*Its always the in between chapters, when building up to something, that are the hardest to write! I hope this will all make sense soon! Please bare with!
Chapter 29
February 2009
"It's happening again…" Shero shook his head and looked over at Mario, who nodded affirmative. They were watching the team practice. Nobody looked into it. Nobody looked like they had the passion to win… not even Sidney. There were rumours about some dissention within the dressing room. Therrien had a certain style of coaching and for as much as the guys bought into it at the beginning, it was mostly because Sid bought into it. It was common knowledge that Sid and Therrien had gotten into a number of verbal wars in the past couple months about the style their team needed to play and as soon as Sid stopped buying into Therrien's system, the team followed suit.
"So what do you want to do? How do we fix it? Fix Sid or fix the coach?" Shero asked.
"I think we need to address both…" Mario lamented. He hated having to fire coaches, but he hated watching his team loose. "If the guys aren't responding to Michel anymore, there needs to be a change. Sid is straining to keep the guys together, but that's not his job. His job is to play."
"It seems like Sid's lost his energy, his passion," Shero put words to his internal fears.
"We just need to make him happy again," Mario agreed. "You worry about the coaching situation and I'll take care of Sid. I know something that has always worked in the past…"
"Oh?" Ray raised an eyebrow.
"Does your office have any job openings? I might have you make a call…"
-.-
Avery walked across the frozen parking lot, flinging her purse up over her shoulder and digging to find her keys. She turned the corner, down the aisle where her car was parked and noticed a familiar figure, leaning against the trunk of her new Mercedes. "Consider it a signing bonus," Mario had said when he gave her the keys to the luxury sedan.
Avery debated hitting the panic button on her remote, just to scare him but instead hit the unlock button to get his attention as she walked closer. "Hey stranger," she offered as he stepped up beside him.
"So you weren't even going to tell me you were back?" Sid asked. "Not a text or a phone call or anything?"
Avery just shook her head. "Nope." Was all she could say and it was the truth.
"After everything we've been through –"
"That's exactly why I wasn't going to say anything!" Avery cut him off. "They think you need me here to win…"
"Maybe I do…"
"No, you don't. I am the last thing you need. You said so yourself," Avery reminded him.
"You know I was just mad at myself when I said that…" Sid explained.
"Well regardless… you said it," Avery shifted uncomfortably in her shoes.
"Right. I know. Believe me, I know…" Sid lowered his gaze to his feet. He had kicked himself for months for what he had said to her. But after seeing her in Sweden he thought that they had moved past it. "So… how's Marco?"
Avery looked up at him with a guilty look and just shrugged. "It wasn't really working…"
Sid just nodded. A little part of him wanted to congratulate himself for predicting the end of her relationship successfully but decided to save that was later. "Sorry to hear that…"
Avery let out a grunt of disbelief. She knew that he didn't mean it but that was the last thing she wanted to get into right now. "How did you find out I was here?"
"I over heard Nathalie on the phone and then snooped around a bit today. I watched them put your name plate up beside Shero's office and almost shit myself," Sid smiled.
"I thought you would be so busy with your new coach coming in that you wouldn't notice me for a while…" Avery offered.
"Yeah, well, you're probably right… except he comes in tomorrow and I had all day today to snoop. Helped me avoid the media…" Sid admitted with a sly smile.
Avery rubbed her hands together and breathed into them to warm them up.
"I'm sorry… you must be freezing. I didn't mean to hold you hostage out here," Sid apologized, stepping forward and rubbing her shoulders. "Do you wanna go and grab a bite to eat?"
"No Sid, I don't…" Avery confessed, looking up into his golden eyes. "I don't want to get back into this… into us."
"But you're here… you're finally here," Sid questioned her, the hope creeping into his voice.
"I am here because I was offered a job that I couldn't turn down. That's it. Me being here has nothing to do with you," Avery tried to explain. "I desperately need you to understand that."
"Okay, fine, whatever… but you still need to eat right?"
"Sid! Its not 'fine, whatever'!" Avery protested with her hands on her hips.
"OKAY! What do you want me to say?"
"That you are okay with us just being friends." Avery pleaded.
"We've been 'just friends' before…" Sid said with a suggestively raised eyebrow.
"No!" Avery swatted Sid's chest in frustration. "I mean it!"
"Okay… I get it. I promise that I will be on my best 'friend' behaviour," Sid promised, as he drew a cross over his heart with his fingers. "I'm just glad you're here… after everything we've been through, you are still really my best friend. So, it's just nice to have my best friend back…"
Avery smiled warmly and wrapped her arms around his neck, as he gathered her in for a big bear hug.
"So? Are you hungry?" Sid asked.
"Actually… I'm STARVING!" Avery held her stomach.
"Great!" Sid reached over and opened Avery's car door. "Meet me at Lucille's on 1st Ave?"
-.-
It had been a long time since Avery had laughed that hard. Her stomach muscles actually hurt. It might have been the full bottle of wine that she pretty much drank herself. Sid only had one glass but kept pouring for her. She had forgotten how much fun they used to have and how much she missed being around hockey players. They were definitely characters. The pranks, the post game celebrations gone wrong… there never seemed to be a shortage of stories!
"So what happened?" Sid asked, adding still more to Avery's wine glass, draining the last few drops.
"With what?"
"You and your prince charming? Your Switzerland adventure?" Sid shrugged. "You seemed to fit in over there. Why are you back in the 'Burgh?"
"Ummm… no reason in particular…"
"Bull shit."
Avery laughed and lifted her glass to her lips debating how much she should tell Sid.
"Everything was good, not great but not bad, you know? Then Shero called and offered me the travel coordinator position. I wasn't going to take it and even laughed when he offered me the job but…" Avery paused. She felt really awkward describing it all to Sid. "Then I told Marco and… and he forbid me from coming."
"Silly boy… doesn't he know he can't tell you what to do?" Sid laughed.
"It wasn't like that!" Avery insisted. "It just started driving me nuts! Then he said that when we got married and started a family that I wouldn't have time to work anyway and there is no point in worrying about building a career because I am going to have to quit soon… and… well, I panicked…"
"But you want to be a mom… you want all those things…" Sid tried to understand her logic.
"I know… I just didn't like the idea of him planning out my life and making those decisions for me… it's my life! I should have some say…"
"So you took the job to spite him? Good job Avs! Real mature…"
"No!" Avery protested emphatically but then softened her resolve. "Maybe… I dunno…"
"Well if he didn't have a ring on it, then he doesn't get to have a say," Sid tried to take her side.
"Yeah, I guess that's what he thought. He proposed, like, two days before I left. Nothing says I love you and want to spend the rest of my life with you like some desperate plot to control me…" Avery looked down at her napkin and fidgeted with the tag.
"I bet it was a good ring though?" Sid asked light-heartedly, in a desperate attempt to lighten the mood.
"Yeahhhhh…" Avery let out a long whine and Sid burst out laughing. "That was the worst part! My hand is designed for diamonds! BIG ones!"
"GIANT!" He laughed. "Someday… when it's right…"
-.-
Sid watched her walk up to the front door of the hotel she was staying at and then let his head flop back on his head rest. He drove her back here because it was clear that he had poured her way to much wine. Every bone in his body wanted to follow her. It had been a really long time and he could really use some… relief.
"All in good time…" He reassured himself out loud, readjusting his dick in his pants which had pretty much been semi hard since he saw her earlier today. He would give her time to get settled. After all, he had waited this long… he could wait a little longer.
