All at Once

After a much needed nap and three cups of coffee later I convinced James to drive me to the Fleury’s house in Franklin Park. During the twenty-minute drive we got through a good portion of Taylor Swifts 1989 album, our absolute favorite. James would never admit it but he’s an even bigger Taylor Swift fan than Sarah and I. Something that would definitely bruise his tough guy reputation.
The Fleury’s home is a beautiful, white brick colonial style home in a really charming neighborhood. The toys scattering the drive way are a hint to the happy lives of the inhabitants of the lovely house. After thanking James profusely for the ride and making him promise to pick me up in the morning I walked to the front door and rang the bell.
Less than a minute later the door swung open and I was greeted by the one and only Marc Andre Fleury.
“Bonjour! Gabrielle, come in please,” Marc greeted me enthusiastically with a hug and two kisses on the cheek. “So nice to see you again!”
I had met Marc a handful of times and had always liked him. I knew I should have been intimidated by the fact that he was one of the best goalies in the NHL but he was too sweet and goofy to be nervous around. The first time I met Marc was when Scarlett was born, just under a year ago. Ver was at UPMC to have her so I popped in to check on how everything was going. Marc was a nervous wreck even though this was the second time they’d been through this. Seeing the big hockey player so concerned for his wife was heart warming and made me happy to know my friend had someone who loved her so much. The second time I met Marc was much less touching. The two had dropped by the pediatrics ward with baby Scarlett after she had a check up to say hi, and surprise me with coffee. Much to their surprise I came out of my patient’s room covered in an unpleasant combination of blood, puke, and what I was hoping was orange juice. Unfortunately getting covered in various levels of nasty is all part of the job. Needless to say the Fleury’s always text me to let me know they’re coming if they visit me at the hospital.
“How are you doing mon cheri? Veronique is just finishing getting ready, Scarlett is already asleep and Estelle is watching cartoons in the living room, she promised she will be very good for you tonight” Marc explained with a smile.
“I’m sure she’ll be fine” I grinned back, “are you excited for your date?”
“Mon petit chou, have you seen my wife? Of course I am excited! And what about you? Have you had any fun recently? You work far too much, Ver always tells me you look exhausted,” he questioned.
“I’m doing just fine thank you for your concern Marc,” I laughed. “I actually went to a Pirates game with some of the other residence last week. Turns out if you’re hammered, baseball games can be kinda fun!”
“We still need to get you to a Pens game! I always forget that you’ve never come. I guarantee it is much more fun than a Pirates game,” Marc claimed.
“Not that that’s saying much,” I chuckled.
Before we could get much further into making fun of the Pirates, Veronique came down stairs and I swear Marc’s jaw almost hit the ground. She looked flawless in a tight dress that no mother of two should be able to pull off.
“Alright you crazy kids,” I teased, “have fun tonight, I’ll see you tomorrow morning. Estelle come give Mommy and Daddy kisses.” After saying goodnight and taking several adorable photos of the happy couple I scooped Estelle up and waved goodbye to Veronique and Marc as they backed out of their drive way.
“Okay Estelle, what movie do you want to watch,” I asked the three year old.
After several moments of consideration, she shrieked, “SIMBA,” and ran to get the Lion King DVD. The movie was in French and even though I didn’t understand everything they were saying it didn’t stop me from pathetically tearing up when Scar betrays Mufasa and he gets trampled by the wildebeest. What kind of grown up can’t keep it together for a cartoon. I am seriously the worst at being an adult. While most of my friends are spending their Friday nights getting dressed up to go to trendy bars and clubs I’m curled up on a couch with a three year old crying over a cartoon lion. Talk about wild and reckless.
Right as I was about to jam out to Hakuna matata I realized that my snuggle buddy was fast asleep. With a sigh I turned off the TV, scooped up Estelle and brought her upstairs to tuck her into bed. As I was reaching to close the door and turn off the lights I heard Estelle’s soft voice say, “good night Gabi, I love you, thank you for watching Simba,” and my heart melted. Giving her a soft kiss on the forehead I said goodnight and made my way back down stairs.
Moments like these are when I remember why I want to do what I want to do. Kids are sweet and innocent. I’m a firm believer that people are inherently good and sometimes the world just make you hard. Childhood is a magical time where you’re allowed to dream big and love fully. Things like sickness rob kids of their innocence and its one of the biggest injustices in the world.
With these thoughts in mind I headed to the kitchen to get my books and study for a couple of hours.
Next thing I knew I was back on the pediatrics floor at UPMC. One of the kids who basically lives at the hospital named Scotty was suffering from unexplainable seizures, so it was time for another spinal tap. I did my best to calm Scotty and talk his parents through the procedure explaining the small risks of herniation or an epidermoid cyst. Right when I was preparing to insert the needle between the fourth and fifth lumbar vertebrae I heard a sizzle. Confused as to where it was coming from I looked around the room for the noise. It got louder and then my eyes flew open and I realized I was laying face down on my Fundamentals of Pathology textbook in the sunny kitchen of Marc and Veronique.
Momentarily disoriented I sat straight up, forgetting I was sitting on a bar stool, and flew right over the back before hitting the ground with a hard thump causing me to cry out, “OWW FUCK, my ass!” and the room exploded in laughter.
Still confused I stood up and did a quick evaluation of the kitchen. Marc and Veronique were back and with them was a third person. A guy to be exact. A really hot guy who still laughing at my tumble.
“Coffee?” Veronique smirked at me with a quirked eye brow before dissolving into laughter again. One quick glance at my reflection in the Fleury’s shiny fridge told me why. Not only was I wearing my “Lets make babies (healthy!)” t-shirt with a pair of old sweats, my hair was a complete rats nest, the spine of my textbook had left an indent across my face, and I had dry drool caked across my cheek. Yikes, not my best look.
“I’m going to go brush my teeth,” I blushed and scurried off to the bathroom to try to do damage control to my appearance.
After lots of scrubbing, brushing, and fluffing I found enough courage to return to the kitchen and graciously accepted the cup of coffee Marc offered me when I returned.
“Did you guys have a good date last night, I thought you weren’t supposed to be back until 8?” I asked Marc and Veronique confused.
“Gabs it’s 9, we’ve been home for an hour. We tried to wake you up when we got back but you wouldn’t budge,” they laughed at my expense.
“So I’ve just been asleep on counter while you guys have been,” I peeked over Marc’s shoulder, “making pancakes….”
“You were snoring a little bit buy you woke up as soon as Marc started cooking the bacon,” Veronique teased.
I felt my cheeks turn bright red again, “well that’s embarrassing” I was finally able to squeak out, making everyone laugh again.
“Ah where are my manners, Gabrielle this is my friend and captain Sidney,” prompting him to reach out and shake my hand, “Sidney this is our good friend Gabrielle.” I shook his hand back and offered a smile.
“Hi nice to meet you,” I was able to get out. I mentally patted myself on the back for even being able to talk in front of him. The couple times I had taken the bus to work I rode it with Sidney Crosby. Well not the actual Sidney Crosby, but rather his face plastered on the side of the bus. Pittsburg loves their penguins and no one is more adored than Canada’s golden boy.
“You too,” he shot me a crooked smile seriously making me question if I had gotten all the drool off the side of my face.
“Okay, Sid and I need to look over some film really quick, but call us when breakfast is ready and I’ll wake up the girls and we can have a lovely morning, yes?” Marc asked
“Of course love,” Ver replied pecking her husband on the lips and swatting his butt as he walked away.
As soon as Sidney and Marc were out of earshot I turned to V grinning like a Cheshire cat, “So I’m guessing you had a fun night,” I said wiggling my eyebrows at her causing her to laugh and respond, “you have no idea.”
Thirty minutes later breakfast was ready, the girls were up, and Sidney and Marc had returned from the living room. In that moment I had two pancakes in my hands and a three year old piggybacking on my back. I whole heartedly believe it is impossible for me to make good first impressions.
Before I knew it, the clock said 10 and I realized I needed to get home. Today is my only day off all week and I had laundry and grocery shopping to catch up on. I checked my phone and sighed, my friends had gone out last night and no surprise, James went home with a random girl so he would not be coming to pick me up.
“Well this has been really fun guys but its about time for me to head out,” I sighed
“Oh is James here to pick you up?” asked Veronique
“No he ran into a… ‘friend’ last night, so I’m just going to call an Uber.” I replied glancing over at Estelle to make sure she wasn’t corrupted by me mentioning James’s conquest.
“Where do you live?” Sidney asked, “I’m going to the Consul for a meeting and I’m happy to drop you off somewhere?” he offered politely.
Over the breakfast we had all made polite small talk so I felt more comfortable around Sidney but he was still Sidney Crosby and the idea of spending twenty minutes in a car with him was slightly intimidating.
“Oh what a great idea Sid! That’s so sweet of you,” Ver exclaimed over my protest with a mischievous twinkle in her eye which I was really starting not to like.
And just like that I packed my bag with my text books, waved goodbye to the Marc and Veronique, covered Estelle and Scarlett’s faces in kisses, and hesitantly walked out the front door towards Sidney Crosby’s Range Rover.

Notes