All at Once

A few, short hours later my alarm clock went off, pulling me back to reality. I couldn’t help but smile thinking about the night before.

“So you’re telling me Sidney Crosby, THE Sidney Crosby, asked you out?” James questioned turning around in the driver’s seat to face me.
“Either that or he just needs company to go eat,” I responded. “I think Ver might have bullied him into it.”
“Oh come on, give yourself some credit Gabi, you’re smart, fun, and hot, what is there not to like about you?” Sarah encouraged. James and I both looked at each other and laughed.
As if on cue, my phone buzzed with a text message and the name Sidney Crosby lit up my screen. ‘Boarding the plane to Edmonton now, hope you have a good day at the hospital -S.’
With a sigh I typed out a quick reply, threw my phone in my bag, and climbed out James’s Volvo for another day of work.
Walking through the double doors of the hospital I was immediately distracted from any thoughts of Sidney and my floundering love life. There’s something about being in an environment where your decisions are literally life and death. Its electrifying, all consuming, and gives you a kind of high. That rush of adrenaline is what us doctors live for, plus we get to wear scrubs so that’s a good bonus.


“GUYS GET IN HERE, THIS IS AN EMERGENCY,” I hollered from my bed room. I heard scrambling, the shuffling of paper, and water turning off. Next thing I knew James came running in with only a towel around his waist and Sarah came running in behind him with a fire extinguisher in her hands.
“Where’s the fire,” she shrieked with a manic look in her eyes, holding the extinguisher up like a gun.
“Oh not that kind of emergency,” I blushed, immediately feeling guilty for causing such a panic. “I need help deciding what to wear tonight.”
“Okay I’m kind of mad at you for scaring me half to death, but fashion emergencies are so much more fun than flammable ones,” Sarah said with a sigh of relief.
James just rolled his eyes and said, “I’m going to go wash the shampoo out of my hair then I’ll be back, I thought you were being abducted or something.”
This immediately made me laugh, “what were you going to do? Flash them until they agreed to give me back?”
Throwing a middle finger in the air, James headed back to the bathroom, leaving Sarah and me to start looking through my closet.
In the end we decided on jeans with a V-neck, knit sweater and a cute jacket. It made me feel comfortable and gave off a low key vibe. In James’s words it said, “look how cute and cozy I am, but wouldn’t I be cuter without clothes on?” so we were all in agreement that it was the winner.
At exactly 7, Sidney’s name lit up my phone to tell me he was outside. Despite my protest James insisted on walking me downstairs to send me off. Half of me thought he was going to do the whole protective older brother thing, but the smarter half of me knew he just wanted to catch a glimpse of Sidney.
When we stepped out of the building I smiled and waved at Sidney’s car. Before I could get any further I felt James put a hand on my shoulder.
“Okay I know I’m not normally like this but I’m just trying to look out for you,” he started with a serious look on his face, “just because he’s famous doesn’t mean you have to do anything with him you don’t want to. I was there when shit hit the fan with Sam and you know I’ll always support you but I don’t want to see anything like that happen again. And if you feel uncomfortable at all, call me and I’ll- ”
“Woah James, slow down. I’m going on one date with the guy, we’re not getting married,” I joked. “I know it’s hard to believe but I really think Sidney is a good guy.”
“I know, I’m just trying to look out for you,” he replied.
“and I really appreciate that, it’s very sweet of you,” I said wrapping my arms around him in a hug.
“So we can agree to pretend this never happened?” James questioned, pulling back.
“Deal.” I said and high-fived him.
With that settled I gave James one last smile and turned on heels towards the car.
But of course, because it was James, he couldn’t let me walk away without yelling, “don’t smile like that on your date or he’s going to think you have to go to the bathroom!”
As I climbed into the Range Rover, Sidney raised an eye brow and started to say, “Did he just-”
“Let not talk about it,” I nervously laughed shaking my head.
Surprisingly he just laughed it off and started conversation by asking how the hospital was, a much safer topic of discussion than my bowel movements.
The rest of the night went smoothly. We got dinner at an Italian restaurant, talked about where we grew up, he told me about what it was like to have to be so independent so young, and I told him my friendship with James, Sarah, Jill, and Austen.
After dinner we went for a walk along the water front and he had me laughing so hard over a story about the first time his sister, Taylor, brought a boy home.
“I’m telling you, his pants were so far down his butt I thought they were going to fall off. My mom was livid,” he laughed. Over the course of the night I had decided that Sidney’s smile was my favorite part about him. It was the kind of smile that started in his eyes and then just kind of goes everywhere, all at once.
Without even thinking I stood up on my tippy toes and kissed Sidney straight on the mouth. For a moment I was mortified, James had warned me about him coming onto me and here I am assaulting his mouth. Then after a second I felt him kiss back. Before I knew it, I was standing on a sidewalk in downtown Pittsburgh making out with Sidney Crosby as if we were a couple of teenagers. I could feel myself smiling as his hands found their way to my lower back, and mine into his hair. A minute later we were pulling apart, both slightly shocked and shell shocked.
“Sorry, I just, you were-” I tried to stammer out but kept on tripping over my own words.
Before I could get a full thought out Sidney kissed me again, immediately making my mind go black. The kiss started innocently enough but deepened as his hands found my back again and we began exploring each other’s mouths, so electrifying I could feel it in my toes.
“You sure know how to keep a guy on his toes,” Sidney smiled as we pulled away from each other for the second time, both a little short on breath.
Blushing, I looked up into Sidney’s eyes which were twinkling with a mischievous glint and threw my head back laughing.
“What, what’s so funny?” he teased pulling me flush against his chest.
“This is crazy, you and me, it doesn’t make sense,” I said half joking, looking up.
“I know, I’m on a date with a crazy smart doctor, who would have thought?” he leaned down and pecked me on the lips.
“Oh, you’re full of it,” I replied blushing all over again.
“Well you better get used to it, because I think I might want to be seeing more of you,” he said smoothly and grabbed my hand in his large, calloused one as we continued walking down the street.

Notes

hi I'm back!!! please let me know what you think!! do you like James and Sarah? is it too cheesy? love you loads for reading xoxo