Keep Your Girl Out of My Shoe Cabinet, Your Wife

A soft snore from the pillow next to his woke Sidney up in the early morning. A groan escaped his lips when he turned around to greet his wife. When he opened his eyes he looked into the smiling face of his best friend who started laughing loudly.

“I can’t believe it still gets to you.” Army said between laughters.
“Seriously after all these years you should know how to sleep through snores.”

Sidney smiled and pulled the blanket up. “Good morning Colby.”

After showering and getting dressed they went downstairs for breakfast. They loaded their plates at the buffet and sat down in a hidden booth trying not to cause any attention. On their neighbor table an elderly couple argued about who could read the news paper first.
In silence they ate until suddenly Colby spoke up: “Sidney… I just don’t know what to do anymore… why do you keep on cheating on me with your wife.” Mocking the couple. Sid threw his head back and giggled.
“As far as I’m concerned you started the whole thing. You were married first so technically you started cheating on me with Mel.” He raised his eyebrow and sipped on his coffee. Army almost spit out his scrambled eggs and replied: “True dat… sorry darling.” He reached for Sid’s hand and placed his on top of it.

The couple next to them had stopped their fight minutes ago and were watching the two interact with frozen faces.
Sid smirked at Colby and they got up to head back upstairs. As soon as the doors of the elevator closed behind them they both screamed in laughter.

“Oh my god…. did you see their faces?”Colby said after a while when they were grasping for air.

They went back to their hotel room to get their gear for the morning skate.

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Three weeks later Viviane woke up to an empty hospital room. The monitor next to her blinked and she knew everything was alright.

“Good morning baby.” She said and stretched in bed placing one hand on the well grown bump. “Are we coming today?”

She let out a sigh and swung her legs to sit up.
Days came and went and so did her neighbors. Kendra was a frequent visitor and Viviane was happy to have found a friend in Pittsburgh besides the team mates girl friends and wives.
Life had become a lot more uncomfortable. The baby was always in the way and Viviane was hoping for it to come out every day.

Slowly she ate her small breakfast and smiled widely when the door swung open.

“Hey” she beamed at Sidney who rushed into the room.

“Good morning Vivy, how did you sleep?” he smiled back at her, walked over to her and kissed her onto the forehead softly while she was chewing.

“Not good. I thing my uterus is purple… it must be bruised like Taylor Hall’s eye.”

Sidney laughed. “Really that bad? Soon you will have done it. You’re so awesome…”

Viviane smiled tiredly.
“Sid?” she looked at him with big eyes “Can you do me a giant favour?”

He smiled, pushed the desk away and leaned down to get her slippers. “Let me guess… you want to shower?”

She nodded excitedly. Sidney got back up and extended his hands to help her stand up. Gladly Viviane accepted them and stood up slowly. Taking one step at a time they walked to the bathroom. Sid helped her take of her clothes, gave her the privacy to shower and put fresh underwear on. Viviane was so thankful and happy when he toweled her legs.

“Thank you so much Sid.” She had tears in her eyes. He smiled at her, dropped the towel and engulfed her in a loving hug.

“Hey Vivy… hey… it’s okay…. Shhh…”

“I feel so useless. All I do is lay in a bed… I can’t even touch my feet anymore… can you imagine now being able to shower?”

He patted her back and shook his head. “No I can’t but hey… I’m here for you… I wouldn’t want that creepy male nurse to help you shower… don’t ever think you are useless. You’re very pregnant… our baby is coming any day… cheer up sweetie… we’re almost there.”

Viviane laughed. “You’re right… thank you… now go you have practice don’t you?”

She poked him in the chest and gave him an expectant glance. Sidney just smirked, cupped her face and kissed her softly. “You’re right… Dan would make me do suicides and then I’d be late to bring you lunch… text me what you want okay?”

Viviane just nodded and watched him waltz out.
She sighed and cuddled back into the bed.

After a while a nurse came in to take her to the doctor to check the cervix and to make a sonogram. The doctor laughed at her expectant face but again shook his head.
“I don’t see any changes to yesterday. I only see a happy growing baby. Everything is fine and I don’t think we will have Baby Crosby today.”

Viviane hung her head and sighed. The same news every day.

“Mrs. Crosby we have to be very happy to be where we are today. When you came here I never thought we would come this far. I really thought you would give birth 5 weeks ago. It is good for you and the baby. We won’t have to go through the whole incubator phase when the baby comes now. Look at it like this.”

She smiled at her doctor. The motivational speech he gave her every morning helped her getting over rough patches.

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Back in her room she texted Sidney and shortly after noon she heard loud noises in the hall. The door flew open and Sidney, Marc-André and Jordan tumbled through the door.

“Hi Viviane.”

“Bonjour Viv.”

The two wild friends of her husband greeted her and after a quick hug lounged themselves onto the couch next to the bed. Sidney stood in the door and watched the scene. Viviane laughed at the two and threw a pillow at them. Her husband came over to her and dropped the bag of her favourite Italian restaurant onto the table. Flower and Jordan grabbed they pizza boxes from the bag and let the couple have their lunch. Sidney gave Viviane her pasta and started devouring his salad.

“So” Flower said after a while, set the pizza box onto his legs and shifted to get a piece of paper from his pants. “Sidders here told us that you can’t wait to get the baby out.” He took another bite and chewed in silence. “Being the good friend I am I googled how to get contractions.”
Jordan ripped the paper out of Flower’s hand and started reading out loud: “Hay flower baths, ” he began and Flower cut it: “Won’t work here, lacking the tub.”

“Red wine” Jordan continued.

“No wine for my cappies baby… forget it… Vero would kill me for recommending that.”

“Acupuncture”

“Vivane hate needles.”

Viviane leaned against Sidney, squeezed his knee and closed her eyes listening to the two goof around. After naming a few more things that were impossible for different reasons Flower let out a sigh.

“Well then there are only two ways left… that would be Sidney’s uhm… business.”

Sidney let out a sigh trying to figure out how to get out of this awkward situation.

“Well the last two possibilities would be massaging her nipples or…”

“Wowowow… stop. Really guys…” Sidney butted in. “I know what will come next but really… we’re now in the locker room.” Viviane hit him in the side. “Not that I would ever talk like that in the locker room….” he tried to calm his wife. “Really boys you have your own girls…”

Viviane tilted her head back, locked eyes with him and mouthed “thanks…”

Jordan and Marc-André jumped up.

“I guess that’s our clue to leave… have fun with the last point on the list… we’ll give the nurses ear plugs on our way out…” Jordan yelled and walked out with his pizza box in his hands. Marc-André mirrored his actions, waved one last time and closed the door behind him.

“Your friends are strange.” Viviane whispered exhausted and leaned against him. Sidney’s hand rested on her belly when he answered.

“I know.”