Chapter 75

**Sorry about the wait! Hope all my American readers had a great Thanksgiving! I certainly enjoyed all the great Penguins games! How about 'ol Sid and his hat trick?! Anyways, I'm going out of town tomorrow until Sunday, and then I have a HUGE final on Monday (keep your fingers crossed - I need a good grade), so I won't be updating until probably late next week at the earliest. Thanks for your patience - enjoy!**

Chapter 75

The next day, Sidney had a new text message on his phone after practice.

Meet me at the house you showed me after practice. Love you.

He was confused about why she would want him to meet her there, but he got a shower and drove over there anyways. When he pulled up, her car was in the driveway and he assumed she was inside. When he got the front door, there was a post-it note stuck to the door.

Yes.

That was all it said. He smiled, thinking of all the times she left post-it notes in his luggage for him to find or stuck them to the bathroom mirror or the inside of a cupboard. Sidney didn’t know what to think of this one, though – did that mean she wanted to move in?

He opened the door and walked in, finding another post-it note on the wall.

This is where we’ll greet our family and friends when they come to visit.

He looked down and found a post-it on the floor.

This is where your shoes will pile up, until your mom comes to visit and makes you put them all away.

Sidney chuckled and wandered into the living room.

His eyes widened when he saw post-its scattered all over the room. He took his time wandering around, reading each note.

Here’s where we’ll curl up on the couch and watch movies on a rainy Sunday afternoon.

This is where you can keep your collection of Friends DVDs, right next to my Disney movies.

This wall will be filled with pictures of our families.

We’ll put a coffee table here so we can eat Chinese takeout in front of the TV.

You and I can pick out our favorite pictures of us to put across the mantle.

We’re going to need some matching Christmas stockings to hang up, too.

He made his way to the kitchen where he found more post-its.

This is where we’ll store the boxes of pasta and jars of sauce, since neither of us knows how to cook anything else. Hopefully the Lemieux’s will still let us come over for dinner once in a while.

We’ll sit at the table here and drink coffee and you’ll wrinkle your cute nose and whine about my French vanilla creamer.

I’ll bake chocolate chip cookies (from refrigerated dough, of course) and guilt you into eating at least one.

Sidney wandered back out into the hallway.

This hallway is perfect for some random dance parties, Risky Business style. (You know, before Tom Cruise went all crazy Scientologist).

The post-its continued throughout the whole first floor of the house and eventually he made his way up the stairs. He saw the light on in the master bedroom, so he headed there first. Sidney’s eyes lit up when he saw Lauren sitting on the floor, leaning up against a wall. He scanned the room and was a little surprised to see the walls were bare. “No post-its in here?” he asked.

Lauren smiled and stood up. “Just one, but I wanted to give it to you myself.” She explained, pressing a post-it into his hand.

Here is where I want to make love to you every night, and wake up next to you every morning.

He looked up and into her eyes, reading her expression. “So is this a yes?”

“Of course this is a yes, silly boy.” She said with a smile.

“Good. Because I really want to make them all come true. Especially this one.” He said, holding up the post-it note in his hand.

“Me too.” Lauren said, leaning up to kiss his lips. “I’m sorry I reacted the way I did. I don’t know what I was thinking. It just came up so suddenly and I wasn’t expecting it and I just didn’t think it would be right to make a decision that big without at least thinking about it. Please don’t think I ever had any doubts.” She said, staring into his eyes.

“No, I’m sorry. After everything that’s happened lately, I shouldn’t have just thrown this on you like that. And it’s not like we have to move in tomorrow or anything like that. We can take our time getting things the way we want them and picking out furniture and stuff.”

“That sounds good.” Lauren smiled, leaning up to accept Sidney’s lips. “What if I decide to go back to school?” Lauren asked, biting her lip nervously.

“Then you go back to school and I’ll miss you like crazy. But this will still be our home. We made it work thus far – we can still do it.” Sidney said, kissing her again.

After a few minutes, Sidney broke away and smiled at her. “Say, you don’t happen to have any of those post-it notes left, do you?”

“Yeah, there’s some in my purse, why?”

“Because I have one of my own.” Sidney said, grinning.

He just winked at her as he accepted the pad of post-its and the pen she handed him. She tried to look over his shoulder but he kept turning around, blocking her view. She finally gave up trying to sneak a peek, and with a sigh, walked over to the large bay window and looked out over the backyard.

A moment later, Sidney stuck a post-it on the window right in front of her nose.

This place, with YOU by my side, is where I’ll always want to be.

Lauren’s eyes shot up to look at Sidney and her lips curved into a grin that matched his. “How did you remember this?” she asked.

**Flashback**
“Every time I come home, you have your cute little nose in a new book.” Sidney said, grinning as they laid in bed one night. She was reading and he flipped through the channels looking for the NHL network.

“What can I say? I love to read. And this one is pretty cute. The main characters remind me a little bit of you and me, actually.”

“So it’s about a really hot girl and a devastatingly handsome guy?” Sidney said with a coy smile. Lauren rolled her eyes but couldn’t help by smile back at Sidney, who was indeed, devastatingly handsome.

“Well, you see, the girl, who is a redhead, by the way,” Lauren explained, pointing her finger in the air in a very matter-of-fact manner. “And she’s very career-oriented and she thinks she’s got her whole life figured out. Then one day, she meets her next door neighbor and he just turns her whole world upside down.” Lauren paused and looked over at Sidney, who was listening intently. “He was an adventurer – they live right on the water, and he loved to spend time out on his boat or just fishing on the dock. He, too, thought he had everything figured out, but then they both realized what they were missing out on before they met.”

“That sounds like a good story. And you’re right – it does sound a little bit like us.”

“Listen to how sweet this is. This is a part where the story jumps to the future, after they’ve been married for like a year. They built a new house, and their first night there, she curls up to him and says, ‘This place, with you by my side, is where I’ll always want to be,’ isn’t that sweet?”

“Mmmhmm.” Sidney mumbled, kissing Lauren’s neck. “It’s beautiful, and so are you.”

**End Flashback**

Sidney chuckled. “I do listen when you talk, you know. I don’t know if I got the wording exactly right, but it’s from that book you were reading. You know, the one by the guy who wrote ‘The Notebook,’ right?”

“Mmmhmm, you’re right. It’s perfect. I think the post-it is better than all of mine.” Lauren said, smiling up at him with pure adoration in her eyes. How the heck did he possibly remember that? They had talked about that book months ago. Lauren thought to herself as Sidney tucked her under his arm and they stared out the window for a while, each dreaming of all the memories this new house had in store for them.