Chapter 54

(This chapter is also a bit of a reminder of how Sid and Gill got together because I am aware that it has been quite a while since I started this story – You will not miss anything if you don’t read this chapter but it is completely from Sid’s point of view rather than Gills).

“Sidney how did you and Gill become more than just work colleagues?” I heard a voice ask that sounded very much like Robert Griffith, a former crush of mine from throughout my school years.

“Well”, I hear Sidney say, “I suppose I should start at the beginning”. This was the first time I heard Sidney’s view on how we got together so I was listening intently.

“On Gills first day in the office, her boss Mario who happens to be the owner of the Penguins brought Gill down to the ice to meet us after one of our training sessions, I remember she was wearing a soft yellow skirt and a white top but somehow she still managed to look elegant with her clumsy hockey ice skates on. Mario was talking to us and Gill was skating about the rink, most of us did not hear a word that Mario said as we were all mesmerised watching the blonde stranger skate elegantly around the rink. Eventually Mario shouted Gill over and he introduced her to us all, I remember shaking her hand and looking in those shiny blue eyes and thinking WOW!!! Then we all heard her talk and her Scottish accent just blew us away.

“When we went back to the changing room after training she was the topic of conversation that we all wanted to discuss, we all wanting to call her and ask her out so it was decided that none of us would do it. We decided we would wait to see if we could get the opportunity to be in her company again sometime soon and see if she obviously liked any of us. God we didn’t even know if she was single but still each and everyone of us had such a crush on her, even the guys that were spoken for were impressed by her!”

Wow, I didn’t know that everyone liked what they saw, suddenly I was feeling very embarrassed and my cheeks were burning. Somehow Sidney continued with the conversation another round of drinks appeared on the table.

“One morning I decided to go into training early”, Sidney continued, “And I was surprised to find that Gill was working out on the ice, I stayed back where she couldn’t see me ending up near the back of the stadium watching her in complete amazement. The next few mornings I came and watched again when eventually she noticed me there, she motioned for me to come down to the ice and suddenly my heart rate was speeding and I had no idea why, it was not as if I had never spoken to a pretty girl before.

“We got talking about what she was doing and why and I asked if I could join her one morning, she advised me to talk to the other trainers / coaches and ask if they thought the training was suitable. She told me that she was a black belt in Kung Fu for I found that extremely sexy.

“I did what she suggested and the very next day I went to join her, I dragged Geno along with me, he was still relatively new with us at the time having been injured most of his first year with us and did not talk very much English so I thought he would be perfect to break the tension but would still not get in the way.

“Much to my surprise she put us through a gruelling training session and I actually felt like I got a lot out of it. Straight afterwards when Gill went to the office Geno and I went to the trainers and Mario and explained about what she had done and told them that we thought she would be an asset to the team. They said they would discuss it and would see us at training. I could not believe that they had just blown me off. I didn’t realise until later that they had been watching the training session that Gill had done with us.

“Nothing was mentioned at training but we were having a team meal that night and I made a mental note to talk to Mario about it. When I walked into the restaurant that night I was surprised to see Gill sitting there – she looked amazing by the way.

“It was announced that night that Gill would be starting training with us on a daily basis starting the following week. We were all so excited about it, we were like kids in a sweet shop but my god once the training started did she give us a hard time, her training was so tough but we all felt like we got so much out of it.

“She started spending more and more time with the team and the girlfriends / wives and we were getting to know each other pretty well, she was travelling with the team and working closely with the physiotherapist and we were all getting so used to her being there.

“It soon came to Christmas and the weather was really bad so Gills family were unable to visit and we do not get enough time off for Gill to come back to Scotland. Mario, therefore, asked her to join his family and mine for Christmas lunch.

When she came round I again was mesmerised by how beautiful she looked. She had presents for everyone and was so good with the kids. We all had such a good time that day and Gill and I ended up curled up together on the sofa watching a film, it felt wonderful having her in my arms.

“I spoke to the guys on the road trip and said that I wanted to be the one to call her and ask her for a date, they all agreed that we would be good together and boys being boys they teased me about it constantly but they agreed not to mention anything to her.

“We left on a road trip a few days later and when we returned we had a few days off. I went round to Gills to surprise her with a bottle of wine and food and she answered the door in her swimming costume, I was amazed by her body, she was in such good shape, still is...” He turned and winked at me and wore a very cheeky smile.

Everyone was engrossed in his story and hadn’t moved a muscle so far.

As he turned back to the crowd he could see how engrossed everyone was so he continued.

“Gill eventually invited me in and she went for her swim while I cooked the food. When she came back and joined me in the kitchen she looked and smelt stunning, I wanted nothing more than to be with her right there and then, however, we ate the food and drank the wine and proceeded to watch a film, we were curled up on the sofa again, I always felt so safe when I had her in my arms. It was at that point things went so wrong.”

I looked about to see the look of confusion on just about everyone’s faces.

“When the film finished Gill turned to me, I pulled her legs up so that they were lying over mine, she put her hand on my face and looked in my eyes and proceeded to tell me she had fallen in love with me.

“I was speechless.

“She left the room to let me think and came back with hot chocolates, she sat back where she was in my arms and played my hair, she carried on telling me about her feelings for me and telling me about Paul, etc.

“Eventually I found the words but my mouth did not speak what my heart was feeling, I told her that I had not been in love before and that I could not let myself be with her. Her eyes started to glaze over and I hated myself for making her look at me with so much confusion and hurt. She pulled herself away from me and started talking about something completely different. She asked me to go to a gig with her that she had gotten front row tickets for. I was relieved that she was still going to be friends with me.

“I went home that night and spoke to Mario about what happened and he told me that I needed to follow my heart, it would be more true to me than my head.

“We carried on for a while as friends, mostly ignoring that she had ever confessed her feelings to me, the gig came and went and we had a good time. A short while later we won the league and were out partying, I was pretty drunk and talking to all these girls. Gill had been sitting quietly with her friends and some of the other guys in the team when she came and told me she was leaving. She reached up, put her hands on my shoulders and kissed me, just a small kiss to congratulate me but our eyes met, my stomach was in knots, my heart was racing, she turned away from me and wouldn’t look at me anymore or listen to what I had to say – she turned around just as she was going to walk out the door, her eyes were filled with tears and I could not believe that I was responsible for making her feel so unhappy.

“I had been sent Bon Jovi front row tickets for the gig in New York that I was going to go to but I decided that since I had unfortunately succeeded in hurting Gill I would give her the tickets, I put them in an envelope along with a note and popped it on her doorstep – I guessed she would not be wanting to see me so I just left without letting her know I was ever there.

“A few hours later I heard my phone ring and as I looked that the caller display I was shocked to see Gills name on it, I quickly answered unsure of what to say to her. She wanted me to come to the gig with her, I had only booked one hotel room so I was not sure how this was going to go but I could not turn her down.

“The next day we were off to New York to the gig once training was complete. We were both being so civil with each other, no one wanting to mention what has been going on between us.

“The day went brilliantly and we both loved the gig. Once we got back to the hotel we ordered a bottle of wine and took it back to our room. Gill sat on the end of the bed and I lay down in front of her, we stayed that way for hours talking about many things when Gill reached out and moved a stray curl that was resting on my forehead, she looked into my eyes with so much emotion, I reached for her and pulled her down to a laying position, I was ready to talk to her but we must have feel asleep and the next thing I remember was Gill trying to waken me.

“I was refusing to get up and she was losing her temper with me, I must have fallen asleep again as next thing I saw was her sitting in front of me with wet hair and only wearing a towel. I pulled her down and was going to kiss her when she lost her temper with me again telling me that she could not play these games anymore – she was going to do everything to could to get over me. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing but I knew I had hurt her enough, I told her I loved her but maybe her forgetting her feelings was the best thing to do. It was breaking my heart telling her to move on, I loved her and wanted to be with her. I don’t know why I could not just tell her how I really felt and what I really wanted – I guess when it comes down to it I was petrified that I could never be good enough for her.

“The trip home was pretty uncomfortable we didn’t really say much to each other.

“When she dropped me off at home that night after training I was in a pretty foul mood. Mario’s kids wanted to play and I was not in the mood, my attitude was pretty off with them and Mario over heard – he came through and told me exactly what he thought and said something’s that really hurt. One of the things he told me was that Gill was far too good for me, she deserved someone better and I was a fool for not realising just how much she loved me and how much I loved her.

“I had eventually heard enough and stormed out, I hadn’t taken my car keys so was left out in the rain, I walked for hours, soaked to the skin and so cold. I had cried for a long time and finally realised that Mario was right, I loved Gill so much and she was more important than anything else in the world.

“I made my way over to Gills to talk to her, when she opened the door she looked so worried, she took me into her arms and held me, eventually taking me into the kitchen. She went and got some clothes of mine that I had left there before after a bunch of us had been shopping.

“She came back with the clothes and a towel. She started taking my t-shirt off me and was drying me, she ran her fingers over my collar bone and down my chest and unbuttoned my jeans. Suddenly she stopped as if it was getting too much for her, the look in her eyes telling me that the last thing she wanted was to in fact stop but she gave me the towel and told me to get dried off and changed and she would make a hot drink. She came back with 2 hot chocolates and just sat with me until I was ready to talk. She left me to say what I needed to get off my chest and eventually handed me the phone and told me to phone Mario.

“After I spoke to Mario and we kind of patched things up I headed in the direction of where Gill had gone. I heard her voice telling me to go and get a pair of shorts from the gym that she had in her house. I could stay with her for the night.

“I did what she said and curled up on the bed with her, feeling her in my arms, her breath on my chest, I knew that was where I wanted to be. I needed to find away to make her realise how sorry I was and how much I really did love her. I realised then that she was the one person that made my life whole, she made everything right. I wanted her to be in my life everyday from that day forward.

“The next day we were playing the first game of the playoffs so I wanted to wait until after the game before I talked to her. I could tell that the night before had worried her, she was worried that I would not be able to play to the best of my ability as I had too many other things on my mind, although she was worried about me as a person she was also worried about the team.

“When we reached the Igloo Mario was waiting on me and wanted to talk to me alone, we sorted things out and I told him I knew that I was in the wrong about Gill and that I was going to make it up to her, make her realise that I am sorry and that I love her. I also told him I would make it up to him and his children.

“The rest of the day went well and training was good, we went for a team meal and Gill, Mario and myself all made speeches about the playoffs. Time quickly passed and the game began, we played well and won. The excitement was clear in the changing rooms and when Gill came in everyone was full of hugs for her. She said she would wait out in the car for me to give me a lift home.

“The first thing I asked her when I got to the car was if I could go back to her house with her for a hot chocolate, she was obviously a bit reluctant but agreed. As soon as we got in I started talking to her about how I was feeling that I wanted to make things work with her. She kept pushing me away telling me that she couldn’t do this but I was determined that I would not give up on her.

“The hot chocolates soon turned into glasses of wine, she went and sat in the living room but took both glasses of wine with her. I left her alone for a while wanting to give her time to think. Eventually I went and sat with her, usually I would put my arm around her and pull her close to me but I didn’t think that was appropriate. We sat in silence and in her own time she turned and cuddled into me and told me how she was feeling, I forced her to look me in the eye and I told her again that I loved her and wanted to make everything right, that I would do everything I could to take the pain away and allow us to have an amazing relationship.

“She continued to look deep into my eyes as if trying to read what I was thinking, this was something she often did and much to my disbelieve she leaned in and gave me the most amazing kiss which was so full of emotion. I had never had a kiss like it and it blew me away, it was like a thousand fireworks went off and once again my heart rate was speeding but I knew I was exactly where I should be and that everything would be ok.

“Ever since that kiss things got better and better between us. We spent more time together and ended up being pretty much inseparable, Gill asked me to move in with her and things were great.

“Last January came round and Gill was asked once again to be the main trainer for the All Stars, I was again the captain of the East so we were both in Vancouver for the weekend, I took this opportunity to seal my relationship with Gill. I took her out to Mario’s boat and asked her to be my wife and as they say the rest is history. She is the most wonderful person I have met, I love her with all my heart more than I ever knew was possible. I could not possibly imagine life without Gill in it.

“Now I bet you wish you never asked how Gill and I become more than just work colleagues”.

As I looked around everyone they all looked so content, so happy as if they wished they were part of the story. It was a nice evening.

We eventually said our goodbyes to everyone and left to go back to the hotel, walking hand in hand in complete silence, both of us content and happier than we ever knew we could be.