I’ve been home for about two weeks. We won Silver in Germany. We’d lost to the Czech team. For the first few days all I did was sleep, eat, and talk to Nef on the phone. I used that time to let my body heal. I’d come away from hockey with quite a few bumps and bruises.
After the first few days my mother started coming to my room and asking me when I was going to get out of bed. ”Sometime before training camp,” had been my response. She’d told me that a family friend had returned to Krasnoyarsk after studying in St. Petersburg for University. Nadiya was her name. We had been close friends when we were younger. My mother told me that it would be nice for me to hang out with her, help her get reacquainted with home.
We hung out a few time. Basic stuff like going for coffee, shopping, and our family had gone yachting together on the Krasnoyarsk reservoir. She was a nice girl.
”How is Nadiya doing?” my mom asked one afternoon.
”She’s okay. We went downtown for lunch. She wanted to know more about DC.”
”That was nice of you.”
My dad and I were heading down to the local ice rink. There was a skate sessions scheduled for me and kids from the local mite league. It was something I did a few times each summer. I had done one for the first time in Washington (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rV3Wnbg9zpQ). I liked working with children. Some of my favorite memories from growing up were from when I got to meet some of the Russian NHL players.
Before the actual skate there was a question and answer session where the kids got to ask questions. A lot of the questions were standard. What is the NHL like? What was it like going to a hockey school? Do you ever miss home? Why don’t you play for the KHL?
”The NHL is my dream. It was my dream since I was young, younger than you are now. I get to live my dream every day.”
Nef and I had started a new thing. We started sending picture messages back and forth to each other. She’d gone on a beach trip with friends and sent me a picture of her laid out in the sun in a brown and teal two piece swimsuit (AN: picture of swimsuit at the bottom of the entry). I had started some light conditioning and training and sent her picture of me lifting weights.
I was difficult being away from each other for so long. There were days when it seemed like the distance between us didn’t matter and we were amazingly happy. Then there were days when all we wanted to do was hold each other close and the fact that we couldn’t made us miserable.
”Sema, do you want to come to Moscow for a few days?” Ovie asked me when he called one afternoon.
I was headed to Moscow for 4 days.
”You should take Nadiya with you,” my mom said as I was packing.
”I don’t think that’s a good idea. It’s going to be a bunch of guys hanging out.”
”There have to be some girls she can hang out with while you’re there. Don’t these guys have girlfriends?” Probably. I’m not sure if they are going to be there.
”Probably but so far all I know is that it’s a bunch of guys hanging out and partying. I don’t think she would enjoy it. I’ll be back in a few days. I’m staying at Ovie’s place in the city. ”
She was starting to get just a little bit pushy when it came to Nadiya. I understand that she told Nadiya’s mom that she would look after her but this was a little much. I told my mom that maybe Svetlana might want to spend time with her. Nadiya might be able to relate to a girl better than she would be able to relate to me.
My mother has this face that she makes when you aren’t doing what she wants. She purses her lips together and narrows her eyes. She doesn’t actually say anything but she shakes her head slightly. She was giving me that look right now. I didn’t have time to worry about it. I needed to finish packing and get to the airport.
When I landed in Moscow Ovie was there to pick me up. We went back to his apartment rather than his dasha just outside the city. Our friends, Constantine and Yuri, were already there. After dropping off my luggage in one of the guest rooms I plopped down on the couch, pushing Yuri onto the floor. Ovie threw a package at me and told me that I needed to open it. It was a sealed envelope with no writing on it. It turned out to be a DVD. The cover was blank and there was no label on the disc.
”What is this?” I asked.
”Something someone sent to me for you.” Wow Ovie, thanks for being so descriptive. It’s something someone sent to you.
I got up and put the DVD into the player in the living room. When the menu popped up and pressed play and Nef was on the screen. She was sitting on her bed holding the camera toward the mirror that was across from her bed.
“Hi Kitten! So it’s been more than a month since I’ve seen you. I miss you! I thought I’d show you the little project I’ve been working on for a bit.”
The screen cut to a shot of me sleeping in her bed, snuggled under her bright pink blankets.
”Shit!” I thought. I reached for the remote to turn it off but before I could get to it Ovie had pushed me onto the floor and sat on my back. Constantine grabbed the remote.
”Turn it off,” I said.
”No way. Who is that?” Yuri asked.
”His girlfriend,” I tried to push Ovie off of me but I couldn’t move his fat ass. He grabbed my left wrist and pinned it behind my back. Why is it that I always end up with someone holding me down doing something that I don’t want them to do? I don’t mean to sound whiny but damn it, stop picking on me!
”She’s got a nice ass,” Constantine.
”She’s got a nice rack too,” Ovie.
I looked up at the screen and it was Nef, Jesse, and a few of their friends skating around at Kettler. Nef had on black yoga pants and a tight u-neck red shirt.
”You know, you’ve never skated with me. I feel slighted.” I didn’t know that she knew how to skate. She glided gracefully around the ice. At one point she did a spin while doing a full back bend.
”Ohhhh and she’s flexible too!” Yuri, stop drooling over my girlfriend.
The screen changed again. This time she was on the mall in DC.
”Sometimes I come here to sit in this tree and read.” It was the cherry blossom tree that we had taken that picture in. That picture sat on the nightstand beside my bed. I even had a copy of it in my phone.
”My grandmother sent me some new costumes that you might like.” She was in her room with lots of brightly color pieces of clothing spread out on her bed.
”Would you like to see some of them?”
She picked up a black one. This belly dancing costume had pants instead of a skirt like the one I had seen before. She went off camera to put it on. When she came back she was wear a black halter with thin metal chains loops hanging from onside, a black scarf draped over her shoulders and tied in the back. The pants…they could hardly be called pants sat low on her hips, with wide slits down the side of her thighs and calves. They were drawn together at the knee and at the ankle.
”So, what do you think?” I liked this one.
”I think it makes my butt look big.” She turned and arched her back so that her butt stuck out toward the camera. It didn’t make her butt look big; her butt did that all on its own. It did however hug all the right curves.
”I’ve been working on a new dance. Should I show you now or should I wait until I see you in Vegas?”
”Now is good.” Ovie said.
”I think I’ll make you wait.”
”She’s a tease!” Yes, she is a tease. I didn’t want them to see her dance.
I’m pretty sure she’s going to be upset if she finds out that others have seen this.
”Alright, that’s enough. Turn it off please.” This time they actually
listened.
I took the dvd out of the player and put it in my luggage. I would watch the rest of it later.
”You’re dating a girl in DC?” Constantine asked.
”Yeah, we’ve been together a little while now. I met her at the beginning of last season in DC.”
I hadn’t really told many people back home about Nef. A few people knew that I was seeing someone but I didn’t go into detail. I try to keep my private life as private as possible. They spent the next hour talking about my girlfriend’s body. They even went as far as to ask me about our sex life. I had managed to avoid locker room talk. Most of the time in DC when the guys asked I jokingly said that she was a nun and Ovie or someone else would say that it meant that she was a freak in bed. In Germany it didn’t come up at all. Now it was a little hard to play it off.
”She’s a belly dancer. She has to be good in bed.” Constantine, two plus two is four. I knew the way her hips could move and I knew how good it felt.
Later that night we went out to club Mio. They always have good DJs and their door policy made it so that we wouldn’t be harassed. There were a few times when we tried new places we were hounded by people. There was always girls that threw themselves at us. It happened here; it happened in DC. It was a part of life. When we felt like talking one of them home we did. Since Nef and I started dating I hadn't been with anyone but her.
We stayed out late and we got pretty drunk. We had to carry Yuri back to Ovie's place. He kept mumbling "I want one." One of what? This kid needs to learn to hold his liquor better.
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Author's Note:
Nef's Swim suit
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