A Ship in Harbor is Safe

“Sid, where are we going?” Athena asks, sitting on the edge of the bed with her legs crossed.

With a smile on his face, he strolls out of the bathroom. “It’s a surprise.”

“You sure are full of surprises, aren’t you?”

He shrugs, walking back toward the bathroom. “I was actually just gonna take you out to dinner. Saying it’s a surprise sounds more exciting, though.”

Athena laughs, shaking her head. A buzzing sound, accompanied by a light, on the nightstand next to her steal her attention, “your phone’s ringing.”

“Who is it?” Sidney asks.

Picking up the iPhone, Athena walks to the bathroom’s open door.

Sidney does not look away from the mirror, still attempting to style his hair.

“Evgeni Malkin. And I don’t think your hair is going to cooperate today, Sid.”

Shaking his head, Sidney continues to comb his hair. “Don’t jinx it. And could you answer that for me?”

Athena shakes her head quickly, “are you sure?”

“Yeah, Geno won’t tell anybody.” Sidney shrugs.

Again, Athena shakes her head quickly as she accepts the phone call. Bringing the phone to her ear, she leans against the threshold of the room, “hello?”

“Sid?” The Russian man’s accent is thick and his voice is deep.

She blinks quickly, “um, no. This is a friend of Sid.”

“Who?”

Athena jumps at the stern command. “M-my name is Athena.”

“I never heard of you. Why?”

She shrugs, “I-I don’t know, honestly.”

“Let me talk with Sid.” Evgeni quickly drops a “please” after.

Swallowing the lump in her throat, she smiles nervously. “Sid’s busy.”

Sidney chuckles, speaking quietly, “put it on speaker.”

Athena obliges, at the exact time that the Russian man on the other end begins speaking, “tell him get not busy.”

“Get not busy, Sid.” Athena says, smiling at Sidney.

Sidney laughs, “where’s the fire, Geno?”

“No fire. But lady answer your phone. Who is she?”

Sidney smiles at Athena, “she’s my friend, Geno.”

“No, she answer your phone. You get girlfriend and not tell me?”

Athena clamps her free hand over her mouth to prevent her laugh from echoing through the bathroom.

The blush crawling onto Sidney’s cheeks is subtle, but definitely noticeable. “No, Geno. You’ll be one of the first to know if I get a girlfriend.”

Athena watches Sidney quickly clean his hands off, not hesitating to hand the device off to him once his hands are clean of hair gel.

As soon as the phone is in Sidney’s possession, he turns it off speaker and puts it to his ear.

Attempting to give him some privacy, Athena walks back out into the bedroom and takes a seat on the bed.

Sidney walks out of the bathroom, holding the phone to his ear. “Yeah, you’re right about that.”

She watches Sidney stand in front of his dresser and check his wallet, before stuffing it into his back pocket.

He holds the phone between his ear and shoulder, putting on his watch. He laughs, “we’ll see. We’re about to go out to dinner, so I’ll talk to you later.”

Athena smiles as Sidney hangs up. “He seems nice.”

“Geno’s a good guy,” Sidney smiles. “You ready to go?”



“So, I was thinking we could go up to Cole Harbour tomorrow.”

Athena washes down a few fries with some water, “why didn’t we go today?”

“I figured we could spend a day up there. We weren’t even out of bed until almost noon today.”

She smiles, shrugging her shoulders. “I should’ve stuck to water.”

“Yeah, you and me both.”

Laughing, Athena shakes her head, “you weren’t even drunk.”

Sidney shrugs, “doesn’t mean I should’ve been drinking.”

She shrugs, “well, luckily one of us can handle our alcohol.”

“Yeah,” Sidney laughs with a short nod.

“The next time I get a genius idea like I did last night… tell me not to?”

He smiles, taking a fry off of her plate and putting it in his mouth. “Why do I have the feeling that you’re not going to listen to me, if I do?”

She shrugs, “then stop me? Alcohol and I never seem to end well…”

“You seemed alright, for the majority of last night.”

Athena nods, attempting to keep her head down, “I was extremely composed last night.”

“Extremely?” Sidney looks slightly amused as he holds his hamburger above his plate.

She nods, attempting to hide the burn of embarrassment she feels crawling up her body, “extremely.”