Collide

"It's so weird not seeing each other every single day anymore!" Maria exclaimed as Cesira, Julia, and Caroline all stood around the expansive kitchen in Maria's new house. It was Saturday, and the girls were all preparing to celebrate Maria as she was only two months away from getting married.

The shower was to be small, just the wedding party and a few other friends, which would carry over into a wine tasting and dinner on Mt. Washington. Followed by a trip through Southside. CiCi was looking forward to the entire day, but felt bad about missing Sid's game that evening. He had assured her that he didn't expect her to make it to every single game, and happily saw her off that morning from their place. Which he ended up staying at every night his parents were in town.

CiCi was happy to see her friends and roommates. It had felt like forever since they all saw each other, even though it was only last week that they packed up and moved the final boxes and furniture to their new places.

"So how is living with the superstar?" Caroline asked. She seemed genuinely interested and smiled reassuringly towards CiCi when she hesitated to answer.

"Pretty quiet this week. He only had one home game. It was all pretty domestic."

"And how was meeting the parents? I thought he was staying at the mansion with them?"

"His mother is wonderful. His dad is scary. And he stayed one night out there, but couldn't keep up the charade. Just a note to all of you. Don't tell Sid a secret. He will cave and tell everyone." The girls erupted into a fit of giggles over this.

"CiCi, Maria told me you were dating Sidney Crosby. How did you two meet?" Maria's older sister, Amy, asked.

"Oh, uh at a bar at the beginning of summer." She didn't know why she was, but she felt embarrassed to admit to these other women how she met her boyfriend.

"And you had no idea who he was?" Maria's cousin Suzanne asked.

"Not until we got home and she saw him on the news!" Caroline interjected.

"He gave me his middle name as his first name when we first spoke."

"Even if he had said his first name I don't think it would have fazed you," Julia said with a hint of a laugh in her voice.

"This is true. He learned that very quickly." Then a barrage of questions came flooding in. What's he like? Is he a good kisser? His ass is perfect, don't you think? I bet he showers you with gifts and expensive dinners all the time. It was a bit overwhelming, but CiCi refrained from answering at first. She let the word vomit finish and calculated how she would respond.

"Sidney, while worth millions, lives a very simple life. He still drives the same car he bought when he first moved to Pittsburgh. He pays for his sister's high school tuition because he wants to see her succeed. He supports his parents so that they can travel between Pittsburgh and Minnesota to see both their children play hockey. He would prefer living in a two bedroom apartment instead of a beautifully custom made home in the suburbs because the size intimidates him. He only built it so when his family is in town they all can stay there without the worry or hassle of a hotel. And his ass is perfection. I'm blessed to get to stare at it without feeling the least bit embarrassed by it. Now we are here to celebrate Mo, let's not forget that!"

******

"Mom! Dad! Where are you guys?" Sid hollered as he strolled through the kitchen of his house.

"In the entertainment room!" He heard from his mother. He followed the sound of her voice and found them sitting close together on one of the couches. "We just finished skyping with Taylor. She sends her love and said good luck tonight."

"We were just confirming her schedule for the week since we will be arriving there tomorrow evening," Troy explained.

"She has two home games Monday and Wednesday." Sidney knew his sister's schedule. He made it a point to know what her schedule was like so he could time calls to her weekly.

"I am fixing lunch sweetheart, and there won't be anything in the refrigerator that can spoil. You pretty much wined and dined us this entire visit." Trina stood and walked towards her son as Troy shut down his laptop. The trio made their way into the kitchen for lunch before a nap was in order.

"Did CiCi find her way to the wedding festivities alright?"

"Yeah, she texted me a little bit ago saying she had to play twenty questions with the other bridesmaids about me. She said she handled it well and they haven't bothered her about it since."

"She really is a lovely girl. And that gallery she is running is amazing. She has an eye for art."

"Last Monday I roamed that place for hours, not bothering her at all, but just to take it all in. It's quite the gem. She wants to show me a few other smaller galleries around the city whenever we can both have a day off together."

"I'm really happy for you son. These last few days we got to see how well you've balanced your career with your new relationship. I know I gave CiCi a hard time here and there, I hope she sees I only meant good by it."

"I'm sure she knows Dad. I'm hungry, can we eat so I can go upstairs and nap?" Not another word was spoken as the three Crosby's sat down and ate their meal peacefully together.

******
CiCi's head was pounding from the loud music inside the club the bachelorette party ended up at. She checked her phone for the time and saw that it was nearly midnight. She expected at least a text from Sidney telling her that he was home. She couldn't imagine he was still at the arena. Maybe he had gone to dinner with his parents after the game. But there were no plans of that, at least none that she was aware of.

She turned her attention back to her friends and watched as Maria took down another sticky looking shot out of some sort of tube and laughed when Maria winced at the burn it was leaving in her throat. CiCi was feeling a pretty good buzz herself and having an all around fun night with her friends. The attention Maria was getting in her body slimming dress was crazy and she was soaking it all up. And how hot Maria looked left some residual attention on the rest of the party.

"Come on! Let's dance!" Caroline shouted at CiCi and grabbed her by the forearm pulling her out of the booth they were sitting in. CiCi obliged because she knew that Caroline would help keep the creepers away from her and vice versa. A loud techno beat began to blast through the club and the girls made their presence known almost immediately. Several others joined in and before long the songs were changing and the beat was slowing down. It was nearly two in the morning and the crowd was thinning out.

But CiCi was having fun, and at one point found herself dancing against someone. She never turned around to see who it was, she didn't care. The feel of his body was soft as compared to the solid muscles she felt when she would lean into Sidney. And the man's hands were smaller. But she didn't push him away, she had been too intoxicated by that point.

She didn't seem to care that her friend never rescued her from the intrusion and she was taken back to when they would go out in college. They would hit up any dance club running specials for college students. The music finally stopped all together and the crowd dispersed even further.

When she turned around her heart seemed to stop. Standing in the corner of the club were a group of some of Sid's teammates, all of whom she knew and never expected to see here. She hoped that they hadn't noticed her or what she was just doing. She quickly sought out Caroline and Julia and tried to make a beeline to the exit. In a matter of minutes they were out the door and a crisis had been averted.

"Who was that guy?"

"You don't want to know," Julia groaned. The three seemed to have gotten separated from the rest of the group. They walked through the dwindling crowd on Carson Street while Caroline continued calling Maria to find the rest of the group.

"They left us. They are already to Carnegie!" Caroline exclaimed, "Maria apologized and thought the three of us had left already. What are we going to do?"

"I'll try calling Sid," CiCi reasoned as she dialed his number without hesitating. The phone rang several times before he finally answered.

"Hello?" He sounded groggy.

"Babe? Our ride ditched us in Southside and all our cars are at Maria's house in Southpointe," she explained quickly.

"Okay, where are you? How many of you are there?"

"It's just me, Care and Jules, we are by the Starbucks." She glanced around to see if there was a better point of reference, but she doubt Sid knew every bar down Carson.

"Okay, wait right there and I will be there in fifteen minutes. Gotta put on some shorts," he explained.

"No shorts? Yummy!"

"Get your mind out of the gutter girl!" Caroline shouted and erupted in giggles.

"Don't move. Love you."

"Love you more!" She put her phone back in her clutch and turned around to look at her friends. "He said don't move. He will drive us out to get our cars."

"Great!" Julia exclaimed. The girls stood in front of the closed store front, ignoring catcalls from random people driving by and reminiscing about the evening.

"Why don't I want to know who I was dancing with?" She really wanted to know.

"It was Mark," Caroline said.

"WHAT?" She shouted making both girls wince.

"The boys crashed the dance party. You didn't notice? They left well before we finished dancing and you never turned around once."

"Why didn't you stop him?"

"I'm sorry! Tom was there and we snuck off on our own for a little bit," Caroline reasoned.

"I think I was a little more drunk than I thought." CiCi only hoped that Sid's friends didn't notice. She could deal with Mark on her own.

Before long, Sid's dark gray SUV pulled up to a stop in front of the girls and they hurriedly climbed into the awaiting vehicle. CiCi shyly smiled at Sidney as she studied his features. She could tell he had been asleep for some time as his hair was a ruffled mess on his head. The sleep in his eyes made them squint further than normal and he looked years younger than he was in the driver's seat. He gave CiCi a half-hearted smile, assured the other two that it wasn't a problem to be a chauffeur for the evening and turned his attention on the road. He made certain to lean away and drive with his right hand so that CiCi couldn't reach over like she liked to do to grip his hand in hers.

She got the sense that he knew what she did and that he was mad. She cowered in her seat a bit and only spoke when spoken to or to give some directions to Maria's house. When the girls said their goodbyes and were out of the car CiCi finally turned to Sid, "Thank you for coming to get us."

"Yep."

"Will you tell me what I did so that I can not do it again?"

Sid contemplated his words before speaking, "You know the episode from How I Met Your Mother where the gang goes to a dance club and Barney starts dancing with a pretty girl? And the girl turned around and they discovered that she was his cousin?"

"What about it?"

"Why didn't you freaking turn around? I would have loved to know what you would have done if you knew it was him."

"Wait, what? You're not mad at me? I was dancing with some stranger for hours!"

"No, Bortz texted me to say some guy started dancing with you for a song. He was keeping an eye on the events transpiring."

"How drunk was I? I could have sworn it was hours!"

"Are you sober enough to drive or should we leave your car and come back tomorrow?"

"I'm sober, I didn't drink anymore after we started dancing and I am pretty certain I sweated off at least a pound."

"Come on, let's go home. I'm tired and sore from tonight," Sid encouraged CiCi out of the car and into her own.

But on the drive home she continued to ponder the scene in Sid's car. He never said he wasn't mad. Maybe he really is upset about it? And shouldn't she be too considering he had his teammate checking up on her? She intended on bringing this up to him when they got home.

Twenty minutes later they were pulling into their respective parking spots in the hidden garage below their building and walking silently towards the entrance to the lobby. They still hadn't said a word to each other as they waited for the elevator to take them up to the top floor. The bell dinged indicating that the elevator arrived and the doors slid open. CiCi walked in ahead of Sidney and when she turned around Sid stood right in front of her. A possessive look gleamed in his eye. He backed her up against the wall of the elevator, braced both his arms on the wall beside her head and leaned down incredibly close.

"You're mine," he whispered. He didn't wait for a response before crashing his lips against hers and pressing his body up the length of hers. She instantly responded to the kiss, throwing her arms around him to feel the muscles beneath his shirt. He broke the kiss but continued contact running his lips across her cheeks, down her neck and sucking on her collarbone. She tilted her head to allow better access and moaned when she felt his hands grip her hips, pulling her body up. She was being lifted and she instinctively wrapped her legs around his waist. He supported her light frame against him and the wall.

"I was so unbelievably jealous when I saw the picture Bortz sent me," Sid whispered, his forehead pressed against hers, their eyes level with each other. CiCi was at a loss, never in all her years did a guy seem possessive of her and here, this amazing man was being just that. She sensed a bit of vulnerability and realized he must never have had the opportunity to be possessive of someone before either.

"You're not mad?" She whispered back.

"At first I was. But Rob said you never turned around or gave much notice that he was even there. Then I got possessive and I wished I would have just gone out with them so I could finally have a reason to punch that guy in the face."

"And what would that have solved?"

"Nothing, but at least I would have felt better."

CiCi wriggled out of Sid's embrace and stepped away from
him for a moment. The look on his face indicated he wasn't happy with this action, but she couldn't be touching him or so close to him or she would lose focus on what she wanted to say to him.

"Did you ask your buddies to spy on me?" The elevator dinged and opened for them to exit. She lead the way down the hall and stopped briefly for him to catch up.

"No! I had no idea where you were anyways. Do you honestly believe I would do that?" Sid asked appalled at the thought.

"Maybe. I don't know. Your dad seems to think so," CiCi walked away from Sid, and around the corner towards their apartment.

"No he doesn't babe, what the hell? How did we go from me being jealous to you being pissed at me?" He caught up to her as she was stopped two doors down from their own. He back was to him and she stood frozen. "Ci?"

CiCi turned enough for Sidney to catch a glimpse of another figure in the hall. The look on CiCi's face wasn't happy and Sid could see why.

"Oh hey, Sid. There you are. I thought is catch you alone. Guess not," the woman said. She stood tall, about the same height as Sidney. And she had Long blonde hair.

"What are you doing here Lauren?" Sid asked. He came up beside CiCi and stood protectively in front of her. CiCi knew who Lauren was and knew she had more reasons to be pissed than Sidney did.

Notes

Ah! I forgot how much I love to write and this week all you lovelies helped me recapture it. I'm on a roll! Thanks for all the comments and support. It's what keeps me going with this story!