Chapter 10

Crash, crash, burn, let it all burn
This hurricane's chasing us all underground

Hurricane – 30 Seconds to Mars

Ch. 10

“The one thing I’m finding that I enjoy about being in Dallas in the middle of winter are the days when it’s warm enough for the women to be walking around in shorts,” Adam said as he took a bite of his sandwich, growling like a feral dog as he does.  “Your woman has smoking legs,” he declared with a mouthful of food as he proceeds to stare at Hanna’s legs while she’s walking by the team room with some DJ equipment.

Hanna does have beautiful long, lean, tanned legs that almost make me forget that she is almost a foot shorter than me.  I look over just in time to see her glance over, smile, and nod at the group of us eating lunch after running a youth clinic.  I turned back around to Adam and asked, “Don’t you have your own pair of legs to stare at?”

“Yeah, anyway, how is that snotty ass twit of yours?” Otter piped up.  Steve was not one to hide his feelings about Rachel and her attitude, especially after a couple of the guys found out how much shit she was causing with Hanna.  Adam had become smart enough not to bring her out when the group of us would go out for dinner or an evening at the club, but he was still tapping her, so obviously he didn’t wise up enough.  Every time she was mentioned, he would look away like he was being scolded for something he did wrong.

“She’s fine,” he mumbled.

“Dude, you need to get rid of that shit,” Krys Barch chirped.  “She’s bad news.  You can’t tell me there ain’t nicer pieces of ass out there for you to hit.”

“She doesn’t have many friends around here…” Adam began slowly but soon shut up when the whole table burst out laughing.

“She doesn’t have friends because she’s mean and nasty!” Wandell snorted as he held his nose from the water that threatened to come out.

“You guys don’t know her,” Adam mumbled as he shoved the rest of his sandwich down his throat, grabbed his water bottle and got up from his chair to leave like a child about ready to have a temper tantrum.

After he left the room, Morrow came over and sat down with us.  “So what do we need to do to get Burr unhooked from this chick?”

“Get her fired!” Wandell said.

“Can you fire interns?” Otter asked in a serious tone.

“I think so,” I said, adding my two cents.

“I’ll talk to the GM.  We gotta do something because she is really pulling him down,” Brendan said as he got up and walked out the door, presumably heading to the front office.

“Hanna!” Jimmy yelled up the steps to me as I finished editing the game night video for tomorrow.

“Yeah?”

“Boss man is requesting your presence in the board room.”

“Okay, let me finish this last part…”

“No, let me finish, it kind of sounds important,” he informed me as he walked into the room with a raised eyebrow.

“Something wrong?”

“Not quite sure, I can never get a real read on the guy.”

“Hmm, okay.  I’ll be back afterwards to clean up my shit.”

“Sounds good,” Jimmy said as he patted me on the shoulder.

I walked into the front office, waving “Hi,” to Juliet the secretary who was always so nice when I stopped by. Oddly, she just nodded back with a worried look on her face.  Oh this can’t be good.

I knocked on the board room door and was immediately let in by Assistant GM Provenzano.  My stomach dropped to the floor when I saw Joe Nieuwendyk sitting across from bitchy Rachel with a grumpy look on his face.  Fuck me now.

“Have a seat, Hanna.” He said in a pinched tone that I never heard from him before.  He was always very nice and outgoing any other day.  I could only assume Rachel had something to do with this impromptu meeting.

“It was brought to my attention earlier today by one of the players that there was some extracurricular activities going on between a few of the interns and the players.  While we have never had a rule in place about this, we have always expected everyone to uphold themselves in the most professional manner while at work or in public.  When relationships become an issue that a player is suffering and his work is affected, I have no choice but to step in.” 

The room was so quiet you probably could have heard an ant fart.  The tension was ridiculous and I swear I was going to need CPR to get my heart restarted.  Who the hell would have said that I was affected James’ game?  He’s been scoring goals and playing awesome as of late.  If anything I affected him in a good way… Joe took a deep breath and looked back and forth at the both of us, almost like he didn’t want to open the can of worms.  “To be honest the original complaint was lodged against Rachel with her relationship with Adam.”

I swear I could hear Rachel purse her lips and shake her head back and forth, but I didn’t dare to turn my head in look.  Mainly in fear that I would knock her the fuck out.  My ears were beginning to ring when Joe began speaking again, letting me know why I was brought in on this little meeting.

“When we spoke to Rachel about this, she acknowledged her relationship with Adam but she also brought up that your relationship with James has hindered your performance as an intern and has caused a riff amongst the players…to be fair we have to let both of you go.”

I didn’t even hear the rest of what he was saying because at this point I was not shaking like a leaf with complete fury ready to blow up as soon as he finished.

“Are you kidding me?!  You wretched little bitch,” I freaked out like a mad woman that just had her baby taken away from her for no reason.  I stood up abruptly and turned towards her; my roar must have been louder than I thought because I could have sworn I saw her cower.  “I have always acted in a professional manner out in public and even if it was just a couple of the team members because I respect the organization.  You seem to have some sort of high school complex where you are jealous of anyone who appears to get more than you.  Well let me tell you something honey, I’ve worked my ass off for this internship and I think I’ve cranked out some pretty awesome things and now because you are a petty whore who will probably live off daddy’s money for the rest of your life, I have now possibly lost my career.” I screamed as I pointed a finger in her face causing her to slide farther down in her chair.  I then turned to Joe and Provo and went off on them because I was more than disappointed in the fact that they would believe her dirty ass mouth.  “As for you believing her, I’m sorry to hear it because I had a lot of pride in this organization and figured you would double check your sources before making a decision on cutting someone who actually cared about their internship.  I’m sure if you’d talk to the team they would have nothing but good things to say about me and how I’ve acted over the last month and a half despite the fact that I was dating one of your players.  I have to say that I’m probably relieved that I will not be working for an organization who believes girls who stoop to levels that prostitutes do!”

 I was out of breath by the time I finished my rant.  I had thoroughly surprised myself in my spazz-attack, but damn it felt good after putting up with the stupid extra shit they were making me do for no reason over the last couple weeks after Rachel’s first complaints.  I could tell they were shocked also by my outburst because neither of them made a move as I went to the door.  I held my head up until I got out of the office and began walking down the lower corridor.  I soon found a corner and broke down into tears.

I don’t know how long I sat in my little self-made corner, but it must have been a while because I was at the point where no more tears could be shed, causing me to make a God awful wheezing sound when Brad found me.  He sat down on the cold, cement floor and wrapped his arm around me so that I could curl into him.

“I just talked to Juliet,” he said evenly.  “What happened?”

“I got screwed by the dumb cunt,” I stuttered out.  “They needed to make an example of someone, she fed them lies and now my future is fucked and I fail my last college class that will mean the most on my resume.

“Do you think it would help if the team went in and talked to Joe and Povo?” he asked quietly, but before he could finish I was already shaking my head back and forth.

“Oh hell no,” I chuckled sadly.  “They soooo saw my evil side when I flipped shit.”

“Yeah, Juliet said you got a little loud.  She called me because she figured you didn’t make it back to your apartment,” he said with his easy smile.  “I just told her that was the Richards temper that only people in our family usually see.”

A sad smile crossed my face because he was totally right.  I think I had only unleashed that attitude on my brothers and occasionally my parents and cousins.

“So now what?  Do you want to look for a job around the city?”

“I have to call my professor and find out what I need to do.  I’m not sure if I’ll be able to graduate now without my internship completed, or hopefully they will let me submit the things I already did the past month and half and count it for some partial credit so I can get my degree.  Most likely I will be headed back to Colorado for a bit.  I’m sorry for failing, Brad,” I whimpered as I looked up at Brad with tears finding their way back into my eyes.

“You didn’t fail me, girly.  I know for a fact that you were one of the best interns Jimmy has had and he’s going to be royally pissed when he finds out what happened, including the team.”

“What do I do about James?”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m sure he’s not going to want to be with me if I’m not going to be in Dallas…”

“Don’t be stupid, it would just be like the rest of the guys whose girlfriends and wives don’t live in the area.  That boy is head over heals for you and I’m pretty sure you feel the same way,” Brad said as he wiped a tear away from my face with the pad of his thumb.

I took a deep pouty breath and slammed my head back against the cement wall, letting the pain numb me for a moment until the sting of it made me rub the now sore spot.  “I’m pathetic.”

“Whatever, you need a drink,” Brad declared as he got up off the floor and pulled me along up with him.

“I need a tissue and a cold wash rag because there is no way in hell I am going out like this,” I whined as I wiped at my swollen eyes that I could only assume looked completely blood shot.

“Yeah, Burr?” I asked as I answered my cell phone while pumping gas.

“Dude, have you talked to Hanna?!” he asked frantically.

“Um, no.  Why?”

“They fired her and Rachel today.”

“What?!” I yelled into the phone loud enough to make people look at me like I was a crazed freak.  “What the fuck did your piece of shit ho-bag do?!”

“She’s no longer mine and I am sooooo sorry,” he pleaded into the phone quickly.  “She supposedly made up some lies, saying that you and Hanna were inappropriate in public like her and I had been and said that Hanna wasn’t doing her work, causing other interns to pick up her work load.”

“I’m going to kill her and possibly you too,” I grumbled as I hung up the pump and crawled back into my Escalade.  “I’ll talk to you later,” I snapped as I hit the end button and dialed Hanna’s.  Of course, she didn’t answer.  I drove over to her apartment to find her car there, but when I walked into the apartment she was nowhere to be found.  I took out my phone and dialed Brad as I stood in her living room, looking up through the sky-lights to see the darkening clouds.  That is one lovely omen.

“Hey James!” Brad yelled into the phone.

“Are you with Hanna?”

“Yup, we are at Charlie’s Grille if you can’t tell,” he said happily.  “Hanna needed to get a few drinks.”

“Okay, let her know I’m heading there now.”

“Alright, we will see you soon!”

I walked into Charlie’s where the crowd was watching the Cowboy’s Monday Night Football pre-game show.  I scanned the people and soon found a bleary eyed Hanna sitting in a booth across from Brad as she leaned up against the wall looking sadder than the droopiest faced basset-hound.

I quickly scooted in next to her and pulled her into me as I kissed her head.  “Hey baby,” I whispered loud enough for her to hear.  She looked with her large brown eyes and my heart broke when I noticed their normal sparkle was gone.  “Looks like you might need another drink,” I said with a sad smile as I smoothed her hair off her face.

Once the waitress brought over another round of drinks, the three of us sat and hashed out the events.  I couldn’t believe that Joe and Provo just basically fired her without checking with the rest of us first.  I was furious enough that I decided I was going to stop by the office the next day to spout out my two cents.  I figured that Hanna’s future with the Dallas Stars was done, especially if her freak-out was as bad as she claims it was.  But, I was at least hoping the organization could at least send in a couple good words to her college to make sure she got the degree she deserved.  Her work around here did not go unnoticed by my teammates.

“James, just go home and get some sleep.  You have a big game tomorrow that you guys need to win to stay in playoff contention and I do not want to keep you up all night,” she pleaded with me as I walked her to her door.

“I’m going to be up all night worrying about you…”  I stopped speaking as she laid a finger across my lips and gave me a look that only a woman can give that shuts a man’s mouth.

“I’ll be fine.  I will not take the blame if you play like shit tomorrow,” she growled semi-playfully as she stood up on her tip toes and kissed my cheek.

I pulled her towards me before her heals hit the ground again and captured her lips in a deep kiss.  After a few moments she pulled back, leaving us both panting.  “Are you sure you don’t want me to stay?” I asked in a husky voice as I leaned down against her ear, causing her to shiver in my arms.

“Go home you mess of a man.  I love you,” she said, grabbing a hold of my face with her hand to make sure I didn’t send chills through her again.

“I love you too babe, I’ll come over here after morning skate and we’ll do lunch and possibly my pre-game nap together?” I asked hopefully.

She nodded her head slowly as a sad smile crossed her face.  “That sounds like a good idea.”

“You will be coming to my game tomorrow night too…”

“I don’t know…” she began saying but this time my finger came across her lips.

“You are now officially a WAG and not an employee, I get to flaunt you around without having to worry, so let me spoil you,” I said, leaning down to steal another good-night kiss.

She pulled back before I could get my lips on hers and said in a slightly defiant tone, “I’m going to get a job or something, James.  I’m not going to sit here in my apartment that my cousin is paying for and do nothing.”

I was slightly taken back by her attitude, but I knew she was hurting so I said, “Hanna, I expected you to find a job.  I know you are independent and believe me, I’m not going to ask you to sit around and wait for me with nothing to do.  I’m just trying to tell you that I’m glad we can go out in public and act like a normal couple, that’s all,” I said softly as I brushed her cheek.  “Go get some sleep, I love you.”

She sighed, realizing what she had said came out a little harsh and said, “I’m sorry.  I promise to try really hard not to be cranky for the next week or two.”

“And if you are, that just goes with the territory.”

A small smile that resembled the ones I am used to on a regular basis showed and I was finally able to get that last kiss I had been trying for the last few minutes.  It was shorter than I had hoped and kept me wanting more, but I was willing to wait until tomorrow when I could hold her in my arms.