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That Man Right There

Two

Addie took the first sip of her vanilla latte and felt it warm even the coldest parts of her. Mid August for her usually meant weather in the nineties in California. So even though it was in the low seventies in Pittsburgh, she needed that warm pick me up to get going; especially if she was to sit through a day of classes. Christine had one for herself too, and now was the perfect time for any gossip that might happen.

The weekend had been spent thinking about the party, at least on Addie’s end. Not that it was anything of a spectacular party. She had only really talked to one person, albeit for a brief moment in time while sitting on the kitchen floor. But it made her wonder if she was going to be able to make friends in Pittsburgh. This was her first time in Pennsylvania, or on the east coast at all. And while making friends had never really been a problem in the past, within the month she’d been here now, there wasn’t any friends other than Christine. And Christine was a good friend, but she worked all the time, and in between that and Addie’s own intense schedule, there wasn’t much leisure time.

Addie was in her own thoughts when she suddenly snapped out of it and heard Christine say something about Sid from the party. She looked at her and took another sip, “what’s his deal?”

“What do you mean?” Christine asked, looking around as someone else in the library shushed her.

“What’s his deal? Who does he represent?”

Christine furrowed her eyebrows, “he’s not in PR.”

“He said he sees you at work.”

Christine rolled her eyes playfully and went on her phone. At first Addie thought she was choosing to ignore the topic, but her ferocious tapping led her to believe that Christine was going to prove something to her. When she did hand over her phone, Addie noticed she was looking at the results of a Google search; of which, Sid’s picture was at the top.

“My boss represents some of the guys so I’ve gone to the arena to run her errands… drop off or pick up some paperwork. He’s usually around and we’ve had a few brief chats.”

“Enough for him to attend your house party,” Addie mentioned, scrolling through the headlines that had popped up. This guy was something of a star.

“He was supposed to bring someone else from the team so he’d have a friend. But the friend bailed, and I guess he didn’t want to be rude and dip out at the last minute.”

Addie handed the phone back to Christine, “you’re into him?”

Christine laughed and was subsequently shushed again. She took another sip of her latte. “Not a chance. Sid’s six years older than us, makes more money than I’ll ever see, and always has his nose buried in work. I don’t think I’ve ever had a conversation with him that didn’t revolve around hockey.” She shrugged, “plus I think he’s probably asexual or something.”

Addie laughed at the random inference, “what?”

“He doesn’t really seem like a sexual being. Which isn’t a bad thing. It just doesn’t seem on his radar. Like of all the things he’s got to do, he’s not going to spend what little time he has on sex. And I kind of respect that about him. But it also seems like it’d be kind of lonely to be Sidney Crosby.”



Addie sat hunched over her book, every now and again highlighting something she thought might be important to remember. The cafe she was in was quiet enough for her purposes. Only a few people were there which was nice given that it was prime dinner hour. She had a good amount of reading to get through thanks to her many history classes. There wasn’t going to be time to take breaks at the pace she was going, if she had any hopes of finishing.

“Adeline?”

She looked up, shocked and half-scared that Sid was standing in front of her. He had coffee in a to-go cup in his hand but was now waiting for her to answer. It was at that point she decided she wasn’t going to make any notion of having researched who he was. Nothing was going to happen. She was far too busy to start that, and judging by Christine’s description of him, so was he. “Hi. Fancy seeing you here,”

He smiled, “yeah, I got in a late workout…” he held up his coffee cup, “needed something to keep me going for a few more hours. I see you’re reading, so…”

When he trailed off, Addie looked down at her book for a quick second, “resource allocation by the Axis powers from 1939 to 1945. Riveting stuff,”

“Jesus,”

Addie laughed and shut her book, “I was actually looking for an excuse to take a break. My knight in shining armor is back at it again.” She nodded at the chair across from her, pleased when he pulled it out and sat down.

“Where did the Axis powers allocate their resources?” Sid asked, seemingly genuinely interested in the answer.

She smiled at his inquisitiveness, “I don’t really know how to put it in a simple way.”

“Then don’t,” he grinned and then played, “I’m not a simple man.”

Addie rolled her eyes and took a breath, thinking. “War burden on a country is expressed through gross national product. When the war began, only one quarter of Germany’s GNP was devoted to the war effort. By 1944, it had sky-rocketed to over three-quarters. That, mixed with Germany’s insistence of only using fuel from the fatherland, helped the Allies win the war, and once again, the Germans saw a total collapse of their economy.” It was at that point Addie noticed the rant she’d just gone on, and how Sid stared at her with a boyish smile on his face. “Sorry,” she laughed.

“No, don’t apologize. You like talking about it,”

She nodded, “World War Two was such a weird time. A lot of it is really interesting. Maybe not resource allocation, but my focus is environmental studies within the realm of history.”

“Which means what exactly?”

Addie blushed and slid her hands over her book. She’d never had anyone outside of her family ask her so many questions about her degree. “My Master’s degree is focusing on how ancient civilizations and different groups and cultures interacted with the environment.”

Sid leaned forward and rested his arms on the table, “and you’re going to school in Pittsburgh.”

“Carnegie Mellon.”

“So you’re pretty smart,”

Addie laughed and blushed harder, “a little bit.”

“And you live in this neighborhood?”

Addie leaned back in her chair and giggled, “God no. This would absolutely destroy my bank account. I live on the south side. Safe and still affordable.” She felt he’d just learned a fair amount about her, and even though she knew more than he anticipated, Addie believed she now deserved to have him tell her things. “You live in the area?”

“Sewickley,” he took a sip of his coffee.

“I have no idea where that is,”

Sid chuckled, “it’s a twenty-five minute drive or so. It’s a little degree of separation for me. Work in the city, but don’t live in it.

“Do you like your job?” Addie leaned forward and rested her elbows on the table, resting her chin in her hands.

Sid nodded and stared unwavering at her. “I love it. I wouldn’t want to be doing anything else. But it’s a lot of responsibility. And a lot of constant pressure. And I rarely get a release from it.”

“No girlfriend to warm up the cold Pennsylvanian nights?” She was blatantly fishing now and she hoped it wasn’t too obvious to him.

He laughed and tilted his head to the side, “no.”

“Boyfriend?”

“No. It’d be a girlfriend… for the record,”

Addie nodded and smiled. She tried to rile him up but he remained pretty even-keeled. That was something she noticed pretty quickly about him. Nothing seemed to get him going; not being asked about a girlfriend, not sitting on the floor to eat cake…

While she thought about that, he went back to asking questions. “You got a boyfriend out here?”

She laughed softly, “no. I really only have one friend. Christine’s it for me in the month I’ve been here. At first it was because I was so busy moving in and getting settled. And now it’s just that I’m always at school, studying for school, or thinking about what I have to do for school.”

Sid spun his cup around, “well now you’ve got two friends.”

“We’re friends?” Addie giggled and looked at him. They didn’t even really know each other. How could they be friends?

“We can be if you want to be. I don’t really have too many friends either,”

“Somehow I doubt that.”

He stared at her. And she took that as him waiting for her to continue in whatever she was going to say to justify that thought. So she did.

“Look at you; charming, friendly. There’s no way you’re hard up for friends.”

Sid shrugged. “I guess everyone’s got a handful of people they call friends. Different from people you actually tell your dark sides too.”

“You don’t have a dark side,” Addie tilted her head to the side. There’s was no way Sid had a dark side. Just looking at him, he seemed like the epitome of a good, ol’ boy. A solid and stand up person parents always wanted their kids to end up with. This man didn’t have a dark side. But Sid didn’t say anything back, and Addie didn’t know if she had offended him at all. He didn’t look offended. Maybe this was the whole awkward thing again. Missed social cues. Addie set her hands over her book and pushed back in her chair, “I should get home. Got a bit of a walk ahead of me.”

Sid stood up with her, “I can drive you home.”

She pursed her lips, “I know you said we’re friends, but I don’t actually know you. What if you kill me?” Addie looked up at Sid, spotting his reaction. She was kidding, of course, but judging by the expression on his face, she doubted whether Sid knew that or not. “Joking. A ride would be nice,”

He forced a nervous smile and held his hand out to the side. Addie noticed that as she passed by him, he stared at her before following her out. Once outside, they both looked up at the sky. It looked pretty ominous given that it was the end of the summer, and she was thankful that he was going to save her from possible impending rain.

Sid ushered her into his car, helping her up onto the running board of the truck. Once she worked on buckling herself in, he shut the door and walked around the car to his side. They didn’t talk much except for Addie giving him directions to her apartment. But for once that wasn't because of Sid’s apparent awkwardness. This time it was all her fault. She been here a month, almost in complete isolation. But how long had it been before that? How long before Pittsburgh had she shut herself off? The last first date she could remember was September. Coming up on a year. And she hadn’t been with anyone since that previous January. Coming up on two years there. So yes, the awkwardness was oozing from her this time because the more glimpses she caught of Sid, the more she realized just how attractive he was. His eyes were gentle, his voice soft and melodic, and what she could see of his body was godlike. The number she had seen online of what his yearly salary was, made no difference. She’d grown up with money and knew that at the end of the day, no amount of money could save you. He had shed his boyish facade and looked like a man. And one Addie hoped to get the chance to explore.

“How old are you?”

Sid flicked his eyes over at her, mildly caught off guard by her inquiry. Especially since it had come directly after the urging that he turn right at the next signal. “Twenty-nine,” he smiled and looked back at the road. “Just turned twenty-nine,”

Addie nodded. It’s not that she thought Christine had been lying when she said he was six years older than them. She just wanted to validate that information. And now he had. She thought he’d ask the same of her, but when the question never came, she assumed he could guess how old she was given that she was in a graduate program.

The truck pulled up to the curb in front of her tiny apartment building. At one time it probably had been a pretty big single family home, but over the years had been separated into three units, all to be rented out. She had her own little space without the hassle of getting lost in a maze of a complex. And Sid seemed to take all of it in stride. Addie studied his face when they pulled up to see if she could spot a look of disapproval, but all she saw was a quick smile as he turned off the car.

The man was once again separated from the boy as they got out of the car. Addie walked to the front and glanced to the right, looking for oncoming cars, and when she looked to the left, Sid was already beside her checking for traffic too. As a car came down the street and slowed for them, Sid grinned and held one hand out, silently thanking the driver, while the other hand reached out for Addie’s mid back and ushered her across the street. Her stomach, or was it her heart, that jumped nervously at the feeling of his hand on her back. Such a simple move and here she was, internally trying to keep her shit together. She slid her key into the lock, very much aware that Sid stood beside her, watching.

When she pushed the front door open, he glanced into her place and then looked down at her. “I’m happy I ran into you tonight and got a little history lesson on resource allocation,”

“Do you want to come in?” It came out like word vomit and then for some reason the first thing Addie thought about was what Christine had said. How she thought he was asexual. And Addie just stared at him, waiting for an answer but really just seeing him for all the ways he was a sexual being. She was going insane. Or maybe she had already been insane. Staring at a cake while surrounded by other living, breathing humans surely makes one insane.

Sid chuckled in response, probably because he figured she was insane. Which, apparently, she was. He opened his mouth like he was going to say something, but then took a breath that caught in his throat and kept him from speaking at all.

“We don’t have to have sex. Unless you want to have sex. In that case, I’m totally not against sex. I’ve had sex before. It’s been like two years, but I’m pretty sure it still works the way I remember it.” Addie squeezed her eyes shut. Yeah. Insane. A nut case. Bound for the loony bin. She was also somewhat afraid that’d he look at this verbal outburst as a symptom of her young age and find her unattractive. Which she really didn’t want. Because sometime within eating cake with him, and then seeing him at the cafe, she became inexplicably attracted to him. And maybe only because it was the first potential prospect she’d had in almost a year. And almost two years without physical touch and affection from an attractive someone had a way of screwing with one’s mental well-being.

“I don’t want to have sex,” he looked fairly serious, and catching Addie’s disheartened expression, he amended. “It’s not that I don’t find you physically attractive. I do.” He smiled, “now I’m the one back pedaling.” Sid looked down at his feet quickly and then returned his gaze to her, “I just don’t want to have sex tonight. But after all of that, if the offer to come in still stands, I would like to come in and talk, and definitely use your bathroom.”

Addie laughed, thankful he turned that situation into something kind of funny because it had quickly gone down a path she didn’t know how to come back from. So she let him inside and pointed him in the direction of the bathroom. And while he was in there, she went on a mad dash around the kitchen and living room to straighten up a little bit. Dirty dishes from that morning’s breakfast were still in the sink. She had vowed that she’d clean them up tonight after a long day of classes, but she also didn’t think she’d have company over. In the minute or so she’d have to tidy up, she scrubbed at the pan in the sink that had been used to scramble her eggs.



Notes

I noticed this timeline was a bit off with his age... So I changed it to fit. How did this happen? I haven't been in a math class in 6 years, and I'm a film kid... that's how that happened.

Comments

One of the best stories on here! Please tell me you plan to update! I literally beg of you.

Canadice Canadice
2/7/21

AHH WE NEED MOREEE

Court31 Court31
1/5/21

So cute together ^_^
love how you write her understanding his weirdness with PDA and not wanting to be too full on before he leaves and him understanding her aversions and not judging :)
write more? Please :)

More! They're so cute together.

CountryGirl129 CountryGirl129
4/24/19

I love this story!!!

Gigipens Gigipens
4/5/19