The next day Sidney comes home from practice with a big smile on his face.
“What are you so happy about?” I ask suspiciously.

“Get ready babe. We have supper plans,” he replies.

“If you say with Carl and Natalia I’m going to kill you.”

“Give them a chance. Carl let you date you date me even when he was against it. The least you could is give their relationship a shot.”
“Fine. But only causing you’re asking.” I go upstairs and get ready.

“By the way we’re going somewhere fancy,” he calls up. Of course we are. I pick a simple black dress with a mesh v in the middle and we head to the restaurant.

We get there and Natalia and Carl are already sitting at a table. I see her foot rubbing the inside of Carl’s leg and I suppress the urge to gag. Sidney pulls my chair out for me and I sit across from Natalia who’s smiling a little too hard.
“Thanks sis for coming,” Carl says smiling.

“I heard you were paying, so why not? Free food right?” I say gulping some wine.

“So Sidney, me and Phoenix have officially started planning the wedding,” Natalia says charmingly.

“Well that’s exciting. I know Phoenix isn’t ecstatic on the whole wedding planning process.” Sidney responds.

“I might as well be pulling a tooth,” she laughs; I on the other hand take another gulp of wine.

“How was Sweden Nix? Did you get any downtime?” Carl asks.

“I did. I even went to torekällbergets friluftsmuseum,”I reply.

“You went to Sodertalje? Did you go home?”

“Yeah but I don’t want to talk about it.” I’m surprised Bobbie didn’t tell him what happened.
Sidney and Natalia look at us and I change the topic.

“So playoffs are coming up, how are you guys feeling?” I ask.

“If we keep playing how we’re playing I think we have a good shot of doing well.” Sidney says, cutting up his steak.
I start to feel the wine and I relax. After finishing a bottle Sidney cuts me off.

“Hey I officially don’t have to train for the Olympics anymore. I can have all the wine in the world. I wave over the waiter and he tops me off.

“You know I thought this was going to be weird but I can actually see you two together,” I say, my words slightly slurring. “But you’re not mice. Just because I put you in a box together doesn’t mean you have to copulate.” I burst out laughing and soon the whole table is laughing.

“I think you’re past you’re fill,” Carl says taking my wine glass and finishing it off for himself.

“But if this whole things does work out, you’ll spend the rest of your lives owing me and I like the sounds of that. Hey we should go out!” I say excitedly.

“I think you need to go home plus me and Carl have practice tomorrow,” Sidney says putting his jacket on.

“Boo Mr. buzzkill. Then me and Nat will go out just like old times! Come on it’s Saturday! Plus Natalia you owe me,” I say boldly. She looks at Sid who looks at me.

“Fine but I’m trusting her with you,” he tells Natalia. Carl drops us off at the club and I can’t wait to start dancing. When we get to the bar I can see Natalia totally let go and start having fun. We go to the bar and we start knocking back drinks. I lose count of how many I’ve had in total and start to feel way too hammered. We head to the dance floor and start dancing with each other. After what seems like five minutes I check my watch and its 2:30 am. I try to dance to one more song but the room starts spinning and these heels are really hard to balance in. I find Natalia and she gets us both cabs and we sit on the curb waiting.

“Did you really mean what you said earlier or were you just drunk?” she asks.

“About what?” I slur.

“About me and Carl. Are you cool with it?”

“As a cucumber. If ya’ll are happy I’m happy. I just don’t ever want to see it again,” I warn.

“Copy that. Did Sidney by chance mention-“

“If he saw you. Yeah. You were facing the door Natalia. “

“God I’m mortified. That means that all three of you have seen me naked.”

“Way to go champ,” I say high fiving her. Our cabs come and we go our separate ways.
I get home and race up into our bathroom just in time to empty my stomach’s contents into the toilet. I throw up for a good forty-five minutes before I hear Sidney come in. He sits down on the tub and holds my hair.

“You should go,” I say, disgusted with myself.

“I’m fine right here. Man Phoenix I didn’t think you were going to keep drinking,” he says shaking his head.

“I don’t need a lecture right now.”

“I suppose the hangover will be punishment enough,” he laughs.

I wake the next morning with my face pressed to the cold tile and a bottle of Gatorade and some advil in front of my face. I take the advil and down the Gatorade. My head is pounding and my rib cage hurts from puking for so long. I take my dress off and put on a t-shirt and spandex shorts. I walk downstairs where I hear voices in the kitchen.

“Good morning there sunshine,” James says loudly and I wince.

“Your voice hurts,” I tell him. Pauly, James and Geno were all over. I push pass them all and grab another Gatorade from the fridge.

“How was last night?” Pauly asks.

“Fun. Aside from the vomiting for an hour.” Sidney just stands there shaking his head.

“Your hair look nice,” Geno says smiling. I reach up top and it’s half falling out of a messy bun.

“What are you all doing here? Don’t you guys have practice?”

“Nix it’s two in the afternoon.” Sidney says. I look at the clock and sure enough it’s two o’clock. I check my phone and see that I have a missed text from Carl.

Carl: I’m picking you up at 2:30 for lunch

Me: Fine
I get showered and get ready and head outside. Carl is waiting in his car so I get in.

“Nice sunglasses,” he says, noticing my oversized shades. “How ya feeling?”

“Like hell. Why did you want to do lunch?” I ask.

“We always eat out on Sundays plus me and you haven’t hung out one on one in a long time.”
We go to our favourite burger place and eat in silence for a while until Carl clears his throat.

“So I was talking to Bobbie and he told me what went down at home.”

“I knew you didn’t just want to hang out. You weren’t there, it’s none of your concern,” I reply irritably.

“That’s messed up what happened.”

“That’s mom for you.” I respond coolly. “How are things with Natalia?”

“Good. It’s kind of weird living with someone so soon but it’s working. Hey I was thinking you could help Natalia get to know the rest of the wags?”

“Yeah sure. I’m sure she’ll fit right in.” We finish eating and spend the rest of afternoon walking around Pittsburgh.

I come home and see Sidney sitting in the den, gaming with his headset on. I go and stand in front of the TV and Sidney cranes his neck to look around me. I take the headset off his head and put it on my head.

“Sorry guys, Sid’s gotta go,” I say into it. I turn the game off and sit in his lap.

“Well hello to you too,” he says smiling.

“I need to talk to talk to you.” I say seriously.

“Okay. What’s up?”

“Me. I need to how you feel about me being a wag.”
“Wags as in wives and girlfriends? Well you’re my fiancé but I believe that still counts,” he says joking.

“Seriously Sidney. I realize I’m not as involved as I could be as a wag and I need to know if that’s important to you.”

“Phoenix you travel for a living, everyone understands that.”

“I know but I want to be apart of a group and get together and do great things for charities and stuff but I just feel like I have to try so hard fit in.”

“I feel like I should apologize for that. When I broke up with Kathy and started dating you, I know you took a lot of the heat for that and that’s not fair.”

“It’d be cool to have a community outside of you. I mean they do birthdays, baby showers, dinners, and events all together, that’s pretty special.”

“I want you to have friends and people you can lean on. Especially when I’m on road trips and you’re left alone here.”

“Then it’s settled. I’m going into full blown wags mode.” I kiss him and go to the office.

---

“Are you coming to the wags lunch?” Natalia asks me one day while out for lunch.

“I am,” I reply excitedly.

“Phoenix way to go. This is your group,” she says proudly
“
What do you mean?” I ask confused.

“I mean you’re the captain’s soon to be wife. You should be like queen wag,” she says dramatically.

“I don’t think it works like that. I think it’s more seniority, like who’s been there the longest.” I reply.

“Either way I’m on the bottom of the totem pole.”

“They’re going to love you,” I reassure her. Natalia was definitely wag material. She could be a little snobby sometimes but once you get to know her you usually loved her.

“What?” she asks when she notices me staring at her.

“It’s just I’m kind of jealous of you. You’re like the perfect wag.”

“And you are?”

“I mean I’m me. I’m just this snowboarder who’s awkward with all the other women.”
“So you’re not the typical wag, so what? You’re better,” She says protectively.

“I just always pictured Sidney with someone who was more of the typical wag type?”

“Honey he had that and still came running to you. You need to accept that you’re what he wants.” I decide not argue with her further over this though I still had doubts in my mind.

Notes