Keep Your Girl Out of My Shoe Cabinet, Your Wife

The time in San José ended with the Pens losing 3-4 out after 2 beautiful goals of Geno and stunning wrist shot goal of Engel but in the shoot out Thomas Greiss made saves against Tanger, Geno and Pascal, while Flower allowed a goal of Ryane Clowe. It felt like she had only been in San José for a few hours but it had been almost 2 days when they boarded the plane to Los Angeles after the game.
While the hotel room in San José was big enough to fit Pascal, Sidney and Viviane all together, the room beds in Los Angeles were to small for both pregnant Viviane and the hyperactive sleeper Sidney, so she had to get a room for herself. Sid opted to stay with Pascal… of course just a routine… no superstition.
Dan Bylsma had set the morning practice at 10am and allowed Sid to skip press, so when 12:30 rolled around and she still hadn’t heard from him she started to get anxious. A mail her agent sent her during breakfast had her on her toes ever since and she was buzzing through her hotel room. When the LED lamp on her Blackberry lit up signalized her that she received a new text message she let out a sigh of relief.

Sounds like fun? We’ll meet at the hotel when you’re done okay? Got some errands to run

Viviane raised her eyebrows in question but grabbed her bag and headed towards the elevator.

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It was about 2pm and she picked from the chicken caesar’s they served. Giovanni added some final touches with the curling iron before declaring it as “perfect” and told his assistant to take away Viviane’s food so he could spray it. Automatically she closed her eyes. When she opened them again he offered her a mirror and she admired his work . The make up was really restricted and natural.
When she stepped out of the taxi in front of the team hotel she found a text message on her phone telling her to get to room 2304.
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Marc-André, Ben Lovejoy, Kris Letang and James Neal sat in front of the tv wrapped in a heated discussion about what the real vintage video game was. Pacman or Tetris. Inwardly he laughed about it remembering the conversation he had not too long ago with Viviane when she stated that those were the only games she really played. At the point Flower threw around French curse words he may never use around the baby if he wanted to live the next day, Sidney got restless.
He stood up and started pacing the room.

“’ey kid sit down” Kris told his friends and looked up from the TV screen for a moment.

“I can’t sorry.”

“What’s wrong? Anything I can do for you?” James asked and put the controller down.

“I’m terrified. Not only is there this big red carpet charity event tonight but before we go there Viv has an interview and our agents want me to go with her.”

“What’s the big deal? You master red carpets each year dozens of times and you gave like 3 times as many interviews in your life as we 4 did in our lives combined.” Benny said.

“I know but it’s really the big screen with all that stuff there…. TMZ, FOX, all those big magazines. Normally it’s just ESPN, CBC, ROOT and stuff but this is really national wide and people pay attention to her. Hell that interview will be published world wide next week. What if I embarrass her?”

“Chill… what kind of interview is it?” Benny asked while crawling backwards over the floor trying the get a banana from the side table without getting up.

“Vogue”

“Wow” Kris summed it up. “That’s big. Wasn’t she like a big deal in Europe?”

“She’s the face of freaking Chanel.”

“Uhm have fun.” Flower jumped up, raced towards the door and tore it open.

In front of the door a surprise Viviane stood with her fist up ready to knock.

“Bonjour Madame.” Marc-André greeted his friends wife.

“Bonjour ma fleur. Ca va? Je cherche ton captain. ” {Hello my flower, how are you? I’m looking for your captain}

“Je t’aime plus que j’aime Sid. Tu parles francais avec mois.” {I like you more than I like Sid. You talk French to me}
Viviane giggled at the goalie, pushed him aside and stepped into the room.
“Hey boys.” She waved towards Kris and James who sat on their heels in front of the monstrous TV like little children and at Benny who had fallen over by now and laid on the floor underneath the glass table still trying to get a banana.

Sidney had stopped his pacing as soon as Marc-André had stormed towards the door and stood in front of the glass front of the hotel room.
Viviane walked over to him, placed her hands onto his pectoral muscles and raised onto her toes to peck him onto the forehead.

“Hey there someone home?” she joked. He blinked twice and started to smile.
“Hello. Had a good morning?” Sidney asked and warped his arms around her.

“Jap sort of. After freaking out for 2 minutes I went to the hairdresser and now all I have to do is put my dress on. How ready are you?”

“Pretty much the same. I just have to jump into my tux.”

“Sounds perfect. I will pick you up at 3:30. 60minutes enough for you?”

“Sure” He took his hands off her lower back and let them sneak into the front pockets of her cardigan. “I’ll be here. ” He leaned closer whispered “Wear these” into her ear and patted the front pockets before placing a soft kiss onto the sensitive skin underneath her ear.
Viviane let out a small giggle because he perfectly knew how ticklish she was in that spot.
Back when they were little kids and he was sick of her sleeping in the morning he’d take a feather and tickle her underneath the ear. He had always commented that she first looked like a fish on land and then like a cat waking up… that was what he said when they were 7.

Sidney stepped back and looked at his team mates who had watched that little intimate scene with greatest interest.

“Next time I’ll bring you popcorn. Tanger close that pretty mouth of yours or you will catch flies.”

Kris closed his mouth right away and Benny chuckled.
“I’d say she’s a keeper but then again you already tied her down all the way how it’s written in the book.”

Viviane waved and skipped out of the room, poking Flower’s nose, who still stood by the door and took the elevator up.

As soon as she had closed the door of her room behind her she reached into the front pockets and pulled out a gorgeous pair of earrings . She gasped at the sight and gently placed them onto her nightstand.
After taking off her sweats she creamed her skin with body butter to make her exposed skin shiny and to avoid stretch marks. Then she changed into underwear that went with the dress without leaving lines or showed straps.
Afterwards she gathered the things she needed for the nigh, Blackberry, ID, keycard, some lipgloss and mascara in her clutch. When she checked the clock she realized that she still had 30 minutes before she was meeting up with Sid, so she decided to snuggle into the covers of the bed and watch some TV. The only thing that was on were some reruns of friends so she kept them on and put her Blackberry alert on 25 minutes. It was one of her favorite episodes and it was hilarious. She was shaking of laughter when Ross and Rachel got married.


‘This is so unrealistic’ the young dark haired boy pouted and looked down on the auburn haired girl that rested her head on his shoulder. She had a soft smile on her face and he was pretty sure he saw tiny tears in her eyes.

‘No it’s not. It may be weird but I find it somewhat cute. Imagine what can be better than marrying your friend? When you lived with a person for times and see them every day you know each and every flaw they have. Isn’t that perfect? I mean you know when to do what and when you should better just leave them alone.’

‘Still you don’t just marry someone. You shouldn’t be allowed to marry drunk… you should marry because you love someone and trust them with all you heart.’

‘Sidney you are such a dreamer.’

‘No I’m not… if we were now let’s say 25… would you just go and marry some friend… like Greg from school.’

‘Eeeeww no… never… he’s eeewww…’

‘Vivy… boys don’t have cooties.’

‘They do…’

‘How old are you?’

‘Old enough to know.’

‘Then I should go….’

‘Noooo you don’t have cooties’

‘But I’m a boy.’

‘Yeah but you are you and ….’

‘Yes…’

‘Hey you don’t have cooties…’

‘Let’s get married or what…’

‘Nooo… Viviane Crosby… that just doesn’t sound good’

Looking back to this memory Viviane laughed and jumped slightly when her alarm went of. She quickly silenced it, took the earrings from the nightstand and put them on as soon as she stood in front of the mirror. After taking in her appearance and turning a couple of times looking at he reflection, she took her dress from the garment bag and slid into it. She took a minute or two to carefully drape the dress over the bump. The cut of the dress hid it a little so she didn’t look too pregnant to someone who didn’t know it. She looked like maybe 4 or 5 months. She turned again making the skirt swing a little and smiled. Then she slipped into her ballerina flats, grabbed her clutch and Blackberry and went to the elevator.

When she knocked at the door she was almost bursting with smiles and butterflies. Yes she was a girl for small town Nova Scotia Canada, but being at home all the time really was boring and frustrating sometimes. She was really excited about the adrenaline rush of walking over the carpet with press everywhere. Viviane knew that it scared Sidney to death but it really was what she needed right now.
The only thing that she was a little worried about was the interview they had to give before heading to the actual venue. She had know her forever but never had she interviewed her personally. It had happened before that Viviane gave an interview in her office. Then HER assistant would place Viviane on the white couch in front of the white wall on the while granite floor and would ask the questions while she sat on her desk, staring at the screen and typing furiously on her keyboard.
Why now?

The ‘ding’ of the elevator doors pulled her back to reality and made her thought vanish. She walked over the to door she didn’t get to knock on earlier, hesitated for a second as if she wanted to find out whether Flower was sitting behind the door to shock her again. This time she got to knock and only second later the door was opened.
On the other side of the door she looked into the large brown eyes of her favorite Russian.

“здравствуйте Geno!” she greeted him.

He shot her a big smile and softly pulled her into one of his bear hugs.

“chello Veev. Seed nervous. Boys give him trouble.”

Viviane laughed and hugged him back.

“Well then I’ll go and save him because I really need him tonight.”

“Go get heem. You look beautiful.”

“Thanks Gee… you look uuuugh relaxed?” Both Evgeni and Viviane eyes Geno up and down and laughed at his worn out sweat panty and way too big tshirt.

“We chad practice. I’m tired.”

She smiled at him one last time before walking into the room. Now it was really packed. Viviane was pretty sure that the only people who were not in this room were Morehouse, Mario, Dan, Tony and Dana. Craig stood in front of Sidney trying to tie the bow tie but somehow failed.

“Boys let me try.”

With having that said all eyes left the screen and turned to her.

“Damn”, Aron said “If you ever get a divorce make sure to call me.”

“Ash you are married.” Viviane pointed out and walked over to Sid and Craig.
Latter one let go of the bow tie immediately and stepped aside. With her slender fingers she had fixed the problem within seconds and patted it proudly.
“Soooo mind if I steal your cappie? I mean legally he’s mine anyways but I thought I should ask just for rhetorical reasons.”
Half of the team started laughing and Jordan yelled “Burn… now we know who wears the pants in the family.”

Someone tried to whisper in a low tone but failed to keep it low: “Wanna bet she doesn’t wear any?”
Sidney clenched his right fist and let out an annoyed sigh. “Come one let’s go beautiful” He said to his wife and softly nudged her towards the door. She took his phone and room key to put them into her clutch and followed his lead. “Bye kids… behave.”

Finally alone in the elevator both left out a deep breath.

“Are you nervous?” Sidney asked.

“Very” she answered truthfully and played with her earrings. “Thanks by the way…”

“Thanks… happy 4-4 by the way” he replied and looked at her with a cocky smirk on his face.

“What?”

“Oh nothing.”

“Uhm… okay…”

Outside of the hotel a car waited for them and brought them to a nearby hotel.

“Why are you nervous?” Sidney asked when she started playing with her engagement ring as if her life depended on it,

“I’m not nervous about the event or the interview… I’m just nervous about her…”

“Who?”

“Her…”

“Sorry… is that a term like you-know-who or he-who-must-not-be-named?”

“Pretty much yeah…”

“Okay… do I know her or should I be scared?”

“Yes and I don’t know…”

“You are weird right now. Whatever happens I’m here and if you want me to break it up, just give me a sign. No one will judge you… I googled you and for some reason you don’t have any scandals or diva allures…”

“Yeah I guess I’m a little like you… trying to be perfect but other than work invisible.”

Sidney laughed, got out of the car, ran around the trunk to open the door for his wife and lead her into the hotel.

Minutes later the double doors of the penthouse suite opened and when Sidney saw the lady who sat on the couch dressed perfectly he understood why she was scared… he had only heard about her until now but what he heard was enough to make his palms start to sweat. On the couch sat….