Dark Blue

The soft knock on my front door would’ve gone unnoticed had I not been sitting in the living room, waiting for that knock.

Sidney was never one to be late, and though I had tried to remain calm, I had been very worried. A few minutes late was one thing, but fifteen minutes?

That was a big deal for the man who considered being fifteen minutes early almost late.

Knowing Sidney was outside my door was both relieving and joyous—I was ready to see him.

I pulled the door open and threw my arms around his muscular torso. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

“I’m so sorry, baby!” he exclaimed. “I left in time to be here thirty minutes early, even considering traffic, but there was a really back wreck on—”

I cut him off with a kiss, but it was brief because I couldn’t contain my giggles. “Sweetheart, after five years of being here at least fifteen minutes early, you’ve earned enough time to miss a date entirely.”

“That would make me the dumbest man in the world,” he murmured, and a very sensual smile spread across his lips. I expected him to whisper something enticing in my ear, but for once, he went straight for the kiss.

His full lips had always been soft, and tonight was no different. I hadn’t expected such soft lips from a hockey player, but the more I stayed the night, the more secrets to Sidney’s way of life I uncovered.

The way his lips melted with mine, the way he pulled me against his strong body . . . I felt electric.

To be honest, I felt more than electric.

“Mmm,” Sidney sighed as he pulled away, the moment I took a small step towards the inside of my apartment. “We have reservations in thirty. We should get going.”

“We could stay in tonight,” I whispered, and to sell my case, I began nibbling on his neck the way that drove him crazy. “I mean, Zarah’s staying with Eddie tonight . . . .”

“Well, we can come by later,” he promised, and he had to slither out of my grip. It was a bit strange the way he avoided it—I distinctly remember the last time I wanted to just stay in, he was more than happy to oblige. “And doesn’t Edward hate it when you call him that?”

“He prefers Eddie to Vampie, so . . . I think I’ll stick with Eddie.”

“You could cut him some slack,” Sidney sighed. “Zarah loves him, and she’s your friend. If you remember, she wasn’t all too crazy about us dating either.”

“That’s because she believed the rumors that you were a player,” I protested. “And the ‘hockey player’ stereotype.”

All he had to do was cock one eyebrow in my direction for me to realize what I had just said, where my statement was twisted and hypocritical.

The reasons I didn’t like Edward . . . were rumors and stereotypes about rich Brits who came to America to “live the life of the free,” as they called it when in reality, they wanted to fuck hot and drunk whores that they wouldn’t have to worry about bringing home to their mothers—ever.

According to Zarah, however, the two of them hadn’t even slept together, and it wasn’t because she wanted to wait. Edward insisted on it, said that he wanted to wait until they were in a committed relationship to engage in any kind of physical contact.

I didn’t even know how to process that, but it only made me wearier.

Mostly because he broke the stereotype I so heavily clung to in a feeble attempt to protect my friend.

Sidney was right, though, and I wasn’t being fair. Edward deserved a chance like I begged Zarah to give Sidney, and maybe things would end up the same. She adored Sidney and swore that if she didn’t love me so much, she would try and steal him away.

At least she used to . . . I guess now she realizes five years isn’t exactly something you can separate so easily.

“I’ll give him a chance,” I decided. “But, really, Sid, why don’t we do something spontaneous?”

Sidney’s eyebrows rose. “Spontaneous?”

“Let’s just stay in,” I whispered, bringing him close to me once again as I kicked the apartment door closed. While he struggled to contain me, my fingers were already headed straight for his black tie so I could undo the buttons on his white dress shirt. “Celebrate five years wrapped up in each other, tangled in the sheets, the smell of sex heating up the already fucking hot air.”

Sidney laughed. “Did the AC guy not come today?”

“No,” I grumbled. “Zarah called and bitched him out, too. He was supposed to be here at ten, but he never showed. Before we went to lunch, she called, and he said it’d be another week before he could get here.”

“I mean, it’s October,” he said. “Who the hell needs their AC anyways?”

“Exactly!” I paused for a second after my very eager exclamation, and when I looked to Sidney, he looked a bit smug. “Hang on. You’ve never lived in Noxon. You don’t understand how hot October in Pittsburgh is compared to Noxon. It’s cold as shit, Sid.”

Sidney rolled his eyes. “I forget. Five whole degrees different.”

I frowned. “Five degrees makes more difference than you think. Besides, Zarah’s always used the AC, even back at home. It was a bit ridiculous sometimes.”

“I know, I know,” he murmured. “Now, seriously, love. Let’s get on out of here and down to the car. With traffic as shitty as it is, we’ll be lucky to make it to the restaurant in time.”

“Which is why we should stay here?”

I must’ve looked and sounded as hopeful as I felt, but for some reason, everything that always worked to sway Sidney didn’t. He didn’t even seem to notice my attempts at changing his mind and instead stuck by his original plan.

“No, baby,” he said, and he placed a soft kiss on my lips. “I’ve got a special evening planned out for you, and don’t you worry. The last stop is my house with the AC already turned on and cooling everything down.”

Despite the fact I wanted him now, waiting for a freezing cold room sounded delightful. I mean, for me . . . it was much more close and intimate that way. Freezing air, hot sweaty bodies tangled up in each other as the heated passion makes them forget the AC is on at the beginning of March—I couldn’t wait.

So with a smile, I took Sidney’s large hands in my tiny ones and grabbed my purse off the table beside the door. “Alright then, handsome. Lead the way.”

“What do you mean we can’t get our table?”

Sidney was always one for remembering even the littlest things. I knew he wanted tonight to be special because this was a big deal for him. Five years was a long relationship, the longest either of us had been in. Sure, when compared to an entire lifespan, no. Five years wasn’t a big deal, but we weren’t even thirty yet. Five years was a good chunk of our lives.

Even though he remembered little things, I hadn’t really expected him to remember where we ate five years ago. That was where we were, though.

Well . . . where Sidney got reservations for.

The waitress knew who he was. She recognized him even before he told her his name, but there was really nothing she could do. She looked through the reservation list for his name over and over, but it just wasn’t there.

“I’m so sorry, Mr. Crosby,” she insisted. “I don’t see you listed here. I can watch for the very next available table, but it will probably be a while.”

My stomach couldn’t take a while. Sidney was doing his best to be patient and calm, but he seemed to be on edge tonight. Just like earlier, when he didn’t wanna stay in, he was more irate about the lost table than he was last time this happened.

I put one hand on his arm and gave her a kind smile. “No, no. That’s alright. It’s not your fault. We’ll come back some other time.”

She looked apologetically over at me. “Would you like me to make a reservation for you now?”

“Sure,” I agreed. “Hmm.” I looked up at Sidney. “The eighth of November is your next free Friday, right?”

Sidney barely nodded as his lips quirked to the side, and he looked to the hostess. “Any times on the eighth?”

She nodded. “Yes, Mr. Crosby. What time would you like?”

He let out a small laugh. “What do you think, Ari?”

I pressed my lips together. “Let’s see . . . how about seven?”

The hostess jotted that down with her pen. “Mr. Crosby, table for two . . . seven.” She smiled. “Got it. I’m so sorry about this misunderstanding. We’ll make it up to you on the eighth.”

“It’s alright, really,” I assured her. I gave her another pleasant smile and took Sid’s hand. “We’ll see you then.”

Sidney walked out the door with me, but he seemed reluctant. “Are you sure you don’t wanna wait?”

My nose curled. “Really, it might be okay, but this bitch that used to live across from me is in there. I don’t wanna deal with that tonight. Besides, I’m starving. Can we just grab a burger or something?”

He sighed. “Yeah, I guess.” For the first time since we were told our reservations were cancelled, he looked at me. I could see the disappointment in his eyes, but he tried to look happy. “I guess we can go on.”

Before he could walk away, I grabbed his other hand to stop him. “Come on, Sid. I’m really touched you remembered. Just because it didn’t work out for us doesn’t mean it’s not really sweet.”

I think that cheered him up a little because he smiled. “I just want tonight to be special. Let’s get some food and hope the rest of it turns out how it’s supposed to.”

I giggled. “Either way, it’s the thought that counts.”

Like promised, we grabbed some food from somewhere fast. I picked Sonic, so that’s where we went. I was super psyched for some cheesy tots, and Sidney got his usual as well—double cheeseburger and chili cheese tots. I adored their Dr. Pepper with an unhealthy passion, but only in the large cup. In the Route 44 cup, it tasted different, so I got a Dr. Pepper, large, with no ice.

I wasn’t really sure where Sidney was headed, but we weren’t anywhere when he turned into a parking deck. Sure, there were buildings all around us, but there wasn’t really anywhere that seemed like a date place around us.

All I knew of was the flower shop down the road where we met.

A huge smile pulled across my lips as the memories of that wonderful day played in my mind, like a movie I had just seen.

She was in such a hurry.

The idea of being late, again, swam through her mind as she scurried along the crowd of people. She was a European driver in America, or that was how she felt as she moved through the crowd in the opposite direction they were all moving.

The messy bun she had thrown her curly blonde locks into was falling out, and the papers she clung to were on the verge of falling out. She didn’t have time to stop and fix any of this, however—she was late.

He just wanted a clear head. It was hard to watch his team play with him sitting on the sidelines, being unable to help them at all . . . he felt like the worst captain in the game. Though he was proud they had won their last game, it didn’t make it much more bearable.

That wasn’t the worst part of it all. Speculation that he wouldn’t come back had gotten to him, and the reality was, he didn’t know how to live outside of hockey.

What would he do if he had to learn? If he had to do it every day? He didn’t have a degree, didn’t have anything to fall back on if his concussion and tissue damage prevented him from taking a solid hit. Aside from that, he wouldn’t have anyone outside of hockey, and he’d eventually just move back to Canada, right?

He had no idea, and the idea that his life would change so drastically . . . it terrified him.
There had to be some way to get his personal life together, some way to have an alternative to hockey so he wouldn’t have to be so scared.

He moved much slower than she did because he had nowhere to be, but he had no idea she was not even ten feet away. One glance at his watch, noting the time as eleven fifty-seven, he had no idea what was coming.

Neither did she, but it wasn’t because she looked at her watch. She had a severe problem with gravity—she tested it far too often.

When she wasn’t paying close attention to where she stepped, somehow, she always ended up on the ground. Usually, she tripped on the flat surface in front of her, but this time was different.

Her foot got caught on the other side of his, but she was moving far too quickly to stop before she fell. Her folder immediately hit the ground while some loose papers fell out and flew everywhere. The wind was more than happy to let them get lost in the traffic.

His reflexes were better than most people’s; he was able to grab onto her before she hit the ground, though both of them were completely unstable. More weight added to his own—barely even a hundred pounds, he estimated, but still more weight—caused him to be off balanced, and that nearly brought them both down.

While his free arm reached out to grab the flower stands beside him, his eyes fell onto the face of the girl who tripped over him, and what he saw took his breath away. Everything immediately started moving in slow motion, and he suddenly realized that life had its own real fairytale moments.

She was still too much in shock to notice much, other than the strong man that had caught her before she fell and got trampled. Her breaths came out fast and rugged, but she couldn’t see very well, despite her eyes being wide as a full moon.

Once they were steady, just a moment later, Sidney carefully stood the girl on her feet, giving her a warm smile as her eyes locked with his for the first time. The shimmering cyan orbs he saw staring back at him took his breath away, and everything he planned to say got wiped from his brain entirely.

Honestly, he felt as if he tried to talk to her, the only thing that would come out would be incoherent mumbles.

Aris felt the same way, though. She had known the person who caught her was strong, and she imagined he was handsome by the way his cologne danced through her senses and made her mind swirl. She had no idea that it was Sidney Crosby.

A breath passed through her parted lips, but she couldn’t find words until she looked down to her feet—a bad habit she was all too aware of but unable to fix. “I am so sorry! I’m a klutz, and I’m still not used to this place.”

The way Sidney’s heart raced didn’t really help him think any better, so the words that came out were almost like an instinct. “Where are you from?”

Aris was taken by surprise—people didn’t pick up on things she said. Finding a response took her a few more seconds than it should have, but her eyebrows knit together as she stared at the sculpted face of the most attractive man she had seen in a long time. Seeing him on TV and in pictures really didn’t do him justice.

“Noxon, Montana,” she finally said.

Sidney hadn’t heard of that place, but he hadn’t heard of a lot of cities in the United States. He knew Montana was on the border of Canada, though.

When he removed his hand from the flowers stand he had braced himself on, he didn’t really think twice about what he did. Grabbing a bouquet of coral carnations, he extended them out towards Aris with a smile.

He had no idea that carnations were her favorite flower. That was just how it happened.

She saw the flowers and had no idea what to say, but she found them to be absolutely beautiful. For a moment, all she did was stare at them, but as a smile crept across her lips, she carefully took them from Sidney’s hand and into her own.

“They’re beautiful,” she whispered, and she ever so delicately smelled them. “I . . . I’m really sorry I tripped over you.”

“Well, how about you go out to lunch with me to, ya know, make up for it?” Sidney had no idea where the idea came from, but he didn’t regret asking. Actually, it wasn’t such a bad idea, now that his brain had time to process the words that fell out of his mouth.

The coy smile that spread across her lips made Sidney’s heart skip a beat. “I . . . am actually on my way to class. I’m already super late.”

“How about dinner then?”

She was absolutely flattered that Sidney was so persistent, even if she didn’t understand why. While she didn’t necessarily find herself ugly, she didn’t really see a beautiful person when she looked in the mirror. Plain and ordinary . . . nothing that would catch superstar Sidney Crosby’s eye.

She did more than catch his eye, though. His heart was completely captivated by the shy smile, the delicate voice that came through her soft pink lips. There was nothing ordinary about her in Sidney’s eyes, and he couldn’t imagine letting her walk away out of his life forever.

The way the sun shone on her porcelain skin was something Sidney figured he’d remember forever—that was the kind of impression this tantalizing girl left on him.

“Well, I’m supposed to cook tonight, but I think my roommate wouldn’t mind eating leftovers,” she mumbled, but the way her bottom lip disappeared between her teeth made Sidney realize she was actually a bit concerned for what her roommate would eat.

“Or we could bring her something back?” he suggested.

The idea brightened Aris’ mood completely, and a huge, toothy smile came across her face. Sidney forgot, for a moment, all reason and logic. All he could remember was that when he was at the lowest point of his life, he was blessed with an angel.

“Okay,” she agreed. “Dinner then.” She pulled a piece of paper out of her folder and carefully jotted down her phone number, writing her name above it so he wouldn’t get it confused with all the other numbers he was surely given.

She couldn’t imagine that other women didn’t constantly throw themselves at him.

“Aris.” The name rolled off his tongue so smoothly, came out in the gentlest of whispers, but it sent shivers of delight down her spine.

Why did her name sound so good when Sidney said it?

With the bouquet in her hand and a timid smile on her lips, she took the first step away from Sidney. Briefly, her mind wondered if he would actually call her, but for the time, she let herself believe he would and willed herself to get to class.

Sidney watched as she started to walk away, but he didn’t let her get too far before he quickly stopped her. “What time can I call you?”

She turned back to look at him and found herself more unwilling to walk away than she was the first time. The huge smile on his lips and the way his chocolate eyes seemed to swim in delight . . . it was breathtaking.

“I get out at two, so any time after that,” she said, and with her remaining willpower, she clung to her folder and turned back away from Sidney.

He just stood back and watched as she disappeared from his sight, and the moment she was gone, he immediately felt the anxiety from earlier sweep over him.

Until he realized . . . that maybe he had just found it.

His life outside of hockey.

I hadn’t imagined that was where Sidney was taking me, but there we stood, at the exact spot we met those five years ago.

Sidney had a huge smile on his lips while I studied the building. It usually had different kinds of flowers outside, but this time, there was only one kind of flower in all the pots, in all of the display areas.

Coral carnations.

Tears formed in my eyes as a huge smile came to my lips. “Oh my . . . Sidney, how did you do this?”

“I talked with the owner,” he admitted. “You’d be surprised what good seats at our next home game can get you.”

My nose curled, but it didn’t dim my mood. Actually, on the contrary, I wouldn’t really be surprised if you could get a kidney for seats.

Alright, yeah I would . . . because on the black market, organs sold for shit loads of money.

“This is amazing,” I whispered, and I turned to face him. The smile I saw on his face made my heart begin to soar, and it was all I could do not to kiss him with too much passion. In private settings, it would definitely not be too much, but right now, in public, neither of us were comfortable with that much display of affection. “Why are you doing this?”

“Five years ago, I met the most important person in my life,” he informed me. “At this exact spot.” He took two steps forward and stood . . . at the exact spot where I tripped over him. To make things even more special, he placed on hand on the display rack he braced himself on, and he pulled out a bouquet of coral carnations. “Something about her captivated me, and on normal occasions, attractive women made me nervous. This woman didn’t, however. I found her utterly captivating, and I knew that if I let her go without talking to her, I’d regret it forever. Turns out, that instinct was right. After five amazing years, I haven’t regretted a single moment spent with her. We fight, sure, but every healthy couple fights. I—”

Neither of us expected the bottom to fall out of the clouds in the middle of whatever Sidney was saying. The ground was damp from where it had rained a little earlier, but the cloud exploded and dropped all the water it held on us in a single moment, it seemed.

Well, I say that, but it didn’t slow down. It poured and poured, and while I found it highly entertaining, Sidney wasn’t amused.

As a matter of fact, he looked right up at the sky and yelled, “Come on! Are you kidding me?!”

I giggled. “Come on, Sid. Life’s not about waiting for the storm to pass. It’s about learning to dance in the rain.”

“I just . . . fuck, Aris, your dress,” he sighed. “We need to get out of this rain!”

I knew I was pouting, but I also knew he was right. “Okay!”

When he took my hand again, my bouquet in the other hand, I let Sidney take me wherever he planned to take me. The parking deck was just down the block, so that’s where we headed. Sidney was faster than me, in my too high gold stilettos.

He was right about my dress, though. The gold glitter and mesh material wasn’t supposed to get wet, and any amount of water could permanently ruin it.

I quickly buttoned up my peacoat to cover it, but by the time I got it buttoned up, we were at the parking deck and safe from the rain.

And while I was laughing about it, Sidney, once again, seemed really upset.

Something was definitely up, something I was missing about tonight. Why was it so important that things went exactly as he planned?

I would have to wait and see, it seemed.