Right Path, Wrong Turn

TWO MONTHS LATER-
“I like this young man Sophia,” Samuel Markham says as he enters his daughter’s room.
“Dad!” she panics, swirling from the mirror to fuss over him. “The doctor said you’re still supposed to be taking it easy.”
She takes his hand and sits him on her bed, much to his eye rolling and sighing. He’s old, but he’s not a skeleton yet. And while he’s appreciated Sophie’s help over the last few weeks, he is glad that tonight she is not only getting a break from her responsibilities, but he is getting one from her constant pandering.
“The journey from the couch to your bedroom is a barely a short walk honey,” he reminds her. “It’s hardly running a marathon.”
She shoots him a look, but then her worried expression melts into a humoured one. “I’m just trying to get you well again Dad. That was quite the scare you gave me.”
“Yes, well I’m almost back at full health so you don’t have to worry anymore Sophia,” he assures her, touching his hand on hers.
Worrying his girls is what Samuel considers to be the worst, but unfortunately in his time as their father, things have been out of his control.
He had worked hard to give them a nice life, a carefree upbringing and a happy home. Part of that recipe included being the sole bread winner for the house when the girls where younger, having wanted to give Marie the same joy.
Only when things seemed to go bad, his was not only not of his doing, but also out of his control.
If he had known Marie wasn’t happy and was thinking of leaving him or having an affair, he would have worked hard to try and fix things, to be better, to please her. But she had given no signs whatsoever, taking a cowards way out and choosing to not return home.
It had taken a toll on the girls no matter how much he had tried to explain that she hadn’t left them, they weren’t at fault. She had left him.
And now with his recent health scare, he had shocked Sophie to the core.
Even now that he’s home and on the mend, he can still picture the sadness on her face when he closes his eyes.
That’s why he is glad to hear she’s going out tonight, and even more glad to have met the young man who had the pleasure of escorting her.
“Anyway, I was saying that I like this man that is here to see you. He is very polite and by the way Jul and Anna fawned over him, they seem to like him too.”
Sophie blushes hearing that Matt is here already. She glances at her watch and notices that he’s twenty minutes early and rushes back to the mirror to tend to her face.
As she quickly applies some mascara and lip gloss, her father chuckles. “You don’t need that stuff Sophia, you are beautiful without it.”
She looks herself over in the mirror, confused as to whether she is happy with her appearance or disappointed. She’s spent the last week thinking over the perfect combination of what shoes, hair and make up to go with her outfit, but now she’s doubting herself.
“He is so early,” she mumbles, “Why is he so damn early? Dad could you stall him or something? I need to change my outfit.”
“Anna and Jul are occupying him already, and you don’t need to change outfits honey. You look wonderful.”
She draws a deep breath in with her eyes closed, in a bid to calm herself.
Her father’s eyes sparkle at her with cheek. “You really like this boy don’t you Sophia?”
“Yes Dad, I think I really do.”
Samuel walks behind her and meets her eyes in the mirror. He smiles and the reaches up, unclipping the hair clip that is holding her hair away from her face. Her brown locks fall down around her shoulders and he chuckles.
“You look so pretty with your hair down. Great hair is a trait from your mother. I’m glad you didn’t get my hair or you’d be balding like me by now.”
Sophie swirls and wraps her arms around her father. “I got all the good traits from you Dad, don’t you forget that.”
“Well you don’t have a curfew tonight Sophia, will you remember that? Because I know that the last few times you’ve been out you have been home by one am. But promise me that tonight you will forget about the time and not worry about us. Just have fun, you deserve it.”
He draws his face back as he talks, emphasizing his words -which are more like instructions- with his facial expression.
Sophie closes her eyes for a moment and soaks her life in, her father on the mend, Anna and Jul happy as ever and Matt, waiting out in the lounge to take her to dinner.
Usually having fun is something she has trouble with, unable to shut off the over-thinking and constant worrying about everything, but tonight, having fun might just be the most natural thing in the world.

“Soph,” Matt says gently, “That’s the tenth time in as many minutes that you’ve checked your phone.”
In guilty response, Sophie chews her bottom lip. Matt’s hand gives hers a light squeeze and when she turns her head to look at him, he flashes a reassuring smile.
“Your Dad is basically back to full health and Addison is there in case anything happens,” he reminds her.
“I know, I just….”
“You’re nervous,” he finishes for her with a dazzling glint in his eyes. He sneaks a quick kiss on her cheek. “It’s fine. It will be fine; this is just dinner, just for a couple of hours.”
She knows that, she does. But it’s not the dinner that she’s worried about, it’s the invited guests.
When Matt had first invited her along, as his date, she had politely declined. She felt she had no place at a team dinner, not even if it gave her a full night with him in the midst of what felt to be the busiest part of the season. But Matt had learnt and devised ways around her protests in the two short months they’d now been dating, and had chosen his moment of conviction perfectly.
They had been lying on his sofa, watching a movie on the rare night that he was in town and didn’t have a game or practise the next day, and Sophie had been relieved of babysitting due to a fluke appearance by her sister.
“I really want you to come Sophie,” he’d pleaded. “Why not give yourself a night out?”
“I really don’t think it’s a good idea Matt, I would really rather just not.”
The gleam in his eyes and grin that had tugged at his lips had shown her he had a plan up his sleeve, and surely enough when they had sex later that night he had taken her right to the edge and then dropped off, until she agreed to attend with him.
Using her pleasure against her like that wasn’t the fairest thing, Matt knew that, but he also knew what a step forward it was for them to go together, for him to be able to introduce her to his team as his girlfriend.
And girlfriend was the word he used for her now, the word that had first made Sophie roll her eyes, but now made her smile.
When they had first began their series of dates, the end of each one leading seamlessly to the planning of the next one, right from the movie date onwards, Sophie had still been some what guarded. But Matt knew what he wanted, and that was her.
So he had tried his best to show that the two of them together could really work, and she should let her self give it a try.
And after about a month of watching Anna and Jul’s faces light up when Matt came over to visit her and got caught up playing with them, sharing dates with him and delectable kisses, Sophie had finally let him in.
She had come to a few of his games, though she never once waited outside the locker room and didn’t go out to celebrate afterwards, electing just to head home, though Matt would always sweet talk her back to his house.
He had really worked hard to show her what he saw they could have and what he wanted. Nights like that on the couch, afternoon’s with them taking Anna and Jul to the park, dates that turned to adventures with laughing and teasing and kissing and touching.
And now it’s what they have, though he’s finding himself wanting more.
He wants her up in the suite wearing his jersey. He wants her in bed beside him at night and still there in the morning.
He wants more. More of her.
That starts with tonight, with merging his two worlds together; his personal life and his professional one.

Only, Sophie knows the chaos that may lie ahead of them.
While she has gotten swept up in Matt and all the feelings that falling for him brings, she knows that her time and future with Matt now, doesn’t erase her past and mistakes of that with Deryk.
She hasn’t spoken to him since that weekend in the hotel, though he has called.
Plenty of times.
It’s a topic that she and Matt never broach, so she doesn’t know whether Deryk even knows about the new relationship.
And to be truthful, it worries her.
She isn’t foolish enough to believe that her romance with Matt will hurt Deryk, Deryk who has a wife, Deryk whom she was never anything more than a sex partner with, but she fears for what he could say to others to turn them from her, and the embarrassing implications that could have for Matt.
She has been praying for the last week that things will go smoothly and as Matt, looking handsomely dapper in his suit gently tugs at her hand as they stand outside the restaurant, she can now only smooth her dress, plaster a smile and hope that it will.

Fortunately James Neal beckons Matt to him the minute they walk in the door of the reserved dinning hall, demanding that he be introduced to the ‘lovely female’ Matt has brought with him.
Matt blushes first, then shares a smile with Sophie and leads her over.
They take the last two seats at James’ table and Matt introduces her to its occupants, Chris Kunitz and his wife, Geno, Kris Letang and his partner and Joe Vitale.
“Guys, this is my girlfriend, Sophie.”
The title gets a small hoot from a few of the boys and Geno takes Sophie’s hand. “You very pretty,” he comments in his thick Russian accent with a huge grin, “Why you with Nisky?”
“Okay, ha-ha,” Matt replies sarcastically as Sophie giggles.
“But seriously, why?” Neal presses, just to further tease his team mate.
“Laugh all you want but you’re missing the point here Nealer,” Matt grins. He leans back comfortably in his seat and places an arm around Sophie. “I’m here with my beautiful girlfriend and you’re dateless.”
“He right Lazy,” Geno laughs.
This time it’s James who blushes and starts fiddling with his napkin. “I had one, she’s just…..out of town.”
It choruses another roar of laughter from the table, and his face reddens further. “Whatever, when do we get to start eating anyway? I’m starving.”
“Can’t start till everyone gets here,” Joe answers. “Have some more bread sticks.”
Sophie lets her gaze wander the room and sees more familiar faces at other tables close by, most noticeably -Sidney Crosby sitting and laughing with Pascal Dupuis and his wife and Dan Blysma and Ray Shero talking over the last game. The tables are set closely to accommodate mingling and conversation, but it seems as if almost everyone is here by now, already having taken their seats as the waiters start coming out with appetizers.
“About fucking time,” she hears James say excitedly.
As her eyes scan past the door, a breath catches in her throat. Deryk strides in with Lindsay attached to his arm, his suit fitting him almost as well as Lindsay’s tight strapless green dress fits her. They look stunning together and Sophie chews her lip and quickly tears her gaze from them, feeling her chest burn.
They take their seats at Crosby’s table and once the appetizers have been finished, the special bar is opened.
“Do you want a drink?” Matt asks.
Sophie sets down her spoon and pushes her empty bowl forward to be cleared later. “No thanks, I’m okay. I might just get some water or something; I don’t feel like alcohol yet.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah, I’m sure.”
He turns to her in his seat and places his hand on her thigh, leaning into kiss her cheek. Just before his lips touch her cheek she turns her face and kisses him sweetly.
“I’m just gonna go get a beer. That is if this lot don’t drink it dry before I get to the front of the line,” he tells her, grinning as she looks over to the bar and sees about ten of the players plus some of their dates all wanting to order and watching the bartender fancily create their drinks.
When he’s gone she allows herself a deep breath. Seeing some jugs of water and some cups on a table obscured in the corner, she excuses herself from the now near empty table of just Joe Vitale and Kris Letang and his partner and makes her way over.

“What the fuck is this?” A voice asks roughly at her ear as she grabs a glass.
Fear pounds through her veins, loud and heavy like the footsteps of an elephant. There is no need to ask who, nor is it necessary for her to turn her head and confirm. The thick solid chest at her back confirms him, and the edge in his tone reveals him.
Her tongue slithers out over her lips to try and regain some moisture in her mouth, but before she has a chance to open it and reply his strong hands grip around her elbow and she’s pulled along behind him, out of the dinning area and down a small corridor to a back exit.
After flinging the door open and bringing them both out into the cold dark night, Deryk releases her, his eyes hard with anger.
“That was highly unnecessary,” she huffs shakily, brushing herself off from his forceful actions. “If you want to talk you could just say so.”
“Oh and you’d agree to that would you Sophie? You’d actually answer or return one of the hundreds of messages I’ve left you?”
It’s empty around them, besides a dumpster off to the far right of them, in the alleyway. It instantly reminds her of what happened last time the two of them were in a dark alley, but she tries to shake it from her memory.
Deryk growls and tosses his head angrily, before taking steps in a strange shape, pacing around in the space between them.
“Gees what the fuck is going on Sophie?” he demands, “I don’t hear from you for two months, you don’t return my calls and then you show up here at this team dinner, in that fucking dress, as Nisky’s fucking date?”
Demeaned and silenced slightly by his manner, Sophie blushes. Her fingers slide down the bottom half of her dress, trying to tug it further down.
She had figured it wasn’t good enough to wear to such a function, but when she had pulled it from her wardrobe and slipped it on, the look on Matt’s face had told her that it was perfect. Anna had even made a comment about her looking like that of Cinderella this evening before they had left.
But the blue one shoulder knee-length now it feels dirty, like a piece of scrappy material. Deryk’s smouldering eyes fall on her invasively, burning right through it.
“Stop pulling at it,” he tells her. “It’s not that dress, it’s any dress Sophie. You could be wearing any dress tonight, fuck you could be wearing sweat pants and a t-shirt and I’d still be out of my mind. Why the hell are you here with Niskanen?”
Her appearance is a different story, but one thing she will never be ashamed about is her relationship with Matt.
“I’m with him,” she answers, false bravado in her voice. “Matt and I are together now, I’m his date.”
“Fuck that!” Deryk blasts.
“You know, it’s not really up to you,” she replies pointedly.
Their eyes meet fiercely, and he takes small, inconspicuous steps toward her and she edges backward, without even realising it, until she feels the wall hard at her back.
“You can’t just disappear from the face of the earth for two months and then show up here as his date,” he says. “I left you a million messages; I checked my phone thousands of times. I was worried about you,” he admits to her, a slight shade of brown in his eyes revealing a small amount of hurt amongst the anger, something Sophie had never expected to see from him.
“Well you can’t have been too concerned because you never came around to see me,” she blurts impulsively, in disbelief of her own admission.
Is that really what she had wanted?
“I wanted to,” Deryk presses, “But you’ve never told me where you live, never talked about your house or your family or anything. Shit Soph, I don’t even know your last name.”
With the world feeling to be closing in around her, Sophie holds a hand to her head to try and calm herself. Deryk takes the opportunity to pull her in close against him, and holds his arms low around her back.
With her head still spinning, Sophie surrenders herself against the stability of his solid chest and takes a few deep breaths.
It’s peaceful for a moment until Deryk mumbles something in her hair, and then moves his lips to start at her bare shoulder, kissing his way up to her jaw.
With a slow reaction, his lips just graze hers before she pulls away. He makes the move to go again, but Sophie places a sturdy hand at his suit clad chest.
“We can’t do this Deryk,” she says, her voice only just above a whisper.
His fingers toy gently with her hair. “Why not? Because you’re ‘with’ Matt now?”
“You have a wife,” she reminds him, choosing to ignore his reference to her date.
“That’s never stopped us before.”
Sophie rolls her eyes, trying to push away the onslaught of guilt that his words trigger. “She loves you Deryk, and you love her. Why even bother with me?”
He pulls back his face gently, and hooks his eyes with hers. “If that’s what this is really about, if that’s what you coming here with Matt tonight is about, then tell me Sophie. Say the words and I’ll leave her.”
Sophie’s whole body jitters with shock. “Wha….what?”
Deryk takes back his hand and runs it through his own hair, trying to get a grip.
“Don’t pretend Sophie,” he warns, “I’m not kidding. Things between us, they’ve only ever been one kind of way and that’s because I thought that’s how you wanted them. You never spoke about your family so I thought you didn’t want me to know them, or to know your life. But if you want more, say it, just say it and I’ll give it to you.”
The small amount of soup and bread that she had consumed as an appetizer bubbles in her stomach and she clamps her lips shut tightly to prevent any of it from rising and making another appearance.
Never in all their stolen moments or escapades did they cover the topic of her family or the state of his marriage to Lindsay, the only two that seem to be in question tonight.
Sophie can’t believe what she’s hearing, and in truth, she doesn’t know if that’s because of the shock or the seriousness of it all.
Is it a ploy to get her back into his bed, or is he being honest? Was it really more than just sex for him?
Her eyes scan his face, but he gives away nothing but concentration.
“I’m not kidding either Deryk. You love Lindsay, she loves you. You have a happy marriage and a great life together. Go back to her and be happy.”
But he doesn’t.
“I’m not happy Soph, not with Lindsay. Yeah, I’m not supposed to say that because I’m her husband but fuck it,” he says. “I haven’t been happy with her for a long time. That’s why I’ve been with you. Do you think I’d be chasing you like this and trying so hard with you if I was happy with her?”
Sophie can barely begin to process it all. Is that what the jewellery was? The postcards and the notes? The hundreds of calls? Was that Deryk Engelland’s way of chasing?
Her head starts spinning again. “You’ve been with her for years Deryk. We haven’t been……whatever…for that long.”
His face twists in a type of emotion that Sophie can’t pick, but would pick to be that of pain.
“She wants a baby, Sophie,” he unleashes angrily, his teeth almost gritted. “All she’s ever bloody wanted since we got married is a baby. Sure we have sex, but only when it fits with her fucking ovulation schedule, only to make a baby. And I can’t give her one. We’ve been trying for years and I can’t give her what she wants most.”
He takes a second to suck in a breath after his out burst and Sophie stays rigid against the wall, leaning back on it a little for support.
“I’m not happy with her Soph,” he says more calmly, reaching out to her side to find her hand. His eyes tighten on her, expressing his sincerity and revealing the hurt in them. “Things with you, they are amazing. We have sex and we have fun and I see your face when I give you those presents or after you’ve gotten one of my notes. They make you happy Sophie. I make you happy. You don’t expect anything from me that I can’t deliver.”
Tears prick at Sophie’s eyes for the sad situation that has been flung open before her, and she feels an overwhelming deal of sympathy for both Deryk and Lindsay. In the time she spent envying Lindsay’s lifestyle, she never imagined there would be anything she could want that she couldn’t get.
And it’s clear to her by Deryk’s manner that not being able to give her what she so desperately wants hurts his pride.
“If you want to do this,” he continues, squeezing her hand to ensure her attention, “We can do it. You make me happy Soph, and I can make you happy. I can give you everything you want.”
Her body trembles slightly with the pressure of her next words, the wait on Deryk’s face and image of Matt waiting for her back at the table, weighing heavily on her mind.
She truly had had no idea that Deryk was so unhappy in his marriage. Though in retrospect, not many people stray if they are happy with what they’ve already got right?
Very suddenly she sees Matt’s point; made the first time he met her in that hallway.
Her whole arrangement with Deryk had been formed on the basis that it would never eventuate in to anything more. She predicted it would just run its course and she would continue on with her life while Deryk and Lindsay stayed intact, Lindsay none the wiser.
But it’s now painfully evident that they have stirred a far bigger mess than she had ever been prepared for.
“Come on Soph,” he encourages, ebbing closer. “You can do this. We can do this.”
His words are, as always, enticingly menacing. Sophie feels a kick start to her heart as it throbs in her chest.
It’s all too much; the offer on the table, the contents of his now aired dirty laundry, the lure of his voice and the temptation of his body, just millimetres away from having her pinned to the wall.
Can they do it?? She doesn’t know.
The real question is; does she want to?