The Next Year

The next morning we began what we hoped would be a routine. Sid went to our gym in the morning while I hit the pavement and ran, just something to get my cardio and endurance going. Then I’d hit the gym after I was done. I know it sounded like a lot of working out but I needed to get stronger, faster and have better endurance then I did currently. That meant working until the body said is was going to fail and the just a bit beyond that.

I came into the house Tuesday after my workout to find Sid on the phone with someone. I knew he’d call the guys as soon as he could. I mimed that I was going to shower and he waved. God the shower felt good after my dual workouts. I hadn’t changed in between, I figured why dirty more clothes. I was drying my hair when I heard him coming up the stairs. “Babe? You done?”

“Yeah, have a good conversation?” I wasn’t sure whom he talked to but it sounded like a good one as I passed through.

“Yeah, it was Andy. He wants to get together for lunch today if we’re up for it.” I could hear the eagerness in his voice and it made me chuckle.

“Can I at least get dressed before we run out the door?” I was standing there in my underwear after all. He tilted his head from side to side and then moved me so he could see my side, my ass really. He then walked over to my suitcases and flipped them open. Digging through he found a pair of my Docker’s Pants and a pretty soft purple top. He came back over and handed them to me.

“After lunch we’ll go shopping and make sure we’ve got everything we need. Do you have any hats?” I nodded my head and went over to my smallest suitcase. I’d found some cadet caps that I loved so much I got most of the colors they had it in. I looked at the pants and found the one that closely matched it. I then dug out a pair of ballet flats that were purple and put them next to the clothes. “Oh, I guess you do.”

“Yep, I know what I’m getting into. If I don’t dress up much and don’t wear heels, I should be able to hide better than you can.” Yeah I had thought about how to go incognito so I could have as normal a life as possible under the microscope we lived under. I went into the bathroom and threw my hair up into the perfect messy bun. I then got dressed in what he’d chosen and added the hat and shoes.

“You’re incredible. Most women can’t get ready that fast.” Sid said as he watched me go from undressed to ready to go in minutes.

I looped my arm in his. “I’m not most women. You forget I spent years being the last one let out of the media, if I didn’t learn how to get ready quickly, I would have missed _many_ busses.” He laughed as we went downstairs to get in the car and go. I grabbed my purse as we went.

We met Andy at Athens Restaurant in Halifax. It was what you would expect of a small family run Greek/Italian spot. We came in and found Andy pretty quickly. He was in the back of the restaurant in a good spot to hide us from view. Man did he know us or what. He came over and hugged me tightly as we came up to the table. “Finally sis. Took you long enough to make an honest man outta him.”

We all laughed as we sat down. “Seriously Aleks, I wish I could have been there to see it for myself.” I smiled and blushed at the same time. Andy was one of Sid’s friends who liked me, genuinely liked me. Of course I’d known Andy 10 years now so he knew how devoted we were to each other.

“We wish you could have been too, it was wonderful. Maybe this will shut the rest of them up.” Sid said as he looked at the menu. Andy scoffed at that. Sid looked up. “It _could_, ok so it’s a long shot but still.”

Both Andy and I shared a laugh and the shaking of heads. It was easier to let Sid believe what he wanted and let the guys prove us right than argue. Sid was a little blind when it came to his friends. “Anyway moving on. How much of your time here is already planned out?”

The waitress came over and we all ordered. I stuck with my old standby of Fettuccini Alfredo while the guys split a pizza. Then our conversation resumed. “Mom says we have to be at their place tomorrow for the family get together and Sid had the idea of having the guys and their families over on Friday for a party. Other than working out to get ready for next year, I don’t _think_ we have any plans.” I glanced over at Sid.

He shook his head. “Nothing until Dean’s wedding.” He was unhappy about how Dean had written the invitation to Sid. It explicitly said he was to come without the “Gold digger” so he could have some fun. “After that we go to L.A. for that camp and stuff then I think we’re back in Pittsburgh, right babe?”

“I think so. I really hope the house is ready by then so we can move everything into place.” I took a sip of my water as Andy looked at me oddly. “Genius had me fall for a house in February and then had it bought out from under him. We found another and are making renovations.”

“At least we aren’t Geno and Mari, they’re building a whole new house long distance.” I had to agree with that. Knowing Mari she had at least half of the decisions done already. “Oh well. What’s new with you man?”

Andy laughed. “I’ve got a normal job and he wants to know what’s new with me. That’s why I love you man. Really everything’s cool. Kaylee and I have found out we’re expecting, she’s due in February.” That produced an enthusiastic reaction from Sid. After they sat back down I couldn’t stop smiling.

“That’s great for you two.” They’d been married for 2 years and together for 6. “You’ll have to keep us informed on whether we’re getting a new niece or nephew.” Andy chuckled and Sid looked at me oddly. “What? It’s not like any of our siblings will be having kids anytime soon. I’ll adopt my friends’ kids as my nieces and nephews until then.”

Lunch was fun. It was nice to catch up with Andy and be able to just have some “normal” fun. From there we went slowly towards home. He showed me a few things around Halifax and Dartmouth, but it seemed like he was looking for something. Then he grinned. “There it is.” He said with relief clear in his voice. “You said you wanted to pick out a bedroom set for the house. I thought if we were going to do that, we might as well get a new mattress too.” We pulled into the lot of Simmons Mattress Gallery and he turned off the engine. “What do you think?”

I leaned over the consol, not caring who might be around. “I think that we might need to order a new mattress for the other house too.” I kissed him lightly and got out of the car.

Inside we wandered a little bit, looking at what they had. As much as the adjustable beds looked like they’d be great, something about them said they were too old for us. We were young and more than capable of sitting up in bed on our own, most days. I was looking at the Temperpedic mattresses when Sid pulled me down a few. “Check this out.” It was the Comforpedic memory foam bed made by Simmons. He then picked me up and laid me on one of the beds, making himself comfortable next to me. I got comfy and found that it was more comfortable than I expected. “I like this one. Not just cause it’s cheaper than what you were looking at.”

“Hmmm, let’s take a nap.” I said wiggling closer to him. He wrapped himself around me and oh my god the bed was perfect. Even the display pillows were memory foam. I was sliding towards sleep when I rolled over and sat up. “This one, for sure.”

Just then a sales clerk came over. “You can’t go wrong with that mattress. I have one myself and I’ve never slept better. Not too hot in the summer or too stuffy in the winter.” His nametag read Dirk as he continued. “This is the best of the Comforpedics, the Bright Nights.” He was about to go into his sales spiel when Sid cut him off.

“Just save trying to talk us into it. She was almost asleep before you came up; I felt it. This is _the_ single most comfortable mattress I’ve ever been on. That’s saying something cause I _have_ slept on Temper-pedic mattresses before. What would you recommend for underneath this and how long would it take to get to us outside of Enfield?” He rolled off the bed and came over to stand by me.

Dirk stumbled over Enfield a little bit, clearly shocked at how far out we were. Fortunately Mark came over and rescued him. “We happen to have that mattress in stock right now. What foundation you have it on will depend on what you already have or want. Do you want the bed a little lower or at a more normal height?”

We looked at each other. “More normal height is fine. We’re used to it already and anything else wouldn’t be good for when we go back to work.” I said, not explaining what we did for work.

Mark smiled. “Well I would suggest the regular boxspring under this then. The low profile one is 3 ½ inches shorter; which might make it good for you, Ms. Malakhov but it wouldn’t be good for your companion.” The cat was out of the bag.

I smiled and shook my head. “Caught us. I’ll be honest, if we like this bed like I think we will, you’ll end up having made a sale in the U.S. too cause we’ll change the mattress at the Pittsburgh house too.” That made them both gawk at us openly. “What? Getting a good night’s sleep is _very_ important. Especially when you get in at like 1 am and have practice at 10. The faster you can get to sleep and the better sleep you can get, the better your game is.”

Within minutes we had both signed autographs and taken pictures, not to mention answered the pointed question with only a mutual smile. That being why I had signed Crosby instead of Malakhov. We scheduled delivery for tomorrow and went out two very happy people.

From there we went around the corner to Leon’s, a furniture store that is awesome in Canada. We wandered through the store to the bedroom furniture and began looking in earnest. We eventually found a few we liked and would fit well with the scheme of the house, then we began picking each of them apart to find the perfect collection for what we needed. That left us with the Mirador collection. It had everything we needed plus some extra, only 1 problem. It didn’t come in King size.

Fortunately for the Golden Boy, yeah they did call him that; they were willing to place a special order after calling the owner’s to check if they could. Adding 20 inches to the headboard meant that they would add a panel of the accent swatch and make them all equal. It would take 2 weeks for that to be done and another week for shipping from the plant. That meant that if we were lucky we’d get it before we left for the summer. The rest we could get tomorrow, easily. That meant that one of us would have to stay home until both deliveries were made and in place.

Once that was all squared away and paid for, Sid and I wandered the store looking at the displays. As we looked more and more I found the furniture that we actually had in the house which told me a lot about where he’d found it, or rather where whomever decorated the place had. That was something I hadn’t been involved in doing until now, mostly because I had been busy with school and such until now _not_ because I didn’t want to. “Babe, do I see our entire home’s furniture here?” He looked guilty so I laughed. “Well it supports local jobs so who cares.”

We went home to move things around so we could be ready for tomorrow. After that I made dinner while Sid called his mom and the Barbeque, telling her we’d not be there until late afternoon. Apparently that was fine with her as he got off the phone happier than I’d seen him in a while. “I’m gonna call the guys after dinner, you want to call Marchy yourself?”

I did one better by multitasking and calling Marchy now. “Marchand residence, this is Brad.”

“Hey Marchy, it’s Aleks. Wondering if you and your lady are willing to come up on Friday for a get together we’re having.” I was cleaning lettuce for our salad at the same time.

“Are you kidding? We’d love to come up! When on Friday? I’m guessing the afternoon and into the evening. Can we bring something or help somehow?” I laughed at his enthusiasim.

“I don’t know yet man, we’re asking people to come over first. No real plans yet and before you ask yes we’ll let you know what time and everything.” Sid came over and took the phone.

“Brad? Yeah it turns out that some of my friends aren’t really fond of Aleks and think she’s a gold digger. You know her better than most of them so I’m hoping you can help them warm up to her.” Oh great so now he knows he’s a mercy invite. Sid laughed. “Yeah she’s great. Nope she’s not going anywhere, never.” He winked at me. “Of course, ok then we’ll get you the info as soon as we have it planned and such. I’ll email you directions too. See ya then for sure. Yeah we can talk about that. We’ve pretty much jumped into training full force. It’d be nice to be able to do some with someone who understands. Ok later.”

I shook my head and continued work on dinner. “Go ahead and call them, the sooner we know, the sooner we can make plans.” Sid giggled and began calling his friends. In the end we had 20-30 people coming over on Friday for fun and saying hi. I hoped that everything would work out and that his friends would maybe, _finally_ understand that I’m good for him.