or did it make her look desperate? He wanted this, he practically told you to commit to more or he was walking, she reminded herself.
If taking off a week for him this early in their relationship didn’t show she was trying, she didn’t know what else would.
She caught herself yawning more times than she could count throughout the rest of the game. Going to bed would be so easy right now, but she was desperate to see him.
“Hey, babe,” he murmured serenely when she answered his call. She watched as he took his bottom lip between his teeth as his gaze searched her face. A flirty smirk lifting the corner of his mouth.
“Great game.” She purred, leaning back against her headboard.
He sighed and did the same, seeming to melt into the plush looking fabric. “You watched?”
“I even watched the pre-game show, boyfriend.”
His eyes went wide, the smirk dissolving faster than a Cheeto in water. “What?”
Octavia felt panic rise through her body. Had he not meant to say it? Was he talking about some other woman? “Um, you…Are you not?” she asked, confused by the entire interaction.
“No, sorry, you just caught me off guard. Girlfriend slipped out but then I asked them to…shit,” he spat, running his hand through his hair, gripping it tightly in frustration. “Fuck.”
“Okay, wow, if I’d known this would be your—”
“No.” He cut her off, his head tipping back so he was looking at the ceiling. “It’s not you, I asked for them to take the girlfriend comment out before they aired the fucking interview.”
“Kind of seems like it’s about me,” she said, pulling her knees up to her chest, afraid of what he was going to say next.
Nathan’s chin dropped and she felt the heat in his eyes as they landed on her.
“You are my girlfriend. Don’t fucking doubt that, Octavia.
I asked them to edit it out because I said it automatically and I haven’t said a thing to my brother about you.
Not”—he held his hand up to stop her from admitting yet another assumption—“because I want to hide you away or anything. I just don’t need to make him feel like shit.
He’s going through the worst time of his life.
I mean he’d finally met someone, then he gets hit by a fucking bus.
I can’t tell him about you. Not yet anyway.
He already resents me enough for not having to try in the same way he does to get noticed. ”
Octavia nodded. She’d been like that at one point.
In high school, her sister just had to look at a guy and he was following her around, carrying her books, getting her lunch, and she’d bribed one of her friends to go to the prom with her with two bottles of tequila from her parents’ liquor cabinet.
Flora had been born with a confidence in herself that Octavia had been lacking until sometime in her second year of university.
She always figured it was a first child thing.
Put your nose down and work hard. Flora managed to do that, become a mother at eighteen, and—despite putting off school until Tyler was walking—finish at the top of her kinesiology program.
Some days Octavia wished she could go back and force her younger self to step outside her safe little bubble now and then.
“I get it. I was your brother in school. My sister was you.”
He studied her for a beat. “I don’t believe you.”
“Well, I was, whether you believe me or not.”
“I told him he could move into my place,” he blurted suddenly. “I don’t know what I was thinking other than the fact I felt sick from guilt and being a shitty brother because while I’m on my knees for you, he’s staring out a fucking window wondering ‘what if’ all fucking day long.”
“That was nice of you. A shitty brother wouldn’t do that, out of guilt or not.”
They sat there just looking at one another, a little smile forming on his face the longer the silence stretched.
He broke the silence with a long groan that seemed to start at his toes as he ran his hand over his face. “I was so looking forward to watching you get naked for me, but I’m not really in the mood now.”
“We don’t have to do anything every time we talk or see each other, you know that right? Like, if we want this to be real, it has to be about more than just sex.”
Nathan laughed. “It’s funny hearing you say that after how this all started.”
Despite every intention Octavia had about keeping things with Nathan casual, she found herself thinking about him more than she expected. He made her feel good and that good feeling, regardless of her early claims, was something she wanted to hold onto with both hands and not let go of.
“Yeah, well, I’ve come around to the idea. You may be freaking out but hearing you refer to me as your girlfriend did…something. You sitting there with your hair all”—she waved her hand at her head—“and your shirt all tight, and I thought, fuck, that guy just called me his girlfriend. Goddamn.”
“Yeah?”
“Mmmmhmmm.”
“Gonna tell people I’m your boyfriend?”
Octavia took a deep breath and shook her head. “Not yet.”
“Too soon?” he asked, a concerned little crease appearing between his eyes.
“No, I just don’t want to share you yet. And if I tell people I’m dating Nathan Albertson, they’ll want to meet you, go to games, and be generally annoying about the whole thing. I want to keep you to myself for a little bit longer, if you don’t mind.”
“I don’t mind. I’d prefer to keep you to myself too, Autumn girl.”
“Are you ever going to tell me why you call me Autumn?”
“You should go to sleep, babe, you look like you’re about ready to crash.”
She rolled her eyes at how he avoided the question, yet again. “Talk tomorrow?”
“Absolutely. Night, gorgeous.”
“Night,” she said sweetly, before blowing him a kiss and hanging up.
It had been the first time they hadn’t ended the night with at least one orgasm each and she found she didn’t care that much.
There was pleasure in just talking to him, listening to his concerns had reminded her that while he may do all the right things to her body and he looked like a fantasy created by a very talented artist, he was, in fact, a real person.