Oh Captain, My Captain

 
Chapter Ninety Six
“No, nothing’s wrong, but-“ he sighed and then scratched his head, “I really don’t know how to explain this,” he said and then leaned back in his chair.
“Well if you don’t, then I definitely don’t,” I laughed and he smirked towards me.
“Well, you know how we try to raise money for certain charities?” he asked and I nodded my head, “Well we’ve done one in the past where we action off the boys, and their buyers could have them for the day,” he said and I bit my lips and nodded my head, “But with you being on the team-“
“You’re worried about what I might think of it,” I finished and he nodded his head, “I’m fine with it.”
“Are you sure?” he asked and I nodded my head.
“Yeah, it’s for charity,” I said and Mario smirked.
“You not going to be look at like you’re a girl,” he said and I nodded my head.
“I know, I’m going to be a piece of meat on a shiny platter that people want to get their fifteen minutes of fame with.”
“Exactly.”
“So when is this event?”
“Two weeks,” Mario said and I nodded my head, “Dan’s gunna announce it tomorrow.”
“All right.”
“I just wanted to let you know and ask if you wanted to be apart of it.”
“Do all the guys do it?”
“No, I don’t think Pascal, Deryk and Tomas do it,” he said and I nodded my head.
“All right,” I said and then looked at him, “Is that all?”
“Yup, sorry, I wanted to do this face to face,” he said and I nodded my head.
“It’s all right; I needed to get up anyways.”
“Happy New Years,” he said as I headed towards the door.
“Same to you,” I smiled and then opened the door and started to head out.
“Hey Alex!” he called and I turned around, “One more thing, well actually two.”
“Yeah.”
“You and Crosby really a thing?” he asked and I smirked and nodded my head, “All right, well I was just wondering, I would be worried if it affected you on the ice, but it clearly hasn’t.”
“We put our emotions aside when it comes to hockey, our relationship is left off the ice,” I explained and he nodded his head.
“Good to hear, happy to see that you and the kid have each other,” Mario said and I smiled, “Another thing.”
“Yeah.”
“You sure you don’t want to know who was interested in you?”
“It’s not going to make much difference,” I said and he nodded his head, “Even if it was the Kings, I don’t think I would really want to go back.”
“Well you have six teams,” he said and I sighed.
“Do you want to tell me so badly?” I laughed and grabbed a paper and looked at it.
“I want to see your reaction,” he said and I sighed and nodded my head, “Chicago, Nashville, Winnipeg, Washington-“
“Oh that’s rich!” I laughed when I heard that Ovechkin’s team was interested in me, “That’s a hell no, right there.”
“Buffalo, and Boston,” Mario stated and I stopped when he said that the Bruins were still interested in me.
“Not interested,” I said and Mario nodded his head, “Have a good one, Mario.”
“You too, Alex,” he said and I walked out of his office thinking about the teams that he told me and heading out to my car.
‘…I wish he didn’t tell me…’ I thought as I texted Sidney and told him I was out and asking where he wanted to go for lunch.
He replied with the restaurant that was along the river, and we’ve gone a few times. I started my car and then met up with him there and already saw that he had a table. I smiled when I saw him and then sat down and saw that he already had a beer in front of him.
“Everything all right?” he asked and I smiled and nodded my head.
“Yeah, he wanted to ask my opinion about something and then talk about some teams that were interested in me,” I said as Sidney took a swig of his beer and nodded his head.
“Opinion about what?”
“You’ll find out tomorrow at practice,” I answered and he nodded his head.
“So what teams are interested in you?” he asked and I sighed and then told him the six teams that showed their interest, “I can’t believe Boston.”
“Well to be fair, they were interested in me when I was on the Kings, Mario just put more into getting me to Pittsburgh,” I explained and Sidney nodded his head.
“Nashville? Weren’t you down there?”
“Knoxville,” I said as I took a sip of my water and he nodded his head, “I was down there for college.”
“You didn’t finish, right?”
“No, I got drafted to the Texan Stars,” I said and he nodded his head.
“I thought so, I know you explained this before, but I forgot.”
“Have you decided what you would like?” the waitress asked as she appeared next to our table and looked at us.
“I’ll have a grilled chicken Caesar salad,” I said and she nodded her head and Sidney ordered something, I wasn’t paying attention.
We talked about hockey most of the time, of course, but he mentioned to me that his family was angry with him for making me upset and I smiled and held his hand as he apologized to me for like the millionth time.
Our food came and we ate while talking about things that we saw last night, I told Sidney about the guy named Alex that asked if he could buy me a drink, he found the guys name amusing.
“So Vero tells me that you bought a house,” I said as we walked out of the restaurant and to our cars.
“Yeah, I couldn’t keep living in their guest bedroom, and I didn’t know,” he stopped and looked down and I knew he was going to mention no knowing if we were going to get back together, “Would you like to see it?”
“Sure,” I said and he smiled and nodded his head, “I’ll follow you.”
“All right,” he said and then got into his Rover and I got into my Tahoe.
I followed Sidney into the next town and pulled into his driveway staring at his house in awe, ‘…He definitely likes the big houses…’ I thought as I got out of the car and locked it.
“What do you think?”
“It’s big,” I said and he nodded his head.
“It might look like that from the outside, but it’s got a homey feeling when you walk in,” he explained and then held out his hand and I took it.
He led me to his front door and then opened the door. I looked around the home to see that it wasn’t finished, the walls were bare and in some rooms there was no furniture.
“It’s not finished yet, but it’s a pretty nice place,” Sidney explained and I nodded my head.
“Doesn’t Cooke live close?”
“A block away,” Sidney said and I nodded my head and he decided that he was going to give me a tour of his four bedroom, three bath, large fenced in backyard, in-door pool, large kitchen, dining room, living room, family room home.
‘…I would definitely feel lonely living here by myself…’ I thought as we walked back into the kitchen from the back door.
“Once it’s all finished, I’m gunna have a party,” he said and I smiled and nodded my head.
“It’s nice, Sid, but there’s a lot you still need to do, to make it a home,” I said and Sidney looked at me.
“It is a home.”
“Well I know that, but you need to paint the walls whatever color you like, put furniture in here, get that big ass plasma TV that I know you’ve been eyeing,” I smiled and Sidney nodded his head.
“Will you help me?”
“You want me to help you design your home?” I asked and he nodded his head.
“Yeah, you’re a girl, and your house is so nice!” he said and I laughed.
“That’s because I hired people to come in and make the house up the way I wanted it.”
“But it was your designs,” he said and I sighed and shook my head.
“Well first, you need to choose your furniture and then put it on hold, while you choose your paint colors and paint your house,” I explained and he nodded his head.
“Help me, Alex,” he whined and I laughed.
“All right, all right,” I said and then walked over towards his laptop that sat on the kitchen island, “Let’s get started.”