Keep Your Girl Out of My Shoe Cabinet, Your Wife

“What?........Why?”
I decided to give Sidney some privacy so I quickly skipped through the bedroom into my bedroom and drew myself a bad room. The music system played some romantic music that made it easy to relax and to blend out the stress of the night. Outside several feet below me the night of Sin City was approaching its peak. I hung the dress back onto the hanger, placed the shoes back to their place and the jewelry onto the counter next to the sink. Quickly the lingerie landed on the floor and my tired feet stepped into the warm water. I put my hair up with a band and closed my eyes. The jets of the bathtub massaged my hurting back and caused the water to move around. The low music was soothing and the dimmed light relaxing. Everything felt like a perfect lullaby.

A sudden bang woke me up from my day dream. Slightly puzzled I jumped out of the water, took a quick shower and jumped into a shirt and some pants before janking the door open.
I stopped in my tracks when I found Sidney. He sat on a bar chair in the living room with his back against the bar staring out into the night. Half of the buttons of his shirt were opened and his right hand held onto a bottle of rum. Sighing silently he led the bottle to his lips and took a full sip before letting his arm fall down again spilling a small amount of the liquid onto the floor.

All the rage was gone and he seemed lost. Though I still was a little more than just intimidated I slowly walked over to him. “Sidney?” I asked lowly when I was just a couple of feet away.
He did not move.
“Sidney are you okay…. Is there anything I can do?” I asked again.
A minute or two and several sips later he turned his head towards me. The normally large brown sparkling eyes were dull, bloodshot and tears were about to spill. A second later he turn back to the window again.

“Oh my god Sidney” With three big steps I closed the distance between us and wrapped my arm around him.
I don’t know how long we stood there like this. Him sitting on the bar chair holding onto me like dear life and me standing in front of him rubbing his massive back.

“You know” he whispered after a while. “You can be happy now. She is gone and won’t be coming back.” His voice broke after finishing the sentence.
I hugged him even closer. “I’m so sorry Sid. Don’t think of me like that. I never wanted that to happen. Our mothers want that but I just… I don’t know what I want but you have to be happy.”

We remained in silence a little longer before he went into his bathroom. I emptied the whiskey bottle, locked the bar and slid under the cover of the bed.
10 minutes later Sidney stepped out of his bathroom only wearing PJ pants and looked at me a little lost. “Vivy… could I maybe sleep in bed tonight? I don’t want to be alone.”
“Of course” I replied and watched him getting the pillow and the blanket from the couch. He placed it on the vacant side of the bed and lay down next to me. After killing the light I grabbed his hand and squeezed it. “If you want to talk or if you need a talk you know I’m here. As you said earlier today. We are in this together. Just the three of us. I’m always here so feel free to use the company.” I whispered.
For a second I though Sidney had fallen asleep already because I couldn’t make out any reaction but then I felt him scoot over and wrap one arm around me almost like the big spoon. “I know Vivy… it’s just so hard… after 2 years she just decides to move to Miami… because of LeBron James. Really? I mean what have I done wrong. She said they have been seen each others since 6 months.”
Slowly I turned around, faced him and placed my left hand onto his warm chest. He cringed a little under the contact with the cold metal of the wedding and engagement ring.
“Are you serious? Wow she really did not deserve you Dough” I saw him smiling weakly about my elementary school nickname for him “You know how I always sucked at consoling people. Still haven’t gotten better. I really can’t find the right words.”
“But I get what you are trying to say. Thank you Vivy… for still being there for me after all the asshole moves.” Sidney whispered before pulling the covers over the both of us and letting out a deep breath. “Good night.”

“Sleep well.”

My eyes fluttered close and I fell into a dreamless but deep and recreative sleep.

I was woken up again by low noises and the sun rays that tickled in my face. Slowly I sat up, yawned and stretched my tired bones.

In the living room I found Sidney setting breakfast from the room service trolley onto the dinner table.

“Hey”

“Good morning Vivian. Did you sleep well? I just ordered some breakfast. I don’t know what you are craving for today so I went all out and got you pretty much anything they offered.” He said while pouring a glass of orange juice and a glass of cranberry juice. He stepped around the table and pulled out the chair.
“Thank you… you don’t need to pull out my chair. No one is watching.” I laughed at his behavior.
“I’m sorry I just feel like I owe you something. I mean my behavior yesterday was inexcusable and… oh my god.”
I found him staring at me with his eyes wide open. I followed his gaze and a large bruise had formed on my upper arm.
“Oh my god Vivian I’m so sorry… I’m so embarrassed. I never meant to oh my god.” He literally ran around the table and grabbed my arm to examine it.
“I… you… I’m sorry I just felt so betrayed when I saw you in that commercial. It’s just… you are my wife and it felt wrong to see you next to Ovechkin. You know about the whole thing the media blew up between him and I and he really likes to fuel that fire and keep it going”.
I pulled my arm out of his overprotective grip, placed my hand under his chin and forced him to look into my eyes. “I only did that job because my agent still owed Ovechkin something and Ovechkin asked for me. He wanted me already for the first campaign years ago but I couldn’t because those dates were during the Paris fashion week and I had to run 12 shows in 5 days. I didn’t want to do it but it was like the last thing I did before stepping back. I swear I did not do it to annoy you, to make you angry or to pay you back for ruining my honey moon. Really I’m not such a cheap shooting person. And don’t worry about that bruise. I’ll just buy another dress that covers it up, maybe put some make up on it and no one will know about this okay?”
Sidney looked at me in surprise but nodded.
“Sure… let’s finish breakfast and then I’ll take you shopping. I caused this so I will buy that dress. Wow I really should have listened…. Please excuse my behavior… I feel so bad.”
I laugh silently. “Sid I know you since forever. I know you aren’t a person that hits women or eruptions. Your parents raised you better. I know it, you know it and no harm is done okay? It is just a bruise. It hurts a little but it will go away.”
We finished the breakfast in silence, then I took a quick shower and put on a Rag and Bone dress and blazer along with some ankle boots. I left my half way dried hair open to dry in the sun, grabbed some sunglasses and met Sidney at the door to leave.
We walked through the lobby hand in hand and hailed a cab. After trying on several dressed in various boutiques I finally found an amazing yet simple red Giambattista Valli gown, that covered both the bruise and the bump. Some minor changes in the width had to be done but the owner of the shop promised to have the dress ready in the hotel waiting for me at 3 pm. Seeing it was 11 am now I sent Sidney back to the hotel and went to the hairstylist I had booked beforehand to get my hair done before meeting up with Sid for lunch at 1pm. In the meantime he would give some interviews.

Sabrina did an awesome job and I really liked the classic bun she did after seeing the dress on the phone.

Sidney’s POV

After finding a dress for Vivian I hailed a cab and got to the Venue of the awards. My agent Pat was already waiting outside, pacing nervously while typing some text into his Blackberry. I paid the taxi driver and got out. His head shot up and he glared over to me.

“Sidney, finally I’ve been calling you 5 times. I though you forgot me. Nice show you and Vivian put up there. I think the press bought your story. Now let’d get you inside. Toews and Ovechkin are already waiting.” He said.

“Yeah I left my phone in the hotel. Sorry. Totally forgot about taking it. We had to get a new dress for Viv.” I explained myself walking through the door he held open for me and followed him as he navigated through the corridors.

“Speaking of Vivian. Where have you left her?”

“Oh she is getting her hair done or something. She is freaking about the red carpets. Those obviously have never been her favourite part… don’t ask me how she did runway shows... maybe she’s the cause for Lagerfeld’s white hair and she simply stressed him out as she does me now.” I laughed.

I walked into the room where the interview was supposed to be held. Tazer sat on a bar stool at the wall while two make up artists tried to make him look good. Alexander was grabbing a bottle of water from a fridge next to the door. He turned towards me smiled and offered me his hand. “Crosby what’s up? How’s the summer so far?”

“Hello Alex. Good good I’m fine thanks. Impressive party last night, we really enjoyed it.” I answered politely.

“We? Who…” He began but Tazer interrupted him.

“Crozzy what’s up man? Didn’t get to talk to you last night. Just saw you leave early when I was heading over. How was the honeymoon… did wifey let you see daylight at all?” Tazer winked at me… captain serious…. If the fans out there only knew… his mind was way more twisted than the one of Patrick Kane… and Talbo… combined.

“Yeah thanks. Vivy wasn’t feeling so well. The Maldives are awesome. You have to go there. She made me do all the snorkeling stuff, boat trips… but it was nice thanks. How about yourself?”

Ovechkin looked confused. “Honeymoon? Wife? You got married? Geno never said a thing. Congrats… I didn’t even know you were engaged. How come we never saw her all this times. I mean Olympics… Stanley Cup… how have you hidden her through all that? Do we know her or is she some hidden Nova Scotia beauty or Pittsburgh College girl?”

“Oh Alex… you know her. Does the name Viviane Laraque ring any bell to you? Actually it is Viviane Crosby since a little over a month.”

His eyes grew big. “Oh really… I’m sorry dude. I did not know it. Really. If I had I would have never booked her. I mean… damn… I saw that bling but I never would have guessed. How does someone like you meet such a girl and why did you never introduce her to the world.”

“Well I have known her all my life. She’s from Cole Harbour just like I am and I never had her in Pittsburgh or hockey in general because she lived in Paris until some months ago so now she is here for good.”

The guys asked a couple of more questions before the interview started. Patiently we answered every question ESPN had for us and had a photo shooting afterwards.
It was 12:30 when we were done.
Pat waited outside of the room again working hectically on something.

“Uhm Pat” I approached him.
“Oh Sidney you are done? Nice. Well here is some package your mom send me but the envelope says it’s for you so I didn’t open it. You are off until 4:30. The car will be waiting for you and Viviane in front of the hotel.”

When I entered Ferraro’s the lady at the entrance told me that she had arrived already.

Viviane’s POV
I was a little too early but the hostess told me I could get the table already. For lunch Sidney had chosen a small but adorable Italian place. Driving here I had tried to call him a couple of times but was connected to the voice mail only, so I figured the interview took a little longer.
I ordered a Canada Dry and pulled out my Blackberry to write a couple of emails.
Suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder, quickly spun around only to see Sidney smiling down on my.

“Hey beautiful. I saw you from afar but wasn’t sure if this hairdo really belongs to my wife but then there was no one around to only slightly equal your pulchritude.”
I rolled my eyes at him.
“Aren’t we a little hokey today?” I stood up to kiss him on the lips lightly.

We ordered and ate lunch while he told me the reactions of Jonathan Toews and Alexander Ovechkin. I had to laugh quite about Ovechkin’s nescience. We returned to the hotel and had a little more than 45 minutes to get ready. The dress luckily had been delivered already. Quickly I applied some brown eye shadow, a fairly large amount of mascara so my green eyes popped out against the brown hair and the red dress.

Carefully I put on the waist shaper to hide the slight bump but I was to scared that the dress would give away any hints. After the stress the night before and the emotional trouble Sid already had with Becky’s sudden break up I really did not want to put him through breaking the big news now due to nonattention. To feel at least a little sexy I put on a black thong and a black garter skirt because wearing tights under the dress wasn’t possible and would leave horrible marks in the area of the shape wear.
After taking of the bra I stepped into the red gown we had just purchased and called for Sid.

Sidney’s POV
I was in my bathroom desperately trying to fix the bow tie that came along with my tuxedo .
Suddenly I heard Viviane.

“Sid do you have a second? Could you come into my bath? I really could use some help… This dress is evil. The saleslady didn’t tell me about it.”
“Sure” I answered with a sigh. Maybe she could help me with this bow. My mom insisted on getting this bow. At events like Pens and Plated we always had those bows that were already stitched together and you just have to hook it in. In defeat I let the loose ends fall down and walked over to Viv’s bathroom but not before grabbing the content of my mothers package and putting it into the pocket of my pants.

Vivian stood in front of the large mirror holding her dress in place with one hand. She hadn’t seen me yet because she was taking things out of her handbag and tried to place them into a small golden bag .
One would think she was doing it on purpose. Her dress was wide open and her slender body only clad in some black fabric that looked a little like a corset made out of underarmour material, a tiny thong and a very seductive garter whose straps went all the way over her perfectly shaped, well trained cheeks before disappearing in the dress. Summed up she was one hell of a temptation. One to touch and burn. I felt an all to familiar twitch in my pants. Viviane looked up and smiled.
“Hey… could you zip me up and close those buttons ?”
I closed the zip up and the many tiny red buttons on the back of her dress. 29…
Afterwards she tied my bow and we were almost ready to leave. Viviane slipped into her shoes and I put on my Jacket.

“There is just one last thing you need so you look really perfect.” I said turning to her and pulling the present out of my pocket.

“Remember this one” I asked putting the necklace around her neck I had already given her for her fourteenth birthday.
Her eyes went wide.

“Oh my god.” She just whispered before little tears shot into her eyes.