Chapter One

There were boxes stacked on top of one another all around the new apartment. Brown boxes were sitting on the kitchen counter, the living room floor and spread around both my bedroom and my roommate, Christina's, bedroom.

Christina was sitting cross-legged on the living room floor, pulling movies out of one of the boxes and placing them on the shelves near the TV. "You would think that you'd want to get the kitchen and furniture set up before you put all your movies on the shelves…" I smirk at her and she just sticks her tongue out at me.

Our new apartment was in the heart of Chicago – close to both of our jobs and not far from either of our families. We both had just graduated from the University of Chicago and decided an apartment in the city was a no-brainer. We could have moved back home to live with our families, but we both loved living together – since we were roommates for four years straight in college and best friends since elementary school – that we decided to rent an apartment out. It was a nice sized apartment for the city. We had a large living room with a separate kitchen and we had two bedrooms, both of which had closets. They weren't huge closets, but it beat the few drawers we had in college.

Christina had managed to snag a job with one of the best party/wedding planners in the city and I was starting a job with the Chicago Press. I was excited to actually find a job where I will be able to write.

"What difference does it make?" Christina asks, standing up and heading towards the kitchen. "It's still going to take us forever to get this place unpacked."

Laughing, I follow her into the kitchen to start unpacking some of the boxes. We mainly have a bunch of kitchen appliances all of which are gifts from both my mother and Christina's mother. They both seemed more excited to shop for our apartment than Christina and I were.

The kitchen was relatively easy to unpack and once that was done, we moved onto the living room. I opened a handful of boxes that contained a bunch of throw pillows and some blankets while Christina unpacked pictures and other small decorations.

"Hey, Tris, look what I found." Christina dances over to where I'm standing and hands me a small picture frame. She's not smiling when she hands me the frame.

I take it from her and feel like I already know what the picture is before looking at it. I'm in the picture with my arms wrapped around a guy, much, much taller than me with a high and tight. Tobias Eaton, my freshmen year boyfriend.

Tobias was a senior when I was a freshmen and we met through mutual friends, well he was friends with Christina's boyfriend Will. Tobias was on the ice hockey team and I would go to all of his home games to support him and we were happy – our relationship made my first year of college even more perfect. And then two weeks before he graduated, he broke up with me. He was being scouted by some people for the national hockey league and he told me that he needed to focus on his career. It was a really shitty break-up and I eventually got over it, but that doesn't mean it still doesn't hurt.

I flip the picture frame upside down in my hands so I don't have to look at it anymore. "My Mom must have packed this away…" I mumble.

"Do you want to get rid of it?" Christina asks, looking at me like I'm going to break down.

I shake my head at her. "No, just…here." I take the picture out of the frame, handing her the empty picture frame and then I fold the picture so I'm only visible and then stuff the picture into one of the drawers next to our couch.

Christina was still staring at me and I didn't like it. "Okay, well, I have to run to work really quick to get a few things settled before my first day. I will be back in a few hours." I headed towards my bedroom and quickly tore through my boxes of clothes until I found a nice white blouse to wear and a pair of jeans. I wore some sandals and then grabbed my wallet.

My job wasn't that far from our apartment, which was one of the incentives to getting it. It was maybe a ten-minute walk and was on the main streets which made me feel more at ease.

The security guard asked me for the I.D. and then waved me on through to the elevators. I pressed the button for the fifteenth floor. Once I arrived on the floor, I was greeted by a short, baby-faced blonde girl named Jane. She was the receptionist and she told me that my boss was waiting for me. My boss, Max, was a middle-aged man, maybe somewhere in his late thirties and he didn't seem like the type of man who would be able to run a successful news outlet, but he was. He also wasn't too bad of a boss – at times he could be demanding and rude.

He greeted me by nodding his head at me when I entered his office. "Don't bother sitting, I have your first job. The Blackhawks are starting off season practices and we need someone to interview a few of the players and write a piece on them."

I wasn't someone who wrote sports articles. I didn't understand them. "Uhh, no offense, sir. But I don't know anything about them or sports…"

Max shakes his head and hands me a black notebook. "Don't worry about it, I already have questions written for you. You just have to go and ask them the questions. The players I want interviewed are written on the first page. The article should be finished and in my inbox by Friday at midnight."

Without another word, he dismissed me by waving his hand towards the door.

"Fantastic." I grumble to myself. My first assignment at my first real job and it was on something I didn't understand and I was going to completely and totally screw it up.

Without looking at the questions, I head back home. Once back at the apartment, I'm surprised to see that Christina finished unpacking the rest of the boxes.

She prances into the living room from her bedroom, a giant smile on her face. "The only boxes left are in your room. I didn't want to touch them in case you didn't approve of where I put everything away." She grins at me and I roll my eyes. "So how did it go at your job?"

I sigh, sitting down on the couch. "I got my first article assignment and it's on hockey."

Christina gives me a look. "Hockey? I may not be an expert on everything 'Beatrice Prior' but I know for a fact that you do not watch hockey – well, except for in college…" Her voice trails off and she shrugs.

"Yeah, well, Max wants me to interview a handful of players from the Blackhawks." I toss her the book and she opens to the first page.

She scans through her name and I see her face drop. "Uhh, Tris? Did you read through the list of players?"

I shake my head and look at her. "No, why?" She hands me the book back and I take it from her, scanning the list of about eight players: Patrick Kane, Corey Crawford, Johnathon Toews, Marian Hossa, Andrew Shaw, Duncan Keith, and Tobias Eaton. Tobias Eaton. "Are you kidding me?!" I screech, standing up. "No! No, this is not happening! I'm not doing this!"

"Tris, I know you really don't want to see him, but it's your job. You need to do this. Ask your questions and then leave. Don't talk to him about anything other than the questions you have to ask him for your article. If he starts to go off topic, steer him back into the right lane."

Christina sounds reasonable and she's right…I can't just ignore this article. It's necessary for my job. I don't want to lose my job.

So the following day I make myself look decent. I don't want Tobias to think that I'm trying to look good for him, but I'm expected to look "business casual". I'm wearing a pair of jeans, a clean black t-shirt and black flats. I fun a brush through my hair and keep it down, not bothering to do anything with it.

Once I'm at the ice rink, I head towards the locker room and meet with a handful of guys who I am assuming to be some of the players. I introduce myself and then follow the first guy – Corey Crawford – into the locker room. The room's been modified to look more like a professional locker room. The Chicago Blackhawks' symbol is on the floor in the center of the room and there are multiple flags baring the symbol hanging along the open wall space. There are two chairs facing each other and both Corey and I take a seat in each one.

I read off each question and most of them answer in a surprisingly professional manner. Then again, they're probably more used to this than I am. They're constantly being interviewed by news stations before and after games. They should be good at it.

But the entire time, my stomach twists with anxiety knowing that Tobias was probably standing outside the locker room door waiting. I kept putting off his interview because I knew I would be in a terrible mood after talking to him and taking it out on the other players wouldn't be too good of a thing. But soon enough, I'm out of players that Max wanted me to interview – all except for one.

The locker room door opens and Tobias walks in. I instantly stiffen in my seat, waiting for him to notice me.

"Sorry I'm late, I had a planning problem." He apologizes, taking a seat in front of me. When he looks at me, he freezes in his seat, his eyes going slightly wider. After the initial shock wears off about fifteen seconds later, a smirk starts to spread on his lip. "This is such a shocking coincidence." He laughs, that damn smirk still on his face. The smirk that used to make me smile at him and get butterflies in my stomach.

I fix him a confused look. "I'm sorry, have we met before?" I ask, my tone laced with sarcasm. He fakes a pout.

"Oh, c'mon, Tris. You could never forget me."

Rolling my eyes, I cross one leg over the other, placing the notebook on my thigh. "Yeah, well, I've been trying hard to."

He tilts his head to the side and narrows his eyes. "Did you take this job because you knew you'd be able to see me?"

Groaning, I say, "Of course you would think I would do this for you! Still so egotistical. I took this job because I love it and I wanted to avoid this interview at all costs. Except I need to do the interview if I want to keep the job I love so much."

I shake my head and then look down at my notebook. I start to repeat the same questions that I asked his teammates and am pleasantly surprised to find that he snapped into interview mode and answered each and every question respectfully and didn't antagonize me during the process. It was actually quite amazing for him.

When I'm finally done asking him the necessary questions, I close the notebook and look at him. "Thank you for your time." I say and stand up. He follows suit.

"Let me take you to dinner." He says suddenly and look at him, appalled.

I cross my arms over my chest. "Why should I? You left me."

He nods. "I know and I was a total dick about it. But let me take you to dinner and just…catch up. It doesn't have to be anything romantic – just two old friends catching up again."

"No." I turn on my heels and head out of the locker room. Some of the players are skating around on the ice with a decent sized crowd sitting in the bleachers to watch them practice.

Tobias jogs up to me and keeps pace. "C'mon, please?"

I come to a sudden stop and Tobias stops next to me. "Why? So that you can drag me along again? Oh! Or maybe this time, you'll just stand me up and get it over with sooner!"

He sighs, running his long fingers through his already tousled bronze hair. "I'm not like that anymore, Tris, I promise. I've had time to grow up and realize how shitty I was. Just let me take you to dinner and make it up to you."

I had to admit, seeing him begging did kind of give me a fierce satisfaction that I loved. However, I managed to keep that hidden from my face, and instead just continued to glare at him. "If you want to take me to dinner, you're going to have to prove that you've changed. And since you're leaving tomorrow, I don't think that'll be possible. So it's been nice seeing you again and I wish you luck with whatever it is you do."

I'm still incredibly frustrated by the time I get back to the apartment, where Christina is sitting on the floor with a bunch of Chinese take-out containers spread out on the coffee table in front of her. She looks up at me when I slam the front door shut and her smile disappears from her face. "Oh God, was it really that bad?" She asks and I just give her a look.

Heading for the kitchen, I grab a Stella Artois from the fridge and then sit down on the floor on the opposite side of where Christina is, reaching for the first container in front of me. "It was terrible. All of the other players were amazing. They were respectful, well-spoken and were polite. Tobias showed up ten minutes late to the interview and spent the first five minutes trying to talk to me, ignoring every question I asked him." I take an angry bite out of an egg roll and then sigh. "His actual interview was great, which killed me. It would be easier to be completely pissed at him if he was a shitty person to interview, but just like his teammates he was well spoken and eloquent."

Christina, listening to my ranting while also eating her vegetable lo mien, finally speaks up. "What happened after the interview ended? Did he pull anything?"

Taking a sip of my drink, I nod. "Yeah, he did. He had the audacity to ask me on a date – and then he tried to say it wasn't a date but just dinner between two old friends. And then I told him that would never happen unless he could prove to me that he changed and since he's leaving tonight," I shrugged, unbothered "sucks for him."

"What's the worst that could come from one meal together?" Christina asks quietly, almost too quiet for me to hear. I glare at her as she takes a sip of her beer. "What? Okay, look. I know that he's a jackass for what he pulled back in college, but that was years ago. If he wants to make it up to you, you should let him. You can always leave the dinner early if you can't deal with him or if he says something stupid."

"Yeah, well, that's inevitable." I grumble and Christina just shakes her head.

Rolling her eyes, she looks at me. "I talked to Will while you were out. He said that Tobias called him and wanted to meet up tomorrow for lunch so I'm guessing he's going to be staying in the city for a little bit longer." She had an almost guilty expression on her face. Guilty for holding this important information from me.

"Great, so I can avoid him tomorrow!"

She sighs, placing her chopsticks down on the coffee table. "Tris, it won't hurt to go to dinner with him once."

I narrow my eyes at her. "Why are you so defensive? Why are you trying to talk this dinner up so much?"

Christina shrugs. "I don't know, just…you haven't really dated that much lately and I feel like this would be a good thing for you. Even if he is still a jerk you'll get a free dinner out of it." I shake my head. "Okay, Will also told me that Tobias had talked to him after seeing you and he said that he felt really bad for leaving things the way he had."

Oh, great. It was what I wanted to hear but not from the person I wanted to hear it from. This was so screwed up – Tobias should be the one apologizing to me and telling me what Christina is telling me, not Christina.