Chapter 42

So it's been awhile... hope you all don't hate me!


Emma's POV:

"Could you stop being an ass for a whole 10 seconds?"

"Not when you're just being stubborn." Sid replied laughing at me on the other line. I twisted my old-fashioned telephone cord around my middle finger, shooting him the bird even though he was on the other side of the U.S in L.A.

We were currently fighting about our future living situation even though I had already agreed that we should both take the step and make our relationship more serious. Yes, previously we had been on the rocks a little bit due to his inability to commit and spend just as much time on our relationship as me, but I had also realized that no matter how stupid he was, he was also my rock. The person who kept me sane while he drove me insane. And there was no one else who drove me crazy the way that he did.

It had been two weeks since I told him about my decision and we were still in the process of figuring out where to move and where to put our stuff. It probably didn't take this long for other couples to move in together and it really wouldn't be such a big deal except for the fact that I wanted him to move in with me.

As soon as I decided that I would move in with him, I realized how stupid it was for me to be moving into a house that I was pretty sure he didn't even like. He had been living there for more than a year and he still hadn't painted a single wall in that house. I knew Sidney. Living in such a blank space must be driving him crazy and it was either pure laziness or the fact that he didn't really view his house as a home and that kept him from picking out colors and doing something about it. I was leaning toward the latter. Case in point, we hardly ever spent time at his house. He was always at my house. Always sleeping here. Usually leaving his hockey gear in my laundry room. It just made sense for him to live here with me. In my house.

Last night I had proposed the idea to him fully expecting that he would agree. Instead we had argued all night because suddenly he wanted to keep the house that I knew for a fact he didn't even like. After that, we both blew off steam by going at it until we both decided that neither of us was going to win the argument and that we really needed to sleep. Now he was on a 6 day road-trip to  L.A, Vancouver and Calvary and we had switched to fighting over the phone instead with no possibility of make-up sex for the rest of the week.

"Why can't you just make my house a home?" he asked me sighing into the line and making the air crackle over the receiver. "I haven't painted it because it never felt right. It was temporary. You would make it un-temporary."

"I get that you want permanence but what about me? We already spend all of our time at my house and it is a home to me. My grandparents gave me that house, Sid. I know that you have a supportive family but my grandparents were the only real family that I had until they died. I don't think that I'm ready to sell it." My confession surprised me but I had also never had to think about selling the house before either. If it did happen in the future, it would be hard for me to accept.

He was quiet for a moment on the other side and I envisioned us movie panoramic style, both stretched out in bed but on other sides of the country. It would be romantic if it were any normal and uncomplicated couple unlike us. When was anything ever easy for us?

"Okay" he finally said on the other line.

"Excuse me?" I said, wondering if I heard him correctly.

"I said 'okay'" he repeated and this time I could hear him smiling. "I told you that I was in it for real this time with you. Now I'm going to prove it. I like your house and if that's where you want to live, then okay."

The determination in his voice gave me chills.

"So you'll move in with me? Here?" I was grinning too now.

"Yeah, I still think it would be nice to keep the house that I have but if it's that important to you, we'll stay at your house. At least until the future, when we need more space."

My eyebrows shot up at "when we need more space" part wondering what he meant by that. I decided to let it go just for the sake of avoiding another fight about something stupid.

"I can't believe you just let me win that fight" I grinned into the phone. "It means a lot to me that you'll move in with me. I love this house."
He laughed and the sound washed over me through my phone speaker. "Em, I know you do. I think I've seen you lovingly polish the fireplace enough times."
"You're such a sweet talker" I sighed making us both errupt into spontaneous laughter. I wished that he was next to me in bed so that I could feel the way the bed moved when he belly laughed with me.

"So we're really doing this?"

"We're really doing this. Just wait until I'm back. We can start by figuring out where to put my stuff."

Ugh, I had forgotten how much stuff he had for a surprisingly low maintenance guy. It was mostly hockey stuff but we still had to figure out where to put it.

"I'll probably have to clean out a few closets" I confessed, already going through my mental calendar and making time to do it.

"We can start to figure it out next weekend. I'm off on Saturday and Sunday with a home game on Monday night."

"You'll be around all weekend?" I was pleasantly surprised that I would have him all to myself for two whole days.

Spring was such a fleeting season in terms of hockey, so quick did it pass that it was almost like it never happened. Snow simply melts and the playoffs begin. I was learning that you had to take as many opportunities as possible to be with the man you loved when the other woman in your relationship was a game.

"Yeah, nothing big going on. We'll have time to argue over closet space." I smiled because I had secretly been thinking the same thing.



Two days later, I dumped old clothes that I no longer wore into a trash bag that I planned to drop off at the Salvation Army in the morning. The night before I had taken stock of my closet and planned to give Sidney at least half of it for his stuff.

As much as I wanted to surprise him by already having room for him in my closets and my house, it was a big pain to actually sort through years of my stuff and haul it all out to my little convertible. Glancing around at the 3 bags I already had filled, it looked like I was going to be making a lot of stops at the Salvation Army this week.

Along with this surprise, I was already trying to figure out where he could put the rest of his hockey stuff. Obviously he had a lot of momentos but they were still packed up in boxes at his current house since he had never bothered to put them out anywhere.
My house was old and certainly smaller than his but I did have a basement with barely anything in it. My current plan was to surprise him when he got home this weekend and gift him with the entire basement. Sid the Kid was about to get his very own man-cave where he could work out, grunt and stare at his achievements or whatever he was used to doing alone and with his friends.

The more I stared at the space, the more I could envision it. We could paint it, add a couch or two, a table and a TV. The back part of the basement could be used for some of his workout equipment but he mostly went to the arena in his spare time to use their facilities. Still, it would be perfect and it would also give us both our own space in my already feminine house.

He always joked that I lived in a dollhouse but part of me was worried it would actually get on his nerves to live somewhere where only I had had a say in the decorating process. With three bedrooms and essentially 3 floors of living space including the basement, I knew that we would have plenty of room to both feel comfortable. Plus we could always redecorate a room or two if it made things easier.

I smiled realizing how most of my old college friends would probably scold me for not sticking to my feminist ways and actually caring about what my boyfriend thinks of our home's decor but I didn't care anymore. Since dealing with Sidney, I had learned a lot about compromise and I finally felt that he was showing me that he had learned the same lessons. I got a fuzzy feeling in my body whenever I remembered his promises to me to try to be better and to pull his weight in our relationship. Whatever happened now, I believed him. And despite the fact that I was bursting to tell him that I loved him, I would wait until the timing was perfect.

For now I was just excited for him to come home so that we could start making decisions together rather than me just guessing what we should do in his absence. 6 day road-trips sucked.