Dark Blue

“I’ll have a water with lemon.”

Every time I heard those words, my entire body cringed. Everyone in the world insisted I drink it; hell, over half of my body was made of water, yet I still couldn’t make myself drink it.

“Coke with no ice, please,” I murmured, and I quietly tucked away my menu as I turned towards the one friend in my life that wasn’t somehow tied to hockey.

She never had been, like I didn’t used to be. I never imagined that when I said I was leaving, she would leave, too. Growing up together was one thing, but spending the rest of our lives together? Not every friend would be willing to pack up their lives to be close to another friend.

I could see the corners of Zarah’s pressed lips turn up as she continued mindlessly looking over the menu. Considering this was our usual lunch place after work, I knew what she wanted and how she wanted it.

With a roll of my eyes, I pushed away my useless menu and sighed. “Yes, I know. It’s gonna kill me.”

“I’ve said it once; I’ve said it a thousand times,” she murmured. “Wasn’t gonna say a word.”

“But it’s that look!” I insisted, and though I didn’t mean to, I found myself pouting as I leaned back against my chair in a way that would make my grandmother blush and holler. After all, women were supposed to always sit with their legs crossed so men couldn’t see anything they shouldn’t be tempted to look at.

With a pair of ripped black skinny jeans, however, there was nothing men could possibly see.

She just smirked some more as the waitress brought our drinks and took our order. As usual, I got the most unhealthy thing on the menu while she got the healthiest. That was where we differed, though. Sure, eating healthy and working out would be better for me, but with my intense workout schedule I have—an attempt to spend more time with Sid during hockey season gone wild—I didn’t really see a point in working my ass off and eating things I didn’t like.

Sidney was like that, too, so I wasn’t alone.

“I hate being a creature of habit.”

While Zarah’s smirk dimmed, her eyes brightened, and I realized she wasn’t arrogant anymore . . . just happy. “Well, when you’re dating the worst creature of habit I’ve ever met, it probably rubs off at least a little.”

I sighed deeply, though I didn’t really mean to, and straightened back up in my chair. If I got at least one thing right, it would be my posture. With a family history of horrible back problems, I didn’t want to make my chances of being the next in line to surgery after surgery.

“We should mix things up,” I said when one of her dark red eyebrows raised. “I mean . . . let’s be spontaneous. Instead of getting dessert here, let’s go across town and get some of the ice cream from Luigi’s! And, hell, tomorrow night, let’s go out and—”

“You are going out tomorrow night,” she interrupted before I could get too carried away, and a coy smile spread across her lips as my eyes widened a bit. “Sid’s been excited about it for weeks, remember?”

A deep red pulled across my face while my throat seemed to dry up. I was thankful for the Coke, and I took one long sip of it as my mind swirled.

Sidney . . . the absolute love of my life.

I had a bad habit of forgetting plans, and though she was right about Sidney being excited, this was no exception it seemed. It had nothing to do with the fact that I forgot Sidney and I had plans, but I forgot that it was Tuesday—even this was my Tuesday routine at noon.

Normal people didn’t go out on Wednesday nights, with work the next day and everything, but Sid and I didn’t have regular day jobs. As a matter of fact, by all technicalities, I didn’t have a technical job. Sidney did; he was the captain of one of the best teams in hockey. Maybe it was my bias talking. After all, I was in a long term relationship with the greatest player in the NHL.

Okay, might still be bias talking, but as far as I was concerned, Sidney was the greatest player in the world because he was more than just an incredible hockey player. All of the guys on the Pens team were, but Sidney was something special.

And he was all mine.

That alone sent my mind whirling, and when the waitress brought out Zarah’s apple pecan salad and my double bacon burger with two orders of fries, I barely even noticed. If Zarah hadn’t snapped her fingers in front of my face a few times, I probably would’ve been lost in thought for a while.

It was a bad habit, but it was the life of a writer—or this writer anyways. While some got addicted to drugs or became hard alcoholics, I just got addicted to the depths of my imagination.

We finished at the same pace, but when the waitress came out and asked if we wanted our usual desserts, she nearly had a heart attack when we declined, paid the check, and left.

I was practically dancing down the sidewalk towards my car while Zarah rolled her eyes and called after how much of an idiot I was making of myself, but really, I cared far less than she thought.

After growing up together, you would think she would’ve learned by then that I didn’t care what anyone thought of me.

Except Sidney . . . because for some reason, I always cared about his opinion of what I wore, how I acted, how I was as a person.

And he loved it all.

That was why I wore a huge smile while the two of us climbed into my black two-door Jeep Wrangler. Every time I remembered that Sidney bought the car, I cringed and wanted to cry, but really, it was one of the sweetest things he had done. My old junker car Zarah and I had driven to Pittsburgh from Noxon lasted much longer in Pittsburgh than I planned, but it was dying. It was only a matter of time, so I pulled the money I had1 set back for a car out and started looking through newspapers and online for cars. One night, while I finished getting ready to go out, he must’ve seen it circled a bunch of times with a sad face beside it.

The next morning, it was sitting outside of my apartment with my name on the title. I wanted to be mad at him, but with that smile, or that adorable laugh he let out when he saw the way my eyes lit up . . . it was literally impossible to be mad at him.

When I thought about it now, I was mostly just thankful he didn’t buy me a newer and much more expensive car. Sidney had a bad habit of spending far too much money on me, and after five years, I still wasn’t used to it. Any time we talked about moving in together or marriage, it sometimes made it a little easier to swallow, but until the day we said I do, it would never be comfortable.

Honestly, it would still be a little strange then. I figure that I won’t buy anything but groceries or furniture for the house during the first few months.

We stepped out of Luigi’s with our ice cream in hand. Well, I say ice cream, but I was the only one with ice cream. Being the healthy food nut she was, Zarah got a piña colada protein smoothie whereas I got a pint of Ben & Jerry’s cookie dough ice cream.

Seriously, this stuff was my other addiction . . . as was Mountain Dew. Sidney swore that something would happen to me where I’d need blood, but when they went to figure out my blood type, it’d just be Mountain Dew. While I said he was crazy, the idea of having Mountain Dew straight lined into my veins was pretty damn interesting.

Then I realized it would burn like hell, and I wouldn’t get to taste the marvelous wonder of that damned magic drink.

I’m telling you, it was a problem. The only other drink in the world I considered getting was strawberry lemonade, but only from certain places.

The night I mixed moonshine with Minute Maid strawberry lemonade was . . . well, I couldn’t really tell you what happened that night. Sidney remembers, but I still couldn’t.

I felt the huge smile pull across my face as I put the first bite of ice cream with cookie dough in my mouth. The vanilla around it was good, but the bits of chocolate chip dough were the reason I preferred it. Chocolate cookies would make me fat one day; I was certain of it.

Zarah sighed. “It’s really not fair.”

“What’s not fair?”

“You eat like an elephant, yet you’re still skinnier than me,” she groaned.

My nose scrunched while I digested a rather large bite of ice cream that chilled everything from my mouth down. “I workout, like, way too damn much.”

“Yeah, because you haven’t been like this all of our lives.”

“Well, I had a fast metabolism before,” I said.

She glared at me for a second before rolling her eyes and taking a sip of her smoothie. “Skinny ass bitch.”

I started to stick my tongue out at her, but the moment I did, I saw, not even ten feet away from me, in his six foot four Russian glory, Evgeni Malkin walking through the crowd with a hat over his head and sunglasses over his eyes so he could hide better.

“Geno!”

But he wasn’t alone.

Zarah giggled the moment my eyes landed on Sidney, but I swear to you, after five damn years of being with this man, seeing him didn’t get any less exciting. My heart still fluttered, and an entire zoo rolled around in my stomach. Sometimes, I still found myself forgetting how to breathe.

How strange, right? Aren’t these things supposed to calm down after a while?

Sidney’s smile was huge as he pushed through the crowd and wrapped his arms around me. “I thought you were sleeping in for once.”

“I wish,” I muttered, and I shot a glare over at Zarah. “I haven’t slept passed five in who knows how long.”

“Well, I’ll let you sleep in tomorrow night,” he offered.

I stepped out of his embrace with a huge smile. “Sidney, this is why I love you.” I held up my pint of ice cream. “Want some?”

He looked puzzled. “Was the dessert at the café not enough?”

“She’s decided that she wants to be spontaneous all of the sudden,” Zarah laughed.

Sidney grinned while Geno laughed so hard I thought he might hurt himself. Seriously, that adorable Russian has a deep laugh you can hear over everything.

I smiled over at him. “Hi, Geno.”

“Hello.” He hugged me himself and looked to the ice cream. “Where Aris put it all?”

“It goes straight to my legs until, like, six o’clock,” I said, giving him a proud smile as I took yet another glorious bite of my ice cream. “So what are you guys up to? Get done with your run early?”

Sidney nodded. “I was about to take Geno home, and then I was gonna stop by and see if you were awake yet. Since you’re not home, however—”

“She won’t be home for a while,” Zarah interrupted, and my eyebrows rose when I looked over at her. “Seriously, Air? We just talked about this last night. How do you forget these things?”

My eyebrows pulled together while I racked my brain for what she might be talking about, but it hit me. “Right!” I turned to Sid and gave him a sheepish smile. “She wants me to go shopping with her.”

Sidney smiled. “That’s alright. I’ll probably go home and make sure everything’s ready. Speaking of you forgetting things, however . . . .”

I gave him a sheepish smile. “No, love. I haven’t forgotten about our date tomorrow. Five years is kinda a big deal.”

“Five years,” Sidney murmured. “Doesn’t feel like it.”

“It really doesn’t,” I agreed. Since I was only a couple of inches shorter than Sidney, I didn’t have to strain myself to kiss his cheek. “Zarah has to be at work at three, so we won’t be out long.”

“Beau has been driving me crazy about bringing you over for a Ghosts tournament,” Sid informed me with a roll of his eyes. “That okay?”

“Hell yeah!” I exclaimed. “That fucker’s just mad because I kick his ass every time.”

Zarah scoffed. “You have a problem, kid.”

I glared at her. “Come on! You promised you’d stop calling me kid when . . . well . . . .” My eyebrows pulled together. “Wait, that’s right. You can still call me kid.”

Zarah’s smirk was more arrogant than it had been all morning, but I found myself more willing to look at that than Sid and Geno’s confused expressions.

“When can she not call you kid anymore?” Sid asked.

My face flushed, but instead of answering, I stuffed my face full of ice cream and poked around at it with my overly flimsy plastic spoon.
Zarah laughed. “I’m gonna tell him.”

“No!” I squeaked, but as I did, melted ice cream fell out of my mouth. That only added fuel to the embarrassment fire.

To be honest, nothing embarrassed me around Sidney anymore, not really. He had seen me eat ribs, wings, spaghetti, and every other food known to mankind that could possibly be messy.

The thing that embarrassed me was how bad this looked on him. Though he was mostly hidden, who knew if there were cameras somewhere taking pictures?

And the mention of engagement around Sidney . . . I didn’t want to talk about it anymore. I mean, how many times could I bring it up without smothering him with the idea of marriage? Sure, he brought it up, too, but I didn’t wanna scare him away.

Well, actually, scratch that. He wasn’t going anywhere at this point if he hadn’t already.

To my surprise, Sid pulled my lips to his in a short and sweet kiss, grinning as he licked the melted ice cream off his lips. “My trainer is so mad at you, by the way.”

“I know, I know,” I mumbled, but I felt at least twenty degrees cooler immediately.

Sidney was absolutely wonderful at that—making things a million times better for me. When I felt overwhelmed by his fame, completely embarrassed and out of place . . . Sidney made it all better. He pulled me right beside him and made me feel as comfortable as I possibly could in whatever situation we were in.

“That’s disgusting!” Zarah exclaimed.

“Well, not all of us are germaphobes like you,” Sid scoffed.

“That was in her mouth.”

Geno let out another deep laugh. “Wouldn’t be first time Sid’s been in her mouth.”

It had been a long time since I had seen Sidney as red as the Chicago Blackhawks’ jerseys, but that was the color he turned while I simply laughed and lightly punched Geno’s shoulder.

Like Sidney, he always stuck up for me and took me out of situations that weren’t comfortable. On normal occasions, he did the same for Sid, but this time, he took him from one situation and put him in another.

It was much easier to recover, however.

“On that note, we’re gonna head out,” Sidney told me. “I’ll pick you up at three to hang with Beau?”

“I can just drive,” I reminded him, but everyone knew as well as I did that it was a pointless statement.

Sidney didn’t even acknowledge my sentence, except when he unsuccessfully tried to hide back a grin. “Three sound good?”

“Three sounds perfect.”