Chapter 8

Sigh. I had time to write this a little last night and this afternoon. So far classes and my work schedule are crazy for the first two weeks until training for my new job is over with. Thus, writing will be a little sporadic and that makes me sad because this relaxes me and I need to do it more often. Anyway, that's my little rant for the day. Hope you guys like the chapter, it was amusing to think of and write.

Emma's POV:

For the next two weeks, miraculously I hardly saw Sidney at all. It seemed that now that we were finally okay with each other again, we both split off in different directions. Now, things were sort of back to how they used to be- largely Sidney and I never seeing each other except for when I watched the Pens games, but that didn't count because I was watching him. The Pens were advancing into the playoffs now and both of our busy schedules prevented me from even to running into him or any of the other guys.

Mostly I had been too distracted with the CPP to care that much. That combined with helping Vero start to plan her wedding kept me more than busy and didn't leave me with much time to think about anything else.

"So you're sure that you can make it this Friday night?" Vero had called to ask me this question 3 times already and now she was just bordering on being neurotic about this.

"Vero, I already said that I'd be there. 6pm, right?" She wanted my opinion on bridesmaids dresses and colors and Friday night was the only night that worked for both of us this weekend.

"Yep, just wanted to make sure that you remembered!" she chirped excitedly. Her excitement was the only thing keeping me going at this point just because she was so happy and I didn't want to ruin that happiness by snapping at her for calling me multiple times to remind me of the same appointment.

By Friday afternoon, this was the new mantra playing over and over again in my head. She's happy, don't spoil it with your crappy mood. The bells above the door of the dress shop jingled merrily as I entered spotting Vero rummaging around racks of dress samples.

"Hey! You're here!" she said rushing over to give me a hug. "I've been waiting for you because we need a model."

We? What did she mean by 'we'? Suddenly, I spotted Sidney sitting in the chairs by the changing room and mirror looking terribly out of place in his jeans and typical Reebok sweatshirt and hat. Of course.

"Uh, hi" I said waving awkwardly to him.

"Would you mind trying these on?" Vero asked practically shoving me into the dressing room with a pile of different dresses. Great, now not only was I Vero's personal bridesmaid doll, but I now had to humiliate myself in front of Sidney while doing it. I changed quickly into the first dress and maneuvered the zipper up, grateful that it was a relatively low back and was easy to zipper by myself.

"Okay, this is the first one" I said stepping out of the dressing room and out onto the podium so that she could see the dress all around. As much as I dreaded seeing myself in it, I decided that I didn't look half bad. After years of experience going to stuffy galas with my parents, I had grown to hate formal wear and had always felt ridiculously uncomfortable wearing it. I simply wasn't made to look elegant but this dress almost made me forget that.

It was floor length with a little train in the back and a sweetheart neckline and simple back. It cinched in tightly at the waist while the material bunched and flowed out gracefully beneath it. It almost made me look like I had a butt which made me very happy indeed.

"So what do you think?" I asked Vero feeling nervous about this in front of Sidney. Just because I thought that I looked good, didn't mean that it was flattering to other people. Purposefully, I avoided his gaze and concentrated on Vero.

"This one looks really, really good. I think that a lot of the other girls will like the design of it too. It's definitely an option." She said smiling and adjusting the dress a little bit. "What do you think Sidney? You're our male perspective on this."

That sort of explained why he was here. I thought that he hated wedding stuff and I wondered what Vero had to do/say in order to get him here on a Friday night during one odd night off in the first round of the playoffs.

"It looks really good" he said to Vero. He wasn't looking at me and I couldn't read his expression at all. He sounded like he would say that even if I was wearing a burlap sack- meaning, he wasn't really concentrating on this at all. He's probably thinking about hockey even as we speak.

"I agree, it makes your boobs look so awesome!" Vero said adjusting the neckline even more to push my boobs up. I was starting to feel like I wouldn't be able to breathe in this dress, and not just because of how embarrassed I was in that moment.

The next dress was ridiculously poofy and Vero took pity on me and ordered me to change right away.

"Okay, so dress number 507 is officially on" I said coming out of the dressing room. "Where did she go?" I asked Sidney noticing that Vero had gone missing in the 60 seconds it had taken me to change and put on another dress. I needed her to come back and help me zip this specific dress up. The zipper in the back was in a little bit of an awkward place on my back that my arms couldn't twist and reach.

"She's looking at more color options" Sidney said still not really looking me in the eye. I really needed the dress zipped up so that I could come out and not stand half in and half out of the dressing room awkwardly.

"Uh, would you mind?" I said gesturing to the dress. I didn't see another option at this point and was starting to get cold. He looked at me confused for a second before understanding my meaning.

He motioned for me to turn around and I instantly felt the warmth of his hand as he pulled the zipper up and into place. I ignored the fact that his fingers had accidentally brushed against my skin and stepped forward onto the podium so that I could see the dress in action.

"I look like a cupcake" I said thinking out loud. This particular dress bunched out from the waist and had taffeta. Lots and lots of taffeta.

"Oh, I don't know. I think one of the dresses from before was a lot worse. You looked like a puff pastry."

Despite the apparent insult within that statement, I laughed noting that he smiled also. "I can't believe that you've actually been paying attention all of this time. I thought that maybe you were sleeping with your eyes open."

"No. But believe me, it's been tempting." As he said this, I noticed that he did look tired. More exhausted than was usual for him.

"How did she get you to come then?" I asked finally speaking what I had been wondering about all night.

"Well, she said she needed a guy's opinion on this and bugged me about it all week because I'm Marc's best man. She sounded so excited about all of this that I felt bad saying no. Not to mention her being upset about anything throws Flower's game off. I can't have that right now."

Ah of course. Eventually everything always comes back to hockey for Sidney. But still, in a twisted, semi-selfish sort of way, it was nice of him to be here.

"Okay guys, I think I found a good color. Em, what do you think of this one?" Vero held the sage green up to my face looking beyond excited at this point.

"I think it will look nice with your hair" Sidney said surprising all of us by willingly giving his opinion. Also, was that a compliment in there?

"Aw yeah. I think that this kind of green looks nice on anyone anyway. Oh Em, you would look gorgeous in that first dress you tried on in this color. I think that might be the one that I end up going with."

She made me try on two other dresses and finally the first one all over again before finally letting me change back into the clothes that I had worn to the shop.

"So am I done being your Barbie doll?" I asked emerging in my plain dress pants and oxford blouse.

"Vero ran off again" Sidney stated looking uncomfortable in the small waiting chairs they had circling the dressing area. He was way too big for the petite, boutique chairs.

"But I thought that we were done" I whined taking a seat with him. I chose not to sit next to him knowing that the tiny chairs would put us entirely too close together. If he even noticed, he didn't say anything about it and we continued to sit in silence waiting for Vero to surface again.

Finally I couldn't take the silence anymore and spoke up. "You guys played well the other night."

He looked up at me quickly startled that that I had even said anything. "Uh, did you watch? We lost that game." He sounded disappointed and I knew that most of that disappointment was with himself. Even if he had been ignoring me for all of these years, that didn't mean that I hadn't been paying attention to him. Sometimes I felt like I understood him better than myself.

"Sidney, you know that the losses aren't always your fault." I turned towards him and watched him stare back at me with his eyes looking more golden than ever.

"Are you saying that the losses are my fault occasionally?" he asked, a ghost of a smile appearing on his lips. My heart fluttered at the sight of his rare smile rare around me at least and I had to will it to calm down.

"Well you are the captain" I stated simply smiling back at him.

Vero ruined the moment by appearing again talking excitedly. "Okay guys, I set up appointments for the girls to come and try on the dresses. Are you both ready to go?"

I said goodbye to her in the parking lot and she thanked me again for being her dummy. Suddenly, I remembered that I still had Nathalie's soup container from when I was sick sitting in my car. I hadn't had time to go over there lately and drop it off.

"Oh Sidney, would you do me a favor? Can you give this back to Nathalie for me? It's been driving around with me all week."

"Why don't you give it to her yourself? She's making a big dinner tonight, you could just come over."

What? Was he seriously inviting me over to the Lemieuxs for dinner? This really wasn't a big deal considering I had been there a million times before for dinner but he had always sat as far away from me as possible and we hardly spoke. Mostly I just talked to the rest of the family while him and Mario talked strategy or something.

"I should probably call. I don't want to just drop in or anything."

He shrugged again and part of me hated for him for always looking so nonchalant and never showing what he was thinking. I could never do that because my emotions were always written right on my face. "It'll be fine, she never minds more mouths to feed."

"Um, okay then. I'll just follow you I guess." He nodded at me and walked over to his car waiting until I was in mine to follow him.

The whole way over, I kept waiting to wake up because surely I was dreaming. There's no way that in the real world, Sidney Crosby would actually invite me over to the Lemieuxs to have dinner with them.