Thursday, June 10, 2010

Prologue

March 2011

“Can we pretend that airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars?..”

I groaned as the alarm from my cell phone blasted my favorite song (for the moment at least) throughout the bedroom. Not moving my head from my pillow, I blindly searched for the phone and shut the alarm off. I then continued to bury my face in the pillow until I felt my husband’s arms sneak around my waist from behind me. He then proceeded to kiss that weak spot on my neck.

“Mmm, time to wake up, baby,” he said.
As much as that feeling of weakness threatened to give in, I was too tired to play games. “No..more sleep..good dream,” I replied.
“Why do you need to dream about me when I’m right here?”
“Who said I was dreaming about you? Robert Pattinson was about to turn me into a vampire until the damn alarm went off.”
Sidney rolled me onto my back and pinned my arms against the bed so I couldn’t move. Not that I would want to anyways as my greedy eyes gazed upon his shirtless upper body. Out of all the girls in Pittsburgh and Canada, it still amazes me that I’m the one he chose to spend the rest of his life with. How the hell did I get so lucky?

Before, I was just an ordinary, independent girl born in Pittsburgh. I was certified in event planning not only in Pittsburgh, but around the country as well. My name was out there, but not where you could easily point me out on the street like I was Paris Hilton or something. And then, I met Sidney through being hired by the Penguins organization to help plan out their big events like the Skates and Plates dinner. After first meeting with him and the team in 2007, loud-mouth Max Talbot shouted as I exited the meeting room, “Captain just found his soul mate!” I ignored his comment, but I couldn’t help but notice the obvious as Sidney tried his best to impress me. Needless to say, his polite manners and charm got to me and now I’m stuck with him.

“I still don’t see what the big deal is about him,” he said. “He plays a vampire. So what?”
“I still don’t see what the big deal is about you. You play hockey. So what?”
I could tell he was getting irritated as his eyebrows narrowed, “You married me.”
“I did?” I asked as checked my ring finger. “Huh, you’re right. Someone must have gotten me way too drunk or paid me pretty well to marry someone like you.”
“Goddamnit, woman. Why do you treat me like this?”
I propped myself up on my elbows as our faces were just inches from away. “’Cause I love you,” I answered with a kiss. It eventually became passionate as he gently pushed me back down against the mattress. My hands explored the back of his neck as I tangled my fingers in his messy curls and continued to slide down his shoulder blades. Just as I felt his hands slowly begin to take off my tank top, I grabbed his wrist.

“Sid, as much as I really want to do this right now, we have to stop.”
He grunted in my neck as he continued, “We have time.”
I turned my head towards the clock on my nightstand that read 10:23 A.M.
“You have practice in half an hour.”
His head immediately looked at the clock, almost hitting me along the way. “Shit,” he mumbled as he scrambled out of bed and began to search through his drawers for clothes.

I couldn’t help but laugh at him, despite the warning look he gave me, as I headed downstairs to make him a quick breakfast. Granted I had to be at the Energy Center at noon, but I knew better than to get in his way when it came to hockey. I quickly made two breakfast burritos and wrapped them in foil knowing that he needed to get to Southpointe as soon as possible. Just as I finished packing his breakfast (I sound like such a mom), I heard footsteps racing down the stairs and through the hallway as he entered the kitchen.

“Your breakfast is in the bag,” I said as I pointed to its location on the island.
“Thanks, babe,” he replied as he opened the refrigerator, grabbed the carton of milk and began drinking from it.
“There’s a reason we have glasses, y’know.”
He continued to wolf down a third of the carton as he stopped to put it away, “I know. But that means one of us would have something else to clean.”
“Yeah, now I gotta clean out my mouth twice as much when I eat cereal,” I teased.
“I don’t see a difference between us kissing and that milk carton.”
“I don’t wanna taste you when I’m eating my Cinnamon Toast Crunch!”
“Yum,” he replied as he wiggled his eyebrows.
I playfully smacked his butt, “Get going. You’re already gonna be late.”

Sidney grabbed his breakfast as we both walked towards the door to the garage. I watched as he carelessly slid on his shoes, put on his jacket, and grabbed his keys off of the hook on the wall. For a moment, we just stood there looking at each other. It was as if he was trying to search in my eyes for an answer that he didn’t know. He took a deep breath and sighed.

“Are you all right?” I asked, a little worried that he wasn’t tell me something.
He smiled, “Yeah, I’m fine. I just…I don’t know why, but I feel like I need to just soak up this moment with you.”
I rolled my eyes and blushed at the same time. Sappy romantic. Nevertheless, I closed the space between us as I wrapped my arms around his waist and buried my face into his chest. The smell of his cologne made me feel safe as I looked up at him.

“You sure you don’t wanna come to practice?” he asked as he stuck out his lower lip.
I shook my head, “I have to go finalize how the bar is going to be set up at the Energy Center. Plus, Vero’s coming with me, so that would leave me stuck with Geno’s girlfriend.”
“I thought you guys were best friends,” he joked.
“Yeah, and I thought Miley Cyrus and Hannah Montana were two completely different people,” I raised my eyebrow at him.
He laughed, “All right, all right. So I’ll see you when you get home?”
“You can count on it.”
We leaned towards each other as we kissed. A few moments later, we stopped as Sidney kissed the tip of my nose and my forehead before letting go. “I love you, Hailey.”
“I love you, too.”

I watched him open the door to the garage as he walked to his beloved Range Rover. Which, can I say, is the ugliest car I’ve ever seen. The man has millions in his bank account and this is all he has to show for a car? As he got into the driver’s seat, he paused before closing the door. “Don’t cause too much damage with Vero today.”
I snorted, “Who said that we were going shopping?”
“’Cause I know you two.”
“So I spend a couple hundred today…it’s my account, it can afford to gain some extra breathing space.”
He smiled and shook my head at me as he closed the door, “See ya, babe.”

I folded my arms as the garage door opened. He slowly backed out of the garage and the driveway. I waved goodbye one last time as he hit the gas to make it to Southpointe. I closed the garage door and looked at the clock on the stove that read 10:45. He’d be at least fifteen minutes late for practice. I grinned as I headed upstairs to get ready for the day. When you were late for a practice, Disco Dan went easy on you..until the rest of the team was done. Then, he made you complete ridiculous drills until you were laying on the ice begging him to stop.
I wasn’t too worried about it. I know I’ll have to make up for him being late tonight.

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“And right here is where we plan on building the stage. There’s even going to be a small backstage area for people to come out of the curtains to make it feel like a real show.”
“We could even bring in a couple of acoustic sets if we wanted to,” I replied. “Would that still be compatible with the speakers we’re buying?”
“Certainly, Mrs. Crosby. Those speakers can blast anything you hook it up to.”
I nodded, very impressed, “Well, it sounds like you guys have wasted no time putting this place together. Everything looks good to me so far. I appreciate your efforts.”
The gentleman in charge of the construction company nodded, “Not a problem. Feel free to continue looking around. Just remember to keep your hard hats on.”

I thanked him as he wandered away to check with a group of workers. The karaoke restaurant and bar was almost finished. All we had to do was pick out a menu with the hired chefs, build the stage, and wait for the furniture to be delivered. With the new arena not even a year old, Mario had his own restaurant inside the arena. However, he wanted a place for fans who didn’t have tickets to feel connected and have a fun place to go to watch the games. He asked me for my advice, and I thought that karaoke would be fun. It gave everyone a chance to enjoy themselves before or after the games. And even though it was connected to the arena, you didn’t need a ticket to the game to get in. There was a door that entered the arena where fans could check in with their tickets as well as a door that led outside. We asked the rest of the team how they felt about it, and they were pretty excited. A lot of times, a big group of us would head out to a karaoke bar a half hour away from the arena after games. Granted that they probably couldn’t come here every game night, it’d be an alternate place to go. Most of their singing sucked, but there were a few surprises in the group like Bill Guerin. Who the hell would have known?! And then there’s some guys that just won’t sing a song unless they get a little drunk like Sidney. I shook my head and laughed as I thought about the time he sang, “Pour Some Sugar On Me”. The boy could not hit a single note in the entire song, yet he stood there singing proudly with a beer in his hand. That may have been the only night I wish I had divorce papers in front of me.

“This place is gonna look so awesome!” Vero said as she stood next to me.
“Yeah, I can’t wait to see it finished. The booths are gonna be so sweet!”
“Forget the booths! I can’t wait until we’re singing up there!” Vero pointed towards the part of the restaurant where the stage was going to be built. “Can you see us now? You, me, Heather, and Kelsey singing a little Spice Girls and Britney Spears.”
“Oh, I already told Mario that we will be the first people up on that stage singing ‘Wannabe’! Gotta kick it off in style!”
“Yes!” she pumped her fist in the air as her cell phone rang. Vero hurriedly rummaged through her purse to find her phone. “It’s my mom, I’ll be back,” she replied as she answered her phone and walked away to another section of the restaurant.

I walked towards the tape where the stage was being built. It seemed that everything was going according to plan with the place, and I was really excited to open it up to the public. I walked inside the tape and looked up at the ceiling as I turned around in a circle and stood still in the middle of the ‘stage’. I daydreamed as anyone did about performing in front of a huge audience with a standing ovation at the end. Even though I was firmly established in my career, it didn’t hurt to dream, right?

Just as I was pretending to bow and thank my audience, I heard a screeching noise above me that followed with a sound that sounded like something was about to crumble to pieces. As I stood up, I saw Vero’s eyes get insanely wide as she ran towards me.

“HAILEY, GET OUT OF TH-”

I didn’t even have time to react to Vero’s warning as I felt many heavy pieces crush my body which knocked off my hard hat. I was blindsided for a second, but I was soon sent to complete darkness and silence as I felt something hit my head.

“…I could really use a wish right now, wish right now, wish right now…”

2 comments:

  1. Plug away - that was a great beginning. I like how it's set in the future - it's not often you see that, or a story where the two main characters are already married! :) Can't wait to see more soon.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I agree, this is really unique! I can't wait to read more

    ReplyDelete