O Captain, My Captain.

"Which one is it?" Sidney asked putting his Range Rover into gear.

"Seriously?" Aubrey shot him a "are-you-really-asking-me-that" type look. "It's the only other car in the parking garage."

"I'm kidding, jeez," he smiled.

"I was about to say," she rolled her eyes.

Sidney lightly tapped the accelerator as the glossy silver SUV lurched forward towards the tiny white Passat that was parked at the other end of the garage.

"I can't seem to...it won't unlock," she fumbled with the lock on the passenger side door when he pulled up next to her car.

"Stop pressing," he laughed, tapping the unlock button from his drivers-side panel. "There."

"Thank you," she said turning to him and blushed.

"For?"

"For letting me out?" she looked at him confused. "I'm totally kidding. Thank you for whatever that was back there."

"You mean our 'lesson'?" he asked.

"Yeah...our lesson. That was fun. Never in a million years did I think I would ever get to do that...with you," she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

"I never thought in a million years I'd be teaching a girl how to skate," he admitted.

"I feel like it's almost a requirement to know how to skate in order to live in Canada," she giggled.

"HA HA. You're hilarious. We're not all what our stereotype lives up to be."

"I knoooooow. I'm just messin with ya, Sid," she said unbuckling her seatbelt. "But really. We're gonna have to do this again sometime."

"Are you gonna try and learn to skate on your own next time?"

"That's the goal," she said turning to open her door.

"Aubs," he shifted towards her in his seat.

"Yeah, babe?" she whipped her head around.

His lips twisted into a devilish grin. "I don't know why but I just really like being called that."

"You're so weird," she playfully smacked his arm. "But seriously were you gonna say something?"

"Just this," he leaned in, gently grabbing both sides of her face with one strong hand, planting a passionate kiss on her lips.

"Wow," she breathed when their lips finally parted. "Good at hockey, good at goodbye kisses, is there anything you can't do?"

"Well I used to have horrible luck with women," he smiled smugly. "But it seems my luck has turned around."

"I know what you mean," she said. "Glad I could make it happen for ya."

"Me too," he said. "Can I ask you something?"

"Shoot."

"Last night when we were at my house, you said you'd been hurt before. Care to share what happened?"

'Fuck', she thought. She tried her hardest to keep her previous relationship a figment of the past, but frankly it was hard. The tiniest things would remind her of him, no matter how hard she tried to channel it out. If her mushy girl shit hadn't scared Sid off yet, it definitely would now. But, hey. He was the one who asked.

She clasped her hands together and hugged them around her knees, mentally bracing herself for the can of worms she was about to open up. "His name was Nick."

"Nick?" he questioned. "I hate that name. I don't like the guy already."

"Why don't you like the name Nick?" she laughed.

"I competed against a guy named Nick when I played in the junior leagues. Son-of-a-bitch ended one of my teammates careers with a nasty body check into the boards. Fractured a couple vertebrae, broke his tailbone. It was not pretty," he rambled. "But enough about my Nick, let's hear more about yours."

"I would hardly call him mine anymore," she looked down at the floorboard of the car. "In fact I refuse to be associated with him at all."

"Go on," he pressed.

"Anyway's Nick and I grew up together. He was three years older than me so he was good friends with my sister before he even knew I ever existed. He and Chelsea were hanging out one day and that's how we first met. We just kind of clicked. We were best friends for awhile until one thing led to another and suddenly we started having sex and he became my boyfriend," she sighed.

Sidney stared at her with intensity and she could tell that he was really paying close attention.

"Everything was perfect at first. He would always send me these cute little good morning texts and would surprise me with random little gifts. We were so in love. He had always talked about us getting married one day and starting a family together aaaaand...by the end of his senior year he proposed. And I said yes."

"But you were only a freshman," he said.

"That's exactly what my parents said."

"So I take it they weren't too happy about it?"

"Oh god no. I mean they loved him, but they didn't think I was ready to making such a life-changing commitment at 15 years old," she said.

"I can see where they're coming from," he nodded his head.

"I can too...now. But back then I was too in love and the only thing I cared about was Nick. If he would've asked me to jump off a bridge, I probably would've done it just to make him happy."

"Ohhh stop," he frowned. "So then what happened? He went off to college?" he asked.

"Yep. He got a full-ride to Ohio State on an engineering scholarship and I went Columbus every weekend to see him. Everything was fine until my junior year of high school when I realized that I wanted to go to Pitt for physical therapy. He didn't understand why I'd wanna go anywhere other than OSU and he got mad at me when I told him it was his dream school and not mine."

"Sounds like a real dick," Sidney scoffed.

"That's not even him being a dick. Him being a dick was when he called off the engagement because he told me that he couldn't be with someone who chose their education over him," she crossed her legs. "Turns out him calling off the engagement was the best thing to ever happen."

"Why's that?"

"Turns out he cheated on me all throughout our relationship with my best friend at the time," she spat. "And I mean like the whole time. Like all four years we were together."

"What a fucking asshole," Sidney growled. "How did you find out?"

"Chelsea told me. Apparently she knew the whole time but never had the decency to tell me. I didn't talk to her for at least a year after that. I never understood how she could watch me sob and cry myself to sleep at night and never have the heart to say anything."

"I'd be pissed too," he said shifting in his seat.

"Fortunately we've moved past that and oddly enough the situation made us stronger but I still think about it from time to time," she said locking eyes with him.

"So did you ever confront Nick about it?"

"No. I really had no interest in seeing him after that so I stuck my engagement ring in an envelope and mailed it to him. No note or anything," she shook her head.

"Are you serious?"

"I'm dead serious. I'll be damned if I physically go and give you my ring back in person after finding out that the past four years have been a complete joke," she snapped. "He called me so many times crying that he was sorry and that he wanted to get back together. He didn't have a clue that I knew. He even mailed the ring back but I just threw it away."

"That's too bad. You probably could've made some decent money selling it," he smiled. "Then did you ever confront your best friend?"

"That thing wasn't worth much," she placed her hand over his. "And yeah. I asked her about it months after I had found out and she admitted it. But by that point I was so over the situation that I stopped caring and told her we couldn't be friends anymore."

"So?"

"So she understood. Do I hate her now because of it? No. But would I ever consider becoming friends with her ever again? Probably not."

"So that's your story?"

"That's my story," she smiled.

'That wasn't so bad', she thought to herself. At least this time she could get through the whole spiel without crying. On the surface, she casually brushed it off, acting like she had finally come to terms with it. But on the inside, she still wasn't completely over it. Even years later, she was emotionally scarred from it and was afraid she might not ever recover. She felt bad for Sidney. It was a lot to process for someone who didn't have a firm grip on the situation, but again, he had been the one that had asked.

"Well I can see why you keep your guard up. I would too if that ever happened to me," he said breaking the silence.

"You live and you learn I guess," she said, mentally reassuring herself. "Well I should really get going. Hopefully my past doesn't run you off."

She twisted around to the backseat to grab her bag and fished out her car keys. Just as she was about to open the door to get out, he grabbed her wrist.

"I'm not going anywhere, Aubs."