Chapter 34

I wasn’t at all prepared for what I woke up to the morning after the parade and party. Sidney had to go to the rink for a meeting and had dropped me off at my house. After some more sleep I got up and sat down on the couch with a bowl of cereal and flipped on the TV. I nearly dropped my bowl when Kelly ran into the house and shoved a newspaper into my face.

“What the hell?” I asked taking the newspaper from her and putting the bowl on the table next to me.

“Just read it,” she demanded. I looked down at the sports page in front of me and saw a picture of Sidney and I walking out of the rink. My eyes widened as I read through the article.

“Oh, shit,” I grumbled as I did.

“Sidney Crosby performs well in the playoffs, becomes the youngest captain to win the Cup, and gets all the girls,” it said. My face grew red in anger at some of the things I read. It called him a womanizer. I crumpled the newspaper up into a ball and threw it in the corner with a yell.

“What the hell am I going to do? This is all my fault!” I yelled to Kelly.

“The accusations and the article are your fault because you got cancer and lost your hair?” she scoffed. I shrugged, but it didn’t make me feel any better.

I got up and grabbed the newspaper. I straightened it out and read through the article again. Yep, there was no way around it, this article was my fault. It talked about Sidney being spotted with two different brunettes, a blonde, and a redhead. It actually documented how he seemed to be rotating through them while out on the town, at games, and during the Cup celebrations. Apparently we hadn’t been as discreet as we thought. I rolled my eyes and dropped the newspaper to the floor. I should have stuck to one goddamn wig.

“He’s going to be pissed,” I said through tears as Kelly sat down next to me and put an arm around my shoulders.










“It’s fucking ridiculous is what it is!” Sidney yelled to Pat, his agent. “Why wouldn’t they just talk to me first before printing this shit?!” Pat let out a sigh before responding.

“Because it’s a better story this way,” he explained. Sidney picked up a puck and threw it across the locker room. He’d come to the rink for a team meeting and had been handed the newspaper upon entrance.

“It’s still fucking ridiculous! It’s one fucking girl, Pat, not four!” He was seeing red he was so angry. Some of the guys were sitting around the locker room watching the exchange. They’d already tried to calm him down, but he wasn’t having any of that.

“You need to calm down. We’ll refute this to the reporters of course. We’ll figure something out. We just need to calm down and think this through.” Sidney continued to pace around the locker room. Mario walked in.

“Have you talked to Tanner about it?” he asked putting a hand on Sidney’s shoulder. Sidney froze in his tracks. Shit.

“No. I need to. Excuse me.” He grabbed his cell phone and walked into the family room for a little privacy.

“I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have worn all the wigs,” Tanner said when she picked up the phone. Jesus, she thought this was her fault?

“I wasn’t sure you knew. I guess you do,” he said into the receiver.

“I am so sorry, Sid. I really didn’t mean for this to happen.” She sounded like she was crying. He fell down into a chair and sighed.

“It’s not your fault, Babe. We’ll figure this out, okay?” She sniffed in response. “Pat is here. Maybe he, Mario, my parents and I should come over and talk about this. I don’t want to say anything unless I have your okay.” She sniffed again.

“Okay. I’ll be here.” He hung up the phone and walked back into the locker room. He told Pat and Mario what was going on. They piled into their cars and followed Sidney to Tanner’s.
The four of them sat around the living room and Sidney’s parents joined them soon after.

Tanner didn’t say much, instead choosing to let everyone else do the talking. Many suggestions were thrown out but none of them seemed right. Sidney finally shut everyone up by telling them he knew what they were going to do.

The minute the words were out of his mouth everyone protested the idea. Everyone except Tanner. She sat cross-legged on the couch with a look he couldn’t quite read on her face. He listened to everyone tell him why it wasn’t a good idea. When they were done he looked over at Tanner again.

“What do you think?” he asked her. She looked at him and took a breath.

“If that’s what you think is best,” she choked out. He looked at her sympathetically. She was scared and he didn’t blame her.

“Sidney, please think about this,” his father said again.

“It’s decided. We tell them about Tanner and I.”

His eyes met hers. He smiled at her, hoping to reassure her. She jumped up from her spot on the couch and ran into the bathroom. A minute later he heard her getting sick. He sighed and put his head in his hands. This was not how he’d hoped things would be made public.