Chapter 23 – I don’t want to talk about it.

Sasha’s POV


I woke up early the next morning. Nef had to be at work by 8:30. I lay on her bed as she went about her morning routine.

“You still come to game tonight?”

She hesitated and I half way expected her to say no.

“Yes, I still have season tickets. Jesse and I will be there.”

I knew she wouldn’t want to sit with my family – even if Jesse had come with her. Instead of leaving and going home I left and went to practice. I was about an hour early for practice and there were very few people there. I decided to spend a half an hour in the video room going over some of the tape we watched at practice yesterday. I put on my equipment, stretched, and skated few laps around the rink to warm up. Bob Woods our defensive coach was there so we worked on a few things in the last half hour. When Coach Boudreau walked in he was surprised to see me there.

“You’re here early.”

“Da. I watch video for game tonight and work on some stuff with Coach Bob.”

At practice we worked on the penalty kill. We hadn’t been performing very well in that department and Bruce was less than pleased with us. The past few games had been rough. On December 28th Clarkie and Juice had been trade to Columbus and in return we’d gotten Jason Chimera in return. That night we played the Hurricanes and it was the first of a three game losing streak. Tonight we needed to snap the skid.

We’d been talking over the last few days about choosing a new captain. Coach B had talked to each of us one by one to help decide who would be Captain. After practice when we were all in the dressing room getting undressed Coach came in and announced that Ovie would be the new captain. We stood and applauded. He was the hardest working player among us and he was our leader on the ice.

“You’re parents called me this morning looking for you,” Ovie said to me.

“Yeah? I wasn’t at home last night.”

“At Nef’s place?”

I nodded yes as I walked into the showers.

“I take it introducing her to your mom didn’t go over to well.”

“That’s putting it politely. I was upstairs getting dress and when I get down stairs Nef’s leaving. She’d only been there for about 10 minutes. The words American whore were used. I got into an argument with my mom and dad so I left. I spent the night with Nef.”

“How’d she take it?”

“She was fine, I guess. She said ‘There is nothing to talk about. Your parents don’t like me. End of story.’ And that was the last thing she said about it.”

Ovie exhaled sharply. He liked Nef – a lot actually. They got along well. Ovie and I were like brothers and he was beginning to look at her like a younger sister. She was never afraid o put him in his place so to speak. She once said “I don’t care if you’re Alexander Ovechkin, Vladimir Putin, or Jesus reincarnated; stop being a selfish asshole.” Ovie could act like a spoiled child sometimes. Ever since then they had become close friends. Ovie is fiercely protective of the people he holds dear.

A few of the guys were going out for a pregame meal and I decided to go with them. When I arrived at home I went straight to my room for my pregame nap.



Nef’s POV

On the way to Verizon Center I told Jesse about what had happened with Sasha’s parents.

“Wow that sucks,” she said. “I can’t believe they said that without even talking to you.”

“She had such a nasty attitude. At least say ‘hi, how are you?’ before you call someone a gold digging whore.”

“What did Sasha say?”

“I didn’t tell him what his mom said; I just left. He followed me home and then apologized for it.”

“I saw that he was there last night but I didn’t want to bother the two of you.”

By the time we arrived at Verizon Center and got to our seats the boys were skating on to the ice for warm up. Sasha skated by and looked up at me. I waved and he nodded. I watched him go through his stretching routine and then go through a few shooting maneuvers. It had been six games since he last scored a goal and he’d only scored 1 in the last nine games.

They first period the caps dominated limiting the Canadiens to only three shots on goal. The guys had yet to break through Carey Price. During the intermission I sent Sasha a text telling him I had turned off Carey Price’s force field and jokingly told him to stop sucking. I didn’t expect him to get the message until after the game. While he was on the last West Coast trip I started to text him silly things at the end of every period. He would find them at the end of the games and they had cheered him up after a losing a game.



Sasha’s POV


During the first intermission Coach B was going over our game plan when my phone went off. I had forgotten to turn off the ringer. He glared at me as I hurriedly reach into my bag to turn it off. I pulled it out to shut it off only to have him walk up to me and hold out his hand.

“What is so important that you’re needed now?” He asked. Shit, he’s annoyed.

I handed over the phone apologizing. He looked at it and then looked back at me. Whoever had texted me had done so in Russian. I thought that he would give it back to me but instead he handed the phone to Ovie and said “Read it. Out loud. In English.” Damn it! I felt like I was back in school getting caught by a teacher misbehaving.

Ovie looked at my phone and smirked. This can’t be good.

“From Nef,” he said and I blushed. Shit! I’d forgotten that she texts me during the intermissions. “I turn off Carey Price’s force field. The shots should go in now. Hugs and Kisses, Nef. P.S. Stop sucking and score me a goal!”

The whole locker room started to laugh and I blushed a deeper shade of red. I snatched my phone from Ovie and threw it in my bag. When we skated back out for period two a few of the guys made it a point to skate by her section. A few of them waved and a few like Brooks made kissy lips at her. The second period exploded with goals. Flash, Ferhsie, and myself all scored goals while Montreal scored one.

During the second intermission Nef texted me saying “I like it! Now win it.” In the third Montreal managed to bring the deficit to one goal but I scored another goal and we won the game 4 – 2. Nef’s last text said “Great game! That’s the Sasha I want to see!”

After the game my family came down to the player’s lounge to wait for me. I had yet to actually say more than a few words to them. I wasn’t mad anymore. I was disappointed in them. The drive home was quiet. My parents congratulated me on a good game but didn’t push me to talk to them.

I was lying in bed talking to Nef when I heard a knock on my door. It was my dad. I said good night to Nef so that I could talk to him.

“Yeah Dad?”

He came in and sat at the foot of my bed.

“Sanya, I want to talk to you about yesterday.”

I said nothing so he continued.

“Your mother and I were wrong and for that I’m sorry.” He looked remorseful. Believe it or not my parents aren't jerks by nature.

“Why are you apologizing to me? You should be apologizing to Nefertiti.”

“Are you two okay after yesterday? You didn’t come home last night.”

“We’re fine. We order Chinese food and watched a movie. I wanted to spend time with her so I slept over.”

“You ate Chinese even though your mother cooked a good meal here?” Yes Dad; I ate Chinese food even though Mom cooked dinner. Yes, I know it was rude not to come home and have dinner with the family. No, I didn’t care if I was being rude.

“Yes. Nef wasn’t going to come back here. I wanted to be with her so we ordered Chinese food. With the Olympics next month my time with her is limited.”

“Is she cheering for you?” My dad was trying to steer the conversation away from yesterday. He was non-confrontational and tried to steer clear of uncomfortable topics.

“Nyet. She says “Country first.” She’s cheering for America. She wants America to win the gold and Russia can have the silver.”

My dad laughed. Russians are intensely nationalistic so my dad could respect anyone who cheered for their country with undaunted pride. No matter what the likelihood of them actually wining.

I agreed to see if I could talk Nef into having lunch with my Dad and I tomorrow afternoon. He wanted to apologize and actually meet her.