Chapter 13 - Team

NOTES: bold text indicates text messages. Italics indicates Russian Language. Bold and italics will denote another language but that's for later in the story!

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Nef's POV

"So, Matt. Why do you call Sasha Jizz?"

"Well besides the obvious, my wife's name is Sasha. Calling him that would be really weird."

I got to meet Matt and Sasha Bradley. They were both really sweet. Sasha was about 8 months pregnant with her first child and looked like she was about to pop at any moment.

"I've got about a month to go. It's a boy!" She told me. She sat with me in the kitchen talking while the guys had been scattered around the house. Some where in the basement playing video games, some where in the dinning room playing poker, and some where set up to play rock band in the living room. Honestly they reminded me of a bunch of kids. they had so much fun hanging out with each other.

Sasha came into the kitchen, to snag a slice of pizza more so than to talk to me.

"You ok?" He asked brushing a kiss to my cheek.

"Yes, Jizz. I'm ok."

Matt, Brooks, Eric Fehr, and Jeff Schultz had some how convinced me that calling Sasha Jizz would be funny. While the team thought it was hilarious Sasha was less than amused.

"Stop it. You no call me that."

"Well I can't call you Sasha while Ovie and Sasha are here. Everyone will get confused."

Sasha Bradley laughed and said "It's true!"

"Nefertiti," My name sounds so strange with his Russian accent. "You not call me that. Pick something else."

"Ok, Sex Kitten. I'll call you something else."

"Sex Kitten?" Jeff said as he walked into the kitchen.

"Yes. Jizz doesn't like being called Jizz. He said to pick something else so I'm going with Sex Kitten."

Jeff almost choked on a bite of pizza as I explained the new nickname I had chosen for Sasha.

"If they start calling me Sex Kitten I will get you."

Sasha left the kitchen and Sasha Bradley introduced me to the other wives/girlfriends of the team. There were too many names to remember. There was Stephanie, Jose's wife, Kari, John Erskine's wife, Rachel, Eric Fehr's wife, Diondra, Dave Steckel's wife, and several others.

We ended up congregating in the kitchen we didn't really want to play video games or poker or rock band for that matter.

"So, how long have you and Alex been together?" Rachel asked.

"Dating? A little more than a month. We met at the season ticket holders party at Six Flags in the preseason."

"I didn't think that they had gotten to spend too much time out side of autographs at those events," Rachel said.

"They didn't but he remembered be from a practice. A woman's baby spit up on me."

"That was you?!" Kari laughed.

"Hi Baby Puke!" This time it was Varly that walked into the kitchen.

I glared at him. "Think I'd get in trouble if I kicked him in the knees?"

"Probably," Rachel answered, "but you can hit Alex and not get in trouble. The benefits of dating him."

"Screw hitting, just don't sleep with him. Most guys will beg for mercy after a few days,"

"True Kari, but that means I don't get any either." I turned to Varly who stood by the fridge. He had reached for a coke. "Semyon, will you tell Sex Kitten that I-"

"Sex Kitten?" he interrupted.

"Yes, Sex Kitten. That's what I call Sasha."

Varly began laughing hysterically. He darted toward the basement and I could tell that he was going to tease Sasha. He was doing exactly what I wanted him to.

"What was that?" I thought that Stephanie's french accent was cute. I had spoken with her in French. It was one of the six languages that I was fluent in and it was my favorite.

"I called Sasha 'Sex Kitten.' He hates it when I call him Jizz and told me to pick something else. I chose Sex Kitten."

"The guys are going to torment him for that one," Diondra had joined the conversation. David Steckel's wife. She was fairly laid back and quiet. She hadn't asked me too many questions.

It was nice to talk to the girls about being with a professional hockey player. Sasha and I hadn't been together for too long but I had catch glimpses of his sullen moods when he wasn't playing well. There hadn't been many since the team had been playing well and winning games.

For about a week Sasha had been out with a wrist injury. It had been bothering him for a while but he had tried to play through it with mixed results. There were some goods games for him and some really bad ones. He had been to a doctor and there was no structural damage - nothing had been broken or torn so he worked with his coaches to get better. There was training and straightening exercises that he had to do. He was not able to practice and it had made him grumpy.

"How do you deal with the moodiness after losses or when they're not playing? I mean I haven't seen a lot of it but the past week or so has been...difficult with him not playing well and then not playing at all."

"You have to help him learn to leave hockey at the rink. Work is work and home is home," Kari said.

"Help him to focus on something else. Obsessing about it is never good," Stephanie chimed in.

We talked for a while longer. By the time everyone left I was exhausted - mentally exhausted. The guys were great. They had been nice and funny and charming. Their wives and girlfriends hadn't been the fire breathing dragon protectors of their men that my imagine told me they would be.

After cleaning up Sasha and I cuddle on the couch in the living room.

"You have fun today?" he asked, pulling me into the circle of his arms.

"Yes. They guys were nice and the girls were amazing to talk to."

"What you talk about?"

"Girl talk," I said simply.

"What mean 'girl talk.'"

I giggled and he rolled him eyes. Girl talk meant we were talking about men and that the conversation would never be repeated especially to a man.

"Come on Kitten. I'm tired and I want to go to bed."

I pulled Sasha from the couch toward the stairs leading to his bedroom. We had decided that I would spend the night here with him. This was the first time that I had spent the night in his home. He stripped down to his boxer briefs and crawled into bed, turning down the blanket for me to crawl in beside him.