My Arranged Marriage to Sidney Crosby

Disclaimer: I only own my characters in this story, Crosby, Staal, and the Pens belong to Mario Lemieux.
~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter Nine

After we had parked my new Land Rover at Sid’s and he had changed into a pair of jeans, we had arrived at dinner only twenty minutes late.

“There they are!” Max said, pointing to us from a table on the left side of the restaurant. The hostess looked at us and smiled at me. I saw Jordan get up from his seat and walk towards me and Sidney. He quickly drew me up into a hug and said hey to Sidney before we sat down.

I was sitting next to Sid and Max, but across from Jordan who kept smiling at me every time we made eye contact and I couldn’t help but smile back at him. I was introduced to six of Sid’s teammates- Kris Letang, Evgeni Malkin, Tyler Kennedy, Marc-Andre Fleury, and Mark Letestu, and Ben Lovejoy.

They were all really nice and seemed interested in what I was doing here. We ordered our food and fifteen minutes later we were being served.

“So Jess, you liking it down here so far?” Marc-Andre asked me.

“What I’ve seen of it so far and that isn’t too much. But it seems like an awesome city from what I have seen of it.” I told him smiling and taking a bite out of my sandwich. Under the table I felt someone nudge my foot and looked up to see Jordan laughing to himself.

“Well, I think a tour is in order soon,” Kris exclaimed looking at me, “Pittsburgh is a big city- which means an official tour by only some the best people. I say after dinner.”

I simply laughed at him, silently agreeing and we all continued to talk. I didn’t find out much more about Sidney, but he seemed to be a pretty decent guy around his teammates…and a lot nicer to me. Every so often Max would ask me a question and he would happen to wink afterwards as well. I would answer the question and wink when I was done talking. I’m sure it was interesting to watch us and I’m almost positive that the people who were watching us thought we had a weird eye twitch.

“So Jess, how long are you going to be staying down here with Sidney?” Tyler asked.

Well, that was something I wasn’t expecting, “Oh, for awhile. It’s uncertain as of right now.” I told him. And it was the truth. I wasn’t lying or anything. I looked at Sidney who didn’t even seem affected by the question.

“You’ll be coming to our games as well I take it?”

“Of course! I even have a new jersey to wear to them.” I said, looking up at Jordan with a huge grin on my face.

“This is true. The best jersey out of them all too.” Jordan said, again nudging my foot under the table. I rolled my eyes at him and nudged him back.

“Number eleven?” all the guys asked at the same time, except for Sid who already knew.

“Not saying that it’s the best number of the team or anything, because- well let’s face it- it just isn’t.” Max said, laughing.

“Hey man!” Jordan said.

“Well I don’t know about any of this.” I said.

“Oh just you wait. You’ll see that I’m the best thing that’s ever happened to this team.” Max said.

“Yea right man.” Sidney said.

I looked up at Sidney who had recently become very quiet during our conversation and he looked back at me. I didn’t know what to do so I smiled a small smile and quickly looked away.

“I think we should let Jessica here be the judge of that next game.” Jordan said.

I laughed, “Oh I don’t know about that.”

“Oh come on Jess! You’ll be helping all of us out.” Ben said.

“Yea, come on Jess.” Evgeni said.

“Oh alright, alright. But don’t get mad at me when I tell you who the best player is.”

“No worries there. Right buddies?” Tyler said.

“That’s what you say now.” I said, making eye contact with him and seeing out of the corner of my eye Jordan and Max looking at me with a goofy look on their faces.

“Guys, I think it’s time for our tour.” Kris said, standing up from the table. The guys followed suit, but I stayed seated.

“Wait, what about the check?” I asked.

Sidney bent down and whispered in my ear, “I really need to teach you not to ask things like that. We always split it- and I paid for your dinner, so no complaints and no argument. OK? Good.”

I glared at him and got up from my seat, smiling at the rest of the guys. Jordan held the door open for me and we were the last ones out of the place.

We were trailing behind the group a few feet, while the rest of the boys were goofing off and telling random facts. I couldn’t help but laugh at some of them. They were an interesting bunch of people and I liked that about them. And Crosby boy seemed to be at peace.

“You and Sid work out your problem?” Jordan finally asked me after awhile of just walking in silence.

I looked up at him and nodded, “Yea, sorry you had to see that. We normally only have fights that way when it’s just us or our parents are there, but we usually keep it cleaner.” I told him.

“Don’t worry about it, it’s all good.” He said and pulled me closer to him by placing his hand on my waist.

“I mean things have just been a bit more stressful for the both of us so I wouldn’t be surprised if we had another fight tonight that was just as bad.” I told him truthfully. We had never fought this much and in so little time.

“Hey love birds back there, hurry up!” Marc-Andre shouted, waving his arm.

“Come on.” I said, grabbing Jordan’s wrist and running to catch up with the rest of the gang who were walking into a little store. I ignored Marc-Andre’s remark shrugging it off and thinking that these were probably the boys I was going to become closest with.

As I walked into the store, I realized it was another sports store with jerseys lining the wall and shirts and everything else with all different teams.

“Oh no. Why are we in here?” I asked, as I saw every guy- even Sidney- at the cashier buying something.

“Well,” Kris said, walking towards me with a bag, “First I hope you don’t mind a medium and secondly you have to go to eight games-”

“We were going to make it nine, but seeing as I’m an awesome goalie, we decided eight.” Marc-Andre said, also holding a bag.

“Anyways,” Kris continued, “You have to go to eight of our games and I’m guessing you’ll be coming to our away games as well. But anyways, after those eight games you will tell us who the better player is.”

They all smiled at me, except for Sidney who was just sort of there, but he was also holding a bag.

“And, at each game you have to wear a different jersey.” Ben said giving me his bag.

“So one game you’ll wear my jersey.” Max said, handing me his bag.

“But wait! No I can’t-”

“Next you wear mine.” Evgeni said, also handing me a bag.

“Then mine.” Tyler said, mimicking the others by handing me a gray bag.

“You’ll have to wear mine on the ninth game you go to or to all of them.” Marc-Andre said, holding back a laugh.

The rest of the boys just handed me there bags and I was left there standing in the middle of the store with nine professional hockey players surrounding me.

“Guys!” I started to say, but was cut off.

“It’s OK Jess, we all know who the best player is here.” Sidney said, striking a pose. I couldn’t help but laugh at him and I saw him crack a small smile. The rest of the boys seemed to follow suit, all disagreeing with him and saying they were the best. I rolled my eyes at them and bite my lip. How was I supposed to carry all these bags?

“A little help.” I decided to suggest, glancing down at all the gray plastic bags that were overwhelming me.

The boys laughed at me and they grabbed a few bags from me, leaving me with Sidney’s who said I could carry one. But then Jordan took it from me and we made our way out of the store and continued “touring” for a bit longer before we decided to head back.

When we were all departing from each other the boys told me they had to give me their numbers. I handed them my phone, not arguing, and let them program their cell phone number into my contacts. I could only imagine what they were going to put in as their name. Probably something stupid but very silly at the same time.

Tyler, Ben, Kris, Marc-Andre, Max and Evgeni all said goodbye to me while handing me their bags and wishing me a good night and a see you later.

Sidney said that he had seen Jordan’s jeep where we had parked so there was no use in saying our goodbyes this instant. So we all walked in silence, all of us carrying a few bags and when we reached Sidney’s expedition, he took all the bags and placed them in the back. I said my goodbyes to Jordan and gave him a hug. He hugged me back and kissed the top of my head and then I climbed in, waiting to go to Sidney’s place so I could sleep. Sidney waved a goodbye and quickly climbed in and started the engine up.

For awhile the drive home was mostly quiet. The radio wasn’t on and we didn’t talk. However, all good things must come to an end.

“Oh and I hope you realize this, but you lost the bet tonight.” Sidney said.

I looked over at him to see him already looking at me. I remained quiet. I was about to argue it, but then I realized something. He was actually right- not that I would ever admit that, but he was.

“So I guess that means I’m not getting that week of no annoying Crosby?” I asked him, once again biting my lip.