Keep Your Girl Out of My Shoe Cabinet, Your Wife

The next morning, Viviane woke up about half an hour before Sidney’s alarm would go off. Without waking him up she escaped his lose embrace and slid out of the bed. After putting on warm socks, she wandered into the closet, picked up the sweater jacket she had worn the day before and pulled it over her PJ’s. In the bathroom she quickly brushed her teeth, washed her face and put the hair in a messy bun.

With hardly any sound she walked downstairs and opened the fridge. She took out all the ingredients for Sidney’s breakfast. After preparing everything so all she had to do once he came down was putting it into the pan, she started looking through the cupboards but couldn’t find what he was looking for.

Sidney groaned and turned onto his back. Soon his alarm would go off. His hand searched for it on the night stand and switched it off so it wouldn’t wake Viviane up. With a smile on his face he turned back on his side to watch his sleeping wife for a little. As soon as his eyes hit the empty space next to him he was wide awake. In a matter of seconds he jumped up and ran into the halls, bumping his toe against the door frame.

“Fu….dge” he cursed but walked on. “Viviane?” he called through the house.

Viviane climbed down from the counter and leaned against it. “Kitchen” she called back.

Quickly heavy feet ran down the wooden staircase and soon Sidney half asleep body flew around the corner.
“There you are… didn’t your doctor tell you to stay in bed and lay as much as possible? Viviane I don’t want you to run around this much… go to bed I’ll bring you breakfast.”

“But Sidney… I’m perfectly fine with making breakfast….” She began to argue.

“But I want you to stay in bed as much as possible. We don’t want to risk anything do we?”

“No of course not…”

“So go back to bed… what was the frown about when I came down here?” he wondered when he watched her leave the kitchen.

“We have no peanut butter… I wanted peanut butter, pepper oatmeal… I may have killed the last jar yesterday.” She looked down on her feet and frowned.

Sidney laughed and shook his head. His wife’s most recent craving was the weirdest one he had ever heard of… mix oatmeal with milk and one tablespoon peanut butter put it in the microwave for about a minute and then put pepper over it… the spice not the vegetable… he had tried it once and almost threw up from it but Viviane liked it so she should get it.

“No problem, I’ll organize some breakfast for you and you lay down in bed and wait there until I will bring you food okay?”

“Yes caveman… wife will hide in cave and wait for you to come home.” She joked.

Sidney walked over to her, placed index and middle finger under her chin and tilted her head a little. “I like to hear that… take care of our 4 square meter cave.” Softly he kissed her and sprinted upstairs to put on some cloth he could leave the house.
When he was in the bathroom he send Mario a quick text. The owner always woke up around 6 am to read the news paper before making breakfast for Nat and the kids that still lived in the mansion.
Viviane laid in bed and grinned at him as he passed her to get her peanut butter.

“Be a good girl while I’m gone” he scolded her before closing the bedroom door.

“Always…” she kept a straight face.

“Oh really? I’ve heard differently…” he smirked and skipped down the stairs. Less than a mile away from the house the Mario read the text and smiled. His wife just walked down the stairs still half asleep with her hair all over the place.

“Your oldest son will come over in a few.” He joked and winked at her.

“What does Sidney want? Do they have a fight and he wants to move in again? I put the small palm trees in his room so they won’t die this winter.”
Mario smiled at Nat’s sleepy thinking.

“No… Viviane has this weird craving and he needs peanut butter for her… for some reason he doesn’t want to leave her long enough to drive to the store.”

Nat smiled at her husband and let her hand run over his chest. “Well I could think of reasons what they could need peanut butter for and why he doesn’t want to leave her that long.”

“MOM! I did not hear that” Austin yelled from the stairs and stared at his parents.

Mario and Nat laughed and soon they heard a knock on the front door and a key clicking in the lock. The familiar noise of shoes being taken of and a jacket being unzipped. Seconds later Sidney appeared in the kitchen.

“Good morning Austin” Sidney greeted his some kind of foster brother and hip checked him out of the door way.

“Good morning Nat, Mario”

“Good morning Sid… do you want a coffee or something?” Natalie asked the young man she sometimes regarded her oldest son.

“No thank you… I don’t want Viviane to stay alone too long….”

“Why’s that? Mom said it involved peanut butter?” the teenager asked and Nat’s ears turned red in an instant.

“Yeah Viviane has a weird craving and we run out of peanut butter.”

“I get that but why don’t you want to stay a little.” Austin asked again.

“Uhm I don’t think you’ll understand it but her cervix is too short for the time she pregnant and her doctor wants her to lay in bed as much as possible so the baby doesn’t put any stress on the cervix. We planned on spending Christmas at home in Nova Scotia so she could also see her grand father again because he is dying.” He answered.

“Oh honey… is there anything we can do for you? Do you want me to help her in the house or look after her when you’re gone?” Nat asked. Mario just nodded.

“Right now the only thing that would help is chain her to bed. She’s used to supporting herself. Now I’m the only one who’s earning money and she feels like she has to do everything outside the rink…”

“I’ll let Ray know… you can always take a day or two off Sidney. No one wants you to miss the birth or something.”

“Dad what happens when the cervix is too short?” Austin asked.

“The baby can come too early and that can lead to brain damage, lung problems or other things.”

“Oh”

“Here take the peanut butter and go home… I’ll check in later while you are at the rink okay?” Natalie almost shoved the jar into his hands and pushed him towards the giant front porch.

When Sidney unlocked his front door the house was silent and the kitchen empty. He let out a content sigh and quickly threw his breakfast into the pan while the oatmeal was in the microwave.
He grabbed his plate, her bowl and cutlery and headed back upstairs. Viviane had curled up in the middle of the bed and was asleep. With little noise he set the breakfast down, slid his jeans off and crawled back under the covers. Stroking her arm softly he woke her a little.

“Oh… you’re back already” Viviane mumbled and nestled her head onto his chest.

“I made breakfast.”

In silence they ate breakfast in bed enjoyed each others company.

“So… ” Sidney started: “I just have a short appearance at Consol and I’ll work out a little. Write me a text with whatever I should buy or do because I don’t want you to leave the house alone and please don’t walk around that much. I don’t want you or the little one put in danger of an early birth.”
Viviane just turned around hid her face in his side and wrapped her arms around his waist. “Don’t go to practice… bed will be too big and I need my pillow.” She pouted a little and thrust her hips a little forwards so the belly pressed into his side.

Sidney giggled and turned on his side to face her.

“Oh Vivy I have to. Every other day I could take off, but today we invited 8,000 kids to watch practice. I at least have to be there and say hi. I’ll be back here before you know… but you know that we fly to Philly early Thursday and won’t come back until late Saturday or early Sunday?”

“Yeah” she frowned. “I got to used to have you around… will you say hi to Max from me… and can you get me an autograph from Jaromir or something… ”

“You still haven’t gotten it” Sidney wondered out loud remembering the day the Czech’s Superstar held a signing in Halifax but the friends didn’t make it because their math teacher send them to detentions for talking hockey in class.

“No” she frowned.

“I’ll do my best… for the best friend I ever had.” He smiled at her and she smiled back.

“Don’t let Army hear that… he’ll get jelly.”

Sidney threw his head back and giggled.

“Sir you have to get to the rink” Viviane remarked at some point when she checked her phone. He lifted his head from her tights “Already?”

She nodded and pointed towards the door.

Some minutes later Sidney was freshly showered and ready for work.

“Hey uhm would you mind going out for dinner tomorrow? Will that be okay for you doctor? We won’t see each others for 3 or 4 days after it so it would be nice….” Sidney mumbled.

“I’d love to” she smiled at him…. “I don’t see how it should be and issue… I’ll just lay in bed all day.”

“Cool” he smiled and headed to the rink with a big smile on his face.

---------------------

“Good morning everybody” he greeted his teammates who had mandatory practice. Some gave him the fingers, some greeted back, others just stared on their feet.

“Help!!! Sid is in a good mood.” Jordan yelled through the locker room and TK chimed in: “Wowowow Cappy got laid, mark it in your books”

Sidney ignored the cat calls and ‘whoops’ and headed towards is stall to change into his work out gear. Matt Cooke send him a curious glance but Sid just shook his head. The older team mate just nodded and give him a questioning expression. Cookie stood up and walked over to his captain.

“What’s up newbie… you seem happy but something’s off… what’s wrong?”

Sidney looked at his team mate who had turned into a close trustee in the last time.

“I’m just in a good mood… she’s mentally fine and we’re going out tomorrow… getting away for a little from all this craziness… I’m just a little worried… she already started shortening and has to lay down about 85% of the day… it’s on my mind that we’re not that far away anymore and it could start soon…”

Matt patted his Captains shoulder and gave him a heads up: “My wife told me about a woman at the hospital who was in there for 12 weeks because she had shortened to 1/6th in the 19th week… the doctors told her that the chances to get the twins through the pregnancy without further damage or overall to have both of them surviving were below 10%. The boys now are both healthy little kids… they were in your hockey program last year. I know this is a tough time but you’ll make it… and we’re here for you… cheer up… you’re going on a date with you beautiful wife and your unborn child before going on the road with us and telling Max and the Flyers how this game is played… come on Champ.”

Sidney nodded and thanked his team mate.

After working out a little he greeted the kids that came for practice. Seeing all their happy faces and hear they laughter and talking he realized his parents were right. Through forcing him into this marriage he was there when the baby had kicked the first time. He had been there when the baby finally turned around so they could find out what it was. He was there when times were getting harder for Viviane and he hoped to be able to be in the hospital in time for the birth. He’d be there for the first scream and for the first step. Maybe the first word… when he was on the road they still had skype… he realized his parents were right. A baby needed a father and a mother and a father needed a wife and a kid to take care of. Not only a bank account to put money on.