Chaper 3

First thank you as always for your encouragement and it seems like you guys get this so I hope you have a little patience while I set up all the characters.


“Where’d Gronk go?” Max asked, turning in a circle like a drunken sailor with his hands shielding his eyes like he was searching for the horizon. Sidney shook his head and tried not to laugh. It would only encourage him.

“He’s working up his courage to go back in there and pop the question,” Tanger answered before Sidney had a chance to open his mouth. “Ou n’aves-tu pas attrapé cela?”

“I didn’t think he actually had les boules,” Max laughed, grabbing at his crotch in a rude gesture that made Sidney glance around to see if they were being watched. Sometimes Max could be so crude.

“They could have used a better picture,” Sid mumbled to himself as he picked up the Sport Illustrated magazine, the one celebrating the Pens win. It was a couple of months old now but most of the stores in the ‘Burgh seemed to still have a few in stock.

“Did you just say that?” Max chided him, elbowing him in the ribs and grinning. “I thought you didn’t care about all that idolization stuff?”
“Yeah but if they’re going to use a picture of me, why do I have to look all...idiotic like that?” Sidney bit back a less flattering word for what he thought he looked like in this particular picture. After all, they were in public and it he really didn’t want to be overheard saying anything that could be taken wrong. If Max said it, everyone would just laugh but if he said it, they’d be talking about it on all the radio shows in hours. That was his life and he had long since accepted that he had to hold himself to a higher standard, fair or not.

“You look like that when you’re playing mon ami,” Tanger added, looking over his shoulder. “Très concentre. Très intense. And you’re tongue is always hanging out like that. I’m surprised someone hasn’t slashed it off.”

“It does not. Not all the time,” Sidney argued, feeling his face heat with embarrassment as he quickly put the offending magazine back on the shelf.

“Oh oui, il fait.” Max’s laughter rang out, turning heads in the store. Not that he cared. Max loved to be the centre of attention. Sidney pulled his ball cap down further, hiding his eyes and shading his face. Sometimes he had no choice but to be the focus of attention but right now didn’t have to be one of those times. “it should be me on that cover,” Max continued in his booming voice, not caring who heard. “I’m a handsome stud, non?”

“Non,” Tanger laughed, pushing Max into Sidney and almost sending Sidney flying into a young mother with a stroller. Only his superior balance and low center of gravity saved him from causing an accident that would probably end up with him being sued. He glared at his two friends. He knew they didn’t mean anything by it. It was just the high spirits of college age guys with a lot of testosterone and pent up energy, not to mention in Max’s case, a sugar rush. Sid glanced at the Big Gulp in his friend’s hand and shook his head.

“You’re not going to be hot with the ladies for long if you keep feeding that beer gut Max,” he pointed out, causing Max to look down at his expanding paunch and make a face. “C’mon man, we have our first pre-season game in a couple of days. I think it’s time you stopped going for beer and wings at lunch and started staying at the rink with me and doing some weights.”

“Can I help it if I’m built solid?” Max grinned apparently impervious to Sid’s comments.

“Pile pleine de merde de chien,” Kris muttered, barely able to keep himself from laughing. That is until Max feigned being mortally wounded by his words, grabbing his chest and reeling like he was about to go down for the count and then both Krs and Sidney laughed until their sides hurt.

“Alright, alright,” Max held up his hands, clearly defeated. “I’ll work out with you today, if Tanger does too.” He added to which Kris only shook his head with a secretive smile on his face.

“I believe we were promised a lap dance and I think we’re already late, so if you’re not coming, I’ll see you guys later. Bonsoir mes amis.” Kris grinned, slapping both of his friends on the back before he turned to go.

“If you get her number don’t even tell me, I don’t want to know,” Max called after him, before turning to me with an utterly pathetic look on his face. “Can’t we go? Just one more time?” he begged, pushing out his bottom lip and making it quiver. Sidney only shook his head. “Seriously, you were a lot more fun in Coal Harbour.”

“Yeah well, it’s back to business now and besides, I seem to remember you telling me how disappointed you were in me for not taking any wobbly pops with me out on the lake on my birthday. Make up your mind Max. Either I’m fun or I’m not,” Sidney grinned, pushing Max ahead of him towards the parking lot.

“So not fun. No fun at all. You’re Mr. No Fun. That’s what I’m calling you from now on. No Fun Crosby,” Max grumbled, leaving Sidney to shake his head as he followed him to the car.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“You have to take it home! It’s your birthday.”

Mya tugged off her wig and ran her fingers through her own hair before shaking her head again.

“If I eat any more of that cake, I won’t be able to go out there and dance. You’ll have to roll me out the door. Give it the bartender or something. Honestly, it was good but if I take that home I will sit in front of my computer to do my article for class tomorrow and I will just eat that, not dinner, so you have to take it away from me,” she explained, laughing as Hannah made a face but put the remnants of the cake back in the box without further argument.

Twenty-three. Mya leaned into the mirror and looked for new lines on her face. With all this make-up on, she felt older, but inside she still felt nineteen. She pulled her eyes up and made a face at herself in the mirror. ‘This is me at forty’ she thought to herself, ‘after my first face lift’.

“Don’t start doing that,” Cassidy laughed, looking up from where she was applying her eyes shadow like she was painting by numbers. Mya watched her for a moment, appreciating the almost cartoon like look that the older dancer was going for and then turned back to stare at her own reflection. “You’re way too young to be looking at yourself like that.”

“I know I probably sound like some kind of self absorbed brat but...when I’m out there and the guys are all going crazy and it’s funny, I feel really confident, you know? But then I’m walking down the street and I don’t have all the eyeliner and lipstick and hair and all that and sometimes I just think guys don’t notice me, you know?” Cass stopped what she was doing and put her brush down and considered Mya for a long moment before making one of those ‘you don’t know what you’re talking about’ faces.

“Maybe if you didn’t wear the sports bra and the sweatshirt to class they would,” the older woman pointed out matter-of-factly. Mya looked down at her Penguins sweatshirt and faded jeans. She almost opened her mouth to say something like ‘but it’s comfortable’ but decided against it.

“I guess I’m just paranoid because the last guy I liked never called.” Mya admitted, gathering her bag and coat as she headed for the door. She hadn’t quite been able to chase away all thoughts of Sidney and now with a pair of tickets to the first game of the season in her purse from the girls for her birthday, she couldn’t escape the insecure feelings that thoughts of him seemed to perpetuate.

“Well if he doesn’t think you’re cute as a button he’s either gay or has more baggage than you want to deal with anyway honey,” Hannah grinned as tugged her own wig off and placed it carefully on the foam bust at her station.

“Thanks Han, at least I know you care right? See you girls tomorrow,” Mya called, finding herself smiling as she pushed open the back door and headed out into the grey evening. The nip in the air made her pause at the end of the alley to put on her jacket.

“You’re her, right? You’re Sugar.” Mya tugged her jacket out, keeping to the shadows near the wall as she glanced sidelong at the direction of the voice. A young man stood near the entrance, baseball cap pulled down low over his face so that it was only shadow. She finished pulling on her jacket and then slid her hand into the pocket, feeling for the can of mace she kept there. This was just one of the negatives of this job. Clients waiting for you, thinking that because you gave them a smile, maybe even flirted a little, that you were really interested. They didn’t seem to get that you were just hoping for a bigger tip.

Tentatively stepping out of the alley, Mya glanced up at her picture displayed in the blackened window of the club. It was her in her fire girl outfit, right down to the hat, but with the jacket held open enough to show a whole lot of cleavage and her belly button. It was a good picture but Mya was almost certain that the red hair and all the make-up hid her true identity.

She glanced at the two bouncers standing at the front door and reminded herself that if she shouted now, they would come running and this guy didn’t look like he’d be able to put up much of a fight. Not with the steroid abusing apes that worked for the club anyway.

“No,” she replied coolly, heading down the street without looking back. If he followed her, one of the bouncers was bound to notice and if not she could always hit him with the mace and scream until someone came.

“Wait! I’m not stalking you. I mean it looks like it I guess but I was here, earlier, with my friends....” He appeared in front of her, turning so that he was facing her and walking backwards. Mya had to admit he seemed good at it, going backwards. He didn’t seem too worried about tripping or falling. If she’d done the same thing she knew damn well she would have fallen already. He pulled off his ball cap and shook loose his dark hair.

She recognized his accent and his kind dark eyes. He was one of the French boys. Mya stopped in her tracks, nearly causing him to stumble backwards, but with a certain amount of grace, he managed to find his feet. She reached out to steady him and found her hand in his. They were surprisingly soft.

“My name’s Kris,” he said softly, his dark gaze holding hers’. She nodded. She’d done her homework.She'd had a nagging feeling she recognized them and it hadn't taken too much work to figure out exactly who they were after one of this friends, the stockier, hairier one had tried to take over the dj booth and the crowd had gone a little wild over it.

“You play for the Pens,” she added and was sure, despite the fact that the impending darkness hid it, that he was blushing. She could tell just by the way he ducked his head to the side.

“I didn’t think it was so obvious,” he muttered in his softly accented English.

“I would think you’d have to be dead from the neck up not to know who you guys are. You’re like huge celebrities now,” she added and was rewarded with a shy, crooked smile.

“I’m sorry if I scared you,” he added, neatly changing the subject. “Can I take you for coffee, to make up for it?” he asked, shyly but with a twinkle in his dark eyes that was clear, even in the deepening twilight.

This was a line that you didn’t cross. It was a hard and fast rule that she’d been told when she started stripping back home. You don’t go out with clients. Not for any reason. Do that and they think they have rights the other patrons don’t. Not to mention that if word gets out that it gives the rest of the clientele ideas.

Mya started to shake her head but there was a small part of her that wanted to say yes if only so she could ask him about Sidney and that part of her smiled back at him. One coffee couldn’t hurt.

“Très bien,” he grinned back at her. It wasn’t quite the boyish toothy grin that Sidney wore so easily but it was easy and open and Mya decided he looked harmless enough as she fell into step beside him. She also decided that it was the kind of smile that said that he was almost as uncertain as she felt and she wondered how many girls said yes for exactly the same reason she had just done. As handsome as he was, she couldn’t help but wonder how many girls treated him as nothing more than a stepping stone towards the ultimate prize, Sidney himself?

‘Well I won’t do that’, Mya promised silently. ‘I won’t even say anything about meeting him.’ After all, she decided, no matter how handsome Sidney might be and how prominently he’d figured in her dreams lately, he wasn’t interested in her.

Besides, she decided, she always did like a handsome man with an accent.