Rescue Me (Sidney Crosby)

Chapter Nine

-Julie-

“So you’re a full time professional hockey player?”

“No, that’s my part time job,” he said as I took a sip of my coffee.

“What?” I asked confused.

“In the day I’m a professional hockey player,” he said and I smirked but was confused.

“And what at night you’re Batman?” I asked and his eyes widened and he looked around.

“How do you know that?” he asked and I laughed and he smiled towards me.

“No, I’m just playing, yeah; I’m a full time hockey player.”

“When did you start?”

“When I was like five,” he said and my eyes widened.

“Wow, you must have really loved the sport.”

“Always have, always will,” he said and then took a sip of his coffee, “But what about you? What are your interests?”

“I like to bake.”

“Yeah, Tyler was telling me that you bake a lot!” he said and I laughed and nodded my head.

“That was an understatement this week.

“I’m sure it was,” he laughed, “So what was it like to have four hockey players baking?”

“Marc wasn’t bad, he was helping me do the chocolate covered strawberries, but the other three,” I laughed, “I felt bad for Allie.”

He laughed and I took another sip of my coffee, “What else?”

“Well, I ya-“ I had to think of what to say that wouldn’t give too much away, “I’m fluent in French.”

“Now that explains why you and Marc hit it off so well,” he said happily and I laughed.

“Yup, we were able to have a conversation with the others having no clue what we were saying.”

“Bet that was fun.”

“Yes.”

“Say something.”

“Like what?”

“Anything,” he said and I laughed and thought of a sentence.

“Je pense que vous êtes intelligent et doux, et je souhaite que nous puissions être quelque chose ensemble, mais j'ai trop de bagages et vous ne resterait pas si vous saviez,” (I think you’re smart and sweet and I wish that we could be something together, but I have too much baggage and you wouldn’t stay if you knew) I said as I saw the smile on his face.

“Wow, what did you say?” he asked and I laughed.

“Wouldn’t you like to know!” I teased and he smiled brightly.

“Well, how would I know if you were saying something bad about me,” he joked and I giggled.

“Trust me, I wasn’t.”

“Not like how you were with my teammate,” he said and I smiled remembering what he was talking about.

“We were teasing, um,” I couldn’t remember his name, “The Russian?”

“Geno,” he said and I laughed and nodded my head. Sidney smirked and then took a drink of his coffee, “He’s always fun teasing. What else should I know about you?”

‘…I’m a paranoid woman who is on the run from her ex boyfriend and I’m constantly looking over my shoulder…’ I thought and then moved my hand around the rim of my cup, “I have a seven year old son who is obsessed with cars and now hockey.”

“He picked a good sport!” he said as he held up his drink and took a sip of his drink, “Besides, most guys do like cars.”

“If figured as much, it’s like implanted into your DNA.”

“So where’s the father at? If you don’t mind me asking,” he said and I bit my lip and looked at the table.

“He’s,” I said and then gripped my arm, “He’s not in the picture.”

“Understand, sorry.”

“No it’s all right,” I said and he nodded his head.

“Too bad for him, he seems like he’s missing out on a good kid,” Sidney said and I looked at him to see that he had a smile on his face.

“He is a good kid, I don’t know what I would do without him,” I said and then Sidney nodded his head.

-Sidney-

When both of us had finished our coffees, we decided to leave. We had spent almost two hours there just talking, and it was nice. When we walked outside, it was a little cold and I saw her pull her jacket closer.

“Today was nice,” she said and I smiled towards her and nodded my head.

“It was, thank you,” I said.

“Well I’d better be heading back. I have a few cakes to bake,” she said and then started to walk away.

“Let me walk you there,” I said, thinking of anything just to spend a little more time with her, “It’s the city ya know.”

She thanked me and then we walked side by side for two blocks and then came to this pretty tall white building that had big glass windows in the front and then dent were the door was. I saw that one side of the store was dedicated to antiques while the other was all bakery things.

“Smells good,” I said as she opened the door and I got a whiff of all of their sweets.

“Thank you, it must be Allie working on something,” Julie said and I nodded my head.

“I’d better get going, I have practice in a little bit,” I said and she closed the door and turned her body towards me.

“Thank you for today, I really enjoyed talking to you,” she said and I took a step closer towards her.

“Do you want to go out again?”

“Well, I’ll see you tomorrow morning,” she said and smiled and I laughed and shook my head.

“No, like out to dinner,” I said and she looked at me surprised.

“Um,” she had to think about it, “I’ll get back to you on that. I have to look at how busy I’m going to be with the bakery,” she said but the look in her eyes said that there was a hint of a lie in there.

‘…She might just be nervous, Sid. Calm down…’ I thought and then figured I would ask, “All right, well, can I at least have your phone number to call you?”

“I don’t have a phone,” she said and I looked at her surprised, but when I looked into her eyes I saw no hint of lying, and she looked embarrassed and disappointed.

“Well, usually it’s tradition for the girl to give the guy their number, but,” I dug through my jacket pocket to grab a pen and was surprised when I actually did, “What the hell with traditions,” she laughed and then gave me her hands and I wrote my number on her hand, “Give me a call to let me know when you’re free. Or let me know tomorrow at the coffee shop!”

“All right!” she said happily and was about to turn around but I grabbed her arm gently and felt her flinch but ignored it and leaned in to press my lips to her cheek.

“I look forward to seeing you tomorrow, Julie.”

“Same,” was all she managed to get out and I smirked and walked away.

-Julie-

“Oh my god! He kissed you!”

“Just on the cheek!” I said and laughed as I saw Allie jumping up and down.

“When are you going out next, sweetie?” Mildred asked and I shrugged my shoulders.

“I mean I’ll see him at the coffee shop, but other than that, I don’t know.”

“He didn’t ask you out again?”

“He asked me to dinner-“

“And?”

“I told him I’d have to see how busy I was with the bakery.”

“Julie! Come on! This is your chance to get out there and live a new life!” Allie said and I sighed.

“What am I suppose to say; ‘Sorry Sidney, the reason I can’t be with you is because I have a jealous and physically abusive ex boyfriend who is looking for me and my son’?”

“Well not like that.”

“I have too much baggage to get into a relationship with someone,” I said and Allie sighed.

“Julie, you won’t know until you try, and if something happens, you know you have me, Mom, Dad, and a whole team of big and tough hockey players ready to kick this guy’s ass,” Allie said and I looked at her, “Take the risk, Julie!”

“All right,” I said and then smiled.

“Good, I’m glad to hear. You deserve this Julie!” Mildred said and I wiped a tear from my eye that I didn’t realize that I was holding back.

“Awww, Julie,” Allie said and then walked over towards me and hugged me.

“There’s one more thing,” I said and Allie looked at me confused.

“What’s wrong sweetie?” I sighed and then held out my hand that had Sidney’s number on it, “Ooooh, ok. See I told you this was going to happen!”

“I know, I know, I’m sorry.”

“What?” Mildred asked confused.

“Sidney asked for her number, but she doesn’t have a phone so she couldn’t give him her number, so he wrote his number on her phone,” Allie explained and I nodded my head and then watched as Allie grabbed her purse and then put her jacket on.

“Where are you going?” Mildred asked.

“Julie and I are going to the mall.”

“We are?” I asked.

“You, my dear, need a phone!” she said and I laughed and nodded my head.

“Thank you.”

“Hey, I’ve done enough bad in my life and I know that karma is a bitch, so maybe this will knock it out,” she said and I laughed and we were out the door after asking Mildred to watch Josh.