Chapter 54

Chapter 54

Lauren called Liz the next morning and they arranged to meet for coffee. When Lauren walked into Starbucks, Liz had already ordered her a vanilla latte and pushed it across the table at her.

“Thanks.” Lauren said, taking a sip.

“You sounded upset on the phone, and from the looks of you, I could say you need the caffeine.” Lauren’s eyes had big bags under them, partly from crying and partly from tossing and turning all night. She didn’t really sleep too much, and she finally got out of bed at five that morning. She had taken a long run, which usually helped her clear her head, but this morning it served as nothing more than an outlet for her to take out some frustration.

Lauren explained to Liz what had happened the night before, getting agitated all over again.

“So, you’re mad because your boyfriend got jealous?” Liz asked.

“No. Well, yes, sort of, I guess. I can’t believe that he got mad at me for wanting to talk to a friend for a few minutes alone.”

“Umm, well, to be fair, Ben’s not exactly just a friend.” Liz replied, throwing her own words back at her.

“I know.” Lauren mumbled. “But then he got pissed that I wanted to go home last night!” Lauren said, her pitch higher than she intended.

“Can you blame him? It was three in the morning and you were mad – you were in no position to be driving! I would have been pissed at you too. Lauren, the man is hopelessly in love with you – he would have been devastated if anything happened to you.” Liz could see Lauren contemplating her words. “You need to go talk to him. Forgive him. Kiss and make-up and move on with your lives.”

“That’s it? That’s your advice? Forgive him, just like that?” Lauren said, furrowing her eyebrows towards her best friend.

“Yep. In fact, you’re lucky he was jealous. That means he cares. It’s not like he was psycho jealous or possessive or anything. Wouldn’t it bother you if he wasn’t jealous at all?”

“Yeah, I suppose it would.” Lauren said, starting to see Liz’s point.

Later that afternoon, Lauren went down to the rink where she knew the team would be finishing up practice. She wandered down to the locker room and bumped into Jordan. “Hey, gorgeous!” he said, wrapping her in a tight hug.

“Is he in there?” Lauren asked, almost timidly.

“Yeah, he’s talking to a reporter right now. Go easy on him. He’s been beating himself up pretty bad, so whatever he did, I know he’s really sorry.”

Lauren smiled at him. “I know he is. I just need to talk to him.”

“Go on, then.” Jordan said with a wink. Lauren stepped into the dressing room and found a few of the guys were still hanging around, but other than that, it was pretty deserted. Her eyes immediately went towards Sidney’s stall, where he was sitting on the bench and a woman had a recorder in his face. She watched him for a moment before he noticed her. He looked exhausted, as if he hadn’t slept at all. Lauren felt a pang of guilt when she realized he had probably gotten about as much sleep as she had. As soon as he saw her, he stood up and she could see him telling the reporter that he couldn’t answer any more questions at the moment. Lauren watched him wave the reporter off before approaching him.

“Hey.” She said quietly.

“Hey.” He responded, fidgeting with his hands.

“I’m ready to talk, if that’s okay with you. Can we go somewhere private?” she asked.

“Yeah, I want to talk, too. Let me just grab my stuff.” He slipped his coat on and grabbed his bag and threw it over his shoulder. With his other hand, he hesitantly took her hand, afraid she would pull away from him. But she just gave him a small smile and they walked out together. She followed him back to the Lemieux’s house. When they got to his living room, he grabbed a Gatorade out of the refrigerator and sat down on the couch. Lauren stood just inside the doorway.

After a moment of silently staring at each other, Sidney spoke quietly. “I’m sorry, Lauren.”

“I’m sorry too, Sidney. I shouldn’t have overreacted like that. And I shouldn’t have gotten mad at you.”

“No, I shouldn’t have overreacted like that. It made it seem like I don’t trust you, and I do. I was an ass. I can’t believe I let my emotions get the best of me like that.” He let out a heavy sigh.

“Sidney, I know you trust me. And I trust you, too. I just hated seeing you get so jealous over something that didn’t mean anything to me. Didn’t you hear me telling him how I felt nothing for him, and how much I love you?” she asked.

“Yeah, I did. But I just couldn’t stand the way he was looking at you. Guys look at you all the time, I’ve gotten used to that. They look at you because you’re beautiful. And you don’t seem to notice them looking most of the time because you have no idea how incredibly pretty you are, and that just makes me even more attracted to you. But he was looking at you the way a man looks at a woman that he loves – the way I look at you. I just snapped.” Sidney said, hanging his head.

“Sidney, maybe I didn’t notice the way he was looking at me because I was looking at you. I love you, Sidney. No one else. So let them look – I don’t notice them because they’re not important to me.”

“Wow, I am such a hypocrite sometimes. Girls drool over my picture all the time – and before you accuse me of being egotistical,” he said with knowing grin, “it’s true – they scream my name and offer to have my children and you’ve never freaked out about that. Then what did I do? I freaked out and acted like a jealous idiot.” Lauren walked over to the couch and sat down next to him, taking his hand in hers.

“Sidney, you’re not a hypocrite. You’re human, and so am I. And I love you. Can this fight just be over now?” she said with a hopeful smile. He looked into her eyes and could see that the anger and pain were gone, and all he could see was love. He smiled and in one swift move, stood up and picked her up.

This caught her off guard and she yelped. “What are you doing?” she asked.

“I believe I made you a promise once, and I certainly intend to keep it.” Sidney’s eyes danced with mischief as she looked at him quizzically.

“Sidney, what are you talking about?”

“I promised you that hot make-up sex would be involved after every fight.” His said, grinning wildly before kissing her deeply on the lips. She just laughed and kissed his neck as he carried her into the bedroom.