#hallmark fluff

Contrary to what everyone thinks, Sidney likes his house.  He does.   

He likes the way the light shines into his living space and the layout of the main floor, the way everything is open and airy.  He loves the location of his bedroom and the shower in the en suite is probably one of the best things he’s ever invested in. It’s big enough but not too big, the kitchen is great and back yard is really wonderful. It’s a really great house.

He just—he doesn’t know how to make it feel like home.

He started by filling it with furniture that he picked and really likes.  And that made it better but it still wasn’t quite what he wanted. Then he’d gone to Tanger’s house for dinner and realized that their house felt so...warm.  Not warm in temperature but in color and design.  There were so many things besides just the furniture.  Photos, paintings, art, plants, pillows, throws—so he’d enlisted Catherine’s help and together they spent hours and hours at Target and Ikea and then several more hours placing things throughout the house and Sidney really liked the result.  It looked really great and it was nice having the extra throws and the pillows on the couch and he even liked his new house plants.  It was great.

But it still wasn’t right.

He thought maybe it was just because the house was new, the furniture was new, all the art and random house things—all of it was new.  So he gave it a few months until much of it was gently worn and a little cozier and he liked that.

But it still wasn’t enough.

He tried new paint colors, fresh flowers, interesting landscaping and even had his friends over for dinner a few times.  And he enjoyed all of those things—both the process of planning them and then actually having them.  

But at the end of day he still goes to bed feeling slightly off center, like something is missing.

Sidney isn’t stupid.  He realizes that the friends whose houses he spends the most time at— Flower, Kuni, Duper, Tanger, Horny—they all have families. And maybe he’d think that was it but every time he dates someone and invites them over, he mostly just looks forward to them leaving at the end of the evening so he can have his space again.  And besides, lots of people live alone and don’t have this issue so it can’t be that.

When the holiday season rolls around, between games, practice, interviews and holiday parties, Sid’s schedule is packed.

By the middle of December he’s already going to his fourth holiday party—this one at Flower’s. Sid has always enjoyed Christmas lights and decoration as much as the next person but when he pulls into Flower’s driveway, his first thought is “Wow.”

Flower’s house looks amazing.  He’s even had some landscaping done in the front to add new bushes and trees that lights are draped around.

His second thought is,This must have taken him days. Where does he find the time?

Between games and practice and road trips and, frankly, everyone else’s holiday parties, Sidney doesn’t even have up a tree yet let alone a single strand of lights.  He’ll be lucky if he manages to get some kind of wreath on the door—though he doubts it will matter.  Christmas decorations are fun but he doesn’t have kids running around or family visiting or even any parties planned so will anyone even see them?

He shrugs and gets out of his car, whistling at the the small trees lining the path to the door, all lit up with muted blue lights. It’s a nice touch, he thinks, and figures he’ll tell Flower as much.

Except when he gets inside, he temporarily forgets about the little trees because inside looks, if it’s possible, even more amazing than outside.  A soft theme of blue and white has been carried throughout the house and even though there are lights and trees and decorations everywhere, none of it seems overdone or obnoxious.  

It’s a nice night with good friends.  Sid adores all of these people and he loves being around them and their families. He compliments Flower on the house as they’re both loading their plates up in the kitchen.  

“Everything looks amazing!  How did you find time for any of this?”

“You’re kidding right? You think I did this?”

“You didn’t?”

Flower claps Sid’s shoulder. “I appreciate the vote of confidence but no.  We hired this guy that someone recommended to us and I don’t think I’ll ever hang a Christmas decoration by myself again.”

“That good, huh?”

Flower stuffs a too-big bite of turkey into his mouth before motioning around the house.  

“Yeah, you have a point.”

“I can get you his number if you want.  Nice guy and he knows hockey. Big Russian dude. I don’t know where he learned to do all of this and I don’t care. All I care about is that it made Vero and kids happy and I didn’t have to break anything getting any of it up.”

Sid cocks a grin. “Yeah, okay.  I’ll let you know.”

--

Sid is sweaty and annoyed.

After walking around his house all morning the day after Flower’s party, he decided fuck it and dragged out the tree and few strands of lights he could find in his closet.

Everything is a disaster.  The artificial tree is losing more needles than it’s actually retaining and it keeps leaning no matter what Sid does.  He put three strands of lights on the tree before thinking to plug them in only to find that half of the first strand won’t light up, the second strand blinks and the third strand is only red and green.

He says a lot of words, none of them nice, before abandoning the tree to try to wrap the remaining strand of lights around the stair banister.  It stretches approximately five steps up and it’s not until he gets to that point that he realizes there’s nowhere even remotely close to plug it in.  

Just fuck everything.

He gives up and calls Flower.

--

The russian man, Geno, seems a little surprised at all that Sid wants done with so little time until Christmas but he is confident he can do it and agrees to come out later in the day to do a “walk around.”  Whatever that means.

As it turns out, “walk around” means exactly that.  They walk around Sid’s property, both inside and out, and Geno asks Sid a lot of questions to try to determine what he likes while jotting notes into a little notebook.

Sid gets a little frustrated because he doesn’t really know what he likes in terms of decorations.  It’s more about how it makes him feel but he doesn’t know how to explain that and he probably wouldn’t explain it to this man he just met even if he could.  So he sticks with what he knows about his style in general.

“Simple.”

“Simple.  Okay, can work with that.”  He leads Sid to the center of the front yard, facing the house.  “Okay, if you can picture.  What if we do…”  And he describes a display that would probably make Sid’s house look like it belongs on the cover of a magazine.  And Sid is sure it would be beautiful but…

“Sid? You not like idea?”

“No, it’s not that! It sounds really nice. I just…”  Sid looks around his yard.

“Is okay to tell me.  Won’t hurt feelings.”  Geno offers him up a soft smile. “Your house.  Need to like how it looks.”

Sid smiles back and takes a deep breath.  “I...yeah.  And it does sound really nice but maybe a little, I don’t know...sterile?”

Geno nods. “Can work with that. You want simple but not impersonal?”

“Something like that, yeah.” Sid gives Geno a sheepish smile.

“Okay, I have idea.  Let’s go inside where warm, let me walk through again and then I have another question or two for you and show you some pictures.  Might help with ideas.”

“That would be great.”  

They head in and Sid walks through with Geno again, wondering what it is about his house that has Geno looking so thoughtful and jotting down notes here and there.

They circle back around to Sid’s kitchen.  “Would you like some coffee or tea? Or, I think I have some juice.”

“Tea is great,” Geno says, looking around again before his eyes land on the bouquet of flowers on Sid’s kitchen table. He’s taken to buying fresh ones for the kitchen and living room every week.  He kind of likes how all the different colors seem to brighten things up. “We sit at table?”

“Yeah, sure. Go ahead. I’ll be right there.”

Once the tea is made and they’re settled, Geno flips through his notebook again. “You say you really like Marc’s house when you see.  What did you like about it?”

“Oh wow.  Well…” Sid trails off and thinks for a moment. “I guess I liked that it all seemed so, I don’t know. Warm...and friendly.  I liked the blue.  And even though there was a lot, it didn’t seem too busy, you know? I guess I liked that it was unique without looking like three thousand boxes of lights threw up on the house.”

Geno grins. “Right.  Better check that idea off list.”  He makes a show of making a mark on an empty notebook page and Sid laughs.  

“I know you wouldn’t do anything tacky like that.”

“I do what client want.  But if I get own preference? I try to avoid that.”

“I’m sorry if I’m being too difficult.”

Geno shakes his head.  “You not.  Really.  Trust me, this nothing. Besides, think I’m start to get idea about what you may like.”

“Yeah?”

“What do you think about lots of colors? If do carefully?”

Sid turns that over in his mind for a moment.  It makes him think about the lights on the tree when he was growing up, always multi colored and twinkling.  He smiles. “I like that.”

“Ok good!  Good place to start.  Now,” he pulls the tablet forward again and opens up an album.  “You scroll through these?  Your house will have own unique look but might give some idea of things you like.”

Sid nods and pulls his chair around a little so he can point things out to Geno.  He flips through and mentions various things that he likes (and a few he really doesn’t) until he gets to a picture of the most beautiful tree he’s ever seen.  It’s very simple, with muted multi colored lights that somehow seem to give off an almost soft purple-blue hue even though there are several colors on the strands.  The ornaments don’t match—they just seem like a hodgepodge of random things but Sid loves that.  Off to the side, he can see the end of a banister wrapped in evergreen garland and the same lights as the tree. He can see the end of what appears to be a rumpled blanket balled on the sofa and there’s a dog flopped down on top of a house slipper.  And this—he loves this.

He doesn’t realize he’s smiling until Geno says, “What you see that make you smile like that?”

Sid turns the tablet around and Geno lets out a soft snort of laughter.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing wrong.  Just—that my house.  Not professional photo, just one I snap to show that type of light. Sam almost ruin picture.”

“Sam?”

“My dog. Very goofy but love him anyway.” Geno grins.

“No way. My dog’s name is Sam, too!”

Geno glances around looking a little confused.

“Oh.  She’s in Nova Scotia with my parents. I’m away too much to have her here.”

“Must be big bummer.”

“Yeah, it is.  She’s the best.” Sidney smiles fondly, thinking of her and wishing not for the first or last time that she could be here with him.

“Best name for best dogs.” Geno winks at him and Sidney can’t help laughing.

“Okay, let’s talk about what you like.”  

So they do and it takes another hour but when Sid sees Geno to the door, Geno has created a detailed plan and has set up a time to come back the next day to get everything started.

--

Sidney loves the way his house looks.

He really, really loves it.  

Somehow Geno managed to figure out what Sid would like when Sid himself didn’t even know.  Every single part-the yard, the trim, the tree, the inside decorations—all of it is so perfect and Sid happily forks over every penny he owes Geno along with a generous tip.

Sid doesn’t think it’s too much to also send him Pens tickets and a Pens collar and toy for his Sam.  

When the holiday season is over, Sid hires Geno to redesign his landscaping.

In April he calls on Geno to redesign the front to include spring flowers.

The holiday lights, the landscaping, the flowers—that stuff still doesn’t give him the feeling he’s looking for in his house but he likes it and maybe he’s imagining it but he feels like he’s a little closer to it every time.

In late May Geno calls Sid outside to show him the end results of the project he just finished up—changes to the trees and some new planters. Once he’s sure Sid’s happy with the results, he nods and squares his shoulders but just as he opens his mouth to talk, Sid speaks instead. “I was thinking maybe when fall rolls around, we could do something new again.”

Geno frowns and doesn’t hide it in time.

“I, or... no?”  

“Can wait five minutes before you hire me again, Sid?”  He looks a little flustered and Sid flushes deeply.

“Oh. I—sorry? I just thought, um. I didn’t realize you didn’t want... That’s okay.  I won’t bug you again.  Thanks again, though. For all this. I…”  Sid trails off, not understanding the sting he feels in his chest but wanting very much for this moment to be over.

Geno huffs. “Sid, not care you hire me so much, just need you to wait five minutes because I can’t ask out client and if you hire me right away you still client.”

Sid’s head snaps up, eyes wide as he meets Geno’s. It takes him a few long seconds to comprehend what Geno said but then—“You’re asking me out?”

Geno steps closer with a soft smile.  “Want to, if you want, too.  If you say no, that okay too. I just want to for awhile now and won’t know until I try, yes?”

And that—Sidney knows he’s still blushing but he doesn’t care much.  He offers up a soft smile and slight nod. “Yeah. For sure.”

“Sid, would like to take you out sometime.  You want?”

“Yes.”

--

It’s almost Christmas again and it’s a rare night off for Sid.  They spent the evening cooking dinner and then eating together in Sid’s kitchen. Now they’re sitting together on the couch, Geno’s legs stretched out with Sid tucked close against him. Geno’s turned on all the Christmas lights and turned off all the rest of the lights because he knows how much Sid likes that. He went multi color again this year but this year, Sid didn’t hire Geno.

This year, they did it together.

Sid glances around in the dim light with a smile.  From where he’s sitting he can see a hoodie of Geno’s slung on the other end of the couch they’re sitting on.  There’s a book on the coffee table that Geno’s been reading and they’re covered up with a blanket that Geno’s Mom made for him several years ago.

There are a few dog toys scattered around and Geno’s Sam is sleeping on his side in front of the tree, body sprawled on top of one of Sid’s slippers. Sid’s Sam is right next to him, curled up around his head.

In between one breath and another, Sid realizes he hasn’t felt anything lacking for a long time.