Keep Your Girl Out of My Shoe Cabinet, Your Wife

“Hey guys, good to see you. Come in.” I opened the front door and smiled at Marc-André, his new fiancé Vero and Max.
After stepping aside I let them enter and led them into the kitchen to drop off the desert Vero had made. Max stood a little off and watched his two best friends in Pittsburgh interact knowing good-bye was just around the corner. After Sid and Marc-André had done their man hug thing Sidney went over to greet Max and the awkwardness in Max’ face disappeared.
“Your new house looks so huge when you pull up. Come on give me a tour. Show me what I miss so I know how often I need to visit from now on.” He demanded and the famous Talbot smirk flashed across his features.

“Sure, every one come on.” Sidney said and smiled. We went through the dining room into the entrance hall. About 15 minutes later we had led them into the backyard and Max was still nudging about the fact that we now had an own cinema and he had to leave so he promised to visit us quite often to use that TV for sports or movies. Vero just loved the house and Flower made us promise to call the real estate agent to find out who did the bath room to get the master bathroom at his place remodeled.
We sat down on the oval garden lounge on the stone patio. I placed myself next to Sidney so we both were facing our friends in the same angle. He wrapped his left arm around my shoulders and I rested my head against his and after checking his watch I whispered into his ear: “We have to tell them now. Max has to leave soon.”
Sidney nodded and we looked over to the three french canadians who were discussing the pool in a rapid fluent canadian french.
“Guys, Viv and I just want to tell you something before you bring Max to the airport. You three are pretty much the closest friends here in Pittsburgh and we think you have a right to get the news before everyone else.” I started and squeezed his knee to signalize him to continue.

“You just rented this house to look cool before I leave to I get a bad conscience?” Max ask.

“Tais toi”, Flower told his best friend to shut up before smiling at us to continue.

“You might think that we’re moving a little quickly but right after the wedding we found out that we’re going to be parents.” Sidney completed my sentence.

“What?” was the only thing Vero could say. The three stared at us as if we had just grown another set of hands.

“This is a joke right?” Marc-André looked as us unsure what to think.

“You never told us you had a girl friend, let alone that you are engaged and now in a matter of weeks you tell us that you are married and now going to be a dad? Really Sidney. I know I’m not the one to give you a moral lecture but are you serious about this? This is such a spur of the moment kind of thing. You haven’t really seen each others a lot in how long? And now you are setting a child into this world?” Max rambled.

They all looked worried and disappointed and focused on Sid only. And uncomfortable silence hung in the air and I really felt out of place. Sidney stared holes into the ground and both of his hands had fallen into his lap. Vero, Marc-André and Max still stared at him.

I stood up mumbled a “I’ll be right back” and stormed up the stairs. With every step my feet got heavier. They hated us for what happened. Sidney’s best friends were pissed of him because of me. I opened the glass door to the living room and stepped into the house. The peaceful silence engulfed me and as soon as the door closed behind me I could see the three of them starting to talk to Sidney again whose head still hung down.
Sh*t.

Slowly I walked upstairs into the master bedroom and dropped onto the bed.
This was so unfair. What had I done to them? A large knot formed in my stomach. All this time I felt like Marc-André, Vero and Max genuinely liked me and that we could trust them and that they were happy for Sidney. Never had I expect them to react like that.
Why couldn’t they be a little happy?
Wasn’t it out issue to deal with?

A lonely salty tear rolled down my cheek.

I had just destroyed everything. Not only my own life but also Sidney’s. His closest friends were mad at him. He would hate me for it…
I pulled a pillow under my head and placed a hand onto the growing stomach.
Whatever happened… I still had our baby. Even if he got mad at me… I wasn’t alone.

Downstairs I head steps in the hall and a low “See you on the ice” from Max and the front door close. An icy silence spread in the house as the noise of Sidney’s feet on the wood of the stairs echoed through the building.

Almost without any sound the door of the master bedroom opened, seconds later I felt the mattress sink in beside me and a large warm hand settled over mine on the bump.

I moved slightly to find Sidney sit next to me with a small smile on his face.

“Are you okay? You looked upset when you left.”

Before I answered I wiped away the semi-dried tear and said: “I just don’t understand why they react like that. I mean the two of us are the only ones who know the true story right? So why do they care like that? I felt like they liked and accepted me. I’m just scared that they see through us. I just destroy everything you have.”

Sid chuckled and pulled me into a hug. “Don’t say something like that. They care a lot about me, that’s true because girls like to hit it with guys like us because of the money and all. I simply think that they jumped into protection mode without thinking. Don’t worry about it too much. Vero gave me a huge speech after you left but I told her to mind her own business.”

Sidney’s point of view

Viviane began to shake and her hands held onto my shirt as if it was a security rope.
I leaned back a little to see her eyes closed and silent tears running over her face. “Vivy… hey don’t cry” I said in a low voice trying to calm her a little. She only shook her head and the tears kept falling.
“Don’t worry about them. Please. They will realize that you didn’t do this on purpose and that you aren’t trying to gain fame or money. I mean you have more than enough of it yourself.”
I laughed a little imagining Viv acting like the average gold digger. In my head I still saw the 15year old girl that ran up my street the morning I left to Shattuck.


“Dad please just 5 minutes. I know she will come… Vivy would never let me leave without saying good bye.” I sat on the steps in front of our house. The car was packed and my dad eager to leave. We had a long way to drive today and he wanted to get started. Taylor just sat next to me holding onto my Cole Harbour Red Wings hoodie and looked at me with large sad eyes.
My mother put another bottle of water into the car just in case we had an accident or the drive took longer than expected.
It was not only leaving my parents, my hometown and my team behind but also my best friend. Too many things were left unsaid but I just didn’t want to put her through the pain of handling the friendship over two countries, many states and hundreds of kilometers.
My dad checked his watch the 5th time in the last 3 minutes and began to pace. I had been pushing the departure time back again and again for the last 30 minutes and he was getting really nervous. I shook my head and stood up. My mother pulled me into a hug and kissed my forehead. Tears were forming into her eyes and she bit her lower lip. “Call when you take a break and when you arrive at the school okay? We’ll try to come down for your first game and you’ll be back home for Christmas. I love you honey. Take care and remember you can be the best if you only believe it.”
I hugged her again and buried my head into her shoulder.

“Bye mom. Of course I will. See you soon.”
After mom let me go, Tay threw herself against me.

“Hey Taytay, don’t cry. I’ll be back before you know and now mom and dad will totally spoil you because you are the only one around. I will sent you a letter every week okay?”

Her blond hair flew everywhere as she nodded and whipped away her tears and laughed.

“Ba thid.” She answered in her childish and very sleepy voice and ran over to mom to be picked up.

“Come on son. We really should leave now or we’ll never arrive there.” Dad said and laid his hand onto my shoulder. I just nodded and hung my head. She didn’t come. She forgot to say good bye. Probably she had spend the rest of the night with Chris.
I shook my head to get the pictures out of my head. She’d never do that to me. She knew how I felt about her and that she was the only girl for me. Viv would never betray me like that.
With a sigh I looked down the road one more time to see whether she came walking around the corner but only saw Pterka’s cat Molly swaggering through the high grass of the front yards.

I sat down onto the passenger seat and closed the door. While I fastened the seatbelt my dad turned the key in the ignition and put the radio on. They were playing Ray Charles with ‘You are my sunshine’ and we pulled onto the street.
I turned around one last time to wave good bye to Mom and Taylor. They were waving and getting smaller and smaller. My dad set the blinker and turned the steering wheel to turn onto the next street. The second he hit gas and the car started moving again I saw her.
The sun made her brown hair look red and it jumped up and down with every step she took toward my house. I just stared at her and couldn’t move.


“Sidney?” her voice sounded raspy and her eyes tired. I jumped in my seat and looked down on her as she lay in our bed with a tear stained yet amused face, slightly worried eyes and like usual a hand rested on her swelling stomach where my baby grew. I had her back. My best friend who came just a minute too late to make me stop going to Shattuck.

“Sidney where are you? You are somewhere far far away.”

I shook my head and looked her in the eyes. “I was in my dads car many many years ago on the day we drove to Shattuck. I saw you running up my street just moments to late. I had pushed the departure back again and again for half and hour and if you would have told me to say in Cole Harbour I would have.”

Viv sighed and sat up. “Don’t say that. We both know that it is good how life went for us in that time. You turned into the best hockey player of the world and I went to Europe only short time after and look what we did in those years.”

“But where did that leave us? Alone spread around the world. There were many days I sat in some hotel room, on a bus or on a plane wondering about how life would be today if I had told you the things I wanted to or if I hadn’t left that morning. And I spent hours wondering what you were doing that moment. I googled you but until I went to Rimouski I barely understood a word the press wrote about you. My team mates translated those articles for me and thought I was gay because I always bought the Vanity Fair and the Vogue just to get the latest news or pictures of you.”

Viviane’s point of view
Every word made my heart melt and my pregnant brain believed every syllable that left his lips.

“Come on. Let’s not worry too much about what every one else thinks. For all that matters is that I found my best friend again and that our little family will be really happy one day. I know I did more that just one mistake when I left and after but you have to believe me that I’ll try to make you happy. Because of the kid and because of what we missed out on in the last decade so don’t try to stop me.”

I laughed at his determination and sat up.
“If you say so… I guess you need a new shirt… your team mates will be arriving soon and the Fleury’s will be back any minute” Pointing at his tear stained shirt I walked into the walk-in closed, saw that my dress was all wrinkled. Sidney laughed and followed me. Without hesitation he dropped his shirt into the laundry basket walking by and his muscles flexed as he reached up to take another one from the rack.
I stood in the closet with my lips agape staring at him like an idiot. When he turned around he chuckled and commented: “Like what you see? Legally all yours.” Stuck out his tongue and left.

A second or two the blood went back into my brain and I was able to move again. Quickly I slid off the dress and picked another one.

After fixing my hair and splashing some water into my face I went back downstairs to wait for Sidney’s team mates.