Chapter 11

I woke up the next morning in a mess of tangled body parts. Two people sleeping on a twin bed was not the best idea I’d ever had. I groaned at the pain in my neck when I moved it. I tried to push my way out of Sidney’s hold since my right arm was completely asleep. He was having none of it however, and held on tight.

“Sid, come on, I can’t feel my arm,” I whined as I continued the struggle.

He finally let go and I shifted off of my side, immediately feeling the stabbing pain as blood rushed back into my arm. My shoulder didn’t exactly feel too great from lying on it so long either. Now that I thought about it, my stomach and head didn’t feel so great either. God damn hangovers. I got up and grabbed two water bottles out of the mini fridge in my room and threw one onto the bed.

“Thanks,” he said sitting up and chugging half the bottle in one gulp.

“Can you explain to me why we thought seeing who could do five shots in a row fastest was a good idea last night?” I asked, falling back onto the bed.

“I think we can thank Max for that idea,” Sid groaned as I buried my head into him and pulled the blankets completely over me. “You’d feel better if you got up and moved around.”

“You’re crazy,” I told him from under the blankets, refusing to move.

I guess the fact that I refused didn’t change his mind. He pulled the blanket off of me and picked me up. I whined and complained the entire time he carried me down the stairs to the kitchen. He plopped me down in a chair and sat down next to me.

“So what do you have to eat in this place?” he asked.

“Don’t talk about food right now,” I told him putting a hand to my stomach.

“Eating will help,” he insisted.

“Eating will make me vomit,” I corrected. He sighed and started to look through the refrigerator and cupboards. “We don’t have any hangover food here right now.”

I got up out of the chair and walked upstairs with Sidney following behind. I got dressed in sweats and then laughed when Sidney only had his suit to put on. We must have looked completely ridiculous when we walked into a diner 20 minutes later dressed so differently.

“So why don’t we leave games from the same exit as the other guys?” I asked after our coffees were brought to our table.

“Some guys park in different sections of the parking lot. I thought I told you that,” he said shrugging.

“Well, Grace said Jordan had to sign a bunch of autographs after the game last night and that there were fans everywhere,” I continued.

“Yeah, that happens every game.”

“Why don’t you have to sign autographs?” I questioned. He hesitated just for a second before answering, but it was long enough that I caught it.

“I’m not the autograph that the fans want,” he replied. I felt like there was more to it that he wasn’t telling me, but I couldn’t exactly call him a liar since I really had no idea, so I dropped it.










Sidney walked into his bedroom and changed out of his suit. He’d lied to Tanner and he couldn’t believe it. He’d never been a liar, ever, and he’d just lied to his girlfriend. He picked up his phone and highlighted her number, but then hesitated with his finger over the “talk” button before putting the phone back down.

He repeated the same action about 20 times in the next half an hour telling himself he needed to call and tell her the truth, but he just couldn’t bring himself to do it. God, what was wrong with him? The longer he put off telling her the truth about him, the better the chances that she’d find out from someone else.

He popped a couple of Tylenol for his headache and got into bed. He fell asleep for a couple of hours and woke up not feeling any better. Tanner was going to the game on Tuesday night and he’d tell her after the game, he decided. Then he’d find out for sure if they were going to work out.

Unfortunately that didn’t exactly happen. They lost to Minnesota in a shootout and it was Sidney’s stopped attempt that ended the game. He was angry with himself and not exactly up to dealing with that talk with Tanner. He wasn’t in the best mood when he walked into the room to see her after the game. The fact that she was so understanding about him wanting to just go home made it even more difficult.

Then they were headed to Atlanta for a game and he wasn’t about to have that conversation with her on the phone. He kept telling himself he’d do it after the next home game since they didn’t really have any time off between games at the moment. Then they lost to Vancouver that game, and again Sidney was too upset to do it.

Then Tanner went home to New York for Thanksgiving. When she came back they had a home game against the Devils and won 4-1. He had a hat trick in the game and was more in the mood for celebrating than having a conversation he’d been dreading since he’d started dating her. He thought he’d do it right before they went on the road again, but she was swamped with school work and it just wasn’t the right time. He figured at that point he should just wait until her finals were over.










I was sitting at my desk forcing myself to study for my Faith and Reason test. I wasn’t exactly thrilled that the professor was giving us a test the week before final exams and I was getting pretty stressed out. I’d just finished a ridiculous amount of papers and labs and all I wanted was to start preparing for finals, but instead I was studying for this stupid test.

“Need some help?” I heard a familiar voice ask. I looked up and smiled when I saw Sidney standing in my doorway.

“You want to help me study?” I asked surprised.

“Well, not really, but I leave tomorrow for a few days and I’ll do whatever it takes to spend time with you before I go,” he replied leaning down to kiss me.

“Well, okay then.” I sat down on the bed with my notes and he sat across from me. I gave him a quick overview of what I was studying and basically told him to just take my notes and start quizzing me.

An hour later I was sitting across from him with my shirt off while all he had on was a pair of boxers. He’d decided we were going to play what he called “strip studying.” If I got a question wrong I had to take something off, and if I got it right he had to take something off. He’d been pretty bundled up when we started and now he was almost naked whereas I’d only had to remove a pair of earrings and my shirt.

“I think it’s safe to say that you know your stuff,” he joked putting down my notes. I laughed along with him.

“I hope so,” I replied. He leaned over and kissed me. “I hate that you’re leaving for the next few days.”

“Trust me, so do I. It’s only a couple of days though, it’ll be fine.”

“I’m really sad,” I pouted making my way over to him and putting my arms around his neck. “How are you going to make me feel better?”

“I’ve got some ideas,” he said grinning.