More Than A Memory-Ch2

Chapter 2:
At first he just looked blankly into the crowd, his gaze narrowed towards the front. He was probably thinking about something. Then he looked away quickly. I did my hair flip again. [Alright, this was a bad habit I needed to break] and he did a double take. He was staring right at me and I grabbed Amy’s wrist. “Oh my god” she sneered. His head tilted to the left, like it always did when he was concentrating on something. Our gazes locked for a brief moment, and then one of his teammates started talking to him. He looked away and skated out to take the faceoff. Halfway through the 3rd he scored a breakaway goal. I was smiling when he returned to the bench. He looked at me briefly and took his seat.
*
The game was over and Amy and I left quickly. We both had to be at work early. [I am the head of Pediatric Psychology at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, Amy is one of the head nurses that works in the same wing of the building that I do] We got into her SUV and drove in silence for a few minutes. “Do you think he knows?” I asked nervously. “There is a good chance yes. And a good chance no. I mean it has been at least three years since you last talked to him, saw him even” she said.

Memory—
It was a cold January morning. Before my first day at work I went to a small coffee house about 2 blocks away from the hospital. I ordered my mocha coffee with a shot of espresso and moved to the side to wait. “Order for Peyton Brooks” the busy barista said. The customer that’s order was being taken shot his head to look up at me. I looked under the brim of his hat and I felt my heart in my throat. “Oh my dear god” I said to myself. I grabbed my coffee and started to walk away. Then his voice, a little deeper now, called out to me. “Pey? Wait” he said. I froze, cursed under my breath and turned around to look at him. He was still the same height, maybe a little taller. He was more muscular now, and his facial features were strong and manly. He didn’t look like the high school boy he used to.
“Hey. What are you doing here?” he asked. “Um… I’m just here for um… business” I said looking down. “Well how are you doing?” he asked stepping closer. “I’m fine. Just fine. What about you?” I asked, being polite. “Well I’m good. You know we should get together soon or something. I really miss you, we should like talk or something.” He was rambling, like he always did when he was nervous. I shook my head. “Sidney it has been 2 years. I’ve moved on” I said softly. I was lying, I never let him go. He had been my first love, I still felt hurt when I looked back up at him. He was frowning. “Well um yeah… Alright. Well I’ll see you around I guess” he said and rubbed the back of his neck. I nodded. “Goodbye Sidney.” I turned and walked out the door. When I turned back to look at him through the glass windows, he was looking at me with pleading eyes. “No” I said to myself. “He hurt me too much. I can’t do this again.” I started my SUV and blasted the heat. I saw him through the rearview mirror looking around when he got out of the coffee shop. His head hung low.
End--

We pulled up to my condominium complex and I gave Amy a quick hug. “Everything will be just fine” she said when I hopped out of the car. “My turn for coffee tomorrow morning right?” I asked. “Yes it is. I’ll see you at 8.” I closed the door and went inside. I took my jacket off [it was mid-November] and slipped off my shoes. I went upstairs to my kitchen, grabbed a bottle of water and went up another flight of stairs to my bedroom. I turned on the news and listened to it while I took off my make-up. A sports reporter came on.
“The Pittsburgh Penguins blew away the Carolina Hurricanes tonight. Sidney Crosby scored 2 goals and had an assist. After the game we wanted to hear from the superstar, but he told our reporter that he had some personal business to take care of. The other goals were scored by…” the man’s voice dragged on after that. I looked at myself in the mirror. I sighed. I wonder what he had to do, but I soon shrugged it off. I climbed into bed, made sure my alarm was set and drifted off to sleep.
*
I was busy filling out a patient evaluation form when my mother called me.
“Dr. Brooks?” I said. “Hi honey, it’s me” she said into the phone. “Hi mom, how are you?” “I’m doing fine. How is work?” “It’s alright. I’m swamped with paperwork today though” I said. She told me about how I should learn to manage my time better or something, I really wasn’t listening. “So guess who called the house this morning asking for you” she said. “I don’t know” I said, uninterested. “Sidney” she said slowly. I dropped my pen on the floor and felt my heart rate quicken. “Yeah he told me he thought he saw you at the game last night and that he spent all night trying to find our home phone number” she said. “Well what did you tell him?” I asked. “Well I told him you were a doctor and head of a department in the city so it was possible that you could have been there” she said. “What else did he want?” I asked. “Well he wanted to know how you were doing, so I told him you were doing fine. And that you were still single and basically a workaholic.” “Is that it?” I asked. “Yes, pretty much” she said. I breathed a sigh of relief. “I did see him mom. I was there, right behind the glass. It brought back all those memories from a long time ago. I shouldn’t have gone” I whispered. “Honey, it was just a matter of time that you saw him again” she paused, “ You know Trina still lives 2 minutes away from us. Sometimes I see her at the store. She asks about you, everyone does. They love you honey, and from the way Sidney sounded on the phone this morning, I can tell he still loves you too” she said, in all honesty. “Well mom, that ended 5 years ago. He is 23 now, I am 22. I think his feelings might have changed” I said. I could hear her sigh. “Mom I have to get back to work. I will call you later when I get home” I said. She said goodbye and I hung up the phone.
I sighed. I didn’t know what to do about him. He hadn’t even contacted me, or tried to since I saw him at the coffee shop. “Whatever” I said aloud and shook the thoughts of him from my head. I picked up my pen and looked at the clock. It was 11:30 and I had an appointment to get to.