Chapter 83 – Tabloid

AN: The Caps are on to round 2!!



Sasha’s POV


When I came home from a five game road trip Nef and my mom were sitting in the living room talking. Under normal circumstances this would have been okay but considering where we’d been for the last year and change I was nervous. I didn’t know what would come of the two of them meeting without a mediator.

”How are you two doing?”

”Good, your mom is showing me pictures of you when you were little!”

”Oh no, this can’t be good.”

”Hush now,” my mom admonished.

”Oh this one is soo cute!!” Nef nearly squealed.

She held a picture; I couldn’t have been older than two.

”That was when he was first potty trained,” my mom said. ”One day he just took his diaper off and said “Big Boy.” After that his father and I decided that it was time for him to be potty trained.”

I looked closer and sure enough it was me sitting on the toilet. Crap. I went to take the picture away from Nef but she held it out of my reach.

”Put those away,” I said.

Of course they both ignored me. Maybe my mom and my girlfriend getting along was a bad idea? After dropping off my stuff in the laundry room I went to my room to change before heading back downstairs. I inserted myself on the couch between them. My mom had given Nef several of the pictures to keep.

”They better not ever see the light of day.” Nef rolled her eyes at me before leaning on my shoulder.

I wrapped my arms around her and just held her. I’d been gone for 12 days.

”So, family dinner,” Nef said. ”We have a date but is it going to be here, my parents' house, or neutral ground?”

”Did you tell them it was my fault we haven’t done it yet?”

”Maybe?” Of course she would. I tickled her sides and she nearly elbowed me in the stomach trying to get away.

”Ahhh no! Stop!” She called me a bully as she scrambled to sit on the other couch. ”You stay over there.”

My mom made dinner and Nef decided to hang out in the kitchen with her to help planned for the dinner with our families. We would be having it at my house like originally planned in January. It was just easier for my schedule and it would be easier on my mom. I sat in the living room watching television, relaxing from a long, hard road trip. I’d been there for maybe about half an hour before my phone rang. It was Lana. I hadn’t talked to her for a little while. It was a little weird for her to be calling since there is a 12 hour time difference between DC and Krasnoyarsk.

”Hi Lana, what’s up?” I said.

”We have a problem?”

”What? What are you talking about?”

She told me to get in front of a computer. There was a tabloid story running that I needed to see. I didn’t pay attention to tabloids. They ran nothing but lies and garbage. I tried to stay as far away from them as I could. When I pulled up the website for Russia weekly, the equivalent of US weekly, the headline read “Tragedy Strikes Alexander Semin’s American Dame: Infidelity and a Miscarriage.” There were pictures from the NHL awards, from Nef’s trip to Russia over the summer – the day of our lake trip, when we went to Club Mio, and pictures from the time Nadiya, Lana, and other friends of ours went out in Krasnoyarsk. There are few things in life that make me angry but I could barely contain the rage that was flowing through me.

I must have cursed or done something because my mom and Nef came back into the living room asking me what’s wrong. I showed them the article. My mother’s face blanched but Nef looked rather unaffected. She sat down beside me and read the article.

”Alexander Semin’s American Dame, Nefertiti Hassan, has recently been the victim of tragic circumstances. Shortly after the New Year and Christmas Holiday Nefertiti found out that the Snarling Siberian had been unfaithful during his summer break at home in Krasnoyarsk. He had been seen at the popular Club Mio with both Nefertiti and his summer lover. Immediately after this revelation Nefertiti was rushed to the hospital where she found out that she had lost the child she was carrying.

Russian Weekly has identified Alexander’s summer time lover as Nadiya Sergiovicha, childhood friend of Alexander. It seems that his mother declaration of America admirers was true. Does this mean that Alexander is indeed settling down with a Russian Beauty? ”

”Well I guess we know what Nadiya’s been up too.” Nef said as she finished reading the article.

”How do you know it’s Nadiya?” my mother asked.

”Look at the pictures. They’re taking by someone who was there at these events with us. They’re not paparazzi photos. There are none from the other times we went out in Krasnoyarsk. There weren’t any reporters or paparazzi following us around. ”

It made sense. When looking at the pictures in the article I realized that Nef was completely right and had been completely right all along about Nadiya. My mom went upstairs, presumably to call Nadiya. I hadn't spoken to her since that day. I honestly did even know when she left to go back to Russia. If I never saw her again it would be too soon. I was doing my best to forget that she even existed.

There was nothing we could do. This wasn’t the first time my name had popped up in a tabloid paper and it probably wouldn’t be the last. I tried as hard as I could to keep my private life private and out of the media.

When I went to practice the following day Kettler was swarmed with Russia reporters. There’s always a presence of foreign media but very rarely are the more than Dmitry Chesnokov and maybe one or two other Russian reporters. Today there were a lot more. I immediately went to Bruce and George. They called Ted on the phone and we had a meeting where I told them everything. I had spoken to Nef about what she wanted to do. Her response had been “I don’t live in Russia. I don’t care what they think. If you want to tell them or sit for an interview that’s fine but I don’t want stories about my miscarriage splashed across the front page of every tabloid.”

I chose to ignore it. I didn’t give any interviews about anything other than hockey. Nef and I tried to go on about our lives as normal. Any media personnel that tried to force the issue had their media pass revoked by Caps staff. That lasted to about two days. The same tabloid ran another article. This time a reporter had interview Nadiya about what had been happening over the past few months. She spoke about how her and my mother had gotten along, about how my mother had preferred her over Nef, she even went as far as to say she thought that Nef had gotten pregnant on purpose because she thought that I was going to leave her.

I tried to keep it as far away from Nef as I could. Whenever a report asked a question that was related to her I ignored it. But when the tabloid and Nadiya started to talk about her trying to trap me and about how my mother tried to drive Nef away I agreed to talk to a Dmitry Chesnokov and one other Russian Reporter. I worked with my agent and Ted’s PR team to arrange a meeting. Nef and I had decided that she would attend. We’re not hiding our relationship. We simply tried to avoid the media spotlight. I hate having my private life splashed across the front pages of the news. I hate having people scrutinizing my private affairs. I wanted to shield her from this as much as I could. Hell even during interviews for the Winter Classic when I was asked who I had with me I’d never answered any questions about having a girlfriend…even when Nef was standing right beside me. Nef is a good person and the last thing I want was for the media to try and tear her apart.


Nef’s POV


I should be in the library studying for class but instead I’m sitting across from two Russian journalists talking about one of the most private things in my life. It seems that as of late Nadiya has taken to giving interviews with Russian media outlets about her “affair” with Sasha. She’s gone so far as to suggest that I got pregnant to keep Sasha from leaving me for her. We started off trying to ignore it but it has gotten progressively worse. It’s got to the point where local US media outlets are hounding Sasha and myself for interviews. There have been reporters camped out at the end of the cul de sack where Sasha lives for the past three days. It’s getting to be a little ridiculous.

I kinda, sort of, knew Dmitry. Sasha had done interviews with him before. He was nice and respectful and kept all of his questions related to hockey. The second reporter, a woman whose name I didn’t catch, was not as pleasant. She seemed to be more focused of getting “dirty” details from us. I swear she was disappointed when Sasha said that he hadn’t cheated on me.

”Nadiya had been a friend of mine since we were kids. Our moms met because they worked at the same bank. We she came back home from University at the beginning of last summer our moms thought it would be good for me to show her around. She’d been away from Krasnoyarsk for a few years.”

”She came to Washington right after New Years, was that your idea?” the female reporter asked.

”No, that was my mother’s idea. Nadiya had been looking at going to graduate school in DC. My mother invited her to come so she could look at schools. I assumed it was because they didn’t want her to be alone in a strange place.”

”Did you know about Nadiya?” Dmitry asked me.

”Yes, I first spoke to her over the phone last June and then I met her in person when I came to Russia in July. She seemed nice enough. We hung out a few times during the week or so I was in Krasnoyarsk.”

”Do you believe that Alexander slept with Nadiya?” the female reporter.

”Sasha has been nothing but honest with me during our entire relationship. Has she tried to sleep with him? Yes. Has she been successful? No. Has she tried to convince me that she has? Yes.”

”Is it true that your mother preferred Nadiya over Nefertiti?”

”Yes, our families have known each other for a very long time. To my mom Nadiya was safe. She was someone she could trust.” or so she thought.

”Was this one of the reasons for the start of your slump?” Dmitry had been trying to bring the conversation back to hockey.

”Sort of, I was playing with an injury at first and then I didn’t take any time off to deal with our loss. Hockey was constant, it helped keep me sane. It gave me a purpose when it felt like my world was falling apart. I probably should have taken the time off but I couldn’t. I’d been out injured and I hadn’t been scoring goals so I didn’t take any time off.”

”Part of that was my fault. I ended up going away for a little while. I had my mom and my grandmother to help me through it.” I said. ”But I still needed to get away from here. I thought I needed to be away from Sasha to sort things out.”

The entire interview lasted about an hour and a half. I really hoped I wouldn’t have to go through this again. We’d been working so hard to deal with losing a child and it seemed like all the progress we’d made was being torn apart.
Sasha apologized to me yet again. He’d been doing that a lot lately. I guess he was worried about me being upset and running away again. I’m not doing that any more. I’ve run enough. I’m not leaving and I’m not letting anyone take what’s mine.