Public Relations

The next afternoon I went to the rink in an amazing mood. I had spent all last night and all this morning with Reid and I was going to be spending more time with him tonight after work. I walked in through the double dressing room doors. I walked into the area with the massage tables. Sid is sitting on one of the tables in his under armor getting his legs worked on. I stop in my tracks and start laughing.
“What?” Sid asks.
“Nothing.” I say walking over to where he’s sitting.
“You look really good today.” Sid says. I turn around in a circle. “Damn.”
“Thanks.” I say. The medical guy working on Sid tries to hide his smile.
“Doesn’t she look good Mike?” Sid asks him. He looks between Sid and me.
“She always looks good.” He says going back to work on Sid.
“Sidney Patrick Crosby, stop it.” I say trying to be serious. We both started laughing. After a couple minutes I noticed James standing at the door, leaning against the doorframe.
“What’s so funny?” James asks.
“Sid just made a joke.” I say. I take James’ hand and pull him toward the far door. “I’ll see you later Sid.”
“See you.” He says. We go into the kitchen luckily nobody is in there.
“Missed you the last couple days.” James says still holding my hand. I smile up at him.
“Sorry, I’ve been busy.” I say. “I’m still trying to get settled.”
“Still unpacking?” He asks.
“Kind of.” I say.
“I can help if you need it.” He says.
“Thanks, but I think I’ve got it covered.” I say. We were both silent for a couple minutes. We were swinging our hands awkwardly back and forth both staring at the ground.
“Do you have a thing for Sid?” James finally asks. I look up at him.
“Why would you ask that?” I ask.
“You guys seem to always be together.” James says.
“James we’re friends.” I say.
“Look if you want to be with him, then you should.” He says. “You don’t need my permission.”
“James can you please stop?” I ask.
“It’s fine Alex.” He says.
“I’m not fighting with you about this now.” I say. “I’ll see you later.”
“Alex.” James says, but I don’t bother listening to him I just keep walking. I walk all the way back through the change room back through the room where Sid was still sitting on the table.
“Alex, what’s wrong?” Sid asks.
“Later.” I say without stopping. I go over to the elevator and press the button. Then I realize that I need to talk to the four guys that I saw last night with Reid. I turn on my heel and march back into the dressing room.
“Now?” Sid asks as he sees me.
“Not exactly.” I say.
“Okay later.” He says trying not to smile. I walk into the dressing room where most of the guys were gathered. James was in one corner with one of the rookies. I went over to Brandon and I sat down next to him.
“Hey Alex.” He says. “What’s up?”
“I need to talk to you and the other three that were with you last night.” I say.
“Okay, I’ll make sure we come up to your office after practice.” He says.
“No, now.” I say.
“Okay, I’ll get the guys and meet you in the conference room down the hall.” He says.
“Thanks.” I say before standing up and walking to the conference room. I could feel James’ eyes on me as I walked out of the room. I sat down at one of the seats by the door. After a couple minutes the four guys piled through the door and claimed seats across from me.
“Why we here?” Geno asks in his broken English.
“I know Sid sent you all a text, but I just wanted to talk to you guys myself.” I say.
“Your son?” Beau asks.
“Yes.” I say. “Can we not talk about him to anyone?”
“Oh you didn’t want us to tell anyone?” Brandon says. “Shit. I already told half the team.”
“Very funny.” I say rolling my eyes.
“Why don’t you want us to tell anyone?” Beau asks.
“I want to let everyone know at my own pace. Especially James.” I say. The four guys look between each other. They all seemed to understand. I pick up my bag and follow the four guys out of the room. I hurry back through the dressing room. I don’t stop to talk to anyone and Sid is nowhere in sight. I get to the elevator and quickly press the button. Once I get on I sigh with relief. Time to get some work done and hopefully I can just focus on that and nothing else.

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I’ve spent hours doing paperwork and nothing else. I’ve been reading and signing documents all afternoon. I rub my eyes and drop my pen down on the desk. I decide that its time for a break. I fire up my laptop and open up twitter. I read through my timeline retweeting a bunch of tweets from the fans. I answer people who have sent me messages and even tweet a couple things about the upcoming days. I look at the clock and I realize that practice will be over very soon. I quickly close my laptop and grab my phone from the charger in the wall before heading back downstairs to help out with post practice interviews. I walked back to the elevator and rode it down to the locker room. I walked through to the area where the players get changed. I wasn’t paying attention where I was going, just walking when I ran into something solid.
“Shit.” I say grabbing the wall to balance myself.
“Sorry.” Brandon says.
“I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going, it’s my fault.” I say.
“No it’s my fault.” He says grinning at me. I roll my eyes.
“What?” I ask.
“Nothing.” He says still grinning from ear to ear. We’re both silent for a couple seconds.
“Why are you in here?” I ask.
“I was just testing out my ankle out today so I finished early.” He says.
“I knew that.” I say shaking my head.
“Are you okay?” He asks.
“Yeah, I’m just swamped.” I say. “I better get going.”
“Okay.” He says. I move around him and go out the door he just came through. I’m just about to walk up the ramp and I hear Brandon behind me.
“Alex.” Brandon says as I come to a stop and turn to face him.
“What?” I ask starting to get a bit annoyed.
“I just wanted to say, if you need anything I’m here.” He says. I can’t help but chuckle a bit.
“Thanks Brandon.” I say. He smiles and nods before turning and going off to the dressing room. I watch his back as he walks away. I stand there for a couple seconds before turning and walking through the tunnel toward the ice. I stand beside the bench and watch the practice. After the drill finishes Sid skates over to the bench.
“Hey.” He says as he grabs a bottle of water off the boards between us and squirts some in his mouth.
“Hey.” I say back.
“Finally decided to join us?” He asks giving me a small wink.
“Yeah, I finished the first pile of paperwork.” I say sighing deeply.
“Fun stuff you’re doing up there.” He says.
“Living the dream.” I say shaking my head. He chuckles. By now a couple of the other guys were standing by the boards getting some water too. James didn’t happen to be one of them. I could see him in the far corner of the rink standing next to Geno. Their heads were close together and they kept looking at me every so often. I knew they were talking about me. I just prayed it wasn’t about Reid.
“What’s with them?” Sid asks.
“James thinks we’re dating.” I say looking from the two boys back to Sid. He was eyeing me suspiciously. “What?”
“Nothing, I just think you need to talk to him.” Sid says.
“I tried.” I say.
“Did you really try?” He asks giving me a look that shows he isn’t convinced.
“I guess not.” I say looking at the ground.
“Just tell him the truth. Tell him what’s bothering you.” Sid says.
“What if he gets mad?” I ask. I can feel my face getting hot.
“Won’t know till you try.” Sid says. He skates away before I can respond. I roll my eyes and sit down on the edge of the bench to watch the end of practice. I take a couple pictures to put up on the website later today. I grab a pen and some paper in the box where the coaches keep stuff and I take a few notes on the practice. I try to push James out of my mind for a little while. At least until I can figure out what I want to say to him.

Notes

Little tension between Alex and James?
Uh oh

Enjoy xoxo ;