Status: New!

On My Mind

twelve

“You almost ready?”

Kaia glanced in the mirror, adjusting her dress. “Yeah, I just—”

“You look great,” Sidney assured, standing the doorway of the bathroom. As she shuffled in front of the mirror, he glanced at his watch. “We’re going to be late.”

“Alright, alright,” she said, casting one last glance over her shoulder as she followed him back into his room. Her eyes met his as he adjusted the tie that hung around his neck. “I’m, like, really nervous.”

The smile that crossed her boyfriend’s face did little to quell her nerves. “You’re going to be fine.”

She almost rolled her eyes, sliding down the stairs to push her feet into a pair of black heels before she joined Sidney in the garage. The November-almost-December cold bit through her jacket, and she shivered a little as she climbed into the Range Rover, tightening the scarf around her neck. It was Thanksgiving, and the couple was on their way toward a dinner with some of Sidney’s teammates in downtown Pittsburgh.

She was staying with Sidney for the four day weekend that UPitt had off, having finally convinced her family that the trip to Massachusetts was unwarranted. She might have embellished the truth a little—a lot—by saying that Maggie was staying in Pittsburgh, too, rather than making the four hour trip to her own hometown, but she knew that whatever her dad didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him. Kaia was happy that she stayed—the two days that she had spent lazing around Sidney’s house had been heavenly, made up of waking up with Sidney’s arms around her, trailing after him in one of his t-shirts and nothing else, and meeting him when he got home from practice to repeat it all again. The invitation for dinner had come from Evgeni Malkin—who she had met briefly after a game—and she had gladly accepted, knowing that it would make Sidney happy. She wouldn’t say she was regretting it, but as they drove—Sidney’s fingers laced with hers over the gearshift—the butterflies in her stomach were making her feel sick.

When they pulled up outside of the restaurant—one of the nicest in Pittsburgh—she shared a tight smile with Sidney and slid onto the pavement, adjusting the hem of her dress. The dress was a gift from Sid—designer, black, with a deep v-neck and long sleeves, a zipper that ran all the way up her spine.

She and Sidney held hands as they stepped into the restaurant, his hand hovering over the small of her back as she shed her coat and scarf, offering them to one of the waiters.

“Mr. Malkin reserved one of suites upstairs,” the waiter explained as they walked, prompting a roll of the eyes from Sidney.

“Of course he did,” he muttered. “Likes to show off.”

The elevator up to the third floor was quiet and short, and when they stepped out into the reserved room, they were met with a chorus of greetings from Sidney’s teammates, Kaia’s cheeks turning red as his teammates clapped him on the back, murmuring choice words to their captain about her. She tried a smile as she shook their hands, names and faces blurring together as Sidney introduced all of them.

“It’s so good to meet you,” Vero, Marc-Andre Fleury’s wife, said, giving her a genuine smile. “Marc told me that Sidney had a girlfriend, and I wanted so much to meet you—”

“It’s great to meet you, too,” Kaia mumbled, admittedly intimidated by the beautiful woman in front of her. She leaned back against Sidney, feeling his hand squeeze her hip.

“Sid told me you play soccer,” Marc said. “Actually—I think he might have mentioned it, like, a hundred times—”

“Alright, alright,” Sidney muttered, shaking his head. “That’s enough.”

Kaia giggled up at her boyfriend, and then looked back at Marc, a smile on her face.

As Marc and Vero left to find drinks, Kaia beamed up at Sidney, who just shook his head, a crooked smile on his face. “They’re chirping me,” he muttered to her. “And I have a feeling they will be all day.”

Kaia turned to stand in front of him, letting his hands slip onto her waist. “You talk about me all the time, huh?”

A blush crept up Sidney’s neck at that, and he rolled his eyes. “Flower was exaggerating—” He looked at the floor. “But I can’t help talking about something that makes me happy.”

She rolled her eyes at the cheesy sentiment, pushing him away gently. “You’re such a guy.”

“That sounds about right,” he laughed. “Want something to drink? White wine?”

She nodded. “Please.”

He wandered away, and Kaia found herself all at once alone, looking around the room uncomfortably at all of Sidney’s teammates and their wives and girlfriends. She had never been one to be self-conscious, but she found herself too-aware of the other girls—beautiful, tall, models, who were bouncing babies on one hip and glasses of wine in the other hand, their hair and makeup done perfectly. It had taken her an hour to curl her hair so that it didn’t look stupid, and almost twenty minutes to perfect her eyeliner. She didn’t feel inadequate, or ugly—just less beautiful than they were. She thought, briefly, if Sidney hadn’t asked her to go with him to this, she would be in sweatpants and a t-shirt in her apartment, probably still sleeping.

“You look lonely over here.” Vero offered Kaia a big smile, shifting the baby she had taken from Marc to her other side.

“What’s her name?” Kaia smiled at the infant, reaching out to hold her tiny hand.

“Estelle,” Vero pronounced in a French accent.

“God, she’s adorable,” she breathed, cooing toward her. “How old is she?”

“Just about two and a half.”

“My nephew is the same age,” Kaia explained, offering Vero a small smile.

Sidney came back just as Kaia finished her sentence, proffering a glass of wine. “For you,” he said, wrapping an arm around her waist. “How’s little Estelle?”

Vero looked down at the girl—who was staring at Kaia, eyes big—with a smile. “Mesmerized by your girlfriend, apparently.” She laughed a little. “Babies like pretty things, hm?”

Kaia shook her head with a laugh. “It’s just because I’m new to her.”

The dinner went on without incident, though Kaia’s nerves hardly eased up as time passed. She found a friend in Vero, as well as Giselle, Brandon Sutter’s girlfriend, and sat near them, making polite conversation about hockey, soccer, and her schoolwork. They were nice, and Kaia appreciated their friendliness, but couldn’t help but compare their quiet exchange to her own family, who she could see immersed in their own Thanksgiving traditions—probably a hundred times louder and drunker, less well-dressed and poised, and with football playing somewhere in the background rather than the quiet muzak that filtered throughout the restaurant. Kaia didn’t miss it; being with Sidney was what she had wanted. He stuck by her side for most of the night, always finding an excuse to rest his hand on her leg under the table, or pull her close to him, both arms around her waist. Despite that, Kaia couldn’t shake the feeling in the back of her head that she didn’t belong in this group of people—she was far from designer, far from the lavish restaurant that Evgeni Malkin was footing the entire bill for.

“Sidney doesn’t usually introduce us to his girlfriends,” Vero said in a moment when the two found themselves alone. “The last girl he dated—I don’t know if I even knew her name.”

Kaia considered this, looking across the room to where Sidney was laughing with his team mates.

“You must be special,” Vero added, nudging Kaia’s shoulder. She smiled a little. “You’ve been together—how long?”

“Two months,” Kaia said with a little shrug—it was hardly an impressive amount of time.

“I would have thought longer,” she said, lips pursed. “He looks at you like it’s been longer.”

Kaia’s eyebrows came together as she looked at Vero, and then cast a glance in Sidney’s direction, meeting his eyes. She smiled at him, looking back at Vero with an unsure expression. “What do you mean?”

“He’s always staring at you, you know—looking at you, looking for you, to make sure you’re okay, asking if you need a drink, or food,” Vero trailed off, motioning with her hands. “He’s very attentive to you. It’s sweet.” She took a sip of her wine. “He looks at you like you’re made of gold.”

Sidney was deep in conversation on the other side of the room, one hand in his pocket, the other holding the beer he had been nursing all afternoon. Kaia looked over him with her heart in her throat, Vero’s words ringing over and over again in her mind. She didn’t say anything—or couldn’t, her mind reeling.

“I think you’re good for him,” Vero said finally. “You understand his hockey because of your soccer. He needs somebody like that.”

Kaia and Sidney were one of the first couples to leave, Sidney fighting off chirps from his teammates about why they were leaving early. She let him open the car door for her, and slipped off her heels as soon as she was sitting down, tucking her legs up underneath her.

“Did you have fun?” Sid asked as they pulled onto the highway, his hand finding hers.

She nodded slowly, looking over at him. “It was nice to finally meet your teammates.”

“Everyone liked you,” he confirmed, smiling. “It seems like you and Vero got along, too.”

Kaia thought dimly of what Vero had said about Sidney, and then about how she—for the most part—had felt like an outsider for the entire evening, deciding at that moment to keep it to herself. “Thanks for taking me.”

“You’re my girlfriend,” he mumbled. “It’s my job.”
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