I wake up to a grey sky and turn to look at Sid. His eyes are closed and his breathing is slow. I sneak out from under his arm and find a t-shirt and spandex shorts to wear. I creep out of my bedroom and close the door. I turn and see Carl at the kitchen table and I can’t read his face.

“Good morning Carl,” I say in Swedish.

“Soooo what? You guys are together now?” he asks, not wasting any time.

“He broke up with his girlfriend. I guess we’re together, unofficially.”

“Wow. You did it. You stole someone’s boyfriend.” He says, looking down at his plate.

“I didn’t want to! You said this is what I should do!” I yell defensively.

“Relax I’m kidding. If this is really what you want, I’m behind you but let’s draw the line at murder okay?”

“No way. I need you to help me bury the body,” I joke.

“Hey,” I hear Sid’s voice say awkwardly and I’m relieved that our conversation was in Swedish.

“Good morning,” I say smiling.

“Well I should get going, I’ll call you later?” he says heading towards the door. I get up and meet him at the door.

“Thanks for last night,” I say quietly.

“I should be thanking you,” he replies. He kisses me gently then leaves.
I return to the table smiling for ear to ear.

“It looks like your face is going to explode,” Carl says weirdly.

“I got laid!!!” I exclaim loudly. I go for a high five that Carl reluctantly reciprocates.

“Next time, give me a heads up so I can wear ear plugs,” he says repulsed.

“Sorry,” I say awkwardly. I go to my room and check my phone where I see I have a missed call from Bobbie. I call him back just to make sure everything is okay.

“Hello?” I hear him say in Swedish.

“Hey Bob, its Nix! Sorry I haven’t called in so long,” I say guiltily.

“Nix! No worries! How are ya? I have some good news.”

“I’m good. And really? What is it?” I ask intrigued.

“When Carl gets back from the road trip they’re going on, I’m going to be flying in to surprise him. I would have surprised you too but I don’t know where you guys live or your schedule,” he says regretfully.

“Haha no worries. That sounds great, he’ll love that.”

“You have to promise not to tell him,” he warns.

“I’ll try but he always knows when I’m lying,” I whine.

“Well try hard. I gotta go, bye sis.” The call ends and I’m excited to have my big bro come stay with us. Carl has always looked up to Bobbie so I know he’ll be stoked. Exhausted after last night’s activities I decide to take a power nap before heading to the gym. An hour later Carl wakes me up to tell me he’s leaving for their 3 day road trip. He leaves and I head to gym. I’m on the treadmill when I look up on the TV and see some sportscasters talking about Sidney. I jump off the treadmill and turn the TV up. They were talking about his recent play and the outcome of the Olympics. “Are you a fan?” I hear a voice say from behind me. I turn and there is a tall man standing behind me.

“Um, yeah I am.” I say meekly.

“Personally I think he’s overrated,” the man replies. Frowning, I head back to the treadmill. The strange encounter had me thinking about Sidney. This was Pittsburgh and even people who didn’t watch hockey knew who he was. He had a lot of admirers and just as many people who didn’t like him, but that comes with the territory when you’re that good. I thought about me and Sidney as a couple. Was this going to work? He was a private guy so I’m assuming he would want to keep our relationship a secret. I guess I could be okay with that. We were often in different places and so I was going to have to get used to a long-distance relationship. I finish my workout and head upstairs to get ready for Bobbie.

---

“And this is our apartment!” I tell Bobbie. I had just picked him up from the airport and was now showing him our apartment.

“Wow Nix, this is incredible,” he replied in awe.

“Well you’re probably hungry, I’ll order some pizza. Carl should be home any minute. I can’t wait to see his face when he sees you.” I order the pizza and we catch up.

“So what’s new with you?” he asks.

“Nothing really, just snowboarding. The usual,” I say casually. The door opens and Carl and Sidney walk in. I jump up and run past Carl straight to Sidney.

“Wow Phoenix, way to make a guy feel loved.” Carl says annoyed. He looks in the living room and sees Bobbie standing there with a stupid smile on his face. “Bobbie!!! What are you doing here?!” Carl yells, his whole face lighting up. The two hug it out and I stand there smiling.

“Surprise little bro!” Bobbie exclaims, messing up Carl’s hair. They start wrestling and I roll my eyes. I turn Crosby and hug him.

“What a nice surprise to see you here,” I tell him.

“It was such a long road trip, I couldn’t wait to see you,” he replies.

“It was 3 days,” I laugh.

“Yeah three days too long.” He moves a strand of hair from my face and I melt. Carl clears his throat and I remember my brothers are in the room.

“Oh yeah, Bobbie this is Sidney. Sidney this is my older brother Bobbie,” I say, introducing them.

“That’s right. Phoenix’s older protective brother,” Bobbie says sternly. I roll my eyes.

“Nice to meet you,” Sidney replies, shaking his hand.

“Phoenix, I’m pretty sure when I asked you what’s new, you could have said that you were dating Sidney Crosby,” Bobbie says, sounding annoyed. I didn’t really know how to reply to that. I wasn’t even sure if Crosby and I were even dating.

“Sorry. I didn’t think it was relevant,” I say guiltily. We all hangout and eat pizza and Bobbie tells Sidney embarrassing stories of me growing up. After awhile I drag Sidney to my room for some privacy.

“I apologize on Bobbie’s behalf, he thinks he’s funny,” I say rolling my eyes.

“No worries. I like him. So the good looks run in the whole family,” he says laughing.

“Apparently.” I pause and wonder if I should ask him what’s on my mind.

“What is it?” he asks concerned.

“It's just… what is this? You and me? I mean what are we doing?” I ask hesitantly. He ponders my questions and I feel a nervous knot in my stomach.

“I want to be in a relationship with you. I just like to keep my personal life personal. I mean we can tell our close friends,” he replies.
If we were to tell his friends, his teammates then everyone would know I broke him and Kathy up.

“Everybody’s going to figure out what happened and hate me,” I say putting my head in my hands.

“No they won’t.”

“The wags will for sure.”

“We don’t have to tell anyone if you don’t want to,” he says reassuringly.

“Then I’m like your dirty secret,” I say slightly disgusted. “You know what, we should just tell the team. They can hate me if they want but I think they should know.”

“Okay we will. I gotta go though,” he kisses my forehead and leaves. I lay on my bed thinking about the predicament I’m in. I put myself in this situation. I have no one else to blame but myself. I take a nap but wake up to the sound of my phone ringing. I see Sidney’s name on the screen and I quickly answer.

“Hey you,” I say sleepily.

“What are you doing tonight?” he asks excitedly.

“Nothing I don’t think. Why?”

“Because I’m taking you on our first official date.” An actual date with Sidney Crosby? I was the luckiest girl ever.

“Okay, where are we going?” I ask curiously.

“I’m taking you to one of my favourite restaurants in Pittsburgh. You’ll love it.” We end the call and I quickly shower. I put on some eyeliner and mascara and blow-dry my hair. I curl it into loose waves and all I have left to do is find an outfit. I look at the clock and it reads 6:55 pm. Sidney said he’d pick me up at 7:00 pm and I start to stress out. I finally decide a short red dress with three quarter length sleeves and a high neckline matched with a pair of black pumps. I walk out of my room to find Carl and Bobbie watching tv.

“Wow Nix, you clean up good,” Carl says, taking his eyes off the screen.

“Yeah you look great,” Bobbie adds. I thank them and head downstairs to find Sidney’s Range Rover waiting for me. I hop in and smile at him. He’s wearing a navy suit with a white shirt with the buttons at the top undone with no tie.

“You look incredible,” he says grabbing my hand.

“You’re looking pretty good yourself,” I reply. We spend the ride there hand in hand while I went through his iPod and made fun of his music taste. We finally pull in behind a large building and he helps me out of the vehicle. He leads my through a back door where we end up in a kitchen.

“Mr. Crosby welcome,” a tall man comes and greets us.

“Lenny this is Phoenix. Phoenix, this is Lenny the owner.” I shake the man’s hand and he leads us to a private dining area that’s completely secluded. He takes our drink and food orders and leaves. I look around at all the empty tables. Is this how our entire relationship was going to be? Sneaking through back entryways and reserving rooms. The room has a beautiful chandelier and the décor makes it clear that this is a very fancy restaurant.

“I see being Sidney Crosby has it perks.”

“Usually people take pictures or come up and ask for autographs, I just didn’t want anyone bothering us tonight,” he replies. I got recognized often enough, but still led a relatively normal life. I couldn’t imagine being in a city where every person knows who you are. Our food comes and my 10 oz steak looks amazing. “Are you going to be able to eat all that,” he asks laughing,

“Don’t underestimate me Crosby. I could literally live off of steak,” I say smiling. “So tell about yourself?” I ask him after awhile.

“Well I play hockey, that takes up most of my time,” he replies.

“No I mean besides hockey. What kind of things do you like?

“Well I like eating out and reading. I’m really into history and I like army movies. I like watching football and baseball.” He says simply. “What about you, besides snowboarding, tell me about you.” I think about the question for a moment before answering.

“My life revolves around music. I love to travel and I like science. I graduated high school when I was twelve. I was in the middle of getting my masters in virology but I put that on hold so i could focus on snowboarding. I love hockey and hate football and I enjoy skateboarding.”

“So you’re like a genius?” he asks, shocked.

“I wouldn’t say a genius,” I reply awkwardly.

“Virology. That’s like the study of viruses right?” I nod and take a sip of my wine.

“That’s really cool.” He says impressed. We spend the rest of the meal getting to know each other on a more personal level. We finish the meal and head back to the car.
“Do you uh want to check out my new house?” he asks nervously. I can’t help but smile at him. This man who was the captain of a team and dominated on the ice was nervous to ask me go back to his place.

---

We get to his house and it’s twice the size of my house back in Sweden. We walk inside and can’t get over how spacious it is.

“I had it built and finally got to move in a couple months ago,” he says taking off his jacket. I don’t know if it’s the suit or the wine but my need for him is growing. He gives me a tour of the house but the only thing I care about seeing is the bedroom. Finally we get to his room and you can tell a guy decorated it. I look at him and he still looks unsure. I decide to take the first step and unzip my dress. I step out of my dress so I’m just standing there in front of him in my underwear. I slowly start unbuttoning his shirt and peel it off of him. I unbuckle his belt and reach down and start stroking him. I can feel him getting hard in my hand and I look up at him. His head is back and his eyes are closed. I back up so I’m leaning against the bed. He follows and steps out of his pants and boxer briefs. He lifts me onto the bed and unclasps my bra. He slips two fingers under my thong all while placing wet kisses along my neck. His fingers move masterfully in and out of me and my hips start to buck.
“I want you,” I manage to get out. He peels my thong off and lines up with my center. In one swift motion he thrusts in and hits my g-spot. I gasp loudly and he kisses me deeply. He picks a steady pace and I can feel my orgasm building. I wrap my legs around him so that his pelvis is rubbing against my clit. My orgasm comes and I feel myself tightening around him. I cry out his name and soon feel him empty inside me. He collapses on top of me and we both lay there panting. He rolls off of me and starts laughing.

“What’s so funny? I ask self-consciously.

“I thought I was doing the whole sex thing right before, but I had no idea it could be this good,” he responds, his breathing still laboured.

“You haven’t seen nothing yet,” I smile and climb on top of him, ready for round 2.

Notes