Manhattan

I let my pinky finger lazily trace the rim of my coffee cup. I could feel the moisture build up on my skin, a thin sheen of condensation as the steam from the coffee rose up and wrapped its self around my fingers. I tried to concentrate on the steam rising and disappearing in the air, pushing the sounds of my ever so active heart thudding against my rib cage to the back of my mind.

As soon as Sidney and I had stepped into the kitchen a bottle of sexual tension that I didn’t even know existed erupted and flowed throughout the room like the Mississippi river in the fall. I could feel and damn near taste it in the air and I was afraid to let out the breathe I had been momentarily holding because I knew it would come out rough and ragged, sounding like I had been running for miles and miles.

I don’t know when this sudden attraction for Sidney had formed. Had it formed when he was laying on his back in the living room, face up to the abundance of blankets hanging over us, his strong chest moving up and down with ease underneath a black v-neck or was it at the restaurant a few nights ago, his large, over-bearing hand grasping at the crayon as he looked aggressively at me during our tic tac toe match? Whenever it was I sure I didn’t get the fucking heads up or memo. I was currently dying in self-realization and hot, hot temptation as his back was turned towards me, his arm slightly flexed as he mixed creamer into his coffee.

“Let’s start off with the basics. Where are you from?” He called over his shoulder. His voice filled the room, ringing off the walls and vibrating off my body as I sunk deeper into the chair.

“Manhattan. Hints the God awful nickname.” I said with a slight grown. I rose up and took a timid sip of my coffee, relishing in the pain of it burning my tongue, it momentarily took my mind off of Sidney who had now turned around and was facing me with a curious look.

“You don’t like it?” He asked with a hint of confusion in his voice.

“Sasha gave it to me during our first semester. I’m just not very….fond of where I come from.” I carefully laced my words together, trying to string together a story I wanted to tell Sidney. I wasn’t going to lie to him but I sure as hell wasn’t going to tell him the truth. I clapped twice as I quickly shifted the focus from me to him.

“Okay, okay, you next. Where are you from?” I asked him as I knotted my hands together and placed the them underneath my chin, leaning my elbows onto the table. A lazy smile stretched across Sidney’s face. He crossed his strong leg over the other and took a swig of his coffee before he finally gave me an answer.

“I was born in Halifax but I was raised in Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia.” He said with a hint of laughter in his voice. I raised an eyebrow at him as I studied his demeanor a bit more.

“What’s so funny?” I finally questioned him with a huff. Here we where trying to get to know one another and he was being a cheeky little bastard.

“It’s weird, ya know?”

“What’s weird.”

“Talking to someone who knows absolutely nothing about me. It’s just refreshing-“

“And completely normal and not weird at all. Why would I know everything about you?”

“You’ve never had a kid come up to you and quote your life story from front to back have you?”

“No.”

“When that happens, let me know and then you’ll see what I’m talking about.” He was completely serious at this point but there was still a hint of a smirk on his pink lips.

“And how do you deal with a situation like that hot shot?” I asked him next.

“Well, if I can recall correctly, my voice cracked when I let out a simple thank you and I didn’t even ask the kid if he wanted me to sign something. I just kind of stuck my arm out there and whatever I touched first got signed with the sharpie.” We laughed together as he recited the story.

“How do you function around here? I mean, like how do you breathe?” I tilted my head to the side, feigning innocence as I looked him up and down. His demeanor slight changed here. He stood up straight and angled his body away from me before he began to speak. He seemed to cave into himself a bit.

“It’s been like this for a while. When I was younger it was like that too. At first, it was a lot to deal with, very over-whelming. I think my poor mother was more worried about me being mauled than I was. It took some getting used to but now I take it with a grain of salt.” He said casually. He said it like he had recited those words a million times before.

“You are so well put together. You know what to say and when to say and even how to say it. I feel like I’m interviewing you and you’re just going through the motions with ease.”

“I don’t know. I just go into this mode when I fall into conversations like theses. No offense, but I have to have my guard up all of the time. Anything but the routine answer could start a media shit storm and we don’t want that.”

“Well then, since we don’t want that, then we should stop this conversation right now.” I said as I pushed myself up and away from the table. Sidney pulled his mug away from his lips and gave me a confused look.

“What? Where you going? What’s wrong?” I stopped what I was doing and looked down for a second, contemplating on whether or not I should sugar coat my next answer.

“You’re like a media robot. You’ll forever be in defense mode until you let your guard down. And, getting to know one another, “ I put air quotes around my last words. “-isn’t about safe, pristine, pre-cut answers. Plus, you where so much hotter when you where pouring your guts out to me on the living room floor.”

His jaw dropped as I pushed my mug to the middle of the table. I patted his solid chest as I walked past him and out of the kitchen.

Sure I was a hypocrite for what I just said to him. He sure as hell wasn’t going to truly open up to me but equally, I sure as hell wasn’t going to open up to him but I wasn’t going to sit around and get answers that I could easily find old interviews and listen to. I wanted to see the Sidney I had seen on the living room floor, with those dark, wide frightened eyes and with his heart on his sleeve.

Plus, I had to get him back for turning me into a hot mess of a babbling fool this morning in the guest bed room.

Check mate my friend and game on to you.



The kids where still asleep underneath the fort as I went around collecting dirty clothes in the dirty laundry basket. I rested the basket on my hip and hummed to myself in order to fill the silence of the house. I hadn’t heard or seen Sidney for thirty minutes and I knew he was still in the house but he was probably somewhere hiding, waiting to jump out and scare the shit right out of me.

Asshole.

"My favorite color is blue. Preferably dark blue but blue nonetheless." Told you. Waiting around the corner to scare the shit right out of me. Before I knew what I was doing I let out a loud shriek and the basket on my hip went flying into the air as my hands grabbed at my shirt that was stretched across my chest, grasping for my wildly beating heart.

In that same time period Sidney had leaned forward and pressed his warm, thick palm against my lips. Pushing his index finger into the plumpness of his lips, he then out a low sshing noise as he looked around for any signs of a groggy, freshly awoken kid.

We waited in silence for a second before he pulled back with a wide smile.

"Gotcha good didn't I?" He asked with a cheeky smile.

"You know good butthole! What are you doing right here?! Waiting in the wings to scare the piss out of me! What's wrong with you!?" I whisper hissed as I slapped at his chest. My beating seemed to have no affect on him as he continued to look down at me and laugh.

"Stop laughing you ass and pick up all the stuff you made me spill. Do it now and don't want any lip out of you." I said as I crossed my arms across my chest and turned my nose in the air. I began to steadily tap my foot as I threw him a playful glare. I watched as Sidney rolled his eyes and got down on one knee and began to pick up the clothes sprawled across the upstairs hallway.

"Yellow." I stated evenly once my heart rate got back to normal.

"What?" He questioned as his large hand hovered over one of Lola's tiny socks.

"My favorite color is yellow."

"My favorite day of the week is Friday." He stated randomly.

I couldn't help but laugh as I slapped him across his back playfully.

"Could you stop with all of the abuse woman? You are kind of working with precious cargo here."

"Who has a favorite day of the week anyway though? That's just weird."

"That's not weird, that's perfectly normal!" He countered back with a huff.

"Why is Friday your favorite day of the week anyway?"

"Back when...back when Carol was around, whether if we had a game that night or not, her and Pascal would go out that night, good ole' Uncle Sid would come around to babysit. They knew I was always bearing some kind of gifts, whether it was crayons or cupcakes. The way their little faces would light up and they would bounce off of me like I was the highlight of their entire week. It made me feel special, just different kid of special and I loved it." He now had his back pressed up against the wall. He was absentmindedly playing with Lola's tiny sock, twirling it between his thick fingers.

"It seemed like every thing was different and....happier when Carol was around."

"They where." He was short again, closed off and in that defensive type of mode.

"If I had to choose my favorite day of the week, it would more than likely be Sunday." I stated, finally breaking the silence that had recently engulfed us.

"And why is that?"

"Because on Sunday's, when I was a little girl, I would have brunch with my grandma. Ha, she was the only sane member of my family." I hadn't reveled this little know fact to anyone before. My Sunday brunches with my Grandma was something that I cherished very deeply.

"She was a grey haired woman who was so sweet and so caring. She oozed kindness and she was just as charming as she could be. She gave the best advice and made me the greatest ginger bread cookies on earth in the fall for my class. I just...I really loved her."

"When did she pass?"

"Fall of my 3rd grade year. Right after she made me those ginger bread cookies. She left me the recipe." I spoke in a soft, strained voice. I too had my back pressed up against the wall now. I slipped my thumb knuckle in between my teeth and teethed on it as I tried to soothe my worrying nerves. I was so wrapped up in my own thoughts that I nearly went halfway up the wall when I felt Sidney's warm hand on my knee, giving it a strong reassuring squeeze.

We looked at each other for a second, a second that could easily be considered longer than normal. Sidney then began to lean into me ever so slightly, his eyes never leaving mine. I could feel his warmth begin to surround me like a blanket in the winter and I felt myself shiver ever so slightly. He was now mere inches away from my face but instead of going towards my awaiting mouth he then leaned in towards my ear and whispered softly.

"After this morning I begging to think yellow is my favorite color too." I couldn't do anything but gasp as I slapped him across his chest again. He let out a high pitch laughed and turned beat read as I took the now full dirty laundry basket and dumped it on his head.

Asshole.