Harbour Lights and Lonely Nights

The next games took forever to come and go. A sort of worry riddled anticipation occupied Sidney the whole trip back. When he finally returned to Pittsburgh, the first thing he did was text Emily, even before he got to his own house. Sure enough, when he was dropped off in front of the familiar structure, there she stood, leaning against her new car in his driveway. For only a single moment he paused and felt nostalgic at the loss of her old truck. It had always suited her so well back in Nova Scotia. But this wasn’t Nova Scotia. Everything was different, and thank god for that, he thought as he swung the door open to hurriedly greet her.

“Made the trip all the way over here just to welcome me back?”
Everything around them was quiet and even had there been noise they likely wouldn’t have noticed. The two friends stood, a few feet apart, drinking in the other’s appearance after the brief absence. Sidney first noticed Emily was wearing her black work clothes and her hair in a messy bun. She first noticed the exhaustion in his eyes even through the smile brought by seeing her.
His comment, however, went ignored as she pulled him into a warm hug. He softened to her touch and the subtle lavender smell.
The feeling brought with it years of comfort. He wasn’t sure how long the hug lasted, only that the concept of time seemed non-existent at the relief. When finally her small frame pulled away, she smiled up at him and tucked a wave of dark brown hair behind her ear.
“Now,” came her voice in an assertive tone, “are you going to invite me in with you, or what?”
The only response she got was a familiar roll of his amber eyes and it was all the answer she needed. Her slender fingers found their way between his and she revelled in the feeling of holding hands as he led her up to his door.

There was still time for her to turn back but she could never imagine doing so.

---

Inside the house was completely dead. Each move echoed through its walls as Emily waited for Sidney to come back down stairs.

She thought about what she should say to him once he was finished getting changed but her mind came up blank. She wanted things to be normal, but she wanted things to be different. She wanted to take things slow but she wanted to skip so many steps.

Blue eyes ran over the familiar room. Her apartment with Mischa was great but this felt so much more like home. Eventually her gaze landed on the guitar, still unmoved from the living room, and she picked it up. Brushing the metal strings made her worry dissipate. Joel Plaskett ran through her mind, sounding almost as if he were playing somewhere in the room.

We'll go out, we'll take no prisoners
Lonely love, gotta leave it behind
We look like one million dollars
Every time they look at us, we'll blow their mind

She strummed a few familiar notes as the amber eyed boy entered the room.

“Going to play something?” His voice floated towards her.
“No. I was just waiting for you.” She discarded the instrument in its place against the wall and went to meet Sidney at the couch.
“So how was work?” he asked casually after they had settled into their spots. Emily’s head rested familiarly on his shoulder.
“It was okay. How was the trip back?”
“I fell asleep.” He gazed down at her dark hair and the blue eyed girl could feel his stare. What she didn’t know was the little worry nagging at him but still she managed to unknowingly pull it from him with a simple question.
“Have any good dreams?” and she could feel his body go stiff at the question. With that she pulled away and looked up at him, somehow knowing by the change in his body that he would be frowning. The familiar line between his dark eyebrows.
Crosby thought back to the dream on the bus that had woken him up. “I had a dream about you but I wouldn’t call it good. It’s not the first time I’ve had it either.”
Curiosity bubbled up inside the girl as she silently waited for more information. The honey eyes staring back at her hesitated before Sidney let out a sigh. “I keep having this dream where we are playing the Canadiens and you’re wearing their jersey instead of ours and that’s fine. But then you treat me like we used to treat the Bruins or the Leafs. Like the enemy. And it’s like you hate me. Then, it always ends in you finding somewhere into Carey Price’s arms or kissing him…” He paused but he knew Emily was too stunned to talk and she probably thought he was crazy. “I know Carey Price is your favourite player and I guess it’s because I still don’t know how you feel about the fact that I love you. I’m not expecting you to say it back, I just—”
“Sidney.” Emily’s voice stopped his sentence assertively. Her sapphire eyes scanned his honey ones intensely. The pause was killing Sidney and although probably no more than a couple seconds it felt like eternity. “You are my best friend in the world.”
And the hockey player could feel his heart sink, only she continued.
“I can’t imagine loving another person as intensely as I love you. Of course you are my favourite player. Of course your team is my team.”
She smiled, perfect white teeth against the slight fading of her tan skin. “I moved all the way to Pittsburgh for you. How could you not know that wherever your life is, is where I want mine to be? How could that mean anything other than I love you?”
The hockey player smiled too. He felt a rush at her words. Things had happened between them but not like this. Not this openly. Not in these terms. And perhaps he knew it was a little stupid of him not to realize this girl had changed countries to be near him and that she had worn his jersey despite the team she had loved so much growing up playing against him. But with Emily, the way he felt had caused so much confusion and heartbreak in his teenage self and completeness upon her return as an adult, it all made him worried about losing her and in some respect he wanted to protect her from being ‘Sidney Crosby’s girlfriend’. That had changed. She taught him he needed to think about himself sometimes. That he deserved happiness. And happiness was sitting beside him, blue eyed and dark haired and he knew happiness was his.
“Does that mean I can take you out on a date?”
“If it’s more like our trip to Mellon Arena than the restaurant you showed me. It has to be just you and me, and it has to be the fun Sid.”
“I think I can manage that.”
A sort of seal upon the plan came after a short silence. The girl’s lips found his familiar pout. The cushion of it making her pull him closer. The kiss was unlike any kiss from before it. There was no caution as there had been when they kissed in the kitchen, no awkwardness like when they kissed over Scrabble. This time there was a shared knowledge that they were no alone in their feelings towards one another. That things could be what they had wanted for so long.