offsetting minors | s. crosby

A working professional relationship

"Man, you turned into a groupie fast." Sidney's voice is light and teasing as he hands me one of the drinks the bartender has brought over. "Stalking the team already? I bet that whole bit about not knowing anything about hockey was all an act."

I take a large sip of my rum and coke and look at him flatly. "You caught me. I used a seven year old with a brain tumor to charm my way into your pants. Is it working?"

"I came over here knowing that it's ammunition for the guys to give me hell later, so you must have done something right." He glances up to what I assume is the club's VIP section, sequestered away in a dark upstairs lounge. Sure enough, a hoard of large men are crowded around the balcony, looking straight at us and pointing. I notice Geno from earlier today talking animatedly with a couple other guys, an amused smile on his face.

"What, they've never seen you talk to a girl before?"

"Nope. That makes you a pretty big deal. I think they're all convinced that I'm celibate."

I scoff. "From what I hear you're a pretty big deal around here, Captain. I'm sure you've gone out with your fair share of women."

"One."

"What?"

"I've gone out with one woman, and it was a while ago. She hated that I was away so much and I hated that she slept with someone else. Really, it was doomed from the beginning."

I can't help but laugh. "If it makes you feel any better, I'm pretty sure I made my last boyfriend realize that he is, in fact, very gay. He's getting married to his boyfriend next year."

Sidney pretends to wince. "Ouch." He clinks his glass to mine. "To being awful at relationships."

"I'll drink to that." We both take long sips of our drinks. "So the captain doesn't have a rule against drinking during the season?"

"The captain has a lot of rules that are going out the window tonight." He's looking straight into my eyes as he says this and I feel a million butterflies in my stomach for reasons that I don't bother to analyze. "He doesn't make a habit of accosting unsuspecting doctors at the bar either."

"What a shame. I have a lot of coworkers who would probably die for the opportunity."

"You're right. Justin's other doctor seems like a real catch." His eyes are smiling, the ends crinkling up in amusement.

"Dr. Roberts is 65 and his wife Evelyn might be kind of pissed if you steal her husband. I do, however, have it under good authority that he is quite the Pens fan."

"Good authority meaning Justin?"

"Who else? The kid could probably write your biography. He loves you."

Sid's grin turns into a pensive pursing of his lips. "We love coming to see him. He probably knows hockey better than half the guys on the team. He deserves some good news."

"I know. I'm assigned to his case now and I'm sitting down with Dr. Roberts tomorrow to look at his most recent scans so we can see what our best options are. It's looking pretty tough at this point, but we're not ruling the tumor inoperable yet which is hopefully good news."

"It's kind of hot when you go into doctor mode."

"That's pretty inappropriate of you to think so considering we're supposed to have a working professional relationship, Mr. Crosby." I'm teasing him, he's moving his body closer to me, and I can feel the heat radiating off of him. I don't know when this turned to full-on flirting but I haven't been this close to a man in a very long time and all of a sudden I'm nervous.