Chapter 5

Emma's POV:

Following a week of still feeling groggy and sick, I was finally feeling good not only physically, but also about the Children's Partnership Project. All of the players had committed legally by contract thank you, Eliza! and I was even in the talks for promotional and financial support with some companies willing to sponsor in part with the Penguins. Everything was miraculously falling in place and I was so happy, I almost didn't know what to do with myself. Almost.

"Do you like these shoes?" I asked holding out a pair of leopard pumps for Eliza to see. It had become our custom to lunch but actually go shoe shopping during our lunch breaks. It happened at least once a week now and even though our credit cards cringed with every swipe, it was practically a tradition now.

"Cute!" she chirped holding up a strappy pair of red heels for me to see. "Those are sex shoes" she joked pointing at the leopard ones I was convinced I had to have.

"God, why did you have to say that?" I said putting the shoes down. Embarrassing much?

"Because it's true! They're an animal print and they look hot on you with your red hair. Face it, they're come hither, sex shoes." I looked down at them thinking about what she said. Maybe I could still get them and think of them as my new 'confidence' shoes instead.

"Well whatever. I'm buying them" I announced marching over to the cash register. Eliza joined me shortly to bring over the red shoes to be boxed up again. "Are we still on for Friday?" I asked referring to the girl's night out we had planned for this week.

"Yeah, the guys have a game so I figured that we could go out and maybe meet up with them at Diesel afterwards. We'll have designated drivers." she winked sarcastically. If the Pens won that night, we would be the designated drivers- it happened all of the time when they were celebrating. As I became closer with the team, I found myself not minding that much simply because the boys were hilarious when under the influence. Ironically enough, Sidney was always a designated driver too even though he was certainly old enough to drink.

I had to stop myself from thinking about him again like I had been for the past week. He had this way of sneaking up on me when I least expected him and invading my thoughts which was becoming increasingly annoying. My avoidance plan was not going well either because he was utterly insistent about catching me while we were both at the Mellon and checking in on the Children's Partnership Program. I had seen him three times since he brought me soup last week and thankfully, the rest of the time he was away playing hockey. I couldn't handle much more of his sneaking up on me and our awkward, strained conversations.


"So how's the program planning going so far?" Eliza asked pulling me into J.Crew.

"Good, I'm pretty sure that I'll be able to set up some sort of charity event by the end of the season at least to raise some money for the program. I'm thinking that we'll be able to have official events by the start of next season" I said excitedly.

"Is Sid still stalking you?" This was her new favorite subject and she and Vero found it hilarious the amount of attention he had been paying me lately.

"He's not stalking me" I said rolling my eyes. Her grin widened and I wondered how bad of an influence Max was on her. She used to be so sweet.

"He's simply taken an annoying interest in the program even though I've made it very clear that I don't need him or want him involved." That part was true, no matter how cold or indifferent I was to that boy, he kept coming back to me with ideas or offers to help.

She made a "hmm" noise and kept her mouth shut. Last time she had tried to give me her opinion about this earlier in the week, I had taken her blackberry hostage and now she was a little bit more careful about what she said.

"Don't give me that, okay? I know you think something's happening there but I know Sidney. He's only doing this because he has a conscience and doesn't like anyone to be angry at him. I yelled at him and now he thinks he has to make it up to me. In time he'll understand that he doesn't and he'll continue to ignore me like he always did." I tried not to sound sad but I almost couldn't help it. I didn't want Eliza to feel bad for me when there was no reason to. Out of this whole experience I had at least gained some sense and knew better than to continue waiting for Sidney to come around. He wasn't going to and maybe eventually we would be friends, but until then, I had to get over him.

The most important part was that I wasn't giving up on myself. I had seen all sorts of ridiculous couples in my lifetime and was a firm believer that there is someone out there for everyone. I just have to believe that I will find that person eventually.

"You look serious all of the sudden" Eliza commented examining a cashmir sweater.

"Oh? I'm fine" I said smiling and actually believing it for once. "I just think maybe I should get back, I need to chase down some more people before the day is over for the kid's hockey camp coming up." Unfortunately that did mean finding Sidney and giving him the dates and times for the camp that he always helped out at. Luckily I had to find other players too and talking to them would make the experience more fun.


It was always easier to do this in person and I called Jordan ahead of time to see where he and the guys were. I preferred to talk to the players themselves instead of going through agents and assistants- all of them were pretty bitchy to the peon workers like myself.


"Oh, you won't find them today. Remember they have a two game roadtrip before the home game this Friday. You're better off catching them all on Friday afternoon when they'll all be in one place" Eliza commented before we parted ways. Well that's one less thing to do today. I decided to head back to the office and work on budgeting plans that I had to finalize for different community projects I was working on with other directors.


For the next two days, I worked my ass off to ensure that I was up to speed on events planning for the summer and upcoming season. The boys were going to be in the playoffs this year so most charitable events had ended already due to the busy playing schedule. Usually this meant a lot of down time and planning for the next season but on top of all of this, I was starting up my Children's program or CPP as I was now calling it. I liked being busy though and almost forgot that it was Friday until Vero reminded me with a text that we were going out that night and gave me the designated meeting spot.

Houlihans 7pm. Don't be late!


I'll be there. I shot her a quick text back smiling when I remembered that I had new shoes to wear.

"What are you smiling about?" Nathalie startled me stepping into my office. I held a hand over my rapidly beating heart and took a deep breath. I hated being snuck up on and startled easily.

"Sorry I scared you hun" she said laughing and shutting the door behind her. "It was open so I just assumed I could step in."

"No, no, it's okay" I said smiling. "What are you doing here this early? The game isn't for another couple of hours."

"Oh well I came in to drop off stuff Mario left at home about his golf tournament. The kids are coming to the game tonight so I was wondering if you and the girls would be sitting with us?"

It still made my heart swell everytime they included me in their family functions. They really were the most generous people that I knew however private they tried to be.

"Actually, we're not coming to the game tonight. We decided to go out instead but thanks for the invite. I haven't seen the kids in awhile so tell them that I said hi." I adored the Lemieux children and it was almost as if I was related to them. I had even changed some of their diapers back when I would babysit for them in high school and in college.

"Oooh. Girls night out, huh?" She said grinning at me. "Well, we'll miss you girls in the box tonight. Did you eat all of the soup I sent over for you?" She had a twinkle in her eye that was hard to miss and I knew that it wasn't entirely for convenience sake that she sent Sidney over with soup to me. I wasn't going to oblige her by mentioning the bearer of the soup.

"Yes, and it was delicious, thanks."

"So it was just the soup that was good?" That smug look on her face was still going strong.

"Aunt Nat, wipe that look off of your face. Only the soup warmed my soul that day. Nothing and
no one else." It was obvious and embarrassing what she was implying and I hated that my crush on him had been pretty obvious before. Well no more.

"Well he's fast on the ice and pretty slow when it comes to everything else." Even though there were a hundred nasty things I could follow that statement with, I chose to be diplomatic and keep my mouth shut. I loved Nathalie probably more than my own mother but I really didn't want anyone interfering in my non-existent relationship with him. Plus, it just proved even more that he only brought the soup over because he was asked. And Sidney Crosby always did the nice, right thing.

Since it was already 5pm, I decided to head down and talk to the players like I had planned earlier.

"You can join me if you want to. Hassle the guys a bit if you feel like it" I invited Aunt Nat along but she declined saying that she was going to go home and get the kids together before driving back over here for the game.

"Make sure you come over to dinner soon" she said giving me a kiss on the cheek goodbye. Seriously, why can't I just be their daughter?

I watched her go and gathered up all of the papers I needed to hand out to the boys. I wished all of them had fax machines or something just so I could send them the information instead of lugging it around to them all of the time. Surprisingly the training room was pretty empty when I popped my head in to see if the usual crowd would be there getting wrapped up or stretched. Unsurprisingly, Sidney was there stretching in spandex along with Hal Gill and Sergei Gonchar. I said a general hello to them and escaped not wanting to be anywhere near Sidney unless he was dressed. Seeing his butt stretch every which way like that was not good for my new mental state.

One of the trainers recognized me and sent me out to the ice where most of the guys were messing around before they actually had to get ready.
"Em!" Max was the first to spot me out of the crowd. "What brings you here pretty lady?" Oh Max, ever the flirt.
"Actually, I'm here just to drop off information for you guys about hockey camps for kids in the summer" I said holding up the paperwork in my arms.
"Emma! Come out on the ice with us!" Jordan called over from where he was shooting on the empty net.
"Hah, yeah right. Nice try though!" I called back. It was well-known that I couldn't skate well and I had turned down countless offers of skating in the past. I highly suspected that I would spend most of my time on my butt while they skated circles around me teasingly.
"How about I leave the info at your stalls?" I was entertained by their on-ice antics for another minute before turning to head back into the locker room. I waved goodbye to them again before turning and colliding headlong into something hard.

"Ow" I held my now pulsing head and blinked up into Sidney's face who was similarly holding his chin in pain.
"Sorry, you turned so fast I didn't have a chance to let you know I was behind you." He said dropping his hand from his chin.
"God, did you have to stand right there?" I snapped unable to check myself. My forehead hit his brick of a chin and it hurt.
"I said that I was sorry." His tone had a little bit of a bite in it and he didn't look apologetic anymore.
"Fine" I said stepping around him and continuing into the locker room to pass out packets at each stall. Somehow I wasn't surprised when he followed me. This motivated me to speed up just so I could get out of there.

"You know, I never knew that you were this rude of a person" he commented sitting down at his stall and fidgeting with his stick. That got my attention.

"I'm rude?" I said turning to face him. Okay, so maybe I had been pretty mean with him lately, but seriously, why didn't he just take the hint and avoid me at all costs too?
"Yeah, every time I try to be nice to you, you practically run away from me." His face was devoid of emotion as he said this making it hard for me to read him. This was actually the expression I was used to receiving from him but it still frustrated me.

I decided to play dumb instead. "Sidney, that's ridiculous. I think you're thinking about this a little too much."

"Don't play dumb with me.You freak out every time I even approach you." He was standing now and trying to intimidate me with his height advantage over me. Asshole.

"That's ridiculous" I said stepping around him and placing his packet on a shelf in his stall.

"You're doing it now!" he pointed out gesturing to the space I had now put between us. He stepped closer again and I resisted the urge to hit him while I stood my ground.

"I've apologized over and over again for being a jerk about your program thing-"

"It is not a thing!" I interrupted annoyed by his choice of words.

"And you still won't forgive me or let me help out. So seriously, what's the deal? Would you stop moving everywhere?" He snapped reaching out and holding me in place by the arms. While his hold was light, him grabbing me was the final straw. He kept pushing and pushing me and my temper got the best of me.

"Because damn it, I don't like you!" I yelled watching his face darken. "Are you happy that I said it now?" I felt like a jerk but he could make me so angry.

"Uh, guys? What's going on?" Over Sidney's shoulder I saw Kris standing awkwardly in the doorway watching us both glare at each other. Sidney let go of me and stepped back putting some breathing room between us and I shuffled past him.

"Everything's fine. I left information for you at your stall Kris. Good luck tonight." After that I walked out not even looking back at Sidney. He could go straight to hell as far as I was concerned.

Sid's POV:

I watched her walk away for the umpteenth time that week and felt like I wanted, no needed, to punch something.

"How'd you piss her off?" Kris commented. "I've never seen her look so angry before."

"Yeah, well I don't know." I didn't feel like talking to anyone, especially since we had a game tonight. It didn't help that my stall still smelled like her perfume either.

"She's a cool girl, you should be nicer to her" Kris said shrugging and leaving me alone in the locker room. How was any of this my fault? She was the one with a stick up her ass about something even though I had apologized and tried to be nice to her. Despite me obviously being nice to her, everyone around me still felt the need to remind me of how cool of a person she was and how I should be nicer to her. I was nice! She was the one who could no longer even bear to be around me.

This was why I didn't have girlfriends. Women could make you feel guilty, bite your head off and then mess with your game. I always messed things up anyway so it was best not to even get involved until later on when I had more time. It kept annoying me though that she thought of me as scum. I didn't understand it and thought that maybe persistence, like in hockey, would pay off. Instead I got verbally attacked by her.

I tried to put it out of my mind but somehow she kept popping back up. I couldn't shake the image of her glaring at me out of my head, even throughout warm-ups before the game.

Well, I got it now. I wasn't going to try to help her out or be nice anymore. If she disliked me so much, I would take the hint and stay away from her. At least then my chin wouldn't hurt from her damned hard head and I could get my concentration back.