And I Thought I Loved You Then

"Sorry I'm late," David gushed, as he ran a hand over her hair and down onto the back of her neck, then leaned in to press a kiss to her cheek. "Didn't mean to keep you waiting, sweetheart."

Autumn fought back a surge of bile at the use of the term of affection. She'd never been one for silly nicknames. She found them immature and unnecessary, but had, after nearly two years together, finally relented to Quinton calling her honey or babe on a regular basis. And as if using the word sweetheart on her wasn't bad enough considering the way he'd treated her almost two weeks ago, David's constant stroking of her hair and the way he hovered over her shoulder, the tip of his nose nuzzling her ear and his warm breath -which bore the faint trace of booze not so cleverly hidden by mint flavoured mouth wash- on her face had caused her entire body to stiffen up.

And the fingers on her left hand to curl tightly around the butter knife at her place setting.

She wasn't above castrating him with the damn thing. And then chopping his most prized possession into tiny pieces and mailing a segment to each woman he'd messed around with in the span of the last two and a half months alone.

"I got held up at the hospital," David explained. "Larger than normal amount of operations."

Autumn simply nodded and sipped at her iced tea. More like you've been held up down at that Irish pub four blocks away tipping back the Guinness and banging the nasty ass red headed waitress in the bathroom, she thought. Then frowned when she felt his hand rest on the top of her head once again.

"You look beautiful, sweetheart," he breathed into her ear.

"Do you mind?" Autumn snapped, using an elbow pressed into his stomach to shove him away from her. "Do not call me that...and touch me again and you'll be getting that circumcision your parents balked on thirty three years ago."

David blinked, then held his hands up in surrender, a mocking smile on his face as he slowly back away from her. "No need to get hysterical," he told her, as he slipped around the table. "I know that it's just your nature to overreact to the simplest of things..."

"See this iced tea, David?" she nodded down at her drink. "One more condescending comment and you'll be wearing it. Down your pants. And then you can go wandering back to your den of inequity looking like you've pissed yourself. I'm not in the mood for your shit, okay?"

"I could write you a prescription for your anxiety," he remarked. "It makes you incredibly...harsh."

"What makes me harsh is having to spend five minutes listening to your bullshit," Autumn huffed. "You called me and asked me to come and talk to you. So talk. And make it quick. My ride will be here in forty five..." she glanced at her watch. "Hmmm...make that about thirty eight minutes."

"You readily agreed to meet me here," he reminded her, as summoned a waitress over with a simple crook of his finger and his brilliant smile. Ordering himself a bottle of Perrier. "No one forced you to come here, Autumn."

"I came here because I thought maybe you had gotten your head out of your ass and wanted to apologize to me. And I couldn't resist the opportunity to see you remove you foot from your mouth and say your sorry."

"And what could I have to possibly say I'm sorry for?" he asked.

"Oh I don't know," she snorted. "Maybe the fact that you called me unstable. That you told me I came with too much baggage and that I needed to see a shrink to deal with my grief."

"A counsellor," he corrected. "Not a shrink. And if it hurts that much to hear the truth...well then perhaps you're more of a little girl than I thought and you need to toughen up. It's a harsh, cruel word. And if you want to survive in it sweetheart..."

Autumn leaned forward in her seat and slammed her hands down on the table top. Causing glasses and plates to rattle and a fork to tumble to the floor with a clatter. "I swear to God, if you call me that again you obnoxious prick I will..."

"This is exactly the behaviour I was talking about," David said smugly. "The temper tantrums, the foul language.."

"Foul language? You want to hear foul language? Keep playing footsies with me under the table like you've been doing for the last five minutes and you'll hear foul language. Why did you want me to come here? If you're not going to apologize to me, then what the hell..."

"I decided to give us...you..." he nodded pointedly at her. "Another chance."

She burst out laughing. "Are you kidding me?!" she cried. "Are you honestly kidding me?!"

"Everyone deserves a second chance," he reasoned. "And this is yours. I'm willing, to commit to you, if you agree to put forth an effort, and I mean a legit, honest effort, to change some things in your life."

Oh this is going to be good, she thought. "Fine David," she sat back in her chair and flashing him a sugary sweet smile, crossed her arms over her chest. "Let's hear this. Let's hear your list of demands."

"Requests, Autumn. Simple requests."

"I...am....waiting..." she said, clearly and slowly enunciating each words as she drummed her fingers against her biceps.

"First of all, your behaviour is...well quite frankly, it's downright appalling. You're not living in a small fishing town anymore. And you need to...you need to behave like a lady."

"I'm sure that all the women that live in the east coast of Canada will be thrilled to know you think they're all butches and haven't an ounce of femininity inside of them," she snorted.

"You behave like a spoiled rotten brat," he continued. "At the best of times. And that boy of yours..."

"My boy has a name," she snapped. "Ryan. And you'll show him respect by calling him by his name."

"Your son has issues," David informed her. "Almost as many as you. So, for the good of both of you, I've gone ahead and made some calls. Some arrangements if you will."

Her eyebrows shot up. "Arrangements," she ground out.

"Family therapy. You can go together. Get a handle on your emotions. Your grief. And your boy..."

She glared at him.

"Your son.." David corrected himself. "..can stop this ridiculous lying."

"Lying?" Autumn frowned. "What lying? Ryan doesn't lie."

The doctor nodded at the waitress as she brought her drink, then didn't hide the fact he was ogling her ass as while she walked away. "I called your house yesterday afternoon," he told Autumn. "You weren't home."

"I do leave the house on my day off."

"And your son...your son told me a very interesting...tale, if you will."

"If it's the one about the underwear gnomes that come out at night when everyone is sleeping and steals everyone's skivvies, he got that from South Park," Autumn said.

"He told me that you weren't home because you were out with your new boyfriend," David informed her, unamused.

"What? You don't think there's men in this world that would be interested in me?" she asked.

"It's not that, Autumn. It's the fact that he told me, that if I came around his mother again, her new boyfriend was going to, and this is an exact quote, chop my head off with a hockey stick and shove it up my ass."

She sipped her iced tea and fought off the urge to grin. "Was it a Reebok hockey stick by any chance?" she asked curiously.

David's eyes narrowed. "What does that have to do with anything?" he inquired.

"Nothing..." she couldn't hold back a giggle. "It's just...never mind...you wouldn't understand..."

"And then, to add insult to injury? The lie became even more...obscene."

"Really..." she nodded slowly. "How did..."

"He told me that your new boyfriend is Sidney Crosby."

She laughed. "He's not my boyfriend," she said.

"So now you're just as delusional as he is," David declared. "Making something up like that."

"I'm not making it up," Autumn told him. "We met almost two weeks ago. He came to the hospital to spend some time with my families when the original player couldn't make it at the last minute. We hit it off. We're friends. For now anyway."

"For now?"

She nodded.

"What does that mean?"

"It means that we're friends," Autumn told him. "Without the benefits. For now."

"You and your son..." David shook his head. "Both need serious help."

"I honestly don't care if you believe me," she said with a shrug. "But, if you really want to look like an ass, how about you walk me outside in about..." she consulted her watch. "Twenty minutes."

David stared at her. Long and hard. Waiting to call her bluff.

"Is that all?" Autumn asked. "Because if you're done, I think I'll actually go and wait outside and..."

"These are for you," David stood up briefly and pulled a handful of folded pamphlets from the back pocket of his Dockers. "I thought you might be interested," he said, and tossed them onto the table before sitting back down.

She sighed heavily and picking up the leaflettes, neatly shuffled them together before thumbing through them. "Boarding schools?" she asked incredulously.

"Only the top five in all of Pennsylvania," David told her. "That son of yours could use some discipline. Time away from his mother. To learn respect. Toughen up."

"He's seven!" Autumn snapped, and threw the papers across the table. "Are you really a complete and utter moron! How can someone with all this education be such a goddamn imbecile! A boarding school? He's a little boy you ass!"

"And little boys needs rules. They need a man in their life to keep them on the straight and narrow! To turn them into men!"

"He's seven!" Autumn repeated. "Seven! He's far from needing to become a man! You're a sick, twisted, pathetic excuse for a human being! I can not believe I actually agreed to come here and meet you! Sonofabitch..." the chair squeaked noisily as she angrily pushed herself away from the table. "You are a total fucker!" she bellowed. "And if you ever come near me or my son again and if you ever call me...I swear to God I will rip your balls off and shove them down your throat!"

"Autumn, you need to...."

"Here!" she ripped the watch off of her wrist and threw it at him. "I swear to God if you ever come near me again, I will....I will..." she tossed her hands up in the air. "You're just so not worth my time!" she finished, then snatched up her purse and turned on her heel to stomp away.

Only to find both her path to the exit blocked, and herself face first in someone's broad, strong chest.

"Get the fuck out of my way!" she ordered, attempting to shove her road block out of the way.

"Alright...alright..." Sid's voice, calm and quiet responded, his hands coming up to rest on her shoulders. "..just relax...I only came in here to find you..."

Relief surged through her, immediately comforted by his large, strong hands, his soulful, dark eyes filled with concern and his smell. A mixture of soap and water and what she had discovered -after spending a half an hour sniffing every damn bottle in the men's department at the local department store three days ago in hopes of pining the scent down- was Reaction, by Kenneth Cole.

"You alright?" Sid asked, as one hand slid over her shoulders, and down along her arm before coming to rest lightly on the small of her back.

"Fine..." she replied, attempting a smile. "Can we just get the hell out of here and..."

"Why don't you just mind your own business and take a hike kid," David suggested, as he got to his feet and journeyed around his table. "This has nothing to do with you. I don't care who the hell you are or what your name is or..."

"This the prick that treated you like shit?" Sid asked Autumn. "Guy that's banging everything that moves around the hospital? A walking, talking case of gonorrhoea and all kinds of other nasty ass shit?"

"Let's just go..." Autumn grabbed him by the front of his t-shirt and tucked him along. "We need to just..."

"We are not done here," David informed her, and snagging her by the wrist, spun her around to face him. "You and I are not finished."

"We are finished!" she yanked her arm out of his grasp. "I am done with you. For good. And I am leaving with my...with my..."

Oh fuck it, she thought. I've already made a complete ass out myself. Everyone in the place is already staring at me. Why not give them something to really stare at? To gossip about for days?

Turning towards Sidney, she grabbed two fistfuls of his shirt and standing on her tip toes, yanked him down towards her. And before he had a chance to react, or resist, kissed him hard. Not exactly how she'd imagined their first kiss to ever go down, and she only hoped and prayed that when all was said and done and they walked out of there, that he was at least still speaking to her.

When she finally pulled away, completely breathless, she swirled back around to face David. A victorious smile on her face as Sidney stood numbly beside her, looking, and feeling, just a little punch-drunk.

"My boyfriend!" she shouted at David, unable to compose herself. "Are you happy you ass! He's my boyfriend! Does that make you happy? Are you fucking exuberant?"

With those last words, she spun back around, snatched Sid's hand in her own and yanked him towards the door.

"Now let's go!" she ordered.

xxxx

Autumn shoved her way through the front door of the restaurant, her hand still tightly clasping Sid's as she unceremoniously pulled him along behind her out into the bright sunlight. Her cheeks flushed crimson from both anger and embarrassment, eyes blazing and her mouth set in a grim line. The stiff, warm breeze that cascaded through the streets wiping her hair about her face and shoulders as her bronze coloured kitten heels clacked furiously on the cement and her beige peasant skirt swishing around her legs.

She was too angry to speak. Worried that the moment her mouth opened a million and one obscenities and the mother of all man bashing moments would come tumbling out. Certainly not what she wanted to happen considering the man beside her had practically singe handily both saved her from the biggest asshole on the planet, but had also unknowingly prevented her from inflicting serious personal harm on the creeper.

Sid, still stunned from both witnessing her tirade and the kiss that she had unleashed on him in the middle of a public place, found himself incapable of forming a rational thought or word. Glancing at her out of the corner of his eye, he saw that she was pissed. Beyond pissed, even. And he knew the best thing to do was to not to anything at all. And that included not letting go of her hand. If in fact this was all a charade in case her ex -or whatever the hell he was- was watching them as they left, he was going to go along with it.

He only hoped that when all was said and done, that she wasn't going to pull a complete three sixty on him and tell him that she'd made a huge mistake. And that what had occurred in the restaurant could never, ever happen again.

He released her hand when they reached his SUV parked at the curb several yards from the front door of the restaurant, then fished the keys out of the pocket of his olive green cargo shorts and unlocked her door. "Where do you..." he frowned, his words halting when he realized she was no longer beside him. And looking down the sidewalk, he saw her still stomping away, her arms now crossed over chest. The sunlight causing the natural red highlights in her hair to sparkle as her tresses tumbled freely down her back.

"Autumn!" he called out to her. "What are you doing? Where are you going?!"

She cast a glance over her shoulder, then stopped walking and turned to face him. A perplexed look on her face.

"This is my car!" he yelled, gesturing towards the silver Range Rover.

She issued a sigh, then a sheepish smile before hurrying towards him.

"Sorry..." she grumbled.

"I thought you were taking off on me there for a second," he said, and pulled open her door. Allowing her to settle herself in the passenger seat before shutting the door and going around the front of the vehicle, waiting for traffic to clear before slipping into the driver's seat. "Are you okay?" he asked, as she drew the seat belt across her body and buckled it.

She nodded.

"You want to at least tell me what that was all about? 'Cause you were just right raging at that guy. You were like two steps away from kicking his ass."

"One step actually," she corrected.

"You want to tell me what happened or..."

"He just said a whole bunch of shit, okay? About me, about Ryan, about you..."

"About me? What...?"

"Ryan told him when he called the house yesterday that you were my boyfriend. 'Cause Ryan...Ryan is a seven year old boy that thinks he needs to be the man of the house and that he needs to protect his mommy at all costs. And David has treated him like shit from day one and he's not a stupid kid and he...he told David that you were my boyfriend and that if he ever came around again, you'd bash his head in with a hockey stick."

Sid's eyes widened.

"And then David started saying all this crap about how my kid's a pathological liar and that I'm just as bad as he is and then he gives me these brochures for boarding schools. Boarding schools for fuck sakes! For a seven year old! And he's such a condescending bastard that I just...I just couldn't handle his shit anymore!"

"Okay...so..."

"And then before that? Before that he's going on and on about how I need to see a shrink! Oh I'm sorry, a therapist. I stand corrected. And he tells me that if I can't handle the truth, that I need to toughen up because the real world is a scary place. And he calls me a little girl! And..." she took a deep, quivering breath and let it out slowly. "And if he touched my hair one more time or called me sweetheart again, I was going to castrate him with a butter knife!"

"Sounds like you'd be doing the entire female population a huge favour if you did that," Sid mused, hoping to calm her down and lighten the mood.

She managed a small smile. "What a prick...I have no idea what I ever saw in that guy...or why I ever fell for his crap in the first place...I mean, did you look at him? Did you really get a good look at him? He's okay and all that and sort of looks like Patrick Dempsey...but I mean....who in the hell wears Dockers on a date? And it's not like it was even a date! I don't even know what it was! Penance for my stupid bullshit last night, that's what it was. Paying for the fact I'm a moron. I swear if he has the nerve to call me or come anywhere near me..."

"Autumn..." he reached out and ran a gentle hand over her hair before it settled on the back of her neck. "Just calm down, okay? The guy's a moron. You didn't do anything wrong and you definitely didn't deserve to have to put up with his shit. So just take a breath and relax, alright?"

She sighed heavily and nodded. Immediately comforted and calmed by the weight of his hand on the space between her shoulders and the way his thumb had sneaked through her hair and was now softly grazing across the nape of her neck. When David had touched her in the exact same manner, she'd tensed up and fought of the urge to clobber him. But now that Sid was doing it...she actually liked it. It was tender and wonderful and it was making her feel...tingly.

"Are you okay?" he asked, after a prolonged period of silence.

"I'm fine," she replied. "I just...I'm sorry...about going off like that in there. I never should have acted like that. And I never should have told him you were my boyfriend and kissed you like that. I was an idiot."

"No you weren't," he assured her. Then grinned. "Honestly? I kind of liked it."

"Yeah?" she grinned as well. "Which part? Me acting like a psycho bitch, calling you my boyfriend or kissing you?"

"Well, the first one was...interesting. At least now I know to never get on your bad side. But I have to say that the last two? Definitely my favourite parts of the whole ordeal."

She gave a laugh and opened her purse as it rested in her lap. "I can just imagine what people are going to say about it. It's bound to end up in the newspaper right? That you've hooked up with some crazy girl that went ape shit on her ex in a public place?"

"Who cares? I've got team mates that 'cause worse scandals for themselves, trust me. Max Talbot? His little black book is more like an encyclopaedia. If he can get away with messing around with everything that walks with a wiggle, I think I'll be able to weather the storm. Besides, everyone in the restaurant knows what kind of prick that guy is. So if anything? This will add Knight in Shining Armour to my resume."

"Like you're not famous enough?" she teased, as she removed a tube of shimmering peach gloss from her purse, and shaking it, twisted off the cap and glided the applicator across her lips.

Sid forced himself to look away from her, suppressing a shiver as he witnessed the simple act of her putting on lip gloss. He'd never met someone that had that kind of effect on him. Where he waited on their every movement, every word, with baited breath. Who he just couldn't seem to get enough of. And who had the capability to trample on his emotions and his hormones without even realizing she was doing it.

xxxx

"And I thought I told you forty five minutes!" she jokingly scolded him, a slap to his shoulder snapping him out of his daze.

"I was bored," he reasoned. "I couldn't just keep driving around aimlessly and I avoid malls and shopping stores like the plague. And I didn't want to sit out here and wait so..."

"You were just being nosy," she said with a knowing wink.

He grinned. "I was just being nosy," he conceded. "I guess I was just...I don't know...curious. I wanted to see who my competition was."

"He is NOT your competition," Autumn said, as she tightened the lid on the gloss and returned it to her purse before using a finger tip to wipe excess gloss from the corners of her lips.

"Thank God...'cause I was going to have to slit my wrists if I wasn't capable of topping that."

"Trust me, superstar. There is no competition."

Sid couldn't hold back the grin. "You know...I kind of like it when you call me that."

She smiled.

"But I am disappointed about one thing," he told her.

"What's that?" she asked.

"That is not how I wanted our first kiss to go down," he replied, as he removed his ball cap just long enough to turn it backwards and put it back on again. "At all."

"Really?" a smirk tugged at the corner of her mouth. "And just how did you..."

Turning sideways in his seat, he laid a gentle hand on the side of her face, and leaning into her, covered her mouth with his in a soft, unhurried kiss. Her lips were warm and moist against his own, and her small, delicate hands come to rest on his chest and heard the rustle of fabric as she shuffled closer to him. Then heard her soft sigh and felt her tightly grip his shirt as his tongue brazenly pushed against her teeth and then gained access to her mouth. One of her hands released his shirt and slid down his chest, over his stomach and side and came to a stop on his thigh. And he pulled away from her only when drawing air into his lungs became a necessity.

Autumn's eyes were still closed as she relaxed her hold on him and leaned back in her seat. The only sounds in the SUV their ragged breathing.

"Wow..." she said at last, a hand to her forehead. "Well...I guess I can honestly say that you're not just great at ice hockey..."

He looked over at her.

"You're pretty damn proficient at tonsil hockey too," she declared, then giggled.

Sid laughed as well. Then turning his ball cap back around, closed his own eyes and leaned his head back against his seat. He heard her clear her throat and then the rustle of her clothes.

"By the way..." she began.

He opened his eyes and looked over at her.

"Thank you....for coming to get me...."

Smiling, he leaned across the seat and pressed a kiss to her temple. "I think we should get out of here," he suggested.

She nodded in agreement. "I'm starving," she announced. "And I know that my mother in law is planning on making her famous chicken alfredo tonight. It's too die for. And she always makes enough to feed an entire army. So if you don't have anything else planned for tonight and you don't need to be anywhere else..."

"Sounds good to me," he responded, and started the ignition.

"I mean, only if you really want to," she fretted. "If you really don't want to, you don't have..."

"Autumn...with you?"

She looked at him, waiting for him to continue.

"With you is the only place I want to be," he said.

She gave a brilliant smile and gazed out her window as he put the SUV into drive and pulled away from the curb. She was slightly terrified and extremely nervous. Startled by the overwhelming feelings that assailed her whenever she was with him. Afraid that she was falling too fast, too quick and that there'd be no one there to catch her if she needed it. But at the same time, it felt...right. Being with him felt so unbelievably perfect.

And she only hoped that it wasn't all too good to be true.