Chapter 18

Sidney walked into his house fuming. She would never date a hockey player? What the hell did that mean? Did she think he was some sort of slut because he played a professional sport? She should know him better than that by now. And why the hell hadn’t she mentioned that her father was Larry Robinson? Larry fucking Robinson! He’d only been one of the greatest defenseman to play the game. Not to mention he played for the Canadians, who Sidney had loved growing up. He was also going to be coaching on the bench opposite from Sidney tonight. He’d been playing against the Devils, Loralei’s father’s team for the last year and never even knew it. No wonder she had a thing for them.

He changed his clothes and sat down in front of the TV. He turned it on, and flipped through some channels before turning it off. Why had she lied to her father about them? Unless in her mind she didn’t lie. That had to be it. He’d spent the last two weeks walking around on cloud 9 thinking they were dating. They’d spent every night together. She’d told him she’d give him a chance. He understood taking it slow, but what she said made no sense. Even if they took it slow, they were still together, weren’t they? Obviously she didn’t think so. She’d never date a hockey player so this relationship was never going to get past sex. Fine, she could have it her way. They didn’t have to date. In fact, they didn’t need to see each other at all.

Angry and frustrated he went upstairs to his room without any pre-game meal. He got into bed an hour earlier than he normally would have for a pre-game nap and tried to sleep. Anything to keep from thinking about Loralei Robinson.





After my father left I tried to call Sidney on both his home and his cell phone but he didn’t answer either. I didn’t leave a message afraid that anything I said would sound stupid. I’d just have to wait until after the game to talk to him. That’s if I even got a chance to. My dad would expect me to go down and see him before he left. I would just have to try to catch Sidney before he went home. If I missed him, I’d just go to his house.

I sat and watched the game from a section filled with Devils fans. I’d spent my teenage years with the team since my father had worked for them in some capacity during them. Now while watching the game I felt out of place sitting here with the rest of the Devils fans. I looked towards the section I usually sat in and wondered if the girls knew anything. The Penguins won the game 4-1. Sidney had a hat trick. It was almost like it was his way of getting back at me. I’d always told him not to play well against the Devils before and here he was single-handedly beating them.

After the game I went downstairs to see my dad. We talked for a bit before the team left. By the time I got over to the wives' room, I was told Sidney was gone. I grabbed a cab over to Sidney’s house. It was dark and I didn’t see his car. I rang the doorbell anyway, just in case. No one came to the door. I called his cell phone but it went straight to his voicemail. With no other choice I walked back to my house. I tried his cell a few more times that night, but it always went to his voicemail. I went to bed, but couldn’t sleep. I tried to tell myself I shouldn’t feel so bad about it but it didn’t comfort me. I’d get up early and go over before he had to get to practice and talk to him.





He didn’t feel right. His teammates had all but dragged him out to a bar that night. All he wanted to do was go home and sulk. They’d known something was wrong the minute he’d walked into the rink that evening. It hadn’t taken much for them to figure out that Loralei and he had had a fight. He finally confessed that she’d told her father in front of him that she would never date a hockey player. Oh, by the way, did he forget to mention that her dad was Larry Robinson? Fuck her and fuck the Devils. He went out and scored a hat trick just to spite her. At the time it felt good. Now he felt awful.

“Sid, this is Gwen. She’s you’re biggest fan,” Max said to him bringing over a slutty looking blonde. She was probably the fourth girl one of his teammates has paraded by him tonight. He just wasn’t interested.

“Nice to meet you,” he said dryly. She spent the next 10 minutes talking about how much she loved him and hockey. He wasn’t sure really, he was to busy emptying his eighth beer to listen. The next part of the night turned into a big blur.

He woke up with a major headache and no memory of the night before. What had woken him up anyway? Then he heard it again. The doorbell. Shit, he wasn’t late for practice, was he? He jumped out of bed, fought back the nausea that hit him and ran down the stairs to answer the door. He froze when he saw a blonde holding open the door talking to someone. Who was she? Then some of the night came back. It was that girl Max had brought over. He’d brought her home?! What was he thinking? What was her name? And who was she talking to? He made his way closer. He had a sinking feeling when the blonde turned exposing the person at the door. He saw the look on Loralei’s face. He could see the tears in her eyes. Before he could say anything she turned and ran.





I woke up early and built up my nerves to go over to Sidney’s. I walked over and was relieved to see his car was in the driveway. I stopped at the end of the driveway going over what I wanted to say to him. I’d been planning it all night, but now I couldn’t remember a word. I finally got my legs moving again and got to the door and rang the doorbell. I waited for a minute and when no one came I rang it again knowing I was probably waking him up. I was stunned when a blonde girl with her makeup smeared answered the door.

“Can I help you?” she asked in the worst Barbie voice I had ever heard. I didn’t even know what to say. I just stood there, eyes wide, and she must have thought I was some sort of idiot. “Do you need something?” she asked again. I leaned back looking at the number on the house checking to make sure I didn’t somehow ring the wrong doorbell. I hadn’t.

“I was just looking for Sidney,” I finally managed to choke out. Tears were already forming in my eyes and I was trying to fight them back. I was losing the fight.

“Oh, he’s upstairs sleeping. He’s got to be exhausted after last night. God, what stamina,” she replied. I felt like I was going to throw up. Just then I heard a noise behind Barbie and she turned to look. It was then that I saw Sidney walking into the foyer. I couldn’t fight the tears anymore. Instead of standing there looking like a fool I turned and started to run home.

Well, that promise of not hurting me had lasted a whole two weeks. I’d been so stupid to think that he’d be different than Thomas. I walked through my front door and couldn’t make it any further. I collapsed on the floor and let myself cry. I felt like someone had ripped my heart out and then torn it to pieces. I should never have let myself get involved. It had obviously been a mistake from the start. How did it hurt this much? We’d barely been together yet it felt worse than it had when Thomas had cheated on me. I couldn’t understand why. Just then, the doorbell rang. I didn’t need to move to know who it was.

“Leave me alone!” I yelled through the door.

“Lor, please, just open the door. We need to talk,” Sidney called through the door.

“I’m sorry, but I really don’t want to see you right now.”

“Loralei, just give me a chance!” I ignored him. I just closed my eyes and hoped he would just leave. Instead I heard the door open. I’d forgotten to lock it behind me.

“Did I say you could come in?” I spat at him angrily, standing up. He looked genuinely upset.

“Please, we really need to talk,” he begged.

“Fine let’s talk. Let’s talk about how you told me you wouldn’t hurt me. Lets talk about how you pushed and you pushed for me to give you a chance and when I give you one you turn around and fuck the human Barbie doll behind my back after you refused to answer my phone calls all night!” I screamed at him.

“Is that how you want to go about this? How about the fact that you lied to me about your father? How about that you led me to believe that you actually had feelings for me only to tell me in front of your dad that you’d ‘never date a hockey player’? How do you think that made me feel? You told me two weeks ago that you’d give me a chance, but you never had any intention of that did you?” he screamed back.

“Get out,” I told him in a voice barely above a whisper. The anger on his face disappeared and he walked over to me. He reached a hand out to touch my arm but I pulled away. “Get out!” He hesitated for a minute and then turned and left shutting the door behind him. I put my head in my hands and cried.