Addie looked out at the students in front of her. For the better half of the class, they seemed as invested as in the topic as possible. Now it was nearing the last minutes of class and they were losing all interest. If she could get through the last fifteen minutes, she’d consider it a success.

“The process of recruiting for the Airborne was entirely on a volunteer basis. But men who did volunteer were paid fifty dollars more a month. For many, that was all they needed to know…”

The door at the back of the lecture hall opened up and Addie flicked her eyes at it, trying not to be too obvious. What she thought was going to be a lost student wandering into the wrong class, turned out to be none other than Sidney Crosby, hiding behind a baseball cap, sneaking in and sitting in the back row of seats. Addie looked back at her students and tried to get back into the lecture.

“After all, these guys were going to be throwing themselves out of a perfectly good airplane.” That got a chuckle from the lethargic students. Addie looked up at Sid, focusing on him, “this semester we’re focusing solely on the 101st Airborne Division. After signing up, they were sent to Camp Toccoa in Georgia for training. And that’s where we’re going to end tonight. Your only homework due before next week’s class is to watch the first episode of Band of Brothers. Have fun,” Addie smiled and every single student gathered their things and made a mad dash for the door. It was nine o’clock on a Friday night. They wanted to be out drinking and having fun, not learning about paratroopers.

She watched as the students filed past Sid. He turned his head away from the aisle to hide his face, and once convinced most, if not all, of the co-eds had left, he looked back down at Addie to find she was already making her way up the aisle with her things in her hands.

Sid stood up and smiled, “Band of Brothers.”
Addie blushed and adjusted her purse on her shoulder. As they stepped out of the lecture hall and into the night air, she was thankful she had the foresight to bring a jacket with her. “It’s a good show. And the most accurate depiction they’re going to be able to get of what war was like for the Airborne.” She hooked her arm around his as they kept walking. Sid tensed up momentarily at the feeling of her touching him granted this was a form of PDA. Truthfully, Addie forgot and by the time she realized it, she was already holding his arm and Sid had relaxed. That was when Addie noticed Sid was leading her away from the parking lot where they’d most likely put their cars. She figured the bar he’d chosen must’ve been close. “You sat in on my class,”

He looked down at her and nudged his shoulder against hers, “I was going to pick you up anyway. Figured I’d catch the tail end of your lecture. You’re a good teacher. You’re engaging,”

They didn’t walk for very long; or at least Addie didn’t think it was for very long. The wide open paths and lack of cars on campus made any walk an easier task. She figured it must’ve been fifteen minutes later when Sid held open the door to a dark and tiny dive bar just outside of campus. It was busier than both of them expected, but they quickly found a table tucked away in the corner. Someone had dragged one of the chairs away, so both Addie and Sid scooted into the booth side by side. She had some time to regroup as Sid got up and went to the bar to get drinks. Addie barely had enough time to get back to a text one of her classmates had sent earlier in the night before Sid was coming back with two pints of beer. He slid back in and set his arm on the back of the booth behind Addie, which allowed him to look at her at a better angle.

As Addie looked around, she noticed that all of the TVs were set to a hockey game. She assumed it was a replay because the camera switched to show Sid jumping with hands in the air, screaming. She looked back at him and nodded at the TV, “your face is everywhere.”

He followed her gaze up to the TV and blushed, “yeah they keep playing it.” Sid wasn’t going to say anything else, but the look on Addie’s face told him that she didn’t know what that meant. “We won the championship this past season. That’s pretty rare so the city’s happy about it.”

Addie looked back up at the TV screen, watching as Sid stood by a giant silver cup and then took it in his hands and raised it over his head. “Where do you keep the trophy?”

Sid giggled, “you don’t. You borrow it. You get it for a day and then it’s the team’s for the rest of the year, but the league keeps it. They have a handler for it and he brings it to publicity events. But your name gets engraved on it for all of history.”

She was so taken with how he was talking about it; like a child who had just gotten everything he’d ever wished for. And she so badly wanted to kiss him, but knew that that was a bit too far. So instead, she set her hand on his lap, “and you’re on it for all of history.”

“Twice… so far,”

“So you are a bit of a big deal,”

He blushed and set his hand down on top of hers. She was thankful that he didn't try to pull her hand away like he had at the movie theater. Although she had been touching something more than his leg at the movie theater. Still, she took it as a good sign when he left his hand over hers and held it. They each took sips of their beer and then Addie looked back up at Sid when he squeezed her hand.

“You look good tonight,”

She looked up at him and smirked, “and every other night I looked like garbage.”

Sid laughed and shook his head, “you look good all the time, but there’s something different tonight. I don’t know. You just look really good,”

“Well thanks,” Addie took another sip of her beer and flicked her eyes at him. “You look really good too,” she peered at him over the rim of her pint glass. “Can I ask you a question?”

He nodded and set his glass down. There was a slight second where he focused purely on his glass instead of her. But quickly, that changed, and Sid stared at Addie with newfound intrigue.

“I know I don’t know much about hockey. Or even a ton about sports in general, but…” she flicked her eyes up at him, “I know they tend to get hitched up pretty young.”

Her voice began to trail off and Sid giggled with a slight grin on his face, “and you’re wondering why I’m nearly thirty and not married. Or at least close to being.” He took another long sip of his beer.

“I didn’t mean that offense—”

Sid shook his head to dismiss her concern. “I care too much about my career. And no girl wants to come in second to hockey. I don’t blame them, either. I wouldn't want to come in second to someone’s career.”

“Wouldn’t it be nice to have someone on the ice for you?” Addie nodded her head up to the TVs. Now the ice celebration had grown significantly bigger as families and girlfriends crowded the ice, going to congratulate their successful partners. Amidst it all, Sid skated between the pockets of people, congratulating every single person, but not settling with a pocket of his own.

He followed the direction of her gaze until he was seeing the same thing on the TV. It gave him pause and made him lift his glass for another sip. When he gained the courage to look back at her again, he hoped not to say anything that would make her feel like what they were doing was a fruitless endeavor. But he didn’t know how to word response that would make the situation better. So he didn’t. He just waited for her to say something else or to move on completely.

“Second date,” she grinned and pulled her hand from his leg to lift her glass and take a sip for herself. “You and I are cut from the same cloth. Maybe if we bury ourselves in our work, we don’t have to face the terrifying reality that at the end of the day we’re completely alone. But burying our head in the sand is what made us completely alone in the first place,”

“It’s easier,” Sid ran his thumb across his glass, wiping away traces of condensation. “At least in the beginning it was. Now it’s habit,”

“Yeah,”

He glanced over at her, “I really do enjoy every moment I get to spend with you. Hanging out with you is easy. And you don’t look at me like I’m something to conquer. A line-item in a journal. Which is a nice change, honestly.”

“How about you focus on your career, I’ll focus on mine, and whatever time in between that we happen to coincide in each other’s life is what it is. No pressure to wine and dine, no pressure for sex, no pressure to owe each other anything other than limited free time.”

Sid looked down at his lap. For a moment, Addie thought she might’ve proposed something that differed from what he actually wanted. That although he had said he cared too much about his career, maybe this was a time he wanted to try something different, and put someone above that. But then he responded, and she figured they were both on the same page.

“Sounds good,”

---

They stepped into her apartment having arrived separately, driving their own cars back from campus. Sid shut and locked the door behind him, watching as Addie dropped her purse by the couch and flopped down on it. He smiled and walked up to her, wasting no time in laying his body over hers. She giggled as within a matter of quick seconds, Sid’s face was right up near hers.

Addie cupped her hands over his cheeks and tangled her fingertips in the end of his already short hair. She was actually shocked it was as soft as it was. He kissed her quickly, their lips coming together in a haphazard pattern until their tongue came into the equation. And then their kisses grew slower, longer; like all of a sudden they wanted to take their time with each other.

Sid exhaled and moved his lips to her neck, smiling against Addie’s skin as she turned her head to the side, giving him more room to explore that part of her body. She moaned quietly, like she had in the theater, and gripped at his hair tighter. Just as he was there, he was gone, and Addie opened her eyes. He was kneeling on the couch and tugged his shirt over his head, letting it fall to the floor next to them. All Addie could do was stare at him, or more specifically, his body. She had felt it in the movie theater; felt his muscles and the way they formed ridges beneath his skin. But now she was seeing it. Noticing the way his shoulders curved, and the way his biceps flexed when he tugged on her wrists to get her to sit up with him. She noticed the muscles of his chest, strong and firm, only to notice his abs and the way they tapered down to a V, hiding the rest beneath his pants.

She looked back up into his eyes as he reached for the bottom of her shirt, and she held onto his wrists, “there’s no way.”

Sid cocked his head to the side and furrowed his eyebrows as he shot her a half confused smile, “sorry?” He pulled his hands away from her shirt and sat back on his knees.

“There’s no way I’m taking off my shirt now. Look at you,” her eyes danced over the upper half of his body again. “You’re like carved from marble or something. This is why you don’t eat cake… because you look like this,”

He moved forward again, placing his lips back on her neck. He kissed her over and over again before settling on the side of her neck and sucking her skin. “I look like this because I’m a hockey player,”

“But you’re not missing any teeth,”

Sid backed up again and lifted one hand up to his mouth. He motioned to his bottom teeth in front, “these three are fake. See I’m not perfect. Fake teeth… a brain stem that’s one bad concussion away from detaching,”

Addie stared at him, “that’s not funny.”

He brushed his hand through her hair and cupped his fingers around her ear, “you don’t want to take off your shirt for me?” He stared at her, but when he only got a nervous lip bite as a response, he took a breath in, “what about your pants?”

She let out a guttural laugh which made Sid smile. He bent forward to peck her lips and set his hands against the couch on either side of her head. Addie reached up and hooked her arms around his neck.

“You haven’t seen what’s beneath my pants so there’s no comparison. I have a penis and you have a vagina so there’s definitely no comparison. Yours is better,” he grinned and traced his fingertip over her lower lip.

“But you probably have a really nice penis,”

Sid shook his head and kissed her lips again. “It’s an ugly penis,” he pecked her once more. “The ugliest penis you could possibly imagine. It bends a weird way,” he smiled boyishly, unable to even keep himself from laughing at that. Even though she laughed momentarily, he could still tell it wasn’t going to happen tonight. “Okay,”

When he sat back on the couch, Addie sat up and ran her fingertips over the fabric of his pants. “I want to, trust me. God knows you’re attractive, and get me thinking terrible things… But I’m nervous. It’s been a long time and I’m not good at this,”

He hauled her into his lap, allowing her legs to straddle his waist, and he held onto her with everything he had. Her hands made their way to his jaw and cradled his head. And every so often in the effort of keeping her legs from falling asleep, she shifted her hips against him. “You’re better than you think,” he pressed his lips to hers gently. “Please don’t be intimidated by my body. I like you as you are. Just like this,”

Addie looked down at herself. She flicked her eyes back up at Sid and grabbed her breasts, “my boobs are too small,”

“They’re perfect,”

“My butt is too big,”

“That’s not possible,”

“It’s giant,”

“So is mine.” Sid reached around her body and squeezed her ass in his massive hands.

“Yours is muscle. Mine’s just… there. And my stomach’s not all flat and perfect like yours,”

“It doesn’t have to be. And mine’s not perfect. Do you see how thick my body is? I’m not a lean person. I’m built like a Clydesdale,”

Addie laughed heartily, which turned into a snort and only served to make both of them laugh harder. She tucked her head against his shoulder, “I’m not a model.”

“Thank God,” Sid exclaimed and stroked her hair softly.

“And I’m not flexible,”

“Literally or figuratively?”

“Literally,” she hugged her arm around his body. “I can’t touch my toes,”

“Are you giving me reasons why we shouldn’t have sex?”

Addie tilted her head back and looked up at him. She shied away when she saw he was already looking at her.

“You say no, it’s no. No reasons necessary,” he kissed her slowly, sliding his tongue over her lips, and then pulled away and looked at his watch. “I should get going,”

Addie sat up and watched as he gathered his shirt from the floor and put it back on. “You have to bolt because we’re not going to have sex?”

“No, I have to bolt because I have five a.m. ice time with the trainer.” He laughed when Addie pouted her lips. Sid bent over and squeezed both of her cheeks in one of his hands, “I’ll call you.”

Sid got up and Addie followed him to the door. He pulled it open and looked back at her, taking a moment to wrap his arms around her. She reciprocated by lifting her arm up and over his shoulders to return the embrace. Addie smiled at the feeling of his lips on her neck; his subtle kisses being pressed to her skin over and over again in quick procession until they both pulled away from each other.

Notes