Raining on Sunday

By the time I had finally gotten home, it was close to 1:12 in the morning. Sidney and I dove into a 24-hour diner after we shared our moment of passion. We talked for hours on end, about everything, from what it was like for him growing up in Cole Harbor to how it was for me growing up in Tacoma, Washington. As I pulled up in the driveway, I saw lights on inside, and immediately regretted staying out so late. Had James waited on me to get home? Did I tell him that I would be home soon after him? I ran through all the options while I fiddled with unlocking the front door. As I opened it, I heard laughter ringing through the house. I slowly walked into the kitchen, setting my purse on the counter. “James?” I called, I walked to the living room and saw James in a compromising position with a blonde on his lap. She immediately stood up and flattened out her outfit and looked at James with panic spread across her face. “What are you doing? It’s just Eisley.” He shrugged at her. ‘It’s just Eisley’, rang through my head and my stomach dropped. “Melanie…Melanie Collins, I’m sorry, I didn’t no James had…” She stretched out her hand, I shook it. “No, I’m just his roommate.” I waved her off, James laid on the couch, his shirt all wrinkled, and two empty bottles of wine were on the table. “Don’t you work with the Pens?” She asked. “Yeah, I’m the coaches assistant.” I answered. James scoffed, rolling his eyes as he stood up. “Wanna know something else about her, Mel?” James wrapped his arm around my shoulder heavily. “She’s fucking Crosby. Or she wishes. Or he does. One or the other. I forget.” He laughed obnoxiously and kissed my cheek. I shoved him off me. Melanie covered her mouth. I had seen her around the arena and had heard James had been going out with her a few times lately. “It’s okay, he always acts like this much of an ass when he’s drunk.” I shot at him. I grabbed my purse and whistled for Sadie to follow me upstairs. Once I was in the room, I pulled out my phone and saw a text from Sidney. He took a selfie of himself laying in bed. Typed under was, ‘Come and get your loovvee :p’. I laughed and took one of myself rolling my eyes and puffing out my cheeks. I typed, “Just caught Melanie Collins drunk on top of my roommate, hungry for some more pancakes?” He answered back almost immediately.

Sid 87: Lol the reporter? Funny, she texted me while we were eating.

Me: Is that so? Must not have answered her quick enough so she jumped over to James haha

Sid 87: She’s too sketchy for my taste. But anyway, thank you for tonight. I’d probably still be sitting on the bench if it weren’t for you.

Me: No you wouldn’t have, the janitors would have kicked you out. Goodnight, Sid J

I locked my phone and laid down in bed, picking up my Ipad and playing a station on Pandora so I could fall asleep without hearing James and Melanie laughing down the stairs, doing God knows what. I was finally falling into a deep sleep when my phone went off, I rolled over and checked it. Sid answered, and his message stopped my heart. “Goodnight, beautiful. By the way, I love you too.” I smiled, and sent back an emoji with a cat for a heart for eyes.

The next day, I woke up late, taking advantage of coaches orders to come in at our own time. It was around 12 in the afternoon, I stretched walking over to the bathroom, to jump in the shower. After my shower, I got dressed in my yoga pants and my Penguins polo shirt. I threw on a pair of socks and trotted downstairs. James was nowhere to be found, I opened the garage door and saw his car was gone. I shrugged and turned the sound system on that played music throughout the house and danced my way into the kitchen, still on cloud 9 from last night. Sidney’s kiss was intoxicating, and I wanted more. I pulled a Gatorade and protein bar out of the fridge and kicked on a pair of Toms. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and checked my Instagram. I liked a few posts from friends from college and went through my film roll, I found a selfie I took with some of the boys and uploaded it, captioning it, “Win or lose, we’re still family and we have the greatest gift of all…being Penguins.” A few minutes later, my phone buzzed with a text from Sid.

Sid 87: Coach said he needs you here, Mario and the other managers are here to talk about cuts and they want you to have an opinion.

Me: I’m on the way

My stomach dropped, cuts and trades, already? I didn’t want an opinion, I was just an assistant, nothing important. I pulled up to the Consol and saw James’ car parked ironically next to Sidney’s. I grabbed my purse and walked in, flashing my ID to security. I made my way to the conference room, where I knew they were meeting at. I knocked and opened the door, Mario greeted me with a hug and pulled out a seat for me. “Thank you.” I smiled. Coach had paper spread all over him. “I’m assuming you know what is going on here, Kemp.” Coach sighed. I nodded, and he pushed a few papers towards me. They were trade offers. The first one was for James. I felt my heart stop. “Neal? You really want to trade him?” I questioned. I stared at the paper in disbelief.

“After the incident with Marchand this season, amongst the already dirty plays he has, he doesn’t fit what the Penguins association represents, he’s a great player don’t get me wrong, but we can’t afford any more incidences.” Coach spoke. I shook my head, and stood up. “I don’t know if I can afford to have an opinion in this, I’m just an assistant.” I crossed my arms. “You share a home, am I right, Ms. Kemp? Is that what you are worried about?” Mario asked. I shook my head. “No, I’m not, but he fits in with us. So many of the guys would be devastated to see him leave.” I put the papers back down on the desk and remained quiet the rest of the meeting, when we were excused I went into my office and laid my head down on my desk. I ran my finger over a picture on my desk of the entire team with me standing in the middle. A few minutes later, Coach came in and closed the door behind him. “I know this is hard for you, but it’s all part of the game, Kemp. Your summer bonus will be coming in soon, you don’t have to worry about working until before camp starts. Enjoy your summer.” He patted my back and walked out, closing the door behind him. I pulled out my phone and texted Sid to come to my office. A few minutes later, he peaked his head through and let himself in.

“You okay?” He asked.

“They want to trade Nealer. Don’t say anything. But what am I supposed to telll him?”

“He’s been questioning if he would get traded or not, I think he knows it’s coming. You don’t have to say anything, let the managers take care of that.”

“I guess I should start looking for a new place to live.”

“Mario has an extra place behind his house, I stayed there for a long time.”

“I’m not moving in with Mario.” I laughed.

“Just an option. What are you doing tonight?”

“I gotta take Sadie and Nixon for a run. Care to help?”

“That actually sounds pretty good, as long as I can treat you to dinner after.”

I smiled and agreed, telling him to meet me at the house after we left. I finished cleaning up my office and walked out to my car with Sidney next to me, who was carrying what was left of his gear. “Have you seen Nealer?” Sid asked. I shook my head, “He was gone before I left this morning.” Sid nodded and threw his things into his Range Rover, and told me he was following me. “Alright, see you at the house.” I waved jumping into my Jetta.

Pulling in front of the house, I saw two cars already in the driveway and felt my stomach tie itself in knots. Sidney pulled up behind me, and straightened out his jeans as he stood up. “Whose here?” He asked. I raised and eyebrow and shrugged. We walked up to the front door, and opened it. I heard familiar laughter in the living room, and I paused, holding Sid still.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do, I’m pretty much in love with this girl and she has no idea. Doesn’t help she caught me with Melanie. She’ll run off to Sid any chance she gets, and if this trade rumor is actually true…I have no chance.” We eavesdropped, and my mouth dropped.

“You have to tell her, or you will really never know how she feels. She love you lazy, but she is all stubborn and professional.” Geno’s botched English consoled him.

James scoffed, “Professional? So she thinks. I can be a great guy for her though.”

“Lazy, you party guy. Sid is guy you have family with. You the guy who too good in bed but Sid the one, how you say? Bring home to mama.”

“Yeah, if you can get the guy to do anything besides hockey.”

I looked up at Sid and mouthed, ‘what are we supposed to do’, to him. He lifted a finger to me and reopened the front door, but slammed it shut so the guys would hear it. “So, pizza for dinner?” He spoke out loud. I exhaled quickly, and smiled. We continued to talk, making our way to the living room. “Oh, hey guys. I was wondering whose car was here.” I smiled at them. James’ jaw was slightly unhitched, and Geno was smiling. “Eisley, why you no give me a chance?” Geno laughed. I lightly punched his arm. James still hadn’t said anything. “The dogs outside? We’re going for a run.” I asked him. He slowly nodded his head, and turned towards the tv. “Did you guys finish cleaning out your lockers?” Sid asked. I absentmindedly pulled the necklace James gave me out from under my shirt, and fiddled with it. He turned and looked at me, noticing I was still wearing it. He tried to hide the smile forming around his smile, “Yeah, it’s completely empty. Even took my name plate.” I announced I was going to change into running gear, and told Sid where the guest bathroom was so he could change as well. I heard a soft knock on the door, and opened it, pulling my shirt over my head.

“I’m sorry about last night.” James spoke lowly.

“It’s my bad. I should have knocked.” I turned to pick up the dogs leashes and faced him.

“I wanted to talk to you about some stuff later on, to do with the house. When will you be alone?”

“Not sure, Sid and I are doing dinner later. I’ll text you though.” I smiled, patting his shoulder and walking passed him. Sid was waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs and already had Nixon and Sadie sitting by him. We put the leashes on them and headed out the front door. We both put in headphones, and started off at a slow pace. All I could think about was what James said. If he really was in love with me, should I move out soon? I don’t want to lead him on. And moving out would prevent more awkward run-ins with girls in the future. Also, I had to take the possible trade into consideration. As we hit the two-mile mark, I prayed James didn’t know his name was on the table already, and that the trade was more than a rumor already. After a while, I had to stop running, Sid stopped, pulling his headphones out, Nixon immediately laying down. I plopped next to him on a bench and inhaled deeply, wiping the sweat off my forehead. We caught our breath in silence for a few minutes, then Sid spoke.

“You know, I can tell what you heard back there has been weighing on your mind since we left.” Sid broke the silence.

“Oh yeah?” I laughed.

“James is right, though. He would be a good guy for you. But Geno is also right, he’d be a good guy for you if you weren’t ready to settle down.”

“Was Geno also right about you? The family type?” I nudged.

“If that’s what you wanted, I’d be that for you.”

My stomach dropped, and I felt all the color rising to my cheeks. I turned my attention to my phone, and fiddled around on instagram.

“You’re not used to having someone be serious about you, are you?” He asked. I shook my head, and continued the ‘liking’ spree I was on. Sid grabbed my hands and turned my face to his.

“I meant what I said.” He leaned in, kissing me softly. It felt perfect, sweaty kisses and all. Sidney Crosby had stolen my heart somewhere along the line of our friendship, I wasn't sure where, and I probably would never be able to pinpoint the exact moment he did, but all I do know, is that nothing ever felt so right.

Notes

I'm going to start introducing more characters in the next chapter, this was just kind of a filler. Hope you like it ^.^