The Roommate

They didn’t have long to get home and get changed to attend the adult portion of the Christmas party. Sidney was getting ready in his room and Bri was in hers. She had no idea what to even begin to think of what to wear, so she decided to work on her hair and makeup first. She was in the process of finishing the bun she was making by a knock on the door.

“Come in,” she chimed, watching Marty play on the floor in front of the door.

Sidney avoided him thankfully and was carrying a hanger with an object on it. He was shirtless with his dress pants on and his hair still damp from the shower he took. “You almost ready?”

“A lot more ready than you,” she chuckled, staring at his bare torso openly.

Sidney couldn’t help but admire the beauty that was before his eyes. She was sitting so elegantly on her chair in front of her little desk with a light up mirror. She was wearing a white satin with purple and pink flowers, knee length robe. Her eyes were bright in an accent by her makeup and her smile was as large as her personality. He almost forgot what he came in for.

“Sid you there?” she asked, knowing his was lost in a daze.

“Yeah sorry, I’m getting there,” he chuckled, looking down at himself. “Wasn’t sure if you had an outfit or not, I didn’t really get a chance to tell you what people normally wear to this event, so I got this for you. I’m pretty sure it’ll fit,” he blushed.
“Aw Sid, you didn’t have to!” she said getting up to open the bag. A beautiful red gown hung delicately before her eyes. She was shocked he would even find something that elaborate on such short notice. He loved seeing her react this way, she was speechless. “How did you figure out my size? You got it perfect.”

“I just checked a tag on one of your dresses you had hung in the laundry room a few days ago and sent out for some help.”

“Thank you so much Sid, you really didn’t have to,” she said, giving him a hug. Both of them enjoyed the feeling of each other’s touch, especially in the state that they are in.

“I’ll leave you to get that on, and I’ll go get a shirt and tie on because it’s cold in your room.”

“Put your nips away sir,” she laughed. Grabbing a towel and swatting him out of her room, causing Marty to bark his way out of the room. They all just laughed and went their separate ways.

After she got the dress on she looked at her reflection. This is far more elegant than the dresses her mom used to wear to her dad’s Christmas parties. It was a little big in the top half of the dress but she was so impressed by his efforts. She grabbed a clutch and filled it with her essentials and walked out to find Sidney leaving his room too.

“It fits!” he cheered, throwing his hands up in the air. He walked up to her and placed his hands on her hips, “You look absolutely beautiful.” He kissed her cheek gently, wishing he had gone for her lips but unsure if she would accept a kiss like that.

“Thank you handsome. You did a good job,” she winked. He helped her down the stairs and they said goodbye to Marty. Seeing as Vero was still breastfeeding she offered to be the DD for the evening and picked them up in her mini van.

“I cannot believe we are going to a formal Christmas party in a mini van,” Sid said as he climbed in the back after Bri.

“Times have changed eh Sid?”

“We went from a Cadillac to this within a year, how did this happen?”

“If you two don’t stop complaining I will pull this car over, beat you two and turn this car around,” V warned.

“You tell ‘em girl!” Bri cheered on.

“We’re equally matched now Sid, we can never win,” Flower joked.
When they got to the venue it was done up nicely like a winter wonderland. Vero was wearing a similar dress to Bri’s, as were most of the women. She was glad Sidney helped her out because she wouldn’t have known what to wear. Geno and Bonino were wearing matching tux’s and were stealing the show in the men’s category for fashion, but it was hilarious to watch.

They were seated at a table with the assistant captains and their wives and girlfriends. As the only girlfriend of the table Bri was uncomfortable and felt awkward but she didn’t let it bug her too much. Hell, everyone saw her as the most confident woman in the room, and it wasn’t because she was on the arm of Sidney Crosby either.

There were a lot of speeches and a lot of wine drank in a short time. The meal was great and the dessert was even better, or dessert buffet they had. Phil Kessel had a great time at the chocolate fountain and found himself almost head first in the bowl thanks to Geno.

While Sidney was taking pictures with his teammates and coaching staff Bri was mingling with Catherine and Vero. They were in the process of asking about her personal blogging. “I’m finding business has been booming for the holidays, but I’m sure it’ll all be over soon. So things are going pretty good,” she nodded.

“We actually had a huge favour to ask of you, but we were wondering if you’d do the honour of building a website for our new clothing line, and being responsible for the photography of the items?” Catherine asked nervously. “We are both obsessed with your blog and follow you on everything and you have the vision we want to represent our brand.”

“And we know you have the background to do this, plus we’d love to keep you involved in this process too. We genuinely consider you to be a part of the team even if you and Sid aren’t dating.”

Bri was absolutely shocked. “Oh my gosh of course, I would be honored to!” she replied, giving the girls a group hug. “You tell me what you want and I’ll do it!”

“Yay! We thought you’d say yes!” Catherine squealed. “I’m so glad you want to do this, we really think you have what it takes for this position.”

“I’m so shocked you asked me but I will definitely take you on as a client of mine. I didn’t know you two were starting a business, that’s great!”

“Yeah, we decided to make a kids clothing line sometime last year and it’s been a long process with a lot of progress,” Vero replied.

“Yeah, so now that we have all our designs done and have some pieces fully completed we figure we might as well start building the rest of the brand.”

“Good for you ladies! I’d love to help in any way I can. I can’t wait to see some of these pieces too. I feel like you would have the greatest style senses for your kids,” Bri said, watching Sidney from a far mingle with people. She found herself imagining how Sidney would be like with kids one day and picturing a family of their own. Ridiculous considering they weren’t even dating but natural.

In that moment they made eye contact from across the room and Sidney smiled at her, then looking back to the gentlemen he was speaking to. He took a moment and excused himself, rushing over to Bri and dragging her away from the conversation. “Excuse me ladies, I have to steal Bri for a brief moment.”

“Oh you can have her,” Catherine winked as he reached for her hand.

He held it all the way across the room to the group of men he was talking to prior. It felt like the entire room was staring at them as they walked, because Sidney Crosby was holding a girl's hand in public. Bri just smiled knowing the attention was on her and continued to focus on where she was going.

“I just have to introduce you to some people, that’s all,” he smiled sweetly to her to try and calm her down.

Sure enough it was a group of high executives and people within the organization. She met GM Jim Rutherford and new coach Mike Sullivan, as well as Mario Lemieux, whom Bri has met several times before. Bri shook everyone’s hands and made sure to thank them for having a great event and allowing her to attend.

“You look oddly familiar, have we met before?” Mario asked, taking a good look at her.

“We actually have several times throughout the years,” she smiled up at him, surprising the crap out of Sid.

“Her dad actually played in the league for years,” Sidney said.

“Oh really, last name?”

“Dumas,” she said.

“Not Peter Dumas?”

A smirk crept on her face and she looked over to Sid to see his reaction, trying not to laugh. He was shocked as shit to learn he was her dad but had to play it cool. “That’s the one.”

“Oh my gosh, we go way back to playing junior hockey together! You’re his oldest right?”
“That’s me!” she smiled.

“I remember you now, how are you doing? You’re so grown up now!”

“I’m good!” she said, the rest of what she said was a blur to Sid, although she’s probably talking about graduating school and work, he couldn’t focus on her for once. Her dad is Peter Dumas. The man singlehandedly changed the way players are treated by the players association. He was a huge advocate for improving schedule’s for the sake of the players and a lot of changes were made back in the late nineties and early 2000’s because of him.

A lot of players in today’s day and age don’t like the way the schedule works now because they feel it’s too much for them mentally to handle and that it’s too draining, but it used to be a lot worse back then. People don’t see him for the man he was in the league today except for players who physically experienced it. He helped them in a way Ted Lindsay couldn’t even accomplish. He’s often to blame for mental health accidents within the NHL because he pushed for a more demanding schedule so summers couldn’t be longer and better. How could he not put two and two together!?

“Man, I have not spoken to your dad in forever! I think I saw him at my first charity event last,” Mario said placing his hand on his forehead.

“Yeah that’s about right!” she laughed.

“What’s he up to these days?”

“He’s actually a scout for the Toronto Marlies, so he’s still on the road a lot.”

“Wow, good for him. I thought he was for sure going to get into the Players Association.”

“He’s been in and out over the years, he wants to go back though.”

“I’m going to have to give him a call tomorrow to say hi,” he smiled. “Wow, I can’t believe you’re here with Sid. How did you two meet?”

“It’s a long story,” Sidney laughed awkwardly.

“Tinder?”

“No!” he laughed even harder. Bri was interested to see what he would say as his excuse. “We met at a coffee shop in town.”

“Funny you two would meet,” Mario laughed. “Well it was so nice to see you Bri.”

“Likewise,” she smiled, as Mario got interrupted by some of the players coming up to say their ‘thank you’s’ to him.

Vero and Flower were ready to leave so Sid and Bri joined them. They both knew they would have a conversation about what had happened when they got home but they chose to remain quiet for the majority of the ride. Bri was busy typing most of her article while everyone else was talking about the night and certain people.

“You okay?” Sid asked her, noticing she was on her phone a lot.

“Sorry, work emailed me and needs me to send them something as soon as possible. Have a deadline to meet,” she replied. “I’m almost done.”

“Okay sorry,” he apologized leaving her be. He knew she wasn’t trying to be rude by any means, and the others understood too. She made it clear that work has been busy and coming tonight was making things worse for her in that sense.

When they got home Bri sent the article to Diana and received praise for her efficient work. Although she was thrilled to have gotten a good review from her, she couldn’t seem to shake that deep pit feeling in the bottom of her gut. She was crushed and she knew it. The guilt was too much.

Sidney took a seat in the living room and flicked on the TV, scooping Marty up with him. He wasn’t sure if she was avoiding him or not, but her silence was bothering him. He had to say something about tonight.

“So why didn’t you tell me your dad was Peter Dumas?” he asked right out of the gate.

“I was afraid you’d judge me for it. Not a lot of players like him these days,” she blushed sitting next to him.

“So? That’s your dad. You should be proud of who he is. I think he’s a great man for what he did to be honest.”

“I am proud of him, but with your status I didn’t want to mention anything incase.”

“Look, players of this generation are whiney and ungrateful. None of them want to put in the work but want the success that comes with someone who works their ass off. I get that it can be stressful, but more than half of those guys aren’t used to what it’s like to be a true athlete. I respect your father for what he did, and I know I’m not alone.”

“I’m sorry, just a stupid insecurity from when I was younger. I got picked on a lot for who he was.”
“I can understand that,” he said, pulling her in closer. “Just don’t beat yourself up over it. You have no reason to.” He kissed her forehead, causing her to smile. Guilt still rippled through her body. “You okay?” he asked, noticing her mood and how opposite it was.

“Yeah, I’m just homesick,” she said as the tears started to form in her eyes, though they did not fall. “I miss them so much.”

“Aw, come here,” he said, bringing her body into his almost completely, sitting her across his lap. “It’s okay to miss your family.”

“It was hard being there today and remembering what those parties were like for us as kids and brought back a lot of memories, that’s all. I had a great time with you and I don’t want you thinking I didn’t.”

“I know you did. You were amazing with everyone there. You have no idea how glad I am you came with me. You always manage to stay so calm and collected.”

“I’m experienced,” she joked, causing him to laugh with her.

“And I heard the good news about Catherine and Vero, that’s amazing!”

“Thank you,” she smiled. “I was so shocked.”

“I wasn’t, they talk so highly of you,” he smiled. “They all do.”

“As much as you?” she smiled up at him.

“Never,” he smiled down, taking a moment to kiss her, even though he realized he probably shouldn’t have.

Although it was the perfect way to end the night and help end Bri’s anxious mind from wandering too far.

Notes

Outfit of the chapter: http://www.polyvore.com/holiday_elegance/set?id=216901977

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