behind your back ~ andrei svechnikov

Chapter Nineteen

It's crazy how fast this winter has gone by.

It's almost March, which means unfortunately the hockey season is close to wrapping up. But that means the playoffs are back, perhaps the most exciting time of the year for hockey fans.

The Hurricanes are on a road trip in Nashville and go up to Detroit, then come home on Sunday to face off against the New York Rangers.

"Oh, I'm ready to go home," I said as I powered off my computer and organized my desktop so it wasn't cluttered with unnecessary items when I come back tomorrow morning.

My co-worker, Stacy, chuckled. "Feel that. It's been a long day," she responded.

I giggled. "And I've got to catch the hockey game tonight. I'd hate to miss it," I added, shoving and organizing papers in their file holders.

"Gotta watch your boyfriend," Stacy mentioned. "Andrei, right?"

I nodded my head. She was new to our cubicle, so I didn't have a problem responding to her question trying to see if she got the right guy. I don't have a problem talking about Andrei to anyone at work, honestly.

"Yeah. He's been gone a lot though. February has kind of been like a huge road trip for the Canes since they've only had to come home like twice during the entire month," I said, getting up from my chair. "So I haven't really gotten to see Jaccob or Andrei at all,"

Stacy frowned. "I'm sorry to hear that, Delilah. I'm sure they both miss you very much,"

I chuckled as I got my jacket on. "Yeah, maybe not so much Jaccob, but definitely Andrei. Whenever he comes home he's all over me," I responded.

"Awh, how sweet!" she exclaimed. "I'm glad you two are happy together. I mean, you two have been dating since the end of July,"

I chuckled again. "Right. I have to go, I'll see you tomorrow!" I said, and when Stacy said "bye" back, I headed out of the office and took the elevator back down to the ground floor.

When I got to the parking garage connected to our building, I walked to my car. I unlocked it, threw my purse in the back, and got in the driver's seat. I turned my car on, backed it out of the parking spot, and began my journey back home.

Before moving in with Andrei, it would take me about twenty minutes to drive to work. Since Andrei lived another fifteen minutes from my old apartment, living with Andrei has added another fifteen minutes of driving. Which is fine, I get to live with who I love most and not have to drive another fifteen minutes to hang out with him for a few hours or a night.

I pull up to a red light with some traffic. Traffic in Raleigh at this time of day was really bad, but I've gotten used to driving in Denver (which is way worse), so driving in Raleigh isn't that bad compared to Denver. Obviously it took me a few days to get used to the traffic, but I've been driving smoothly in the traffic since then.

The light turned green, and I accelerated the car at the same rate as the cars in front of me. Paying attention to what was in front of me, I turned the radio up to listen to what was on the radio. Turns out it was one of my favorite songs, New Romantics by the queen herself, Taylor Swift.

"We're too busy dancing, too get knocked off our feet. Baby, we're the new romantics, the best people in life—"

In less than a split second, I felt a huge force push against me, and the last thing I could hear was the glass from all the windows shattering and the radio playing the song I loved to jam out to before completely blacking out.

—

I batted my eyes and noticed that I woke up in a hospital room, intravenous fluids hooked to my right arm, I was on a heart monitor, and I was on an oxygen tank. I had a head wrap, and my left arm was in a sling with a cast.