She Makes Me Wanna

“MOTHER FUCKER!” I roared, clutching the base of my neck. A puck had flown out of nowhere and nailed me right in the neck. I almost went down, it hurt so badly, but I managed to get over to the bench.

“Oh my God, I am so sorry Sidney!” Emily cried, dashing over to the bench after me.

“Jesus Christ Emily! That hurt like hell!” I gasped.

“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to hit you that hard but it had to look like an accident too,” she hissed, helping me onto the bench. I sat down and took a deep breath, fighting off the pain.

“Yeah well it certainly worked,” I grumbled, my neck throbbing.

“Shush. Don’t be a baby,” Emily muttered, shifting my jersey and pads to examine my neck.

“You’re not the one getting nailed in the neck with a puck,” I growled.

“Well it certainly covered well…at least my aim was dead on. I wouldn’t want to have to hit you again,” Emily whispered before fixing my pads and jersey.

“I don’t think I’d let you,” I sighed, grabbing a cold water bottle and putting it on the bruise. Just then the trainers came over, ushered Emily away, and examined my neck carefully.

Emily’s Point of View

“Try not to kill your teammates in practice please,” Dan sighed as I walked past him in the locker room.

“I know…I already apologized to Sidney. I don’t know what happened,” I said sheepishly, running a hand through my now short hair. Dan nodded and told me to hit the shower, which I did with pleasure.

Sidney kept running his hand over the bruise on the drive home, and by the time we were halfway back to the house I was ready to staple his hand to the steering wheel.

“Sidney Patrick Crosby I swear to God stop touching it. It’ll heal soon,” I said irritably after watching him touch it for the millionth time.

“It hurts like hell, what do you want me to do? Instead of a light little hickey I now look like I got mauled by a toothless bear! Why did you slap shot me in the neck?” Sidney cried.

“Sorry!” I said, holding my hands up in surrender. When we got home I headed to my bedroom and flopped onto my bed, ready to take a nap and relax. We didn’t have a game until Sunday afternoon, and it was just after 1:30 on Friday, so I was excited for a little break. After hanging out for a bit, my stomach began to growl, so I rolled out of bed and went in search of Sidney. I furrowed my brow when I found that he wasn’t in his bedroom, the kitchen, the family room, or the den. I then heard a clatter come from the basement, and I realized that I had never been in the basement in the two months that I had been living in the house. Shrugging, I opened the door and trotted down the steps. I found myself in your typical bachelor’s pad man cave. There was a very nice black bar with a black granite countertop surrounded by some very simple yet elegant black bar stools. A large HD TV hung behind the bar, and there were hockey sticks, jerseys, and photographs hanging on the walls. The room was empty, however, so I looked to my left and saw a door, which I of course opened. It was there that I found Sidney. He was lifting weights, his face screwed up in concentration, sweat sliding down his face and back, and his shirt cast off long before I came down. I leaned against the doorway and admired the view for a moment before making my presence known by clearing my throat. Sidney jumped, obviously not expecting the sound, and put down the weights he had been lifting.

“What’s up?” he asked breathlessly, grabbing a towel and wiping off his face.

“Working out after working out? What’s bothering you?” I asked, walking over and sitting on the free weights bench.

“Nothing…just got bored and wanted to sweat it out really. Have a good nap?” he asked, getting up to put away some equipment.

“Yeah…jeeze, nice setup down here. You should’ve told me about it!” I said, admiring the room. It was your basic at home gym, but the walls were a glaring shade of yellow with black stripes.

“Oh…yeah, you’re probably right. Sorry,” he said, shrugging. I furrowed my brow. Something wasn’t quite right with Sidney, but he had obviously decided that discussing it wasn’t going to happen. Did I do something wrong?