Worth The Wait

CH. 2

“Enga- Richards is your- wow,” Sid blurted out in shock.

Phoebe didn’t know what to say. She swallowed uncomfortably and tilted her head down, keeping her gaze as low as possible but still locked with his. It was in that moment that Sid realized he had stopped dead in his tracks and started motoring his legs forward again. Phoebe’s cheeks were bright red as if she were embarrassed, something that Sid thought was awkward since she should’ve been proud, not cowering.

“Well, I never would’ve known, I don’t see a ring or anything,” Sid said almost flirtatiously as he nodded in the direction of her empty left ring finger.

Phoebe looked down at her naked hand then down at the ground, embarrassed. “Yeah,” she stammered. “I…I do that time and time again,” she laughed nervously. “I forget to put it back on when I get out of the shower and I don’t realize it until I’m already out of the house.” Sid found her response odd; he couldn’t think of a girl he’d ever known that forgot to wear her engagement ring. They were usually so excited they would shove it in your face immediately.

“How old are you exactly?” Sid questioned.

“Twenty,” Sid knew that Mike was five years older than her. “And you don’t have to pretend,” though he wasn’t doing such a good job anyway, “I know you two hate each other. In fact, he’d probably flip if he knew you were walking me home right now.”

Sid couldn’t understand why he felt pangs of jealousness. He just met this girl, she wasn’t anyone to him, why should he care this much? If she wanted to marry Richards then that was her right, her choice. It shouldn’t’ be driving him crazy. He opted not to say anything horrible about Richards out of respect for this amazing girl he had just had the pleasure of running into—literally.

“Okay, I won’t say anything bad, I promise,” he joked as he put his hands up like he was being held at gunpoint. “I just gotta ask, why are you with him? What do you see in him? Especially since you’re here and he’s there.”

She took in a deep breath and Sid could see the discontentment in her eyes. “We’ve been together since high school. Well, since I was in high school anyway. I used to live in Philly. He was in college and I was a junior and we started dating…his life always revolved around hockey and when he got drafted to the Flyers I thought everything would simply fall into place but it didn’t. We had issues and things got pretty bad so we took a break for a little while, I chose to come here and he focused on hockey…then after a game one night he called me and we kinda fell back together. He was the only real relationship I ever had…I mean, I was only seventeen when we started dating,” she was almost trying to justify…to defend why she was with him, not explain. “I don’t know, he knew I wasn’t so trusting of him and about a year ago he surprised me and proposed.”

Phoebe knew he wasn’t going to let this go that easily. “I don’t know. He’s not that same guy off the ice that he pretends to be. He’s sweet and….caring. I don’t see him as much as I’d like, but I know he loves me…” she trailed off. Sid didn’t know if she actually believed the words she was speaking to him and noticing her unhappiness made something inside him hurt.

“So what do you do since he isn’t around?”

“I focus on school, hang out with my friends, ya know. Nothing too crazy. He doesn’t really like when I go out anyway, so I usually just end up staying in. He doesn’t go out when I’m not around so I can see why he wouldn’t want me to.” Sid just swallowed, kept his gaze in front of him and didn’t say a word. He knew that was a blatant lie. Richards was always out partying and it made him sick to think that he was not only lying to the wonderful girl he had at home, but he was tricking her into believing he was something he wasn’t.

“So what about you? I know who you are now,” she joked, trying to take the focus off of her. “what does Sidney Crosby do in his spare time? It looks like you keep yourself pretty busy,” she said, referring to the hot mess he was at the moment.

Sid felt his cheeks got warm with shame. “Uh…yeah. I probably do things that you wouldn’t necessarily call admirable.”

“Why?” It was a simply question, a one word response, but it cut him right to the core.

“I really don’t know,” and he didn’t.

“You enjoy living your life that way?” She didn’t have to specify, he knew exactly what she meant.

“I don’t know…it’s more of a distraction than anything else. Just because you make a lot of money doesn’t make you completely happy. When you find yourself at the top you realize just how alone life can be.”

“Well it doesn’t have to be that way,” she said sincerely as she stopped, turned, and looked up into his eyes. He felt butterflies fluttering around in his stomach. “Hang around me long enough and you won’t feel that way,” she teased.

Her words cut through him. Was she asking him to hang out with her? Did that mean he’d get to see her again? Just then he realized that they were at her apartment and he was cursing himself because his time with her would now be over.

“Thanks for walking me home. It was really nice to get to know you…I’d invite you up but I think Mike would freak out if he found out.”

“I understand.” He was disappointed. He wanted to keep talking to her, she made him be more honest with himself than he had been in a long time. “Hey,” he yelled just as she was about to turn into her building. “Jordan’s having a little party tonight at his place. You wanna come with?” He couldn’t believe he was asking her. They literally had just talked about this kind of stuff; he didn’t think there was a chance in hell she’d say yes.

“Oh I don’t think so…” she trailed off uncertainly.

“Come on. I promised I would go…and it would nice to have you around. You could keep me out of trouble,” he smiled at her charmingly. He could see the wheels turning in her brain. “And don’t worry, I won’t tell Richards.”

She pursed her lips together, unsure of what to say. After a brief pause and standing in silence, she finally gave her response. “Fine, I’ll go, but I have to be home at a decent hour and don’t even think you’re getting me hammered.”

He couldn’t help but smile with pure excitement. “Really?”

“Yeah,” she smiled back.

“I’ll pick you up at eight then. How’s that sound?”

She shook her head in disbelief and lowered her forehead down into her hand. “I can’t believe I just agreed to go, but that sounds fine. I’ll be ready,” she said laughing.

Sid turned and began to walk home. He couldn’t believe she said she would come with him, but he didn’t know what it meant. She was engaged to Richards, he knew that. But she didn’t seem happy. He didn’t know if he had a chance with her but he knew he wanted to be around her, she had such a genuine spirit that in the brief moments he’d known her, he knew she was the one who held the ability to change his life upside down.