Chapter Text
“Ilya?”
There was just a short silence before a familiar voice responded to the caller.
“You were expecting someone else? To answer my phone, Sveta?” Ilya asked dryly.
“Well if you must know, I was expecting or maybe even hoping that I would get that obnoxious voicemail message of yours,” Svetlana answered curtly, matching Ilya’s less than warm greeting.
Ilya, on his sofa, furrowed his brow- clearly confused.
“So, you called my phone hoping to NOT talk to me, Svetlana? Unless I’m missing something, that really makes no sense. So, may I ask why you would do that?”
“Really, Ilya? I thought that I was talking to a well-respected and very capable detective. One who could easily figure out my why.”
“Well, I am not on duty tonight, so…”
“Ilya, I had hoped that you wouldn’t be able to answer your phone because I had hoped that Shane Hollander would be keeping you much too… busy and preoccupied to get to it,” she replied, as Ilya could hear just the slightest giggle coming from his friend once she had responded.
Ilya took a deep breath, as he closed his eyes. As he released it slowly, there was no attempt on his part to cover it up.
“Ilya. What… what is it?” Svetlana’s tone had become much more serious.
“Nothing. But as you have surely deduced by now, no one is keeping me busy or otherwise engaged. I am at home getting ready for bed, and…”
“And?”
Ilya shook his head slowly.
“And I can only assume that Shane Hollander is at his home, doing whatever it is that he might do at home.”
Ilya’s words were definitely not what Svetlana had expected. She had seen both her friend and Shane Hollander earlier at the arena, and what she had seen was two grown men trying hard (but failing just as hard) to hide their eager anticipation for whatever the rest of the night would bring.
“So, did things not go well at the club?” Svetlana asked, her voice sounding much more sympathetic.
At that moment, Ilya really wished that he had chosen to let the call go to voicemail. In fact, he almost did because Svetlana’s inquiry into his night with Shane was what he did not want to deal with then. But he knew that if not tonight, then it would surely come the next day. If asked, however, Ilya would have to admit that hearing a friend’s voice after the way things ended with Shane was something that he needed.
“Ilya. Tell me. Are you ok? Did something happen?”
*****
Shane had only a moment to think about what he should do about the sudden interruption that was a text from Rose. He could ignore it, but that might seem like he was trying to hide something. He didn’t want to come across as shady. Or, he could read it quickly… but that might come across as a little rude. He and Ilya had been having a good time and, in his opinion, had made a connection. So much of one that Shane could imagine another night like the one that had yet to end.
In a quick decision, he read the message. It was a simple congratulatory text in which Rose proclaimed him as the MVP of the night and how she looked forward to seeing him the next night. And once again, Shane was unsure of how to feel. Over the course of getting to know Rose, he had truly come to appreciate her support of him as a player. She knew hockey, so her opinion meant something to him. But that support had come at the most inopportune time. And now he wasn’t really sure how that would impact the rest of his time with Ilya.
“I’m sorry about that. I should…”
“No need to apologize,” Ilya replied, clearing his throat, as if to remove any trace of emotion from his voice. “You are a very popular person. So, if you need to take more time to…”
“No, no. I don’t. I just…”
“You don’t need to explain anything. We were already on our way out,” Ilya replied as he continued to walk outside.
A slightly deflated Shane didn’t really know what to say and he couldn’t apologize anymore. So, he followed the detective out.
“Well, I’m really glad that you came tonight and that we got a chance to know each other a little better,” Shane said, accepting the fact that their night had indeed come to an end.
Ilya’s reply was direct and succinct.
“Me, too.”
“Maybe we can do it again sometime,” Shane pressed, hoping for more of a reaction from Ilya- one that he could feel better about than Ilya’s previous unenthusiastic two-word response.
“Yeah, maybe.”
Not much better- but Shane chose to focus on the “yeah”.
He nodded and tried again.
“Ok. Uh, so shall we exchange numbers?”
Despite himself, Ilya knew that there was no way that he was going to refuse. While he wasn’t feeling as hopeful about things as he had before the text, there was a small part of him that wasn’t about to give up. But he still played it close to the vest.
“Sure.”
And they did. But even so, Shane could tell that there was a shift in Ilya’s demeanor- one that he didn’t know whether or not would have a lasting impact- negative or not.
*****
After sharing details from the night with Svetlana, once he realized that she wasn’t going to drop her questions, Ilya got to a stopping point.
Svetlana, who had been concerned that something was wrong, was surprised by her friend’s silence. So, she took that as her opportunity to dig further.
“Well, Ilya. All of that sounds great. I mean the two of you closed the place!” she said, as if more than impressed.
For the first time since the text, Ilya found himself smiling-but only slightly.
“It was,” he replied softly. “It was until he got a text.”
“A text?”
“Yes… from Rose Landry.”
Ilya, ever the detective, assumed from Shane’s reactions that it had to have been his girlfriend. He seemed to focus on explaining it away.
Svetlana wanted to ask Ilya how he could have known that for sure, but she chose not to and went with another question.
“And he texted her back while you were walking out?”
“No.”
“Oh, so he called her?”
“No.”
As she held her phone, Svetlana shook her head slowly.
“Ok. And I’m assuming that he didn’t run off to see her as soon as he saw the text?” Svetlana asked, barely trying to hide her sarcasm.
“No, Svetlana. He read it and…”
“And?”
“And he put his phone away and apologized.”
Svetlana let out a not so quiet sigh-one that Ilya heard loud and clear.
“So, Ilya. What’s the problem? Why are you acting like you just had the worst date ever?”
“Sveta. For one, this was not a date,” Ilya insisted. “And two… He has a girlfriend. A very nice girlfriend who I’ve met. It’s obvious that he was only trying to be nice. And now that he has, he can go back to focusing on Rose Landry. Whatever you think you’re hearing from me is just me being tired. As you know, this was a late night for me.”
This time, Svetlana responded with a louder and more exaggerated sigh.
“What?” Ilya asked in an annoyed tone.
“For a detective, you’re really not putting all of the pieces together, Ilya.”
“What pieces, Sveta?”
“Alright, let’s look at the evidence, shall we?”
Ilya, hoping that his friend could actually show him what he just couldn’t see, waited on the other line without saying a word.
“He invited you to one of his games, Ilya. And I know that you can’t tell me whatever it is that you helped him with, but if it was police-related, that was your job. He could have thanked you and that would have been sufficient. But he went way beyond that. And let me not get started on how great those seats were. They were worth a lot more than just a thank you from an “ordinary” citizen to another one. Then he invited you to join him afterwards at a club with his teammates. Ilya, do you not get how huge that was?” Svetlana didn’t pause for an answer because she still had more of a point to prove to her friend.
“Even if you nor Shane Hollander would not call what you had tonight a date, that’s exactly what it was, Ilya. A date that, to keep the gossip down, could absolutely be framed as a ‘thank you” is exactly something someone as smart and as media savvy as Shane Hollander would come up with if he’s testing the waters.”
“Testing the waters?” an increasingly interested Ilya asked.
“Yes, testing the waters. When he gave you the tickets, he had no way of knowing if you’d be into him as in more than just a potential friend. The tickets were just the first step.”
“And the second step?”
“Going out to the club afterwards. You know, the thing you did once you ditched me,” Svetlana eagerly reminded him.
Ilya started to object, but his friend was right. Technically, by asking her to refuse to go along with them, he was able to do just that- ditch her.
“And once he saw that I wasn’t a threat…Oh wait. Did he ask about our relationship?” Svetlana asked, likely collecting more evidence to prove her point.
“Yes. He did.”
“And?”
“Well. He did seem to relax more...once I told him that we were good… friends,” Ilya answered somewhat begrudgingly.
“Exactly! Testing the waters!”
Ilya sat with that for a moment, as if that was what Svetlana wanted when she made the choice to not speak for a few moments. As he thought about the case that she had laid out, he was tempted to see exactly what she was getting at. But he couldn’t ignore the Rose Landry of it all and how it impacted the ending of their night.
And as if she was reading his mind and knew exactly when to end her silence, Svetlana’s voice came through on the other end of the line.
“And the last test. The one needed to see where things could go for the two of you. He asked to exchange numbers. And that, coming AFTER the text, Detective Rozanov, means that Shane Hollander wants to see you again! If Rose Landry was truly the only one on his mind, he wouldn’t have been thinking about your number for future reference.”
“Maybe. But…”
“But nothing, Ilya. You know very well that I’m right. And as a matter of fact, I’m so right that I predict that by the end of this phone call or, at the very latest, before you go to sleep tonight, that you will get a text from him asking you out again with a locked in time,” Svetlana declared confidently.
“Hmph. I think that someone is maybe just a little too confident,” Ilya replied, not so sure of Svetlana’s guarantee.
“Well, when you’re right, it’s easy to be as confident as I am.”
“Is that so?”
“Absolutely. Would you like to wager a bet since you doubt my prediction?”
Grateful for the distraction from how he felt the night had ended; Ilya was willing to play along.
“Ok. So, if you are right about a text coming “soon”, what would you expect to win?”
Svetlana paused to consider the possibility of what she was sure was a sure bet.
“Alright. When you and Shane Hollander become one of the hottest couples around, I’ll get tickets to another game and the chance to meet the rest of the Metros.”
“Very high stakes,” Ilya chuckled. “And if by the rarest of chances you lose, what do I get?”
“Hmm. I will take you out to eat at that little Russian restaurant that you love so much."
And just before he was all set to accept the wager and conditions, Ilya saw a notification of a text. A text that had been predicted. A text that made him forget that he was in the middle of a conversation with the one whose prediction had just been verified.
“Well, Ilya?” Svetlana’s voice called out, as if she was trying to get through to him.
“Hmm. Yes… yes, Svetlana. The restaurant… that would be great.”
From his stammering and the silence preceding it, Svetlana knew without Ilya telling her anything at all.
“Yes, it would. But I don’t think we’ll be going anytime soon.”
“We won’t?” Ilya asked curiously.
“No, Ilya. I’m pretty sure that you have a text to read and to answer. So, I will talk to you tomorrow when you can tell me all about it.”
“But, Svetlana,” Ilya tried to object, while sounding quite unconvincing.
“Goodnight, Ilya. And answer the text."
After that, there was silence on the line and an unresponded to text from Shane Hollander. A text that had been predicted and a text that brought out a sigh of relief from the detective who had missed all the signs that his good friend had laid out before him so well.
Now, it was all up to him. Read the text and respond. Take a chance and see just where things could go with the beautiful hockey player.