A Shot at Love With the Face of the NHL

Letting out a scream, I nearly dropped the glass pan that was in my arms. Turning around, I saw the signature smirk on my best friend's face. Not saying anything, I placed the pan on the counter before glaring at him, waiting for him to say something. There were days he came over to just hang out, but normally he called me first and this visit had been unexpected, unless he had called my cell phone which was currently dead and charging in my bedroom.

“Hey,” he said as he walked over to one of the stools and sat down letting me get back to doing what I was doing. “Lose your phone again?”

“Nope. It's in the bedroom charging. Why?”

“I called,” he said, putting his phone on the counter. “I really needed to talk to you about something, but I wasn't sure if you were out or busy.”

“So you come over?” I asked with an eye roll as I spray the pan with a cooking spray so the treats wouldn't stick to the bottom of the pan.

“Well I did need to talk to you.”

“So what would Sidney Crosby have to talk to me about?” I asked before a grin made its way onto my face. “Did someone get a new hockey stick and wanted someone to help break it in with a pick-up game? If so, you'll have to ask one of the other guys.”

“Would you let me talk?” he asked.

Picking up the pan, I went over to the other side of the kitchen and started pouring the batter. “Go on, tell me what's happening in your world.”

“You can't get mad at me, okay?” he said, his voice was strangely nervous, like he knew he did something that I was going to argue with even if I said I wouldn't get mad about it.

“Sidney, I'm not making that promise, so just tell me what you did. You make another talk show host mad?”

Hearing his laugh brought a smile to my face whether or not I wanted it to be there. The oven beeped at me letting me know it was preheated all the way and I placed the pan with the brownie batter in the oven before closing in and turning my attention to Sidney.

“I'm going to be on a game show.”

I could have sworn, he just lied to my face for the first time in the history of our friendship.

“And is this something that you honestly want to do? This game show?”

“I signed the papers already telling them I would.”

“What in the world were you thinking Crosby? Are you nuts? You should have taken more time to think things over before just signing away to do something? Have you lost your mind?” I screamed at him, but only half of the things I truly wanted to say to him.

Biting down on my lip I grabbed the bowl and moved over to the sink where I continued to rinse the bowl that had a little bit of brownie batter left inside of it. Filling it up with hot water while I tried to control the emotions that I was currently feeling.

The only sounds in the kitchen was the clock on the wall and the water coming out of the faucet. I honestly couldn't believe Sidney would sign something like this without really thinking about it and what it meant. Sometimes when dealing with hockey players it made me want to rip my hair out, but usually Sidney was one of the few that didn't make me fell that way.

Feeling a pair of arms wrap around my shoulders, I let out a sigh. Putting his head on my shoulder, he hesitated. “Sorry, Mom.”

I couldn't help, but laugh at that. He knew how to dissolve an awkward silence between us, not that it happened too often. “I just can't believe you would do something like this, Sid.”

“You can make it better.”

That caught my curiosity, “How's that?”

“You can take part.”

Turning around and putting a little distance between me and the guy I called my best friend, I was a bit speechless. “I'm not sure that's a good idea....”

“It won't be that bad,” he insisted. “All you have to do is sit there and go through girls and help the others pick out candidates. It won't be that hard, right?”

“Oh, right,” I said giving him a small smile before asking what was on my mind. “Who else are going to be going through girls with me?”

“Staalsy, Tanger,and Marc and Hannah.”

I had to resist rolling my eyes at the last name. It was as if I didn't like Hannah, but I also didn't really like her. The only reason I put up with was for the man she was married to, he was best friends with Sidney which meant he spent a lot of time around the both of us and I liked hanging out with Marc, so I learned to hold my tongue when Hannah was the subject or if she was present.

“So they've all agreed to do this?”

“Well not yet, but once I ask, I'm sure they will,” he said as if he was pretty sure they'd all agree. “As soon as your done baking, we can go and ask them.”

And that's what we did. As soon as I took the brownies out of the oven and let them cool and then covered them so I could cut them later on, we left. But only after I grabbed my phone. I wish I could have said that the guys were doing something really cool, but like always, they were playing video games and screaming at one another when one of them got killed in the game.

“Do you guys ever put the video games down?” I asked, already knowing what the answer would be.

“No.” Came the replies.

“I signed the contract.” Sidney said as he sat on the couch, while I opted to sit in the recliner.

“For that show?” Jordan asked.

“Yeah,” he said, a unsure smile on his face. “I wanted to know if you'd want to help Micale go through the girls and find ones that might be worth it.”

“Help Micale?” I asked. “So if I hadn't agreed to it, does that mean that you would have tried to get out of it?”

“You would have done it no matter what!” Jordan laughed as he threw a pillow in my direction.

It was another week before the casting calls actually took place. Sidney surprised me and said that he wouldn't text me while I was doing this for him, I suppose it was because he wanted it to have my full attention and he knew if I were texting then I was paying more attention to the text messages than to the girls that thought they should have a chance with Sidney Crosby. He had even gone so far to have one of the guys try and take my phone away from me, but I knew he'd try something like and made sure that none of the guys or Hannah could get it from me.

Sitting down at a table I took a deep breath before looking down at the pad of paper in front of me. I had a feeling that today was going to be an extremely long day, but Sidney asked, which is the only reason she had agreed to do this. There were times that I just couldn't say no to him and this was a perfect example.

The day went by just the way I thought it would, it couldn't end fast enough. There were only a handful, maybe more that actually caught my attention and I made note of them all. The first one was a Pittsburgh Penguins fan, who went to games on a regular basis and met Sidney a couple of times. Holly. That's what her name was. She seemed normal enough, at least Jordan said she was normal enough for Sid. Those little comments had me rolling my eyes from time to time throughout the day.

Jessica. That was the next one she liked. She wasn't someone that pretended to know everything about things, but she knew plenty. She knew more about sports than most people and although she didn't have a favorite team she seemed like a pretty down to earth girl.

Kayla Lynn was someone I hated. There was no possible way that Sidney could end up with her. On many occasions when one of the guys were asking her questions about the NHL she answered back with an answer about the NFL and it wasn't even a right answer. What was really annoying about her was the fact she acted like what she was saying made sense and when I looked at the others I noticed just how confused they were over what she was saying as well. She was what was referred to as a dumb blonde, but the only problem with that was the fact that her hair was brown.

Lauren stood out like a sore thumb. She knew exactly who Sidney was and how much money he made. That was what had her interest, the numbers in his bank account, not who he was as a person. Getting what she wanted was purely for the fun of the game and nothing more. Winning was what she wanted and I would bet that Sid was the ultimate prize to her.

Oh and then there was Renee. She was easy to read when she came in, she was nothing more than a whore who wanted the right to say she slept with Sidney. She claimed that she would work out on a pole, but I didn't buy that at all. That was just an excuse for what she was doing. Wanting to be with Sidney was only because of his money, money was one of her favorite things in the world.

Desiree was the ultimate definition of puck-bunny. The only thing she knew about Sidney was the fact that he was a good looking guy along with some of the other members of his team. Not even knowing some of the basic rules in the game of hockey. More than anything I wanted to quit after her, not only because of the bad name she gives to female sport fans, but because she was just annoying as hell.

Kellan, well Kellan was the next one that came in. She was different from the others by far. One of the main things that made her different? It was the fact that she was a mother of two. Kellan was oozing with confidence which was one thing that many men found down right sexy. There was a point she made that she had been referred to as a MILF and if I wanted to be honest, I wasn't surprised by that whatsoever.

The next girl, Stephanie wasn't a fan of hockey only having seen a few games, but would watch football occasionally. What kind of surprised me was the fact that she preferred to play sports, rather than sit and watch someone else do it. Outgoing and fun were some of the words that I would use to describe her personalty. No matter what Hannah had said, she acted like it didn't bother her at all.

Then Megan came and ruined her good mood that Stephanie had given to me. Having the motto 'Blondes Have More Fun' and being a natural brunette, but trying to hide it by dying your hair blonde made a very bad impression on me. The narcissistic and cocky attitude didn't really make a good impression on me whatsoever, in fact when she started talking as if she knew she was pretty and was trying to use it to her advantage, I had the urge to get up and leave but then I looked at my phone and saw a text from Sidney. He was thanking me for doing this when I didn't really want to. It wasn't soon enough that I watched her leave the room.

Uptight girls weren't really what Sidney would go for, but Rachel seemed like a nice girl. Sweet and down to earth was something to describe this girl. There was a thing of thinking too highly of yourself and I think that Rachel was doing just that. She just seemed almost too perfect for Sidney, after all he wasn't perfect like some people thought he was.

Video game loving, Mady would fit in great around the guys. Her green eyes were hidden behind a pair of thick black glasses that rested upon her face. She was the type who liked a good book over socializing with people her own age. It was her friends that put her up to doing this, they believed that she needed to get out of the house so they had tricked her before she could change her mind about the whole thing.

Laying in bed that night, I couldn't help but think about the things that Sidney would need in a girl and compare it to all of the girls that we had gone through, not just the ones that stuck out in my mind. My best friend needed someone that was fun, but not obnoxious. Someone that liked to be outdoors, but wouldn't mind those lazy days of it just being the two of them alone at one of their places. Someone like me.

Maybe helping Sidney wasn't such a good idea after all.