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“Just us sounds nice.”
“Yeah,” he agrees. “It does.” He lets out another breath. “Alright, I really do need to let you go. Thanks for picking up my call. I feel better.”
“Is no problem.” A tightness forms in my chest, but I do need to get off this call before I say anything else stupid and ruin this friendship that is forming between us. I can ignore the fact that I’m attracted to him, that I’m thinking about him in ways I shouldn’t if I can keep the friendship. It’s clear we both need it with where our lives are right now. “I will see you in Vancouver.”
“Good night, Nikolai.”
“Good night, Ander,” I say, smiling from ear to ear as I shut my phone off and get ready to go to bed.
NINE
Ander
“Shit,” I say as I dig around in my suitcase looking for something to wear to dinner tonight.
“Shit what?” Tavish asks from where he’s reclined on his bed, propped up against pillows in our Vancouver hotel room. He’s scrolling through his phone.
“I can’t find my light blue shirt.” I start taking out each item of clothing one by one.
“What? Do you have a hot date or something?”
“No,” I huff out.
“If you say so.” He shakes his head as he continues to look at his phone.
I let out a breath of annoyance as I continue to flip through my clothing options piece by piece. Where is my shirt? I made sure it was clean before I packed it. It’s my favorite and it looks great with my light grey wool dress pants. I packed both items specifically for tonight. A nice outfit for dinner at a nice restaurant.
“Dude,” Tavish says, looking away from his phone. “You have an entire suitcase full of clothes. Wear something else.”
“I don’t want to wear something else.”
“Okay…” he says slowly. “It’s just a shirt. My ability to help here is limited. Do I need to get Gavin or something?”
I stop rifling through my clothes and look up at him. My eyes open wider. “Actually, yes, but not Gavin.” I get up from the floor and walk towards the door of our room. “I need Connor.”
“What you need is to put some fucking pants on!” Tavish yells and tosses my sweatpants at me. “Jesus. You were about to walk out of the room in your underwear.”
I grab the sweatpants which fell on the floor after they hit me and pull them on. After securing the drawstring, I point at him. “Good looking out.”
As I open the door and step out into the hall, I hear him sigh and say under his breath, “Fuck. Goalies are weird.”
Lucky for me, Gavin and Connor are in the room across from us. I knock on their door.
“Go away!” Gavin’s voice calls out from inside the room.
I knock again. “Open up. I need to borrow Connor.”
“We’re busy!” Gavin again.
But I hear footsteps coming towards the door in their room. The door opens, revealing Connor in his Blizzards sweatpants and sweatshirt. He looks cozy. Very much so with mussed up hair and slightly rosy cheeks.
“What’s up?” he asks cheerfully.
Gavin appears behind him wearing nothing but a towel. He slides his arms around Connor’s waist and rests his head on Connor’s shoulder. He’s staring at me like a bear whose dinner was just interrupted.
Whoops.
Oh well. He can wait.
