All I'll Ever Need

It was surprisingly busy when I got to the airport. To be honest, I thought with it being such a strange hour that there wouldn’t be a whole lot of people, but I was way off.

A man on the plane passed by me so fast. He was paying no attention to the people around him and nearly knocked down a little girl holding her teddy bear. Even when her mom yelled for him to watch where he was going, he never flinched or slowed down.

And out of the massive crowd, I had no problem finding the incredible and absolutely gorgeous Sidney Crosby.

Seeing him in person was so much different than hearing him on the phone. The moment those chocolate eyes caught my own green ones, I felt something inside of me shift as my heart began to flutter. When a huge and crooked smile pulled across his lips, I was quite certain my body was trying to self-destruct. My heart began beating at an unhealthy and unnatural rate while my throat closed up and my lungs painfully started malfunctioning.

Sidney was the first to speak. “Hi.”

“Hey,” I said back, and if the drowsiness in my voice and eyes wasn’t enough, I yawned the moment I said it.

He laughed. “Tired, are we?”

“Fuck yes I’m tired,” I groaned. “But it’s nothing a little breakfast won’t help.”

“That sounds awesome,” he agreed. “What do you say we go get some? I’m starving.”

“If we’re going to get breakfast, I think we should definitely go to Waffle House,” I said. “For the record, I’m kinda fat, so—”

“Whatever!” he exclaimed as he started laughing all over again. “I doubt more than three percent of your body weight is fat!”

I scowled. “Boobs are, like, ninety-six percent fat? Something like that.”

He smirked. “So I stand corrected.”

“They’re not so big that when I run they smack me in the face,” I protested. “When I was at the gym one time—”

“Wow, just once?” he interrupted while he laughed.

I stuck my tongue out at him. “No! It was one of the times I went to the gym, this lady was on the treadmill, and she was going the higher speed. Her boobs were literally bouncing up and hitting her in the face.”

His eyes widened a bit. “Seems a bit excessive.”

“Yeah, pretty sure she thought so too.”

And he laughed again. That was what Sidney seemed to do, and it was incredible to meet someone so genuinely happy with his life.

Something about talking to him in person was even easier than talking to him on the phone. Seeing the way he smiled as he talked, or the way his eyes lit up as he laughed . . . it made it seem much more real. It made Sidney seem much more real.

I was so glad I decided to be friends.

Sidney watched as Mika bashfully ordered the All-Star breakfast complete with raisin toast, hasbrowns, extra bacon, and eggs scrambled with cheese. She had no problem ordering her Coke with no ice, or laughing as the guy behind the grill yelled her name, but something about ordering such a large meal made her feel ashamed.

Sidney didn’t understand, but what she got sounded damn good, so he got the same.

“Where do you keep it all?”

A light pink flared across her pale cheekbones as her eyes moved down to the table. “Uh, I’m not sure. I think I run most of it off.”

“How far are your runs?”

The way her lip disappeared between her teeth while her eyes skimmed the room captivated him. She seemed so harmless and innocent, yet with such a simple action, Sidney felt as if the room was at least a hundred degrees hotter. His blood boiled under his skin as he watched her try and remember.

“I don’t really keep up,” she admitted. “I just run until I can’t run anymore. However long the park is, I usually get three or four laps.”

Sidney’s eyebrows raised. “That’s, like, seven miles, Mika.”

She shrugged her tiny shoulders that hid under the thin fabric of her Under Armor running jacket and took a sip of her Coke. “I suppose that’s what it is.”

As Sidney’s gaze remained on her, Mika tried to fight the heat that flushed into her cheeks under that melted chocolate stare. It was about as hot as she felt, but she knew she shouldn’t be hot. Hell, it was the end of February. It was just a rainy, cold morning in Pittsburgh. She shouldn’t be so warm.

With Sidney, she felt electric, and for a minute, she forgot everything else in the world. Her mind wasn’t focused on her paralyzed brother or her dying father or her addict best friend. For the time, her life was like the fairytales when she was little. The prince came in and swooped her away from all the bad, saved her . . . put her in a place where she could have a happily ever after.

“It doesn’t seem like so much when I run it.”

“Well, you’ve trained yourself well. Explains why you have no meat on your damn bones.”

Mika smirked a little. “I suppose it does.”

Sidney didn’t like grinding teeth. As a matter of fact, it hurt like hell whenever he did. Sometimes, it just happened, and watching Mika sit there with that sexy little half smirk . . . what was it about her that he couldn’t resist? He had told her he wasn’t like most other hockey players, but was he? He couldn’t get every little thing she did out of his mind, especially when she bit down on her bottom lip again and made eye contact for the first time since they had sat down.

Mika didn’t understand what was going on in Sidney’s head. She tried to read him but couldn’t. All she found was a hot mess of emotions raging through his eyes, and she didn’t want confusion. Sidney wasn’t hurting. He seemed to be feeling every good emotion that came to her tired mind, so she decided to not worry about exactly what he was thinking.

She could worry about everything later.

Sidney couldn’t stop thinking, however; he couldn’t stop thinking of all the ways Mika sent his mind reeling. Such simple, casual motions sent him over the edge, and he didn’t understand, couldn’t understand. It wasn’t like they had even known each other that long, really. Only two weeks and two days, and only once had he seen her in person.

So why was he so drawn to her? Why did every little thing she did make him react the way he did?

He had seen attractive women in his time, but they never did this to him. Maybe it was Mika’s genuine beauty that drew him in, the way she wore no makeup and threw her ringlet curls into a careless ponytail. She didn’t spend time on her appearance, and Sidney found that utterly endearing.

She was an effortless beautiful he had never seen before in all of his life.

Sidney had to find a way to distract himself, and with Mika looking over at her friend behind the grill, Sidney knew he would have to come up with the conversation.

“Fuck, Mika, it’ll be a couple days before I can get your car.” Truth was, he had no idea what car to get her.

Mika’s eyes moved back to Sidney as a small smile played on the corners of her lips. “I’m not expecting miracles, Sid. But let’s get one thing straight. I had a Jetta, alright? It doesn’t have to be the same damn color. Actually, by all means, don’t get one the same color, but it’s a Jetta.”

Sidney laughed at how silly it seemed. Wouldn’t most people want something else? Something more than what they had before? After all, she had been beyond reasonable in the special circumstances, so she deserved more.

Yet she just wanted the same that she had before, no more no less.

It didn’t make sense in Sidney’s head, but he smiled and nodded. “Right, right. A Jetta.”

And a Jetta it would be for the girl that he would never understand and never get out of his head.