I woke up really confused and hungry. I was confused because I smelled something really delicious wafting up from downstairs which was why I felt so hungry. I rolled over several times to flop my feet off the bed and proceeded to the bathroom. After emptying my bladder, I went downstairs to investigate. I padded down to the kitchen, and froze once I arrived.

I had forgotten about my house guest, and it was very odd now seeing Crosby bustling around my kitchen as if it were his own. I saw pancakes and eggs cooking as well as turkey-bacon in an very organized fashion. He was dressed in a pair of sweats and one of those v-neck shirts he seemed to favor. It was a lot to take in, in morning or at any time.

“Uh, good morning” I said clearing my throat for he had not noticed me.

“Morning. I uh, thought to make you breakfast. I hope you like pancakes,” Crosby politely said with a tentative smile.

“Yeah, I’m starving,” I answered just as politely.

He loaded first a plate for me, then a plate for himself and we once again ate in an awkward silence at the counter.

“So what were you planning on doing today? I don’t want to interrupt any of your plans,” Crosby asked between bites in an attempt to make small talk.

I choked on a piece of pancake, not expecting a question. It took me a moment before I could sputter anything out, “Well, uh, I was going to get a work out in, do some office work, and then basically laze about. Nothing really exciting, you know.”

“Workout?” he perked up slightly, before looking towards the windows. It has snowed a solid two feet since last night, “Do you think the roads will be drivable?”

“I have set up here.”

“You do?” he asked incredulously.

I quickly took a huge bite of pancake instead of saying something I would regret. We had been having such a lovely 16 hourish period albeit very awkward. My brain wanted to tell him off for being so surprised that I took my sport seriously enough to have gym equipment in my own house. His arrogance was a bit too much.

“Yeah, in the basement,” I tried to to keep the anger out of my voice.

“Do you mind if I work out with you?”

I shrugged my shoulders not trusting my voice. I found myself not really hungry anymore, so I hopped off the stool and started to clean up while Crosby finished up breakfast. Crosby made himself useful by drying and putting away dishes; apparently he had really gotten to know his way around my kitchen. Crosby seemed to move without thinking, putting away pans or plates and needing no directional help from me. I wasn’t sure how I felt about this.

We went our separate ways to change for the workout. After I changed I sat on my bed with my laptop, sorta just bumming around on the internet. I had some emails just confirming details about an upcoming competition in Norway. This was exciting because I had several Norwegian friends in the snowboarding circuit and had spent a significant amount of time in the beautiful country. I was beginning to respond to an email when I heard a soft knock on the door.
“Yeah?” I glanced over the top of my laptop, Crosby stood tentatively at my door now dressed in a dry fit Penguins t-shirt, a pair of shorts and running shoes. I sighed flipping my laptop shut and for the second time that day, I not really gracefully rolled out of bed.

I led the way as we headed down the stairs to the basement. The first room, the main room, was dominated by a couch, facing a giant tv. The couch was one of my favorite parts of my house. It was massive; easily it could lay 8 to 9 people comfortably but often times when there was a big competition in the area 12 people would end up crashing there versus the comforts of their own hotel rooms or even my guest rooms.

But now we passed it to go down the hallway to my other pride and joy. I had consulted with my trainer in detail with this room, and had carefully planned out my gym. It had everything anyone could ever want: treadmill, bike, box jumps, free weights, some machines, bench, kettle-bells, stretch cord, mats, balls (med, bosu, and balance), t-rex band, the list went on. It had a surround sound music system set up in a corner, one wall was entirely a mirror, and the rest was painted a clean white color while the ground was entirely covered in turf mat. I didn’t go small with my gym.

I turned and smirked at Crosby’s dumbfounded expression. He started walking around taking in the amount and high quality of the equipment available to use. I sauntered over to plug my i-pod into the music system, and I flipped through a couple of playlists finally settling on my favorite. ‘Be honest, you were always going play this one,’ I thought to myself. I hit play, and there was a few seconds pause before the speakers started playing,

“I’ve got another confession to make, I’m your fool. Everyone’s got their chains to break, holding you”

“You like The Foo Fighters?” his surprised voiced asked from the corner by the weights.

I turned, my eyebrow raised, “Yeah, I love them. Do you?”

“Indeed. The Colour and the Shape is one of my favorite albums.” He answered looking intently at me.

“Seriously?” my mouth gaped open, “The acoustic version of Everlong is one of my favorite songs in the entire planet.”

He gave me an odd look, and shook his head slightly.

“What?” I asked, my defense coming up again.

“You just keep surprising me. This isn’t what I really expected,” he admitted. I had a feeling he meant a lot more than just the music, but not wanting to really get into anything right now, I didn’t say anything. “I was expecting the Kesha or something.”

“Hey now, there are always appropriate times for Kesha,” I argued pouting.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah! Like, uh.” I tried to come up with something, and he started grinning victoriously and I gave up, “Let’s just work out.”

---

We had gone back to being formally polite and rather awkward after the workout. We had both gone off to shower and do our own thing. I changed into just a black pair of Nike sweats and a white tank top. I was getting hungry and it was a fend for yourself lunch, at least that is what I did. Then I had ended up in my office to watch the edit Jen had emailed before she had left to visit her family for Thanksgiving. It looked pretty awesome, and I uploaded it to my Youtube channel. This was a way to connect with people; a way to show me in a more amusing light, in training, etc. I finished responding to some emails and before I knew it, it was starting to get dark.
I lumbered into the kitchen and started throwing together a mustard pork, vegetable, and potato dish.

“Do you need help?”

“FUCK!” I yelled dropping a potato into the sink. I turned and glared at Crosby, who was standing trying to look innocent, “Why do you keep doing that?”

“I don’t try to, you just don’t pay attention.” he shrugged.

“That’s cause I don’t expected to be attacked by some ninja at odd hours,” I grumbled as I washed off the potato and brought it back over to the cutting board.

Crosby smiled, “But do you need help?”

“Uh, sure, want to start on dishes? I just need to chop this last potato and put everything in the oven.”

Crosby started on dishes while I finished pulling together dinner. I set the timer and walked over to pantry.

“I have an incredible Malbec from the Mendoza region of Argentina, would you care for some?” I called as I took it out.

“That sounds lovely.” he simply replied. I poured two glasses full glasses, handing him one.

“I have a question,” he started.

“I have an answer,” I replied.

Crosby half smiled, and started walking back to the great room. I followed him, curious what had caught his attention in that room. When we reached the room, I realized he must have set up shop here for the day--his laptop was out here as well as his case and some folders with documents. But Crosby walked right over to the giant fireplace, and pointed to a picture on the mantle.

“This has got to be you as a kid, right?”

I smiled walking closer to him. The kid in the picture was wearing a giant coat, snow pants, and at least two scarves; completely bundled up against the snow all around her. The picture captured her complete child innocence and happiness of the excitement of a first snow.

“That dork? Yeah, that’s me.”

Sidney moved to the next picture, he didn’t have to say anything. It was a picture of Jen and me on top of the Eiffel Tower making ridiculous faces at each other. He smiled and moved to the next picture. This picture was one of my favorites in the entire world.

“Who is that?” He asked pointing at the picture. In the picture, I was half-hugging a beautiful blonde woman with bright green eyes that matched my own. The picture had been taken at the last Olympics in Vancouver, right after the gold medal ceremony for the halfpipe. The woman was wearing my gold medal around her neck.

“That is my mom,” I answered quietly.

“That’s your mom?” Crosby asked slightly surprised, “Oh, where is she? Did her flight get canceled or something?”

I took a deep breath, before calmly answering, “She’s dead.”

There was a terrible silence.

“I-I didn’t know,” Crosby started horrified.

“It’s fine,” I cut him off, “She died the summer after those Olympics.”

“And your father?” Crosby asked.

I shrugged my shoulders, “He went out to get diapers when I was a baby and never came back.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Crosby clasp his hand to his forehead, “Oh God, Lily, I am so sorry.”

I felt my stomach start flipping insanely. ‘Obviously so, he has mentioned your mother and your father in the space of two minutes and it is a holiday.’ I convinced myself.

“Crosby, it’s fine. I don’t give a damn about the man. And my mother, well,” I paused, “That is hard, but Jen and Geno....” I shrugged, really not sure how to finish my sentence. I was comforting Crosby, which was in itself weird. This whole situation was just, odd. I took a deep drink of the wine.

“I-I,” Crosby’s voice trailed off.

It was at that moment I made the mistake of looking up at him. Crosby was looking down at me, and I hadn’t before realized how very close we were standing. There was so much going on in his eyes, I saw anger, regret, sadness, and something else I couldn’t understand. I just felt myself slip into that liquid amber all over again.

The sharp sound of a phone ringing startled us both out of whatever was going on.

He glanced at his phone, “I have to take this.”
“Yeah,” I said breathlessly, my brain trying to get back in control of myself.

“Taylor, hi! Yeah, everything is fine. I know, I miss you too.” And he started to walk away.

Taylor. Taylor, must be the blond woman from the restaurant. For some reason I felt my heart sink. I looked down at my chest. ‘Stop that now.’ I thought scornfully heading back to the kitchen eventually

Eventually, Crosby came back down and found me pulling out dinner from the oven.
We quietly enjoyed the meal and wine. While we cleaned up, we decided a movie could be fun; I was relieved because it meant we didn’t really have to talk.

“You should pick, it is my collection so anything in there I will like.” I sighed as I settled down on the couch in the basement. We had brought down a bowl of popcorn and a couple of beers with us.

“Alright,” he said going over to the dvd collection against the wall. It was pretty massive; I loved movies.

“So you have it organized how?” He asked confused by my organization.

“Genre, and then alphabetical. Unless it is a series or a group of films I really like,” I grinned, before adding, “or other various variables.”

He half turned to look at me, giving me a ‘are you kidding me’ look. I shrugged in response; the system made perfect sense to me.

“Wait, you seriously know who Mel Brooks is?”

“Obviously.” I stretched, taking a sip of beer.

“Well, this is an easy decision then,” he said as he picked the movie off of the wall. He inserted it into the dvd player and came over handing me the remotes as he settled into the couch near me. There was enough space between us that there could be two people comfortably. I flicked on the TV, changing the settings to play DVD. The menu popped up for--

“To Be or Not to Be?” It was my turn to be dumbfounded. When he had asked me about Mel Brooks, I had assumed he was going to pop in one of the more well known movies: Spaceballs, Robinhood: Men in Tights, or Blazing Saddles. Crosby not only knew ‘To Be or Not to Be’ but out of anything, he chose it?

“I haven’t seen it in years, but it has always been one of my favorites of Brooks’s.” Crosby said before putting the handful of popcorn in his mouth. I didn’t really know what to say to this, so I reached over to the bowl and grabbed some popcorn and stuffed it into my mouth.

Once again, it was really hard to focus with Crosby around. The movie that normally had me in stitches from laughing so hard, had no effect at all. Instead, it was Crosby who was getting me to laugh. His damn infectious laugh, his big goofy smile, and the way his eyes lit up as certain scenes happened were all enchanting me. It was all quite frustrating and confusing.

About 3/4 through the movie, I felt my eyes drooping and I fought to keep them open. But it wouldn’t hurt to keep them shut for a couple seconds.....

In my dream, I was felt a very odd sensation, it was as if I was floating. But floating wasn’t the right word, it was more like rocking back and forth. And then I realized that I couldn’t be dreaming.

I very slightly cracked open my eyes, not wanting to because I was so very tired. I realized I was in Crosby’s arms and he was carrying me bridal style through my house. I was too tired to protest or really react. Instead, I did the most logical thing I could think of: I snuggled my head into his warm, firm chest inhaling his incredible smell.

“Almost there,” he calmly told me his deep voice vibrating through me. I sigh-moaned, wishing that maybe he could take his time, that maybe this could last just a bit longer. I heard a rumble in his chest, but I didn’t understand why.

Eventually, I felt us stop. Ever so gently, he put me down on something soft and in a knee jerk reaction, I reached my head to nuzzle him, as a goodbye gesture as I fell back into a slumber.

“Goodnight Lily.” a voice said softly, sounding both sweet and sad.

“Goodnight, Sidney” I mumbled.

---

I woke up the second morning in row very confused. I was not on the couch in the basement, I was in my bed, under my blankets.

“Oh fuck,” I said outloud. That actually happened. God, this man confused me. He could be so incredibly kind, but then he was such an idiot and an ass.

I glanced at the clock, it was still really early, so I hopped out of bed and quickly changed and padded down the stairs. I wasn’t all too surprised that Crosby was already sitting at the counter, and reading something on his I-pad. It was obvious he had already worked out this morning and was in the middle of breakfast.

“Morning,” he greeted me pleasantly and almost, dare I say, warmly.

“Uh, hi.” I replied, “Thanks for last night.”

“No problem,” he paused, before adding, “By the way, the airplane company finally called this morning, I have a flight out tonight.”

“Oh, that is great,” I dully said. There was something off about my voice. I wasn’t sure if he heard it, so I quickly added, “Did you want to do any laundry?”

“That would be really great. I am pretty much out.”

“Neat, if you just want to grab it and bring it down here. There should be a laundry basket in the the closet in your room. ”

I waited for him in the laundry room, which was off the mudroom. I heard him come back into the kitchen.

“Marco?” I called. There was a pause.

“Polo?” I heard his return call and I grinned.

“Marco!”

“Polo?”

“Marco!”

“Found you,” he said not even trying to bother to hide the grin on his face.

“Ta-da, washer and dryer. Load it up!”

I noticed that he had separated his colors, I grinned up at him. Not even I was this tedious with my things, I just tossed all my laundry in together.

“What?” he asked a smile twitching around his lips.

“Not a thing.”

Crosby threw his darks into the washing machine, pausing before he started taking off his shirt. I had seen him without his shirt on before. I could easily say out of all the men in the entire world, that Sidney Crosby’s bare torso made it into the top 2 I was most familiar with. However this didn’t stop my eyes from being glued to his beautifully, but not overly sculpted chest, stomach, and arms nor my cheeks turning bright red.

“I am gonna to go make some toast,” I coughed, “Would you like some more?”

“Please. I am just going to finish up here.”

I walked back into the kitchen, shaking my head. ‘Focus, focus, focus,’ my brain warned me as I put two slices of bread in the toaster.

By the time Crosby came back into the kitchen, the toast had just popped up. He came over right next to me as I was putting some raspberry jam onto my toast. In the middle of jamming my toast, I got some on my finger. For some insane reason, I immediately took my finger and wiped it along Crosby’s bare bicep.

“You just did not.” His voice was serious and surprised. I bit my lip, grinning mischievously. Clearly I had lost my mind, and now I was just hoping he wouldn’t get too mad and throw an absolute fit. This wasn’t Geno who would just laugh, lick it off his arm, and walk away.

No, this was Crosby. Crosby, who stuck his finger in the jar of raspberry jam, taking out a huge glob and rubbed it on my nose and cheek in one swift move. I let out a strange giggle-screech and I rubbed my face into his chest without a thought trying to get the jam everywhere. Crosby quickly grabbed more jam and started spreading it over the back of my neck and shoulder.

“LILY!!! I CAME BACK EARL--” I heard a yell coming from the direction of the mudroom before it faltered. There was a very ominous silence before, “OH MY GOD, THE DATE WENT THAT WELL THAT HE HAS BEEN HERE SINCE THURSDAY NIGHT?!”

Notes

Hello Friends!
First, the lyrics referenced in the gym bit was 'Best of You' by The Foo Fighters. If you haven't heard the acoustic version of Everlong, here.
Second, Mel Brooks, is wonderful and fantastic. I hope you all got the title of this chapter, which I attempted to make into a bit of a joke (if not, go watch Spaceballs) <3

As always, thank you all so much for reading/rating/commenting!!!! I will try to have something up within the next two days!!!!