I've felt like a kid planning my first date since Sloan said that she'd have dinner with me. I thought about it all the way home and decided on Italian. I called my favourite place and did what I never do; I asked for a special favour. Now I'm looking around the house to see if everything is in it's place. The cleaners were in while I was in New York. I debate kitchen versus dining room and decide on the dining room. I might as well go all out. With the main floor figured out, I head up to the bedroom to change the bed and put out clean towels.

When I've finished and the house is clean and ready then I jump in the shower and get myself ready. Now I'm just standing in my closet trying to figure out what to wear. She's going to be coming directly from work so I don't want to be too casual but a suit seems like too much. Ok, dress shirt and jeans will work. I can't believe how nervous I am. Before I can think more about it, I hear the gate buzzer so I head downstairs. It has to be the restaurant.

I buzz them in and wait at the door. Two of the staff from the restaurant walk up with their arms full. "Hi guys, come on in. We're going to set up in the dining room through there." I point them toward the dining room and follow them. They quickly set everything up. The linens go first and then the plates, cutlery and glasses. In less than ten minutes, the entire dining room is ready including flowers, which I forgot to think of so I'm glad that they thought of it, and candles. They are out of the house as quick as they came in. The food will be coming in about thirty minutes so I select the wine and let it breathe. I take a last look in the dining room and everything is set. At the last minute I decide to go all out and set up candles in the bedroom. I might as well go for it. I survey the bedroom and it's all set. That's when I hear the gate buzz and my phone goes off at the same time. I buzz the gate and look at my phone. I know a huge smile breaks out across my face when I see that it's Sloan and she's leaving the rink. The timing is perfect. I let the chef in the door and take him to the kitchen. He shows me what is in each container and how to serve everything. It's all in the oven and fridge and ready when we're ready. Alone again, I take a last look around and everything is perfect. Oh boy, there's the gate buzzer; Sloan's here!

I light the candles on the table and go to open the door. As I open the door, Sloan is coming up the walk. She has an overnight bag and her purse but no brief case. It looks like she wants a relaxing evening too. "Hi" she says and leans in to kiss me. I hold her there in a slow, sweet kiss. When I pull away, I reply "hi." After a few moments, Sloan arches and eyebrow and asks "may I come in?" I chuckle and move back for her. "Of course" I say as I take her coat. She wanders back to the kitchen while I hang up her coat. I notice that she's taken off her heals and left her bag with them. I head down the hall after her and find that she's staring at the containers on the counter then she turns to look at me. Ok, I'm caught. Now I am feeling self-doubt. Did I go overboard? We can't go out so I wanted to make it special here. I'm not going to serve her grilled cheese. Maybe she's not into this kind of thing. Or maybe I've gone too far and read too much into it when she agreed with me that this isn't just sex. What the hell is going on in her head right now? As I'm debating asking her, Sloan smiles at me and says "I guess you decided not to cook." With those six words I feel the weight lift. Ok, she's not pissed off or freaked out.

"We can't go out so I brought the restaurant to us. I know that I make a great omelette but how many can you eat?" She chuckles so I ask "hungry?" and she gives me a look that makes it clear that she's hungry but not for food. I debate taking her up on that look before dinner. The food will keep and, now that she's moved in front of me and her hands have moved up under my shirt I'm really sure the food will keep. My shirt pushes up as she runs her hands over my stomach and then to my chest. She leans her face within an inch of mine and literally purrs the word "yes" before biting my bottom lip. Fuck, his woman is so hot. It takes every bit of my willpower, and some I didn't know that I had, to pull back from her. "How about we have dinner first? We do have all night." She arches her brow and tilts her head. After a moment, she smiles and says "ok. We can wait if you want." I kiss her softly and say "it'll be worth it I, I promise."

I turn and pour the wine I left on the counter. I hand her a glass and then lead her to the dining room. When I turn to see her response to how I've set up the room. I'm stunned to see her stopped in the doorway taking in the table, linens, dishes and flowers. Her face has an odd look. "Sloan?" I say. She's still not looking at me. "Sloan?" I repeat. Now she looks at me but still doesn't say anything. Her face has become very pale. "Sloan, what's wrong?" This time she replies "Sid, what did you do?" I'm confused by her question. "I brought in dinner." She shakes her head and gestures to everything in the room. "Why?" Ok, now I'm getting pissed off. "What do you mean why?" She shakes her head again. "What do you mean, what do I mean? This is too much Sid; seriously too much." Why is it always one step forward, two steps back with this woman? "This is just dinner. I decided to make it a nice dinner but it's still. Just. dinner." She looks skeptically at me. Finally I've had enough. "Look, Sloan I know that we don't know what this is but you need to stop this!" She frowns and says "stop what?" I hate to do this now, when I have such a great night planned, but it's over time that we talked. "Stop pulling away. Stop trying to think this is just sex. We both know that's shit. Fuck, we've agreed that it's shit. All I've done is make dinner. Well, buy dinner actually. Oh yeah, and I changed the sheets on the bed and put out some candles. Deal with it!" I can't believe that I just yelled all of that at her. Did I go too far? Was it too much? Fuck, all I can do is wait for her to respond.

I'm reeling now. I was overwhelmed by how gorgeous Sid looked when I got here that I almost attacked him. When he led me to the dining room, I was stunned. I didn't think he picked up a pizza but this looks like one of the fanciest of restaurants I'd ever eaten at. He even had flowers on the table and candles. It just became too much. He's too much. Now, he's yelling at me and he is pissed off. I finally pull myself together. What kills me now is that he's right. I'm getting all bent out of shape over a man who is trying to do something nice for me. Why am I over reacting so badly?

I make a decision and take a step closer to Sid. I can feel his frustration coming at me and I want to run but I force myself to step closer still. I finally go with my instincts and take his face in my hands and press my body up against his. Slowly, I kiss his lips. I keep it light and soft. When I pull back I simply say "I'm sorry" and stare into his eyes. Finally, he sighs and presses his forehead against mine. "What am I going to do with you?" He says at me. It looks like I'm forgiven. "Hopefully you're going to feed me a great dinner and then take me upstairs to bed." We smile at each other and I know that all is forgiven. I'm left simply feeling foolish. He kisses me again and leads me to a chair. After I'm seated, he brushes my hair aside and kisses my neck. I shiver when he whispers in my ear "you're definitely in for a treat." As he leaves the room, I call after him "here or in the bedroom?" I hear him chuckle in response. While I wait for him, I sip at my wine and look at the table. It really is gorgeous. There are beautiful linens and the flowers are gorgeous. The fragrance of the flowers and the candles mix together in a lovely way. He must have done some fast talking, and opened his wallet wide, to get all of this organized in a couple of hours.

I look up as he comes in the room with two plates of salad. I'm surprised when he's frowning at them. "What's wrong Sid?" I ask him. He looks up at me frowning still. "I couldn't get it to look like they do in the restaurant." He is seriously the cutest thing. He's frowning at salad. "I'm sure it will be delicious and looks much better than you think." Still frowning, he puts a plate in front of me. Ok, so it isn't artfully arranged but it looks delicious. "It looks delicious and isn't that what counts." He sits down and smiles at me. "Ok" he says. "It's mixed greens, goats cheese, poached pears and roasted beets. Oh yeah, and roasted pecans too." Now he sounds like a waiter. That's the moment it hits me; he's nervous. Oh my fucking God, I behaved like a scared idiot earlier and the whole time he's been nervous. Ok, I need to take over. "Really? I love that combination together." I take a bite and it is delicious. "Ok Sid, as advertised. This is really, really good." He looks a little skeptical but sees that I'm telling the truth. He smiles like a proud schoolboy and starts eating his own. So very cute. "I'm surprised you had time to pull this together." He shrugs when I say that and replies "it didn't take that much." Yeah, really so very cute. Ok, time for me to step up in this, well, whatever it is. "You haven't talked much about yourself Sid. What was it like growing up in Nova Scotia?" He looks up at me quickly and surprised. Yeah, that's definitely guilt I feel having taken very little interest in Sid other than as a hockey player.

He gives me the usual shrug but says "it was great when I was young. I mean, when I started playing hockey with the leagues there was more travel involved; but, I remember seeing my family a lot. There were cousins and one of my grandmother's was always around too. The other one lived in PEI so we didn't see her as often." I smile when I see the look on his face when he talks about his family. You can see how important they are to him. "I hear that your sister plays hockey too." He smiles that huge, gorgeous smile. "Yeah, she's at Shattucks where I went to school for a year. She's a goalie like our dad was. I got to see her during the lockout and she is really good. I mean she's always been good but she has really become a great goalie. I can see her on team Canada someday." The pride in his voice and clearly on his face makes me smile too. Sidney gets up to clear our plates and I get up with him. "No, you stay here. I couldn't cook it but I can serve it." As he takes my dish, he leans in and kisses my cheek. That little voice plays in my head saying starts saying "what are you doing Sloan?" but I ignore it quickly. Nothing is going to ruin this evening and certainly not me.

I hear something hit the floor in the kitchen. It sounds like a utensil so I know Sid didn't break anything. That sound is followed by "fuck" a few times. After a little while, Sid comes back out frowning at the plates again. "Seriously Sid, you're frowning at the plates again. All we need is delicious food. I went to this uber trendy, opened for only for a half second, restaurant in LA once. The food was gorgeous; I mean, take out your camera and instagram gorgeous; but, I stopped at In and Out Burger on my way home. The food was gorgeous but there wasn't much there. I was starving." He starts laughing, as I hoped he would, and puts the plate in front of me. Again, it looks delicious. There's roasted chicken, pasta and grilled vegetables. "Mmm, this is delicious too. Sid, you're going to make me fat with all of this food. I don't work it off on the ice like you do." I glance up in time to see Sid's eyes look over my body and can't help the shiver I feel in anticipation of when he's going to do more than look. He says "you can always use the gym again if you want to work it off." I raise an eyebrow at him and reply "not with you though. After the last time, I had trouble sitting down." He tilts his head and asks "was that the workout or the 'workout' that got you." I roll my eyes and reply "what's up with the cheese factor Crosby?" He laughs, maybe at me or maybe himself, and says "I've been told that it's endearing." Now I laugh and it's definitely at him. "Ok Sid, we'll go with endearing. Really, though, this is incredibly delicious. We'll definitely have to get take out again from there." I take a sip of wine and watch Sid's eyes get dark and intense. "What?" I ask him. I wipe at my lips with my napkin thinking I must have something on my face. He stares at me a moment longer and then says "that's first time you've ever mentioned us getting together again when it's not just for sex." Oh. Wow. Did I just do that? Hmm, I guess so. I try out one of Sid's shrugs and, before I can reach for my fork, Sid has grabbed my hand and leans into me for a deep kiss. I taste the wine on his lips and tongue and that unique Sid flavour. When he sits back down, I rub my lips together. Yep, even better than the food.

We finish eating while talking about the game in New York and some of the changes Dan's making with the power play again. It's comfortable conversation and we both know that we're avoiding the serious turn our dinner took a few minutes ago. We both seem to want to think about what it means before we talk about it. I know that Sid didn't get dessert, he doesn't eat it during the season and knows that I don't really either. For him it's part of his training, for me it's trying to keep it off my hips. I can easily go from curvy to hippy with a couple slices of cheesecake. I help him clear the plates now and clean up the kitchen too. I bend over to put the dish soap away as we're finishing up and I feel Sid's hands on my hips and his body pressed against me. I very slowly straighten up knowing that my ass is rubbing against the front of his pants as I do. His hands slide up to my waist. When I'm completely standing, Sid pulls me back completely flush to him. Nudging away my hair, his lips explore my neck slowly. He turns me so that I'm facing him and I take his lips with mine in big, hungry bites. Sid pulls back suddenly and I guess I look as confused as I feel. He leans in and kisses me deeply but slowly. When I try to take it faster, Sid pulls back again and whispers "slow down" against my lips. Now I'm really confused. What's going on here?