Caroline sat in her car staring at her image in the rearview mirror. She was parked about 100 yards from the address S had given her. It was 8:45 and completely dark out. She wished she had more forethought in planning this "meet up." It was so dark out. What if S was a psychopath and she was about to be cut up into thousands of pieces and stuffed in a freezer in the basement. Never mind that, what if he was just plain creepy? Everything seemed more intense in the nighttime. Scarier. The light of day would bring her comfort in her safety, but would doing it in the daytime make her even more self conscious? From what she could see the neighborhood was pretty nice. Manicured lawns, Mercedes and BMWs in the driveways.

Caroline was shaking from head to toe. A bottle of red wine sat snugly in her purse on the passenger's seat. She would definitely need some liquid courage. She contemplated opening up the bottle right there and then and taking a swig, but that would be kind of tacky. Would S want to have some drinks? Was he drinking now? Would he be drunk? Would he find her arousing? What is he couldnt...perform. Ugh, this night needed to be over; the endless questions in her head were making Caroline insane. She had been completely useless at work today.

The kids were well behaved but they could tell their teacher was on another planet. Especially when she put the class turtle Sidney in the class refrigerator instead of the bin on the floor where Sidney stayed when they were cleaning out the tank. The kids had roared with laughter when after searching for the turtle for nearly 20 minutes; he turned up when DeShawn opened the fridge to get the string cheese for snack time. It was funny, but also very embarrassing.

Caroline looked at her watch for the 100th time. It was 5 till 9. Fuck it, she was going in. It was now or never. She smoothed down her hair, adjusted her simple maroon dress. It was a casual dress but the most flattering thing she had in her closet. She had worn her grey tights and tan uggs. She had read once that guys didn't like uggs. But it was so damn cold already in Pittsburgh and she needed something warm if she had to make a mad dash. Caroline got out her blue Carolla and adjusted her blue wool coat. She tightened the stripe scarf and made sure the matching hat was covering her ears. She didn't know if the image she projected was childish, but she wasn't going to worry about it. She had much bigger things to worry about. She walked down the sidewalk, quickly and determined. She was just going to wing it. She turned onto the path to 432 Branson Road, where the house was illuminated but drapes kept her from being to see what was inside. She walked up to the door, shut her eyes, took a deep breath and knocked three times. After about what seemed like forever the door opened?

She was not ugly. That was Sid's first thought when he saw the bundled small girl in front of him. She was average height and looked quite colorful with all the winter accessories she was wearing. He

was wearing jeans, a faded grey t-shirt that read Oceanic and his black Reebok hat.

"Hi."

Caroline looked at the man front of her and nearly craned her head back to the numbers on the house to make sure she had the right place. There was no way on earth the man standing in front of her had gone on craigslist to get laid. Actually she would not have been able to move her head due to the fact that she was frozen in place. She was momentarily dazed by the thought that people who look like this use Craigslist for sex? He was tallish but more than that he was solid. Not in a body builder way but in a way that indicated in every part of his body was hard...no pun intended. He was wearing a hat but she noticed tufts of dark hair sticking out every which way. The brim of his cap was pulled over his eyes, which looked dark. He had a large nose and a sharp jaw, but more than anything she noticed his lips. They were huge. Reddish pink, like he spent all his days outside, which couldn't be true since his skin was pale with spots of pink scattered over the face and neck. She watched his lips move but she heard no sound. All she could see was a sharp Adams apple that punctured the center of his neck when he spoke. Now he was staring at her. It took a full two or three seconds for her to realize he had asked her a question.

"I'm sorry?" her voice was small.

"Did you have trouble finding the house?"

He was Canadian. She could hear the accent quite clearly. Did he just move here? Was that why he was on Craigslist? It seemed to her that no matter how long this guy had lived here, he could find some able willing ladies at any local bar. Maybe he didn't drink. She thought to the wine in her hand. Immediately she mentally brought herself back into the conversation at hand. Forget the damn wine. Say something!

"Um, no thank you. I found it just fine." she replied staring at a face that was strangely becoming familiar as the shock of his handsomeness began to fade. She couldn't even figure out how to determine what he thought of her and she felt so lost and out of sorts at the moment. His face seemed impassive, like he had no opinion of what was transpiring.

"Would you like to come in?" she was transfixed by his voice but somehow found the ability to move her legs and enter the home. He moved aside as she was through the doorway. The house was very modestly decorated. It had that male starkness to it. Very little hung on the walls. Very little furniture actually other than a large overstuffed couch, coffee table and a very large screen TV. Very bachelor pad-ish. He led her to the kitchen area that opened into the living room. She followed wordlessly and took in the surroundings, as she wondered what on earth was happening.

She was very quiet. Brown wide eyes that seemed to take everything in, Sid couldn't tell if she recognized him or not. She had stared at him blankly at the door. He saw the bottle of wine in her hand, so the logical next move seemed to bring her to the kitchen. The kitchen was a safe zone. He could figure out what was happening in the kitchen.

"Would you like me to pour you a glass? He asked. Caroline realized on the walk to the kitchen that she needed to get it together and figure out what was going on. Because of all the scenarios she had gone through in her head over the past 24 hours, this one had never come up. She decided she had to be direct. Figure out what this creep was up to. He didn't need her. Why did he say looks weren't important in his ad? Nothing made sense.

"Yes, please. Thank you." she answered. She thrust the bottle towards him and quickly let go, to avoid touching him. He looked at the bottle and unscrewed the easy cap.

Sid smiled, "You're very polite. I noticed that in your emails. can I take your coat?"

"No, tha..." she corrected herself, "no, I will hold onto it."

Sidney's brow furrowed. "Are you sure? It's warm in here."

"I don't know if I am staying." she replied coolly.

"What do you mean?" Sid was confused. He thought things were so clear in the email exchange. Sure she wasn't the dog that he had envisioned for his purposes, but she was cute and seemed like he could make her night and thus get his game back. But maybe he was wrong if she wanted to leave.

"What is this?" she demanded. She was still bundled up and had herself in a very defensive stance. "This was supposed to be not kinky. I don't know what you are thinking is going to happen, but I know for certain that there is something not right about this. I..." Her voice faltered and then got quiet "I indicated in my email that I am not very experienced. Which means I am not comfortable with anything other than the basic, um...procedures."

Sidney couldn't help but smile at her choice of words. He felt it necessary to put her at ease quickly. He had kind of expected her to a little more comfortable with this unorthodox method of "hooking up." especially considering she was trolling for sex on craigslist. "Please let me explain before you decide to leave to not. I swear this is not kinky and not shady whatsoever. I have no intention of making you do anything you don't want to do. I swear." he gave her best PR smile to reassure her, but she looked quizzically at him which caused her to forehead to crinkle in a way that Sidney found incredibly endearing.

After a few seconds her body relaxed a bit and she pulled the fuzzy striped hat off her head. A mountain of curls tumbled down and around her face. She slowly undid her scarf and unbuttoned her coat. When she had divested herself of her outdoor wear she took the glass of wine Sid had quickly poured for her and sat down at the small kitchen table. Sidney folded himself into the chair and took a deep breath. "I put that ad up on Craigslist because I am looking for a onetime thing. In the past, I had, um, difficulty, keeping an...encounter to one night. Usually the women I have been with tend to want to continue with things." he sounded extremely ineloquent he thought to himself but it seemed the easiest way to continue to remain anonymous for as long as possible,

"Because you're so good looking?" she asked bluntly. Then looked completely mortified she had said that. Sid was taken aback by her directness but nodded. "Something like that." he said.

Caroline was so embarrassed that this conversation was happening. She downed her glass of wine in two gulps and thrust the glass back in his direction. "May I have another?" she asked.

"Of course" he replied and got up to refill the glass.

"Are you going to drink any?" she asked. "You can, you know if you like."

"Ok, thanks, yeah maybe I will have a glass too. Take the edge off a little." he replied.

Sidney returned with the glasses in hand and took a small sip. The wine went down smoothly and warmed him up instantly. "This is good." he smiled again. Realizing she hadn't smiled once and looked like she still wanted to take off at one false move, Sidney decided it was time to come clean and see if what he was proposing was what she wanted to do, otherwise he was running out of time for Wednesday's game. He cringed inwardly at how single sighted he sounded.

"I think I should explain." he said.

Two minutes later Caroline stared at him in disbelief. "You're playing a hockey game and you need to have sex with someone to play better?"

Sidney had tried to be vague in his explanation, but things got lost in the translation. He searched his brain for a way to explain this better. As he did, her eyes shifted to a chair in the corner where he had dropped his stuff when he arrived. He looked where she was looking and saw the recognizable emblem on his bag and the even more recognizable 87 etched on the sides. Realization dawned on her face and she suddenly stood up so quickly the chair tipped back with a loud crash. She had a panic in her large eyes as information seemed to flood her mind a mile a minute.

"What's your name." her voice was high and unsteady.

"I thought we were trying to stay anon..." he tried to say, but she cut him off. "What's your name?" she said louder.

"Sidney." he said in a monotone voice.

"The turtle." she said dazed as her hand came up to her forehead as if she just realized something.

"Huh?" Sid felt as if he had no control of anything at this point. This was becoming way too complicated.

"The turtle." she said. "We have a turtle in our classroom named Sidney that one of my students named. He loves hockey, he wears a jersey at least once a week with that emblem and the number 87. Sidney, his favorite hockey player." she looked way to pale and felt like she was going to be sick. Then the panic came back.

"What is going on? Is this a joke?" she started looking around the house frantically. "Is this some sort of initiation prank or something because it isn't funny." her voice was very high and she looked like she was on the verge of tears. Sid felt like it was not a good moment to clarify that he was no...rookie.

"Is someone else here?" she asked he eyes filling up.

"No!" he said loudly. "No I swear it's not a joke. It has to do with my game. I have to do this to get back my game, you don't understand do you? Do you really not know about the hockey team in town?" Sid had gone from quickly trying to reassure her that this was not a joke to expressing disbelief and a little insult that this girl had no idea who he was to this city. He had won the Stanley cup for Christ sakes.

Caroline was torn. She wanted to leave so badly. This was becoming a disaster. But Sidney was looking at her so urgently for her to understand this wasn't what she seemed to think it was, that she decided to stay. She picked up her chair and sat back down. She heard Sid sigh in relief as she stared at her wine glass for a moment before she downed the rest of the glass.

"Ok, let me get this straight. You play hockey for the city team –"

"The NHL" he growled, frustrated that she was trivializing who he was, what he did.

"Ok, the NHL, I assume that's like the NBA of hockey?"

Sid frowned but nodded. Geez, turns out he didn't need to worry about his ego after all.

"And you're a good player. But you're not playing well and so you went looking for a slump buster."

Sid looked surprised. He had tried to be delicate in his explanation, hoping not to insult her. But it seemed fruitless as she seemed to know more about slump busters than he did. Caroline saw the surprise and clarified, "I have brothers who are really into baseball, I've heard the term before."

"I'm the ugly girl you sleep with so you can get the ball in the net."

"It's a puck." he corrected. "And you're not ugly. You were supposed to be but you're not. That's why I went online and said looks not important. I didn't have any expectations of looks."

She scoffed. "Well, that makes me feel better."

At this point Sid was getting very short tempered. "Listen, I'm looking for a one night stand. No strings attached. You seemed to be looking for the same thing. You're a pretty girl, I'm uh..."

"You." she supplied.

"Right. Me. So if this is going to happen, we need to make this happen. Just normal straightforward sex, however you would like, and then we never need to see each other again." A strange feeling developed deep inside when he said that last part, but he ignored it.

She looked at him for a moment, then down at her hands. Contemplating. Then bit her lip, looked up at him and nodded.

"Ok."