“Are you positive he as no idea?” I asked bouncing up and down from the backseat like a small child.

“Positive,” James answered grinning as he turned to look at me from the front passenger seat of Paul’s SUV. Paul looked in the rearview mirror grinning at me as well.

After I had landed at the Pittsburgh airport and made it through the gate, I had nearly tackled James from excitement when I saw him. Paul had received the same treatment when James and I had exited the airport with my luggage and I saw him waiting by his SUV. We were now headed straight to the CONSOL Energy Center. I couldn’t believe this plan had actually come to fruition. Granted, it had been really for hard for the three of us, plus Jen, to keep this secret over the last several weeks from Geno.

Until last night, we weren’t exactly sure how we were going to surprise Geno, but there had been an optional skating practice this morning which both James and Paul elected to skip, but Geno decided to attend. Thus, here we were on our way to the rink.

“By the way, are you finally going to spill about that guy?” James asked staring me down intently. I rolled my eyes. James had been nearly insufferable the last several weeks via texts.

“That guy that you kissed,” he said making a kissing noise as he pushed the subject.

“How old are you?” I asked making a face at him.

“Lils, we all saw the picture,” Paul said calmly.

I cringed, “We?”

I had already received enough grief about the picture Paul mentioned. Paul didn’t have to be any more specific about what picture he was talking about because it had been the talking point with everyone in Snowboarding community as well as everywhere else in my life. The said picture was a picture of my friend Torstein drunkenly kissing me. It had been right after X-Games, I had swept my events and he had won slopestyle. Both of us had been very drunk, and he had suddenly leaned over and kissed me while taking a selfie. Obviously the kiss hadn’t meant anything. Unfortunately, he posted it on twitter with the caption, ‘Just with my girl celebrating our success in life’. By the time I had found out he had posted it to twitter and gotten him to take it down, it was already too late. Media outlets had gotten a hold of it, and it had spread around like wildfire.

There were many different reactions to this: James incessantly harassed me about ‘the dude’, Bethany did her best to do damage control, Geno was pretty furious. He was never a fan of Torstein, nor many of the snowboarders, but really I think Geno was just overprotective. Meanwhile, Jen’s reaction was the most ridiculous, she had simply asked “What will Sidney say?”

“Oh yeah, I mean, all the guys know about it,” Paul answered as he made a turn and he brought me back to the present.

“You are all worse than a bunch of teenage girls,” I moaned as I smacked my forehead in the back of James’s seat.

“Probably,” James admitted as he patted the top of my head, “But what does it matter if we all know about it?”

I didn’t bother giving him a response, I just glared at him. I didn’t care, who cared, it didn’t matter. Right?

“Here we are!” Paul called out, as he pulled into a parking garage.

Paul parked, and we exited the car, then quickly headed inside, trying to escape the cold. Once inside, they led me through hallway past hallway. The three of us were silent as we made our way through the building; the only noise coming from us was the little distinctive click from my boots. We eventually started going down a flight of stairs.

“Alright, stay here for a moment, I am going to go make sure all of the guys are mostly decent and see where Geno is. I will send you a text.” Paul said grinning leaving me and James the staircase. James and I grinned and watched Paul exit through a door. We quietly, though not very patiently waited for news. I unzipped my coat and smoothed my clothes, feeling a little nervous. Why was I nervous? It is just Geno. ‘It isn’t just Geno, is it?’ the little part of my brain voiced.
James’s phone buzzed, “Right, so Geno is eating, let’s go.”

I followed closely behind James, hiding behind his bigger self the best I could as we walked through the door and to the left.

“Why you not at practice? With girls?” I heard Geno addressed who I could only assume was Paul.

“Well, I was with a girl,” Paul said and I could hear the grin in his voice, “I think you would really like her.”

“What? Paul Martin might actually introduce us to one of his girls?” another voice commented, the tone quite amused and I felt my stomach start doing involuntary flips and lurches. I closed my eyes quickly to collect myself.

Really, couldn’t he have a life and go be somewhere else? Anywhere else? True, that wasn’t exactly a fair, I mean, this is technically Crosby’s place of work. But obviously, the majority of my brain hushed the more reasonable part of my brain. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to see him, it was just, so complicated to see him. I still hadn’t had any contact with him since Colorado; unless Christmas counted. And unless the fact that you sleep in his shirt almost every night. Once again, that was the part of my brain I didn’t want to listen to. I had almost called, or almost sent him a text countless amounts of times, but I still couldn’t bring myself to do it.

I peeked around Neal, and saw that both Geno and Crosby were facing away from us. Fleury saw me, but I quickly brought my finger up to my lips to signal “shhh”. He started to grin, but didn’t saw anything. James and I continued to sneak up on Geno and we stopped right behind Geno and Crosby.

“So, G, have you heard from that friend of yours recently? The snowboarder who put up that hilarious video?” Paul said grinning.

I saw Crosby stiffen as Geno sighed heavily, “Yes. She text last night, but just stop. She fall of mountain or something. Make no sense.”

“Maybe she had a good reason why she couldn’t text?” I supplied loudly, “Like she was on a plane or something.”

Geno spun around his eyes wide and mouth hanging open, as I stood there mock scowling, my hands on my hips.

“What? What?” my favorite Russian bear sputtered before throwing his arms around me and lifting me up, spinning me around. I squeaked, unable to breath. The guys were all laughing at this interaction, well, mostly all. I couldn’t help but notice Crosby looked surprised, happy, and then stone faced, if not maybe a little upset. I pointedly ignored this, just happy to see Geno. Though I couldn’t help but notice Paul watching Crosby and me pointedly trying to ignore each other.

“How?” Geno asked finally putting me down. My attention fully came back to Geno.

“James and Paul and I plotted it out weeks ago. It was killing me not telling you, but we thought it would be a great surprise. But if you don’t want me here...” I said cheekily.

He grabbed me again, pretending that he wasn’t going to let me go, “No, you not leaving now.”

I giggled and leaned my head against him. It felt so good to be with him again after not seeing him since September; it felt like an entire lifetime ago.

“Where you staying? With me!” He demanded.

“I offered for her to stay with me,” James inputed.

“No, you stay with me.” Geno put his footdown, pausing before switching into Russian, “I don’t want you staying with Nealsy.”

“Okay,” I replied in English. I noticed Crosby had slipped out of the room and for some reason, that rather bothered me.

---

“Why don’t you move in?” Geno teased. I stuck my tongue out at him as he washed the dishes.

“I wish,” I sighed, before I took another bite of pierogi. I had cooked pierogies especially for Geno for his pre-game meal. During my first trip to visit him in Russia, his mother had taught me how to make the dish and it was Geno’s favorite.

“I am going to go take nap. Tonight, I will score lots of goals. I will score goals because of the food you cooked for me.” Geno said as he finished up the dishes.

Geno tried to speak Russian with me as much as he could; it was the best way for me to learn the language. Though Geno made things easier by speaking in simple sentences as if I were a child, it still took me a while to respond.

“Flattery not will make move me in,” I attempted furrowing my brow trying to focus.

“Flattery will not make me move in,” Geno corrected me.

“Thanks G,”

“You should take nap too.”

“Okay G.”

“Or you could eat more. You look skinny again.”

“Okay G”

“Veronique will be here at 6. Sure you are okay going with her to the game tonight?” He asked pausing on his way out of the kitchen.

Veronique had invited me to sit with her for the game versus the Flyers tonight, of which I had been very grateful. Initially, I was going to go to CONSOL when Geno was headed in for the game. This would have mean I would have been awkwardly sitting in the corner by myself for several hours until the game started. I wasn’t sure if Geno had talked to Fleury or if it had been Veronique’s idea to invite me to sit with her. I was hoping it was the later, but honestly, I didn’t really mind either way. It would be nice to see her again.

“Yes, G. Go nap,” I groaned at the Russian Bear being overbearing.

Since arriving at Geno’s house approximately 38 hours prior, the only time I had left the place was to accompany him to the grocery store. Geno had left to attend practices, but I had felt no great need to leave this warm sanctuary to face the blistery cold. Snow and cold I could deal with, but I wasn’t a fan of these freezing temperatures without any snow. This suited Geno, who just wanted to stay in and hang. He was getting tired from the insanity of the 48 game season already, so our quiet activities were a nice change.

I sat at the counter taking another bite of food, looking at my phone. I couldn’t help but think of the way Crosby had blatantly been avoiding me. Maybe Crosby had avoided me because I had been such a huge douche-canoe by not acknowledging the Christmas thing. But he had been such an asshole previously at the airport. Did he really think he could win me over with such a thoughtful gift? You can’t just buy someone off. What about Paul? He certainly noticed something, what if he said something to Geno. I didn’t want to put Geno in an awkward position. Maybe I should just send out a bit of a white flag?

I opened up a new text message on my phone and put Crosby as the recipient. My thumbs hovered over the keys as I thought about what I should type. ‘Have a fantastic game’ I quickly erased that. I grinned knowing what to write as my fingers typed, ‘Kick some ass tonight!’. Shaking my head and rolling my eyes, I mentally wanted to kick myself, as I erased that message as well. ‘Jesus, electronic communication is such a royal pain the ass,’ I pouted to myself.

Once more, I slowly typed ‘Good Luck’. I bit my lip staring at the message. Should I? I mean, would he think that I was trying to be obnoxious or passive aggressive or something? Am I just over thinking this entire thing? My thumb hovered over the send button.

“This is stupid,” I said out loud.

I moved my thumb to hit the cancel button the very moment my phone started to go off; I was receiving a call. I panicked and started hitting buttons to answer the phone.

“Hello?”

“Lils! What are you doing.” Jen’s voice was quite sing-songy on the other end.

“Nothing.” I said trying to figure out what had happened to the message. ‘Fuck.’ I thought as I found the text had been sent. Great, I am sure this will not go over well. I realized that there had been silence on the line for about 20 seconds, as I had fiddled with my phone. I sighed and prepared myself for whatever was about to come next.

“Spill Rivers. Something involving Sidney is totally happening.”

“Could you not call him that?” I complained.

“Oh my god. You are avoiding the question. What’s going on between the two of you?” Jen couldn’t contain her smugness.

“Nothing,” I replied, “I haven’t spoken a single word to him since I have arrived.”

“But you want to.”

“Of course, I don’t want things to be awkward between Crosby and me. That could affect Geno which would be terrible.”

I heard Jen snort, “Right. Yeah, sure, that is the only reason.”

“I’m going to hang up,” I warned her.

“Geez, grumpypants. You are in a mood,” Jen teased.

“I am going,” I told her.

“Fine, fine, I’ll try calling you later when you aren’t so grumpy. Tell Sid I said hi!”

I didn’t even oblige her with an answer as I hung up on her. I slide my dishes in the dishwasher before I trudged up the stairs. Deciding to listen to what Geno had advised, I headed into my room and set an alarm on my phone. Flopping onto the bed, I shut my eyes and tried to fall asleep.

---

“Noooo,” Veronique and I both whined as the Flyers player scored

The game had started off really well; Niskanen had scored quickly followed by Geno. I had flown out of my seat, ecstatically jumping up and down when Geno had scored. But soon after, the Flyers answered with two goals. It was also hard to watch because Hartnell, Briere, Giroux, three guys who had been so funny and sweet in August, were now beating on my guys. I also cringed every time a Penguins player crashed into them, though, for obvious reasons, I didn’t voice this sentiment to anyone in the box we were sitting in.

The second period was rather tense, especially when the Flyers scored causing them to have the lead for the first time during the game. Seconds into the third period, the Flyers had scored again, which was rather painful to watch. However, our Tyler Kennedy answered, assisted by Pauly. But then the Flyers then scored again, causing the score to be 5-3.

And then we drew a penalty and James got a magnificent goal assisted by Geno. Granted, Crosby contributed to that goal as well. It was hard not to watch Crosby. He moved around the ice as if he saw possibilities 5 steps ahead of everyone else. I had never actually watched him skate before and like so many other things he did, I felt hypnotized.

Then all of a sudden, Brandon Sutter tied the game and the entire building went insane. I was on my feet again screaming, jumping up and down. I heard the soft laughter coming from my side and looked over at Veronique. I slowly sat down, bashfully smiling at her.

“It is very fun to watch you,” she laughed.

“Yeah, I didn’t think I realized I would get this into the game,” I admitted taking a sip of my beer, grinning.

“I didn’t realize you would either,” Veronique admitted as well, “Had you ever been to a game previously?”

I nodded, “The Olympics, but for that, it is really different because you are there for country with teammates, so you act a little, well, patriotic. And then I saw Geno play in Worlds.”

“You and Geno are so very close,” Veron began to insinuate.

“Oh god, no, not like that though.” I shuddered.

“I didn’t think so, but Marc was curious.” she began, but then we both started yelling at the players on the ice.

“Oh no, oh no, no no no, NOO” as a Flyers player scored putting them in the lead again.

I looked at the clock, there was an entire minute and a half left, we could win right? Wrong. I didn’t like that, I wasn’t used to it. I drank the rest of my beer sullenly as
I waited with for Veronique to finish chatting with one of the wives. We had sat in one of the family boxes tonight. I had known some of the wives and girlfriends we had sat with, but Veron and I mostly just kept to ourselves.

Eventually, we started to make our way down to the depths of the building. Veronique had explained that it takes some time for the guys to finish up--they had media scrums, workouts, and showers to do all before they came out. We chatted and sat on some comfortable couches as we waited.

Veronique and I were discussing how lovely Montreal is in the summer when Fleury came out. I bade the two good night and they departed. I stared at the door for a while wondering what was taking Geno so long. I sighed and leaned my elbows on my knees and started toying with my phone. I went to my messages, scanning through my new ones. I had several, though nothing really important. I opened the text from Jen, which read: ‘Sorry they lost :( Better think of something to make the Captain feel better ;)’. Making a face at my phone, I didn’t dignify her with a response. I saw a pair of black shoes stop right in front of me.

“I thought I would have ride home with James or Pauly. You take long time.” I teased in Russian as I stood up still looking at my phone.

“Sorry, what?”

I felt my heart stop. I looked up from my phone, and clearly saw it wasn’t Geno. Crosby and I were standing rather close together. He was looking as incredible as always, wearing that dark gray coat over a suit. At this distance, his normal intoxicating scent was slowly creeping up on me, and I didn't know how much long I would be fully functional.

“I uh, was just complaining about how Geno takes a long time,” I softly said, looking anywhere but at Crosby.

We stood awkwardly not saying anything for several very long moments.

“Jaguars can jump 19 feet straight up into the air.” I blurted out.

“What?” he asked staring at me like I had grown a horn out of my forehead.

“The Hawaiian alphabet only has 12 letters. There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar. And .3% of all road accidents in Canada involve a moose.” I paused closing my eyes. I couldn’t believe I had really word vomited all of these things. I opened my eyes and looked up at Crosby to explain myself, “Whenever I can’t seem to land a trick over and over again, so essentially, losing, I don’t like to think about it or be talked to about it.”

Crosby’s eyebrows came together as he processed what I had said. We both realized I was standing here trying to comfort the Captain after the extremely frustrating loss. A moment later, the left side of his mouth twitched up into a smile.

“Are they all true, these facts?” he asked now smiling completely.

I shrugged my shoulders, “Well, the internet told me so, thus it must be true.”

“Oh well, obviously so, eh?” He replied chuckling. I bit the corner of my lip trying not to smile. "So should I fear moose or jaguars more?"
"I think that is a very good question." I said pondering the question, pretending to be serious, "I mean, what is the actual likelihood you would run into a jaguar versus a moose being from Canada?"

"Fair point," he mused. Crosby paused, "By the way, Lil--"

“Lily?” I heard my name being called and peered around Crosby and saw Geno coming towards us.

“Uh, yeah,” I said to Crosby, quickly, “Um, I guess I will catch you later, or something.”

“Or something.” he vaguely agreed and we parted ways as I headed towards Geno. I couldn't help but think he was about to say my name again.

Notes

Hey friends! Here is this chapter! Woot! The hockey game actually happened (for those of you wondering).

As always, thanks a mil for reading/subscribing/rating/commenting!!!! I should have another chapter up in the next few days!!

Cheers!