021

Over three-hundred channels on my TV and there was nothing worth watching on. After my shopping spree I felt better, but the next morning I was back in my funk. I tried sleeping in my bed, but it felt like something missing. Well something was missing, Sidney. I turned the TV off and took a quick shower, I knew he would be coming home at any minute and I needed to cheer up a bit. I heard my phone ringing and I ran for it, hoping it was him saying he would be home in a few minutes, but it was James. "Hi James," I answered. "Hey Avery, just calling to let you know everything is installed, took longer than expected but we are ready to start building. I will be down here for the rest of the day if you wanted to come swing by and see everything." "Oh I can't wait, today is a bad day though, I will swing by tomorrow morning. You don't have to be there, take a day off," I laughed. "Okay, well check it out let me know what you think, if there's anything you want to change. Then once I get your okay we will start building. I don't need anymore manual labor out of you, just supervision. Hey Avery, how are you doing, you doing alright, you sound kind of down." "Yeah, I'm just really tired, I haven't gotten much sleep these past few days, just drawing up sketches for the bar." Lies, lies, lies. "Okay, talk to you soon. Bye." I hung the phone up and cuddled back up onto the couch with a blanket.

I stretched my legs out and felt myself kicking someone. I opened my eyes and was shocked to see Sidney sitting at the other end of the couch. I perked up and looked at him with a smile. "Baby, why didn't you wake me up?" I asked as I crawled over to him. "Avery, not to sound mean or anything, but you look like shit. It looks like you haven't slept since I left. I didn't want to wake you up," he said before giving me a kiss. I slumped down into his arms and he ran his fingers through my damp hair. "How long have you been here?" "About a hour now. Babe, what's wrong? You seem off." I couldn't control it, I began to cry and I didn't know why. He pulled me up into arms so he could look me in the eyes. "Avery, talk to me." "I don't know Sid, I don't know. I've been like this ever since you left. I left the house once, to go shopping and I came home with six pairs of shoes. SIX!! I just, I don't know." "You haven't even been to the warehouse?" "No, I've been sitting right here, and I've been sleeping out here. I've missed you, but I think it's more than that, I'm just depressed. I've been thinking a lot, and I'm scared I might not be able to have children Sid, that scares the crap out of me. I knew I was late, but I didn't think anything about it, and then all of a sudden to have a miscarriage without even knowing I was pregnant, that scares me. What if something is wrong with me, and I can't have kids." Sidney didn't say anything he just pulled me into his arms and allowed me to cry. "The doctor said you need to see your OB/GYN for your yearly, just to check things out and make sure everything is okay. I will go with you if you want," he explained to me and I could only nod my head.

The next morning I woke up in Sidney's arms on the couch. I could hear my phone ringing in the kitchen so I jumped up and answered it. "Hi Avery, this is Melissa from the lingerie shop. I was hoping that invitation to the game tomorrow still stood." "Of course, do you know where Ziggy's is by Mellon Arena? I can meet you there at five tomorrow night before the game," I smiled. "That would be awesome, thank you so much Avery, Andrew, my roommate is going to flip." She had a cute laugh. I immediately called Colby. "Hey beautiful, what's up?" he asked answering the phone. "I met a girl for you. She's young, beautiful and very perky, both physically and in her personality," I laughed. There was silence. "I'm bringing her to the game tomorrow, when I met her I couldn't get you out of my head and how perfect you guys might be together." "Avery, I'm blushing. That means I have to look really good tomorrow. Okay, if she's amazing I owe you my first born," he laughed. After I hung up the phone with Colby I walked back over to Sidney who was starring at me with one eye open. "Hey want to come check out the warehouse?" I asked him with a big smile on my face. "I would love to. Know what else I love? Seeing you smile."

Sidney parked in front of the warehouse and I began to get chills up my arms, I was very excited to see what the guys have done inside. I unlocked the door and walked in, a huge smile came over my face as I saw the bottle-filling equipment along with the keg-fillers and the fermentors up front. "Wow, I love the copper, this looks amazing. So what's happening with the rest of this empty space?" Sidney asked. "Right up front, most of this area is going to be a pub, all of the offices over there, and right here in front of the fermentors I want glass so you can see them from the bar. I want the pub to be two stories, with a bar on each level, upstairs being more classy." "This is going to be amazing Avery, I can't wait to see everything come together. When's the projected grand opening?" "Well, we should be finished in late May, early June, but I want to wait until after the playoffs are over to open it," I smiled knowing he would like that answer. "Hey now, don't jinx nothing," he laughed pulling me into a hug. "What's your title then?" "Well my masters is in science, but even if I didn't have a masters I would still get the same title thanks to my dad. So you're looking at the Brewmaster of Red Hook Pittsburgh," I laughed.

On the drive home, I began to think about what I wanted the public house to be called. "So my dad's brewery is the Forecasters Public House because well, it's Seattle. I don't know what I want mine to be called. What about Fraggle Public House?" "Broken Nose Public House," Sidney immediately answered with a chuckle. "Now that I think about it, I think a hockey themed name would be perfect, then we can pull a hockey theme throughout the pub. Center Ice Public House, Danglers Public House, Sauce Chucker Public House," I began to laugh. "I actually like that, Danglers Public House. Lamp Lighters Public House. Top Shelf Public House. This isn't easy," Sidney laughed. "Well when we get home we'll have to write a bunch of them down. I want some insight from Colby and Max too." "Invite them over for dinner tonight, I'm sure they want to see you, it's been awhile."

Colby wrapped his arms around me and just like that the sunshine was back in my life. I went from Colby and threw myself into Max's arms. "Hi baby girl," he whispered into my ear and his lips came very close to my neck. We all sat down on the couch and I pulled out the very short list of names Sidney and I had come up with. "So the name has to have Public House attached to the end of it, that's one of the things my dad asked of me. Top of the list right now is Danglers Public House," I said to them as I handed the list to Colby. "Oh I love that," Max smiled. "What if you just called it Penguins Public House?" Colby asked. I thought about it for a minute. "I don't know, the whole naming issue thing. That might be a little tricky. I really want it somewhat hockey themed though," I replied. "What about Thunderbird Public House?" Colby asked again. My eyes perked up a little bit. Even though Riley played for the junior team in Everett, my heart belonged to the junior team in Seattle, the Thunderbirds. "I like that a lot," I smiled as I wrote it down. "You can decorate the inside with a lot of the Thunderbird stuff, going with the hockey theme and keeping in tied in with the northwest roots." "Colby, I love you, this is genius." I looked over at Sidney and he was just smiling at me.