Keep Your Girl Out of My Shoe Cabinet, Your Wife

After 4 episodes of friends we called it a night and turned off the tv. A comfortable silence spread in the room. By now it was after 2 am I was wrapped in a blanket with feet resting on his lap, my back against the arm rest of the couch.

“Tell me about Pittsburgh.” I demanded after a time.
He turned his head, looked at me and smiled. “What do you wanna know?”

“Anything. What do I have to expect when we move there at the end of this summer?”

“Well Pittsburgh is a really nice city. The people are really genuine, down to earth and blue collar. A little like here but then again completely different. It’s not like you would think. Even though it used to be the capital of the steel industry it is neat and clean. The franchise is like a family. The first persons you will meet of the important staff most likely are Ray Shero our GM. He is the guy that puts together the roster and pays the bills. But he is in his office a lot so you will meet him at official events or games. Then we have Dan Bylsma. He is our head coach. The funniest coach you will find in the NHL. From the personality he still is a lot like a player but he makes us work hard so it’s not that much fun on ice or in the weight room but his work is efficient and I just love his way. He also has an amazing wife and a young son. Of course then there is Mario, our owner. I think he is the guy you will meet most. He is a really close friend of mine. I lived with him for multiple years before I came into the league before buying the house I have now. His wife Natalie is always there for us. She is already stoked to meet you. Hmmm… then we’d have my closest friends. You have met Max and Colby already. Well Colby plays for the Leafs so he isn’t in the Burgh that much anymore but then there is Max best friend and also a super super close friend of mine Marc-André. He is from Quebec and a total goofball. Flower-that is his nickname because of his surname- is our goalie. You will also get to meet his girlfriend soon. Then we have Kris, called Tanger, he is a defender and the ladies love him….” He went on telling me about each and any of his team mates.
Listening closely I watched him talk about his life in Pittsburgh. He had a sparkle in his eyes and you could tell how much he enjoyed the life with his team and being in Pittsburgh. He told me funny stories about late night pranks the guys had done and how he always was the silent server who organized everything of functioned as a lure. He talked about things he had experienced during the last years and in the time he lived with the Lemieux’ family and how it was moving out a second time.
“You know… the first time I moved out when I was 15. I think it was the worst move because I moved to another country and had to leave everything behind. My old school, friends, the team but mostly my family, my little sister and of course you. But the second time was only recently. In the offseason last year I bought a house and moved there so after all these years I suddenly was back on my own without anyone around.” The sparkle in his eyes dimmed a little.
“But somehow in that house I never really felt home. It looked perfect from the outside and I also had someone decorating it but now I feel like living in a magazine because everything matches too well together and still it feels unfamiliar. I figured, now that we are married and you the kid and I will stick together a lot but you are the one who sees our home the most” him calling it ‘our home’ sent a weird sensation down my spine “I really think we should look for a new house. I want to sell the old one and get a new house, no… a home soon. And I mean really soon. We will fly to Pittsburgh the day after tomorrow because we have a press meeting and some interviews so we could look for houses tomorrow and maybe meet a realtor. After staying in the Burgh for 5 days we’ll head to Vegas for the NHL awards. You okay with that?”
He turned his head towards me and smiled slightly.
“Sure sounds great. I mean I don’t want you to sell your house just because I’m moving to Pittsburgh. And when we buy a house I intend on paying 50% of it. It’s not like I’m some poor college girl. I might even have a heck lot of more money than you do so don’t even bother to argue. I’m perfectly capable of that. We should in general talk about how we will handle the finances… but not tonight. We can do that in Pittsburgh or when we meet tomorrow. ”
We talked a little longer and laughed lot. It felt like we were 14year old teenagers again.
*****
I turned around squeezed my eyes shut to block the bright sunrays out and pulled the blanket over my head again. A low moan escaped my lips as I slowly stretched my arms out… and hit a body. My eyes flew open and I pushed the blanket away.
Where the hell was I?
Quickly I sat up and turned around. A shirtless, well toned back faced me and a hair with thick dark hair rested on the pillow.
What had happened the night before?
Quietly I turned around and my bare feet touched the cold dark hardwood floor. On my toes I walked towards the door turning around once more I saw him fast asleep with his eyes closed and his lips slightly agape. He looked young, peaceful and vulnerable. Slowly with as little noise as possible I closed the door behind me and went downstairs. In the fridge and the cupboards I found eggs, bacon, bagels and fruit so I started to make breakfast. While cutting the fruit I suddenly remembered an incident from our childhood and laughed.
Quickly all things I needed were found and I mixed the ingredients together. Humming old Alanis Morissette songs I stared at his huge Delonghi. I used to have the exact same on in my condo in Paris but left it to the girl that bought my place. I had planned to buy myself a new one as soon as I was back to Halifax. Well you all know how that worked out.
I pushed the power button and put a Cole Harbour Red Wings mug underneath it and ordered a strong black coffee.

Footsteps on the stairs pulled me out of my appreciating stare.

“Good morning” Sidney yawned, stretched and smiled after taking down his arms and opening his eyes. “I smelled coffee and since you should not have any caffeine I thought that was my clue to get down here. Looks amazing.” He walked around the kitchen island and looked into the pan. “You are making pikelets? Really… NOW I remember why the hell I married you…”

I giggled and poked him into the well present abs.
“Dream on hubby. We all know the reason. You were crazy for those legs.”
Laughing out I took the pan and the bowl with the fruits and walked to the breakfast bar.

“Damn you just know me too well” Sidney laughed in his stupid yet famous laughter.
He brought the other things I had left in the kitchen and his mug and we sat down.
After eating in silence for a while I simply had to ask a question that was haunting around in my head since waking up.

“Tell me Sid, how did I end up sleeping where I did? I mean… is there anything I can’t remember for some reason?”
He shook his head and looked up after taking a large sip of his coffee.
“No you fell asleep on the couch and I was afraid that driving you home would wake you up so I figured putting you into a bed would be the appropriate thing to do. Sorry currently I don’t have a guestroom anymore. You might have realized it at your tour yesterday.”
I nodded: “Yeah right…. I thought you had one in that locked room. Or is that one of those ‘black holes’? And now don’t tell me that it is only soccer players who have those.”
Again he shook his head. “In none of my places you will find such a thing. I never throw parties at my places so only guys like Jordan have such rooms, but honestly it was a guestroom until we came back from the Maldives. I didn’t mean to show you it yet but since you are asking… remind me to take you up there after breakfast.”
After doing the dishes and cleaning up the kitchen I hung up the towel and turned toward Sidney who had just brought the rubbish out.
“Ready?” he asked and offered me his hand. Quickly I grabbed it and jumped next to him.
“Sure now go show me your mancave.”
“No I’m so not taking you to my office and neither to the rink…. The only place you could refer to as my man cave is Consol I think and to get there you will have to wait until tomorrow night okay?”
Eagerly I nodded and dragged him towards the stairs. Suddenly I was all excited to get to Pittsburgh. I had only been there twice before and that only briefly so I couldn’t wait to get to know that town for real. Somehow I was happy that it was just a town like Pittsburgh we moved to and now a metropole like New York or Vancouver.
We went upstairs and stopped in front of the door that I couldn’t get through the day before.
“Kay here we go” Sid said, pulling a key out and unlocked the door before turning the knob, pushing it open and stepping aside so I could enter.
It was a rather spacious room and it was empty. The walls were painted in a bright yellow greenish colour which made a nice contrast against the dark hardwood floor and in once corner there was a huge circular bay window with a round window seat in it.

“Oh my gosh this window seat is awesome… how come THIS room isn’t your master bedroom? It may not be as big as yours but this is so beautiful. You have the nicest view ever and this seat… nice little spot.” I looked at the room in awe and then turned around to Sid. He leaned against the door frame and smiled at me.
“This always was the guestroom because I never really knew what to do with this room or that bay window to be honest. But when we came back from the vacations I realized that the kid not only needs a home in Pittsburgh but also in Nova Scotia so I came up with the idea for this seat and the colours… we can re-do them, if you don’t like them or want to paint it bright pink in case it is a girl but I liked it more than the colour the room had before. The last days I built this seat… don’t worry a friend of my dad helped me and he does that for living so it won’t break down as soon as we open a window. So what do you think is this room okay for a nursery? I also have furniture catalogues, well actually Tay picked them up for a ‘school project’ so don’t worry no one knows a thing and I already talked to your mom. She would order them for us so our names are no where on a paper and the news won’t get out until we want them to.”

As soon as he finished I jumped over to him and pulled him into a hug: “Really? Wow… thank you. That is nice. By the way when are we leaving tomorrow and for how long do you want me to pack?” I asked.
He put both of his arms around me and held me as I leaned back to look him into the eyes before answering: “Well we will be in Pittburgh for 5 days. In that time you will get to meet the Lemieux, I have to do a press conference and we both have to do some interviews. Some of my team mates that already or still are in Pittsburgh will come over one night so you will also get to meet those. Then we will fly to Vegas. That would be day 6. We have no program on that day but I figured getting there and then having a day off before all the stress would be good for you and the baby. Day 7 we will do whatever we want and go to Alex Ovechkin’s pre-award party. That one is always fun. You’ll get to meet a bunch of friends from the national team there I think and the next day are the awards. Then we’ll head back to Pittsburgh, so all in all plan with 12 days. Is that okay with you or will you miss any doctor appointment or something?” His eyebrows moved a little in concern at the end of his monologue.
“No no, I have one later today and yet another one in 3 weeks so nothing to worry about.”

After talking a little more about the next two weeks we went back to the living room and called a real estate agent. We told him what we were looking for-5bedroom+, fairly large backyard, nice kitchen, preferably in Sewickley- and what price range we planned on spending -1 to 4 million.
He promised to pick some for us and that we would be meeting in the next days. Afterwards I head back to my parents’ house, packed my suitcase for two weeks and took the keys to drive to the doctor.