Status: updates will slow down

Harbour Lights and Lonely Nights

Bleu Blanc Rouge

Killing time while Sidney was working wasn’t too hard for Emily. Her favourite way was to stop by the Starbucks and see Mischa. The two talked about everything from school to food preferences. They seemed to get along really well on her visits. Upon hearing Emily’s plan to leave on the 23rd, only a week away, Mischa invited her to go out for drinks with her and her friend Alex. It would be fun. She promised.

Mischa wiped off the table where Emily was sitting. There were no new customers coming in and this way it would look like she was doing something productive as opposed to just chatting.
“So tomorrow night come out with us. You said you haven’t been to any of the bars or lounges, right?”
Emily smiled at the idea and wondered if Sidney would want to come, “I haven’t but that sounds like fun. Mind if I ask my friend to come?”
The redhead smiled, “not at all.”
“I doubt he’ll want to come out though because he’s got a lot of work coming up but at least I can try.”
Mischa picked up some empty paper cups from the table beside Emily’s and wiped it down as well, “You’re still going to come out if your friend can’t though.”
“Of course. I mean he’s probably sick of me as it is. He’s had to put up with me under his roof for over a week and I keep eating all his food.”
“Well you’re leaving in a week so I’m sure he’ll want to get in some time with you before you go.”
“I haven’t told him yet.”
The paper cups got tossed in a garbage bin, “Why not?”
“He’s got a lot on his plate. I don’t want him to feel pressure to spend time with me or anything.”
“What is he? A lawyer or something?”
The blue eyed girl snorted, “not even close. Although he can be pretty diplomatic.”
“Isn’t that true of Canadians in general though? Aren’t you all supposed to be polite?”
“He takes it to new extremes some times. Although I’m not so sure that’s a very accurate stereotype.”
Emily looked down at her watch and upon noticing the time realized Sidney would be getting home soon and she had wanted to pick up some groceries for his now empty fridge. “I should probably get going though. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Okay, have fun.”

On the walk to her truck Emily pulled out her cell phone to call Sidney. He had just got home and looked around to find it empty when his phone rang in his pocket.

“Hello?”
“Sidney? I was going to run over to the grocery store and was wondering if you wanted me to pick up anything.”
The familiar truck from her late teens sat in the parking lot like a little piece of home in her new surroundings.
“Why don’t you just come home and we’ll go together?”
Fluidly she unlocked the truck with her key and slid into the driver seat. “Do you really want to go grocery shopping though?”
“I really want to spend time with you.”
That comment brightened Emily up and she didn’t care that it would take longer to go back for Sidney, she just wanted to see him. “Okay. I’ll be there in five minutes.”

At the house Sidney got changed and walked downstairs. He had had a good practice and was in a pretty good mood. The only thing bothering him was that he hadn’t been seeing much of Emily despite living under the same roof. Randomly at practice his team mates would bring up Emily. They all seemed to approve of her and were constantly asking when they would see her again. Sidney wondered if they thought something was going to happen between him and his old friend. He wished that she had come earlier so he would have had more free time to spend with her but at least she was here now. He wouldn’t have predicated that before she arrived. Emily was a very welcome disruption to the man who really didn’t like disruptions.

“Ready to go?” Emily called as she walked in the house. Sidney already had his shoes on and grabbed his keys.
“Yup. I’ll drive.”
“Okay.”
In the driveway her older truck and his shiny new SUV were parked side by side. Emily saw it as kind of fitting. She still saw herself as the same girl from Nova Scotia with an ordinary life while Sidney had settled into this new flashy, extraordinary life. Although the changes in Sid surprised her some times she couldn’t be more happy for him.
“So what did you do today?” Sidney asked as he backed out of the driveway. Emily settled into the spacious passenger seat as the car beeped at her to put her seatbelt on.
“Not much at all. I talked to my parents who asked how my trip was going and whatnot. And I went to go see Mischa.”
“Who’s Mischa?”
Sidney relaxed back into his seat as the two started down the road and he turned to look at Emily when he asked her a question.
“The girl who works at Starbucks.”
“So you’re already making friends, eh?”
Emily shifted in her seat. Already making friends sure made it sound as though he thought there would be an endless amount of time for her to make new friends in the city. She wanted to tell him she wouldn’t be staying much longer but she didn’t want the mood in the car to change.
“Well we were actually going to go out for drink tomorrow night. You should come.”
His features became uneasy facing the road, “I probably shouldn’t. Our first game is next week.”
“I figured as much. I just wanted to extend the invitation.”
He could tell by her tone she was disappointed but he was certain there was nothing he could do about it. It didn’t cross his mind that to take one night off might not be a disaster. That’s not the way he was wired.

In the grocery store Sidney looked slightly lost which amused Emily. It was as if he had never been out to buy groceries before.
“You look like you’ve never been in here.”
The amber eyed boy looked guilty as he watched her look over the different coloured produce.
“I haven’t. I usually have groceries delivered.”
“Wow. Okay Cros. I’m going to teach you how to buy groceries for yourself.”
“I doubt I’ll actually use that knowledge.”
Just as he said this a young boy came and tugged on one of Sidney’s fingers. He looked around 5 or 6 and had fair blond hair sticking out from under a kid’s size Steelers cap.
“Excuse me, are you Mr. Crosby?”
Emily melted at the little kid as she watched Sidney. A man that must have been his father walked up to his son and put his hand on the kid’s back, “There you are Simon, don’t run off like that.”
“But dad, I think this is Mr. Crosby.”
“Hello Simon, you can call me Sidney.” He said crouching down to the kid’s level.
The dad suddenly seemed embarrassed that his kid had just walked up to Sidney Crosby so easily and bothered him while he was grocery shopping.
“You’re a Steelers fan, eh?”
The boy nodded. “What about the Penguins?”
“Oh yeah. I love hockey too. I like all the sports. We watched you in the Olympics even though you weren’t playing for us.”
Sidney smiled at the kid. The smile was so genuine it carried to the honey of his eyes. Emily figured she couldn’t watch any more of the interaction without letting out an “awwwww” or making an idiot of herself so she decided to leave him to his little fan.

Without Sidney her mind was left to its own thoughts. She couldn’t stop picturing the scene she had just witnessed and the smile that resulted. If he wasn’t away all the time he would make an amazing dad. It was weird to think. His own dad Troy had been a good parent but Sidney seemed completely different. It made her hope that one day he would settle down with someone and have kids. There needed to be more of him in the world and they would be the kids with the most loving father she knew. On the other hand, she knew that she would make a terrible mother. She was too selfish for children. They need stability and she wondered if things would ever end up working out for her.

As she thought this she went through the produce section and the organic section before she reached dairy and Sidney finally met up with her again. She didn’t realize he was there until he spoke.

“You’ve been staring at the milk for five minutes. What’s up?”
“I see jugs. I see cartons. But I’m never going to get used to not having milk in bags.”
Sidney laughed, “there is like no difference.”
“But they take up less space. I feel like I should be buying more milk but if I do it will take up so much room.”
“Really, Em, there is no difference.”
Emily gave in and put the milk in her basket along with the array of vegetables and whole wheat pasta she had picked up for dinner.
“So how are you feeling about the new season?” She tried to make conversation as they made their way to wait at the cash.
Sidney scanned over the gossip magazines at the counter, “I’m feeling good about it. I think we are going to have a good season. We were pretty vexed when the Habs knocked us out in the Semi-finals last year.”
It was a sore point for Sidney to know that Emily had probably been cheering them on as they did so but he remembered he had once cheered the bleu, blanc, et rouge on as well.
“Does it ever get weird facing them?”
Sidney shrugged, “Not really. I feel a lot stronger ties to Pittsburgh being on the team as I ever did to the Habs as a fan.”
“How does your dad feel about that?”
“I’m sure he understands. I mean it’s part of the reason he loves the Canadiens.”
The old lady in the line in front of them was taking forever trying to count her money to give the cashier so the conversation carried on.
“Yeah but don’t you remember how excited we were when Zednik scored that first point at the heritage classic?”
The boy could easily recall watching the game on the phone with Emily and although the memory was a fond one he still couldn’t reconcile with being knocked out of the playoffs by the Canadian team. “that was a long time ago Em.”
“Yeah, I guess so.”

After paying for the groceries the two went back to Sidney’s house where she started making dinner while he spoke on the phone. She still wanted to tell him her plans but every time he’d smile at her she didn’t want to. If life could only go back to when they were teenagers and stay static. Time didn’t need to change. People didn’t need to grow up. Allegiances didn’t need to change. Jobs didn’t have to matter. She just wanted it to be the times when they cheered for the same team and lived in the same city. When they were both relatively carefree and could have the sort of fun only teenagers seem to know. When the most complicated thing in her life was that she was starting to find her best friend attractive. That was nothing compared to how she was now falling in love with him when there was a country border between them and two very different paths ahead of them.