Shut Your Eyes

I woke up with the sun in my eyes and a song in my ears.

It was always easy to tell when Veronique was calling me because my phone would start blaring the theme song from The Golden Girls. My hand searched blindly in the sheets for the noise, grabbing it quickly and putting it to my ear.

“Quoi?” (What?)

“Quelqu'un est joyeux ce matin.” (Someone is cheerful this morning.) Vero chuckled into the phone.

I sighed and used my free hand to rub the sleep from my eyes. “Je suis désolé, ma chérie, je ne voulais pas paraître dur.” (I’m sorry, darling, I didn’t mean to sound harsh.)

Vero tutted at me. “Ne t'excuse, nous savons tous combien tu aimes dormir.” (Don’t apologize, we all know how much you love to sleep.)

She chuckled lightly on the other end of the phone before continuing. “J'appelais pour tu inviter à déjeuner. Marc est d'avoir quelques-uns des garçons de plus et je ne veux pas être la seule fille. Nous avons du vin et des petits gâteaux.” (I called to invite you to lunch. Marc is having some of the boys over and I don’t want to be the only girl. We have wine! And cupcakes!)

I would have said yes either way, but the offer of wine and cupcakes solidified my decision. “Vin et des petits gâteaux? Comment pourrais-je refuser?” (Wine and cupcakes? How could I refuse?)

Vero let out a small squeal of excitement. “Je savais que tu ne me laisse pas seul avec eux! Viens quand tu veux.”(I knew you wouldn’t leave me alone with them! Come over whenever you’d like to.”)

Throwing the covers off of my legs, I swung them over the edge of the bed and stretched – stifling a yawn into the phone. “Bon, juste laissémoi m'habiller d'abord.” (Alright, just let me get dressed first.)

“Ne soyez pas trop pomponnée, Sid ne sera pas là.” (Don’t get too dolled up, Sid won’t be there.)

Even with no one around to see it, I could feel the blood rush to my cheeks in a burning blush.

“Arrêter de rougir.” (Stop blushing) Vero ordered lightly, chuckling at my expense.

Instead of questioning her, I simply huffed and nervously ran a hand through my messy hair. “Veux-tu me laisser mettre un pantalon en maintenant?” (Will you let me put on pants now?)

“Je suppose. Je vous verrai quand tu arrivé ici!” (I suppose. I’ll see you when you get here!)

I said my goodbyes in a string of sleepily slurred French and tossed the phone back onto the bed. My eyes blinked slowly, still adjusting to the light streaming in through the window. Without Max in it, the condo was silent as the grave – it was quiet enough to hear the birds chirping outside and the dripping sound of snow melting under the morning sun onto my windowsill.

Without bothering to put clothes on, I shuffled into the kitchen determined to make – and drink – a pot of coffee before heading over to Marc and Vero’s for the afternoon. In the back of my mind I vaguely remembered Max saying goodbye to me before he left, so I didn’t look for a note on the kitchen counters. He’d never said how long he’d be away, just told me not to wait up for him. Max had his phone, and Kris, so I wasn’t too worried about him.

I pulled the jar of ground coffee towards me and opened it quickly, waiting for the earthy smell to greet me. Imagine my surprise when the top came off and I was staring down into an empty jar.

“Max.” I grumbled his name, remembering all of the times I’d reminded him to refill the jar if he used the last of the coffee. I reached up into the cabinet above my head and searched around for the bag of coffee beans, but once again came up empty.

A heavy sigh worked its way out of my mouth. No coffee wasn’t an option. Looking down at what I was wearing – one of Sidney’s sweatshirts that I’d forgotten to return and a pair of black leggings – I decided that I looked decent enough to run to the store for a bag of coffee and maybe a bagel.

I grabbed my car keys off of the counter and tugged on a pair of boots that I kept in the mud room before throwing one of Max’s coats on from the closet by the door. A quick trip to the store and I’d be caffeinated and ready to go.


The store wasn’t very busy, it was still early after all, but I did keep my sunglasses on to avoid the curious looks of the staff as I walked in looking like I’d just rolled out of bed – which I had. I made a beeline for the coffee isle and looked up and down the shelves for the brand I knew Max was fond of. It took me a minute of searching, the store was constantly moving its supply around, but I found it and reached for the biggest bag I could see off of the shelf.

“Get down here.” I muttered, my fingers only barely reaching the bottom of the bag even though I was on the tips of my toes.

Out of nowhere, two hands quickly grabbed onto my waist. I nearly jumped out of my skin, drawing the attention of nearly all the workers in the store when I let out a surprised shriek. Without even having to turn around I knew who’d grabbed me the second I heard his unmistakable giggle.

I spun around and began hitting him on the shoulder with my wallet. “Sidney! You scared me!”

He couldn’t stop laughing, even through his weak attempts to dodge my blows. “I’ve never seen anyone jump that high.”

“Well I wasn’t expecting someone to grab me in the coffee isle.” I muttered, blushing a bit under his amused gaze.

He smiled at me as his giggles died down, and leaned over me to grab the coffee I’d been reaching for a moment earlier. Sidney picked it up with no problem and handed it to me. “It was too good to pass up. What’re you doing here this early anyways?”

I sighed and placed the bag of coffee into my basket, right next to the bagels I’d decided were necessary. “Max used the last of the coffee.”

Sid smiled knowingly. “Didn’t mention you were out?”

I shook my head with a small smile and walked alongside Sid as he meandered down the aisle. “Normally I would’ve just let it go, but I’m headed over to Marc and Vero’s later and I won’t be doing so without a bit of coffee in my system. Hence the spontaneous early morning trip to the store in my pajamas.”

Sid smiled and looked down at me, taking the drawstring of my sweatshirt between his fingers and gave me a teasing look. “I thought this looked familiar.”

I blushed again, something I seemed to do a lot when Sidney was around, and earned a playful wink from him. He nudged me with one giant shoulder, leaning down towards my ear. “Don’t be embarrassed. It looks better on you anyways.”

A smile effortlessly painted itself across my features and I mumbled, “Well there’s no way you’re getting it back now.”

He laughed before pulling the hood up over my head playfully. “I have plenty more, for now at least. Who knows how many I’ll have by the time the house is finished.”

The hood was huge and covered most of my face, blocking my vision. With a giggle, I blindly grasped around for my surroundings – trying to guide myself without having to remove the hood. “Sid, I can’t see anything!”

I felt a large rough hand envelop my own and Sid tugged me alongside him with a chuckle. I stared down at the boring black tile below us, watching my tiny steps attempt to keep up with Sid’s long strides. He led us to the registers and took my basket from my hands – placing it up on the counter with his.

I tried to reach for it, protesting what he was about to do. “Sidney,”

He stopped my arm in midair and smiled at me. “Don’t argue.”

I cocked an eyebrow at him after tossing my hood back. “I can buy my own coffee.”

The clerk behind the register was watching us with a smile on his face, clearly amused with our back-and-forth. Sid nodded at me and grinned. “I know you can.”

“Sid.”

“It’s just coffee, Mags. Besides, I feel bad for scaring you earlier. At least let me buy you breakfast.” He threw a playful wink in my direction. I rolled my eyes but squeezed his hand anyways, silently thanking him. He didn’t say anything, merely squeezed back with a smile as he handed the cashier a twenty.

I looked over at the things being bagged and couldn’t help the giggle that escaped my throat. I hadn’t noticed that the only things in Sid’s basket were bread, peanut butter, and a jar of his favorite strawberry jelly. He looked over at me and saw what I was laughing at. A slight pout came over his face as he jutted out his lower lip.

“You certainly are a creature of habit.” I pointed out, picking up a bag off of the counter before Sid could stop me. He sighed, realizing that I was going to carry something whether he liked it or not, and followed me out to the parking lot.

We stopped at my jeep, and I took a moment to throw my bag inside of the car before closing the door and leaning back against it. “Vero mentioned you weren’t coming to lunch.”

Sidney sighed, readjusting the hat on his head with one hand. “I would, but I have to go in and run over some plays with Dan before we leave tomorrow.”

I nodded, understanding his dilemma. Sid was Sid. He was different. He lived, ate, and breathed hockey, and being the captain meant that sometimes his “hockey-free time” got interrupted by hockey.

He gave me a soft smile and nudged my leg with his. “I’m glad I got to see you before we have to leave, though. When we get back, you and I will have to spend some time together.”

I tucked a piece of hair behind my ear and smiled up at him. “I’d like that.”

He grinned like a fool and glanced down at his watch. I heard him curse softly under his breath before looking down at me apologetically. “I have to go.”

I opened my mouth to say goodbye but before words could form in my throat Sidney had captured the tip of my chin between two massive fingers, bringing my face up to his so he could hastily kiss me goodbye. It ended as quickly as it had begun, and Sid left me wide-eyed and blushing, standing by my car as I replayed what just happened in my mind.

If he noticed my startled look, he didn’t mention it, just chuckled softly as he jogged towards his car before turning back towards me. “I’m going to call you while we’re gone.”

Words weren’t coming, so I just nodded – one finger drifting lazily against my lip, trying to memorize the feel of his mouth against my own. He smiled again and turned away from me, climbing into his car and driving away.



“What took you so long?” Vero asked when she opened the door.

“I had to go get some coffee from the store; Max drank the last of it.” She frowned a bit, but let me inside and pulled me into a hug.

“You could’ve come over anyways! We have coffee.”

I chuckled. “I’ll think twice next time.”

Vero’s wide grin spread across her face as she linked her arm through mine and led me into the kitchen where there was already food cooking on the stove and two empty wine glasses sitting on the counter. I headed towards the food, ready to stir or chop something so Vero wasn’t doing all of the work, but she was having none of it. She steered me to a bar stool and gently pushed me onto it. “None of that. Sit down and relax, I’m feeling domestic.”

I huffed, something she ignored, and begrudgingly accepted the glass of wine that she handed me. Vero gave me a look that discouraged further arguing on the subject so I sat back and sipped, rolling my eyes slightly at her stubbornness.

After a moment or two, Vero and I heard what sounded like a pack of wild animals heading up the stairs from the basement. Marc rounded the corner with a smile on his face, followed by Jordan, Geno, and TK. They were all laughing about something, except for Geno – he looked confused. When they spotted me, Marc smiled and made his way over to pull me into a hug. I hugged each of them, laughing silently to myself as I realized that I could have closed my eyes and told each of them apart simply from their hugs.

Marc’s was bone-crushing – his giant arms seemingly covering my whole torso in one embrace, and he always smelled like peppermint. Tyler’s was short and sweet, pulling me close to his side and bumping his head with mine. Jordan’s was easy to remember since he insisted on holding on tight to my waist and holding me up high enough to wrap my own arms around his neck. And then there was Geno, my gentle giant. He always wrapped both strong arms around my shoulders, pulling me into his chest gently. Usually one of his giant hands would find its way up to my head and rest itself there, something I found strangely comforting.

“What’re you doing here?” TK asked happily.

I furrowed my brows in confusion. “Having lunch with Vero?” It came out as more of a question than a statement. “Why, am I not supposed to be here?”

Geno sent TK a withering look for seemingly having upset me before pushing him with one giant hand. Jordan shook his head. “We just thought you’d be spending the day with Sid since it’s our last day off before the trip.”

I stared at him in confusion as Marc rolled his eyes. “Jordan, Sid’s busy today. He told you that.”

“I thought he was just trying to keep Maggie a secret.” Jordan explained simply, sneaking behind Vero to taste whatever she was cooking on the stove. She saw him anyways, no matter how stealthy he tried to be, and smacked his hand away with a spoon.

“Jordan, you have to wait until it’s finished!”

“But I’m hungry!” He countered, staring at Vero with wide blue eyes.

She shook her head and pointed the spoon at all of us. “Boys, stop interrogating Maggie and go do something else; and get Jordan out of my kitchen before I kill him myself.”

Geno pulled Jordan away from Vero and out with the rest of the boys, winking at me with a smile as he passed. After they headed off to play pool upstairs and were safely out of earshot, Vero turned to me with a devilish grin. “Alors, comment était ta nuit avec Sidney?” (So, how was your night with Sidney?)

I gave her an unamused look. “Tu viens de faire les garçons arrêtent de m'interroger et maintenant tu faites vous-même? Et même en français, donc ils ne peuvent pas tu comprendre.” (You just made the boys stop questioning me, and now you’re doing it yourself? And in French, so they can’t understand you.)

She rolled her eyes, leaning back against the counter with a lazy grip on the wine glass in her hand. “Tu es allé sur une date avec Sidney Crosby et je ne suis pas censé demander à ce sujet?”(You went on a date with Sidney Crosby and I’m not supposed to ask about it?)

I stared at her for a moment. Vero was my very best friend in the world, and I knew it was going to come out sooner or later – so I said the words that had been burning my tongue since I saw her. “Il m'embrassa.” (He kissed me.)

She let out an inhuman squeal, brown eyes wide with excitement. Leaving her food cooking on the stove, she hurried over to my stool and pulled herself onto the one beside it. “Dites-moi tout.”(Tell me everything.)

So I did. I told her about painting Sid’s house and almost kissing him while we were covered in paint. I told her about the look in Sidney’s eyes when he suggested we slip away from everyone else, unnoticed and blissfully unaware. I told her about how I’d cooked him dinner, and that he’d given me a piggy back ride in the grocery store. Veronique soaked up every last detail like a sponge, releasing contended sighs when I explained how we had played go-fish over two glasses of wine and that he’d kissed me on my front stoop as snow drifted down around us.

By the end of my story she was grinning like a fool, and so was I. She leaned in close, whispering to me although we were alone in the large kitchen. “Comment tu sentais de lui?” (How do you feel about him?)

I lazily swirled the wine around in my glass, trying to find the words inside of my head to answer Vero’s question. Finally I looked up into her expectant eyes and sighed. “Il rend mon coeur bat plus vite et plus lent en même temps.” (He makes my heart beat faster and slower at the same time.)

Vero lit up like the fourth of July, and squeezed one of my hands in her own. “Eh bien mon cher, que pourrais-tu demander de plus?” (Well my dear, what more could you ask for?)