Kip entered his hotel room. Another hotel, another city, another game played. In his case, just watching. He was the new guy here, he had to prove his worth if he was going to start. And the front runner was on a hot streak, no need to break that.
Kip pulled his laptop out of it's protective case. He hadn't been home in nearly a week. So much travel time put in. Ice time, dry land, media coverage. When he stood back and looked at his life, he felt his head spin a little.
Plugging into the hotel's free high speed internet, he checked his email first. He felt his heart skip a few beats when he saw, Your friend request has been accepted. He had only one pending the last time he was online. Mandy Green. Oh, there was a message from her as well. He nearly clapped his hands like a giddy school girl.
It was a casual message. How are you? What have you been up to? Saw some of your games. Well, good to know, she'd been thinking about him somewhat during the ensuing years. There was little information on her current life to be found via Facebook. She rarely updated her status, he didn't recognize any of her friends. Only one picture, it looked like a school photograph. Her information said she was a school teacher, fourth grade. She didn't even have an exact location, just Edmonton network, which wasn't useful at all. She was in Alberta though. That was a point in his favour.
He pushed away from the computer, realizing his mind was racing. There were so many unanswered questions, so many things he wanted to say to her. Not one appropriate thing came to mind. He got a water bottle out of the fridge and drank the whole thing in one swallow.
He paced around his room. He considered of taking advantage of the hotel's fitness room. Suddenly it felt like eleven years of emotions were inside of him. Mandy, he stared at her picture. She had short hair now. She was wider around the face than he recalled. But a head shot was all she provided.
He grabbed his room key, heading for the fitness room. At the door he changed directions and put on a bathing suit instead. He headed downstairs to the hot tub. With any luck it would be empty. He checked his watch, it was late locally, but still early in the team's regular time zone. As he walked he cursed himself. Depending on luck was stupid, especially in his line of work, and especially given how things were going for him lately.