Picture Perfect | Claude Giroux Philadelphia Flyers story |

Lost In My Mind

---Kat's POV

"Put the backdrop right over there guys please," I say to a couple of helpful members of the staff as I point to the left side of the spacious room and rip through my camera bag for the necessary lens and corresponding camera.

"Do you need anything else?" Jeff asks me with a smile while running a hand through his short wavy chocolate brown hair.

"If you could help me with the lights?" I plea hoping that I'm asking too much of him already. Jeff is becoming a great friend and I'm just thankful I've been making other friends and spending time with people at work instead of Claude. It's been a week since I've actually talked to him- it was much needed. I wish I was able to travel with them on their past few away games though despite Claude- but I couldn't since they haven't worked out that part in contract just yet.

Whenever he texted me I would ignore them or keep the conversations short, trying my best to ignore the happiness I felt when he's text back. During practices and games, I've done my best to avoid him all together by hiding behind my camera which has been successful so far. Seeing Kyle more often has helped our relationship even though I still think about how true Claude's comment about my relationship with Kyle being boring really is.

After Jeff helps me with the external lights, I set up a stool in front of the backdrop for the players to sit on.

"Ready for player photos, Kat?" Kelly asks as she walks in with a big smile- another member of the staff I've become friends with despite the fact that she is my boss.

"Yes! You can start sending them in," I say as I fix the leg of my tripod.

"Sounds good," she replies and leaves the doorway, the sound of her heels hitting the concrete echo through the room as she trails down the hall. Once I fix the placing of my camera once again, I plug my phone into my Bose speaker and fill the silent space with music, specifically some indie music mixed with pop hits.

"Hey Kat!" Wayne's voice booms through the room, causing me to jump a few inches which makes him chuckle.

"Hey Wayne!" I smile and take my place behind the camera.

"How've you been? I feel like we haven't heard much from you in a long while," he says trying to pry some answers from me.

"I've just been busy. Plus I couldn't go on those away games yet but I should be able to on the next road trip," I respond before I check how he looks in the viewfinder.

"Alright, sounds good- we'll have a ton of fun," he winks with a smile and I just shake my head and laugh. After I situate the camera in a better position, I tell Wayne to smile and instead he gives me a photo that looks like a mug shot.

"Are you sure you don't want to smile?" I ask with a soft laugh, after reviewing the photo on the computer next to me.

"Yeah, I got to look tough," he teases and I take a couple more photos before he leaves. After Wayne, I take photos of Raffl, Zac and Del Zotto. During these photos, I relax and get into a small routine; Claude was nowhere to be found in my thoughts and it was refreshing. As I double-check the last few photos of the guys, I hear a pair of flip flops shuffle into the room and I don't think anything of it.

"Katina," I hear a voice say with thick French Canadian accent and my heart does a back flip, "how've you been?"

I turn around to see Claude sitting on the stool with a small smirk on his face, with disheveled ginger hair spilling out from underneath his backwards flyers hat. "Hey Claude," I say trying to sound disconnected from him, trying to ignore what my heart was feeling, "could you take off your hat? Kelly doesn't want the players wearing hats for some reason."