Chapter 7

I put on Sidney’s game Tuesday night just like I told him I would. My housemates crowded around me in the living room to watch the game with me as we all worked on school work. Sidney scored the first goal of the game and I yelled out in excitement, much to the amusement of the girls. They’d never seen me cheer for any team that wasn’t the Giants during the Superbowl.

Unfortunately Detroit scored the next three goals and my mood was ruined a bit. I did notice that the broadcasters talked about Sidney a lot but I figured it was just because he was playing well, because honestly I couldn’t tell. The third period ended up being the most entertaining as the Penguins came roaring back to tie the game with less than 30 seconds left. Grace was especially interested since Jordan had scored the last three goals.

When the Penguins won in overtime I smiled and sent Sidney a text telling him good game. I went up to my room to finish up some work for class the next day. That plan backfired when my phone rang and I saw that it was Sidney calling.

“You seriously watched the game?” he asked when I answered. I laughed.

“I told you I would. The whole house watched. Grace was particularly interested at the end when Jordan was scoring all of those goals,” I told him. I heard him say something to someone in the background before he said anything to me.

“Jordan wants to know if she was impressed or just interested,” Sidney said to me.

“She was definitely impressed.” Sidney relayed the message to Jordan and despite not hearing Jordan’s response I could hear a group of guys laughing in the background.

“Okay, we’re about to get on the plane and take off. I’m pretty busy tomorrow with practice and some promo stuff, but you should come to the game on Thursday,” he invited. I thought about anything I might have going on and realized I had nothing.

“That would be fun,” I answered.

“Good. Bring Grace if she wants. I’ll leave two tickets at the will call window. Just have ID and they’ll give you the tickets.” I thanked him and we hung up.

Thursday evening Grace and I were fretting about what to wear. When we finally decided on simple yet cute jeans and a sweater outfits and we made our way to the rink. We decided not to deal with traffic and took a cab there. When I got our tickets at will call they also handed me two laminated cards.

“Excuse me, what are these for?” I asked the woman at the window, completely clueless.

“They’re to get downstairs after the game,” she explained.

Grace and I made our way to our seats and sat down. They were playing the Flyers that night, just like they had been the day I met Sidney. He’d explained that they were pretty heated rivals so it could be an intense game. I was nervous and excited at the same time. This would be the first time I saw him play live when I was actually paying attention to him. Grace seemed to be just as excited to see Jordan.

Pittsburgh jumped out to a good start scoring the first three goals of the game. I jumped up and cheered with the rest of the crowd when Sidney scored the third goal. Then the Flyers came flying back scoring the next four goals. The crowd fell silent and stayed that way into the third period. It looked like the Flyers were going to win until Sidney scored his second goal to tie the game with less than three minutes left. The game went to a shootout and the Penguins won again. I clapped and yelled when Sidney was announced as the first star.

Grace and I found a security guard who showed us where to go with our passes when the crowd began to clear out. When we were downstairs we showed security down there our passes and they pointed to a room down a hallway behind them. I opened the door and walked in with Grace behind me. We were immediately met with stares from a group of girls already in the room.

Grace and I both froze just inside the door feeling very uncomfortable. We saw a few chairs separated a bit from the group of women and sat down. I could see food and drinks out on a table but decided against grabbing anything despite being both hungry and thirsty so I wouldn’t draw any more attention to myself.

We could hear the girls whispering and we both assumed it was about us and chose to just talk quietly among ourselves. I wasn’t exactly used to being in a situation like this. I didn’t exactly enjoy the feeling that I was being sized up by strangers.

“Hi, I’m Erin,” one of the girls said walking over to the two of us.

“I’m Tanner, and this is Grace,” I said introducing us.

“So you’re Sidney’s girlfriend,” another stated walking over. I hesitated before answering. I wasn’t exactly his girlfriend.

“Uh, we’re just dating, that’s all,” I replied. She smiled politely but looked like she didn’t believe me. Suddenly I felt like all of them were surrounding Grace and me.

“Don’t mind Brianne. Feel free to ignore her actually,” another girl joked. “I’m Jenny, by the way. You must be the girl Jordan’s been talking about,” she said turning to Grace.

“He’s been talking about me?” she asked, obviously surprised. They’d really only talked at the Halloween party.

“Oh yeah. He’s been all over Sidney to get your number for him,” another girl jumped in. “I’m Kelsy.” I saw Grace blush, and that never happened. Just then a guy in a suit walked into the room. “Hey, hun, this is Sidney’s girlfriend, Tanner and her friend Grace." He looked over at me and smiled.

“Hi, I’m Tyler,” he introduced himself.

“Hi. I’m not really his girlfriend,” I corrected. This really couldn’t be any more awkward.

“So how did you guys meet?” a fifth girl who introduced herself as Vero asked. I knew my face turned red as I thought about the incident and realized I was about to reveal it to complete strangers.

“I took my nephew to a game in Philly and he insisted on getting autographs after. While I was on the phone he disappeared and I found him walking off the bus pulling Sidney along with him,” I explained.

I chose to leave out the part where Andrew announced that I needed a boyfriend and proceeded to give Sidney my phone number. They all smiled and nodded. They chatted with us a bit longer until guys began coming in and I was relieved when the attention was diverted from us. It took a while, but Sidney finally came in followed by Jordan. I saw Grace’s smile grow when she saw him.

“Hey, sorry it took so long. The media was all over me tonight,” Sidney apologized walking over.

“Not a problem,” I told him glad to be getting out of the room.

“Jordan and I thought we could all grab something to eat,” he suggested.

I knew I was hungry but glanced over to Grace. She nodded and I agreed. We followed them out of the room. It was at that point that Sidney and Jordan parted ways leaving in different directions.

“Where is he going?” I asked Sidney.

“His car is parked out that way,” he replied. I watched other guys heading in the same direction as Jordan, but no one else walked in the direction Sidney did.

“Why are you parked in different places?” I questioned. He hesitated a moment before answering.

“I don’t know. It just happened that way I guess.”

For all I knew, he was telling the truth, as odd as it sounded, so I didn’t question him anymore. Grace and I got in the car and Sidney drove us to dinner. We beat Jordan there and he came in almost 20 minutes later. That also struck me as a little strange since we’d left at the same time.

Dinner went well and the conversation was entertaining. Jordan and Grace seemed to hit it off pretty well and Sidney and I both instinctually let them dominate most of the conversation. When dinner was over Jordan asked us if we’d want to go to Diesel. I declined because I had a class the next morning but Grace jumped at the chance to continue to spend time with Jordan.

“I’ll drive you home,” Sidney told me as we got up from the table.

“Oh, don’t worry about it. I’ll just grab a cab. Go out with your team,” I insisted. He gave me a look that told me he thought I was nuts.

“I’ll drive you home,” he repeated. I smiled and didn’t argue with him. Just like the last time he walked me up to the door. “What are you doing tomorrow night?”

“I have no plans yet,” I told him.

“You should come over and I can teach you about hockey,” he suggested.

“You better start the lesson plans now, because when it comes to sports, I’m a pretty slow learner,” I joked. He laughed.

“I’ll get working on that.” He leaned in and put his lips on mine, causing my heart to race. “I’ll call you tomorrow.” I watched him get into his car and drive away before I went inside.