His house smells like a mixture of high end cologne and disinfectant, but not in a gross hospital way, in a green apple scented hand sanitizer kind of way. I'd seen his strange bench cleaning techniques and I suppose it's rational he'd be just as clean at home. Everything was neat and tidy, there wasn't a single dirty sock lying anywhere, unlike the other bachelor pads I'd been in. Despite the outward appearance of the place, and the obvious amount of money Sid has, it is quite modest inside. Sure he has a huge flat screen tv and stainless steel everything in the kitchen, but there is no indoor waterfall or 5 bathrooms for one guy, it's homey and comfortable.
"So how often does the maid come in?" I say in a joking tone, but really I'm making sure I'm not overestimating his cleanliness.
"Huh? Why would I need a maid? Yeah the house is a little large for just me, but I'm barely ever here anyways."
"I'm impressed Sid," I smirk.
"Don't be too impressed, we still haven't made dinner."
We make our way to the kitchen, "y'know there a thousands of home cooks who would kill to have a kitchen like yours?"
"I know, it sucks that I'm not a good cook. My most used appliances are probably my BBQ, which isn't even in the kitchen, and the blender," he says guiltily.
"Well lets break in this kitchen then! What shall we make? I love a good homemade pizza."
"My only condition is that it be thin crust with at least 2 different veggies on top. My trainer would kill me if he found out I was eating pizza."
"Fine, start looking for ingredients, we might need to take a quick trip to the store before it closes to pick up some veggies."
"On it!".

---

The credits begin to roll on the The Mighty Ducks.
"It kinda sucks that the third movie isn't on Netflix. I don't think I've ever even seen it," Sid says sadly, taking one last bite of his pizza crust.
His feet are up on top of the empty delivery boxes. Yes we ended up ordering in, but we stuck with Sid's conditions nonetheless.
"Your breathe smells like tomato sauce," I scrunch my nose at him.
He kisses me, "and your lips taste like it."
We giggle and spend the rest of the night on that same couch marathoning Friends, and eventually falling asleep.

---

I STAY OUT TOO LATE. GOT NOTHING IN MY BRAIN.
My eye lids flicker open to Taylor Swift blaring from my phone. Ironic choice after Sid's comment from yesterday. Apparently Sid thought so too as he was chuckling against my back.
"What's so funny? Is this song about you or something?" I poke him in the gut.
"Ow! No I just still can't believe that there was a rumour that we dated. As if Taylor would ever go for a guy like me...." he says in dramatic sadness.
"Oh whatever, get up!" I smack him with a pillow, "you have practice in a couple hours."
I whip up some pancakes quickly for Sid and I and scarf a few down before going to pick up Lindsay. She has been counting the days till she got to meet James. I honk my horn after a few minutes of waiting in front of her apartment. A very flustered looking Lindsay comes bolting out of the building and into the car. Her hair is curled, but a little wild, her face is flushed, and she's wearing a v-neck that shows some cleavage with a cardigan over top. It looks like she had redone her makeups a few times, but that's something only a girl would notice. And she was wearing nice tight fitting jeans with flats.
"Lindsay, I can't help but get the feeling you're a little torn over the look you're going for...." I try to say tactfully.
"Ugh I know! I had no idea what to wear, or how much eye liner to put on, or if I'll look dumb in a cold arena with just this skimpy shirt on a-" she rambled.
"You look great. Let me just..." I reach over and fix a wild curl, rub off some mascara on her eyelid, and undo a couple buttons on her cardi," there!"
"Thanks," she smiles gratefully.

---

We meet Sid at the backdoors of the arena.
"Hey you must be Lindsay, nice to meet you. I'm Sidney," he shakes hands with Lindsay.
"Oh I know," she says raising her eyebrows and elbowing me.
"Shut up," I blush, and Sid does too.
We head into the building and through the hallways by the dressing room.
Just as we're passing the change room a shirtless James Neal walks out in his spandex under armour tights.
"Look who decided to show up!" he bumps Sid on the shoulder.
Turning his eyes in our direction I can feel Lindsay tense up next to me. I steal a quick glance at her to see she practically has beads of sweat rolling down her head.
"Oh hi Rebecca, and who might your friend be?" he quickly abandons Sid to shake hands with Lindsay.
"This is Lindsay. I brought her here to-" I can tell by Lindsay's panicked eyes she does not want me to say she's here to meet him, "keep me company in the stands. It gets lonely up there."
"Ah, well I have to finish getting into my gear. It was nice meeting you Lindsay, talk more after practice?"
"Uh yes... yes!" she stutters.
"Great."
And with a wink and the push of his sleek hair he disappeared into the change rooms.
"Oh. My. God."
"How about we go take a seat in the rink," I grab her arm to steady her and we slowly make our way to some seats.
"He was shirtless... and did you see that hair Rebecca? He wants to talk after practice... should I ask him for his number or wait for him to ask me? Oh god I'm freaking out."
"Ok first just calm down a bit," we sit staring at the empty rink in front of us for about thirty seconds, "you should probably wait for him to ask first."
"You think? What if he doesn't ask th-"
Lindsay continues to worry the rest of practice. Her and James end up exchanging numbers, leading to another dramatic ride home, but she is ecstatic, so I'm happy to put up with it. After dropping her off I head home, I need to do a bit of prepping before the big dinner tonight.

Notes

Sorry I postponed the family dinner till next chapter. I got a little caught up in the Lindsay/James storyline. Hope you enjoyed it anyway.