Wow, how about that. This is the first time I haven't wasted a month doing other things instead of updating this ol' girl. High fives are always welcome. Thanks to everyone who reviewed, I'm really glad to know you guys enjoyed the last chapter, and I hope you like this one, too! :)

"I think I might buy you something nice when I'm in Norway," Mark said, brushing some stray hairs from my forehead to behind my ear.

I laughed. "How many guys can honestly say that to someone? 'I'll get you something when I'm in Norway'. How you can be so nonchalant about it is beyond me."

Mark shrugged. "Yeah, well, not too many guys are playing for the Olympic hockey team, remember? That makes me exceptional."

I elbowed him in the ribs. "Yeah yeah. You're the best."

Mark had been almost unbelievably busy over the last month, and it was nearly impossible for us to spend time together. For example, on this particular night, he was only able to stay at the apartment for a few hours before he had to go back to his place to pack for the team's three-day trip to Norway on the weekend. I was doing my very best not to be bitter about the whole thing—because what was the point of having a boyfriend if you never got to see him?—and I wished then that Mark was good at something more local, such as fishing. Or checkers. Or maybe speed reading.

"Three days isn't even that long, when you think about it," Mark was saying, almost as if he was sensing that I was definitely thinking about it.

"It's seventy-two hours," I told him. "That sure seems like a long time."

"Yeah, I guess, but, I mean, you won't even be awake for all of those hours. It'd only be that long if you didn't sleep for that entire time. If you sleep for eight hours every night, it's actually almost like two days."

I shrugged. I was being pouty and miserable and I hated myself for it. I knew it was selfish to wish that he wasn't going to leave, but what did I expect? I knew what I was getting myself into when I started dating him.

"And you know that I'd call you, too, but I guess we're on a tight budget out there." He laughed quietly to himself and bumped his shoulder against mine. "Hey, I can send you a letter if you want. But I'd get back here before it did." I didn't say anything. "Vic?"

I looked up. "Huh?"

He grinned at me. "I just made a joke, hon. It was pretty bad, but I at least expected you to laugh a little. Come on, are you going to be crusty the night before I leave... for three whole days?"

Shaking my head, I sat up a little straighter on my couch. "No. I'm sorry. I just hate when you leave—for any amount of time. I don't know what to do with myself when you're not around. How sad is that?"

"Pretty sad."

I whacked him with the back of my hand. "Shut up."

Mark caught my hand as I was bringing it back and kissed it. "Sorry. You know I miss you too, right? There's basically no one else in this whole city that I can just sit with and have them hit me for hours on end. It's something I only get from you."

I smiled a little. "You know, you almost said something pretty nice there, but you just had to go and ruin it, didn't you?"

He shrugged again and put an arm around me. "I don't need to be serious for you to know how I feel about you. Anyway, being poetic isn't really my thing."

"Tell me about it."

"I'd rather not. Besides, it looks like it's almost time for me to head out." He got to his feet deliberately before turning and looking at me expectantly. "Are you going to walk me to your door?"

I slumped into the couch, the backs of my eyes burning. Don't cry, I told myself furiously. You never cry when he leaves. And besides, it's only three days. The moment I thought that to myself the tears spilled out and down my face. Mark looked almost alarmed for a second before he leaned forward, grabbing my hand and pulling me to my feet. "Hey hey hey," he said softly, pushing a finger up my cheek, forcing a tear back up toward my eye. "None of that, alright? It's going to be fine. Just sleep for three straight days, and I'll be back before you know it."

I let out a watery chuckle. "Very funny. You should give up hockey and start doing stand-up."

Mark smiled, wrapping his arms around me and pulling me into his chest. "Seriously, though. It's not nearly as long as you think it is. I promise I'll buy you some nice Norwegian gift mug or something. And it's not like you don't have anything to keep you busy, right? You have that guy's Christmas party to go to tomorrow night. I'm sure that'll be... fun."

He meant the Christmas part that Perry had invited me to. I looked up into his face. "Are you sure it's alright that I go to that?"

He shrugged. "You bet. I'm not going to be that kind of guy who makes you stay home when I'm not around. I hate that guy. Besides, I trust you. You say that guy is just your creepy friend, and I believe you."

I nodded. "He is. You're the only one I want to be with."

Mark smiled down at me. "Good to hear. But look. I really have to go. Promise me you won't start crying again?"

I raised my right hand. "Scout's honor."

He grabbed my hand and kissed it again. "I doubt you were ever a scout, but I guess that works. I'll see you when I get back, alright?"

"Alright," I said, misting up again as he pulled me close and kissed me. "Good luck out there. I'll miss you."

Mark gave me an even smile. "I'll miss you too. I always do." And he left.

I stood near the doorway for a while, half-expecting him to burst back in, laughing and telling me that he was only joking, that he didn't have to go to Norway at all, and he'd rather stay behind with me. He didn't, and I felt embarrassed with myself for hoping that he would. I knew that no matter how much Mark apparently cared about me, hockey always came first. The harsh reality of it made me back away from the door and return to the couch, shaking my head. How had I found myself in this situation? I knew that if it ever came down to a choice between me or hockey, Mark would, to the best of my knowledge, choose hockey. The fact that I'd let myself fall into this position was even more upsetting than the situation itself. Even if, by some miraculous twist of fate, Mark and I had a future together, it would always be the situation that I was in at that moment. Mark would be leaving, and I'd have to stay behind to tend to the chores or the kids or whatever else. The perfect little housewife.

I wanted to call Mark at that moment. I wanted to call him and tell him, in no uncertain terms, that I wasn't prepared to become that person. I didn't want to be the kind of woman—or wife, if the future held that—that he could just leave and then return to, expecting everything to be fine. I didn't want to have to deal with him being away all the time, worrying if he was alright, and being cautious and jealous of every other woman I saw him with. I knew about the girls who "specialized" in hockey players; "puck bunnies", as Wade called them, and ever since he'd told me about them, they'd been one of my biggest fears. I couldn't compete with girls like that, and hopefully Mark knew that too. What I needed at that moment was someone I could talk to about this. I needed someone who would listen, no matter how ridiculous I was being, and then inform me that I was being, in fact, ridiculous. What I needed was Mark. However, I knew for a fact that he'd just left, so he was nowhere near home.

Perry picked up after about four or five rings, as if he was taking a long time to answer the phone on purpose to piss me off. "Hello?"

"Perry? Hey. Victoria here. How are you?"

"I'm alright," Perry said slowly. "What about you? Feeling okay?"

I thought about it. "I'm fine," I told him.

"Okay." There was a long silence. "Any particular reason why you're calling, or...?"

Remembering fondly the days when I wasn't crazy and it was me who was confused by Perry, I shook my head. "No. Well, yeah, kind of."

Another long silence followed before Perry said, "I can't be the only one here who's not completely confused by this conversation. Should I know what's going on?"

"Nuh-uh," I said, shaking my head furiously. "No, you shouldn't. It's just... I called you before I could really sort out what I'm feeling, and now I'm starting to feel stupid about it."

"Oh, yeah? What happened?"

I told him about it, the whole, longwinded and ridiculous story, and when I had finished, Perry didn't say anything. "Perry? Are you still there?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm here," he said vaguely. "Before we talk about this, I have a question for you."

"Alright. Shoot."

"Okay. So, I've been noticing recently that you seem to be coming to me when you have issues with your boyfriend. There was that one time when you thought it was my fault that he was insecure, and now. It also seems like you go out of your way to talk about him most of the time, just so we can be talking about him. Am I being fair in saying all of this?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I guess so."

"Good. Now, my question for you is why. Am I your new gal pal?"

The ridiculousness of the question made me snort. "No, Perry, you're not."

"Think hard before you answer me. I mean, did you even think a little bit before you called me with this ridiculous issue?"

I was a little offended, but then I remembered that I had wanted someone to tell me that my problem was ridiculous. "Well, no. Not really."

"Well, I don't really feel comfortable talking about these kinds of things with you."

At first I sort of thought Perry was joking. "Seriously? Why? I thought we were friends."

"No, don't get me wrong; we are. It's just me, I guess. I don't feel right giving the girl I'm interested in advice about how to deal with her boyfriend."

"Wait wait wait. Did you just say that you were interested in me? Do you mean romantically?"

Perry made a noise of disbelief. "I didn't say that I was interested in you. I am, Victoria. Are you being serious right now? Did you actually not know that?"

All along, I'd sort of thought that Perry was just being overly nice, and the fact that he made weird little advances on me was just an issue in his personality. "Well, no, not really. I just thought you were trying to be funny."

Suddenly I heard laughing on the other end. A few seconds later, Perry said, breathless with laughter, "That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard! How could you have thought that, Victoria? And to think I've been putting myself out there all this time. I don't know how I could have been any more obvious!"

"Wait wait. Are you telling me that your whole 'stalker crazy maybe one day I'll kidnap you and lock you in the basement' routine... that was actually you flirting with me?"

"Well, I said it before; it actually works with a lot of girls. Usually girls like getting attention. You must just be a little off or something."

I laughed loudly into the phone. "You come on a little strong, Perry. Maybe take it easy next time."

"I'll remember that," he said, "I'll try that out on you tomorrow at the Christmas party. Are you excited yet?"

"Oh, you'd better believe it," I told him. "I love Christmas parties."

"Yeah, well, you'd better keep an eye open for mistletoe. If I catch you under some, I'll kidnap you and lock you in my basement."

"Happy holidays," I said, and he laughed. "Anyway, gal pal, if I remember correctly, I called you for a specific reason."

"That's right," Perry said. "Girl talk. Alright. Well, what do you want me to say?"

I thought about it. "Well, I think I want you to tell me what you think about the feeling that I had."

"I don't completely understand what you meant, though," he told me. "Explain it. Are you concerned about him leaving and forgetting about you?"

"Well, no. Or yes. I don't even know, really. I just don't like him leaving all the time, you know? I think that it's going to wreck things between us."

"Him leaving?"

"Yeah."

"Well, you probably knew that he'd be gone a lot when you started dating him, didn't you? I mean, you're not going to go out with someone unless you have the slightest idea that it's going to work, right?"

"Right..." I said slowly,

"So then what are you worrying about? It seems to me like you just feel... useless, for lack of a better word, when he's not around. The simple solution to that is to get out of your apartment, Victoria. Go see your parents. Give me a call. Do something. It's not going to make him come back faster to sit on your ass and cry because he's not there."

"Perry?"

"Hmm?"

"We need to teach all girls how to girl talk the way you do. That's extremely helpful advice."

Perry chuckled. "Thanks. I thought so, too. Anyway, he's only gone for a few days, right? It'll go by a lot faster if you're busy for that whole time."

"You're right. Thanks, Perry. It's too bad that you're not comfortable talking about stuff like this with me. I'd be calling you almost every hour, on the hour."

"Lucky me," Perry said. "Look, I have to get going. Alan wants to use the phone. I'll see you tomorrow night, okay?"

"Sounds good. Thanks again."

"Not a problem. Goodnight, Victoria."