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“Babe? What's-“ Ryan looked next to him and sighed with a smile. “Of course I lost him.”
He got up from where he was crouched, looking at various beard products at the back of the Ottawa Sephora Fabian had dragged him into “just for a minute”. That was at least half an hour ago.
He quickly scanned the aisle he was in, but didn’t see Fabian. The store was an odd shape and he didn’t spot him anywhere. He turned to see if maybe he was in the aisle behind him, where all the hair tools were, but he wasn’t.
“Woah, you’re Ryan Price,” a man that had just turned around exclaimed.
Ryan gave him what he hoped was a friendly smile. The only downside to being in towns that had hockey teams, especially recently successful ones, meant there were hockey fans. And the possibility of being recognized was always higher. He had been sure Sephora would be a safe space from that at least.
“Hi. Yes, I’m me,” he replied awkwardly.
“Sorry, I just wasn’t expecting to see a hockey player in here.”
“Yeah, I hear that often.” Fabian tended to bring him lots of places a hockey player didn’t quite fit in.
Thankfully, the man was interrupted by a woman with a sales associate on her heels and Ryan bolted. Making small talk wasn’t his favourite thing on a good day.
The store, and the mall for that matter, was packed. He supposed with it being a beautiful summer Sunday, lots of people flocked to downtown Ottawa. They’d arrived the day before and Fabian had realized they packed the wrong toiletries bag, so an emergency trip to the mall was required for some essentials. Which meant more than essentials were acquired.
A quick trip to the mall’s Savers Drug Mart had revealed they didn’t carry most of the products Fabian liked (it was a smaller store than the one he was used to in Toronto), but thankfully there was a Sephora and Nordstrom too, and they had all the other products they’d need to survive the week, since Ryan’s suggestion that they use the products at their hotel was received with loud gasps and indignation. It wasn’t like they’d cheaped out. They were in a nice hotel downtown so Fabian was bored out of his time while Ryan was in the suburbs of the city for hockey camps. Those products they supplied in their room didn’t look cheap, and they smelled yummy too. Fabian hadn’t been convinced by Ryan’s argument.
They’d found all Fabian’s usual products at Sephora and the little basket had started to fill with a few other things. Fabian had suggested they look for that beard oil they were out of last time they’d gone through a Sephora and that’s when Fabian had disappeared.
Ryan found him holding three different sticks of… something next to his face. Fabian was fully concentrated on his reflection and didn’t seem to notice Ryan hovering next to him. He looked amazing and Ryan had to remind himself they were in public, but it was hard not to ogle his boyfriend when he was wearing denim ripped shorts and a white button-down, tied up to show off his bare stomach, with black suspenders and white runners. Ryan noticed some of the employees talking amongst themselves about Fabian’s makeup being perfectly flawless.
And Fabian still hadn’t noticed him.
“Hi. Forget me in the beard aisle,” Ryan asked with a smirk, bending to look at Fabian, kissing behind his ear.
Fabian gave him his most apologetic smile, biting his perfectly glossed bottom lip. Ryan couldn’t help but smile.
“Angélique – one of the fab employees here – walked by, and I just had to ask her what contour palette she was using.” Fabian waved one of the sticks and placed it in their basket before grabbing their other shopping bags. “I’m sorry, I’m done now.”
Ryan smiled and nodded. He still only understood a quarter of what Fabian said when he spoke of makeup.
“Which of these was I supposed to get,” Ryan asked, holding out both options for Fabian.
“Tom Ford, no question,” he answered pointing to the darker bottle Ryan was holding.
Ryan added it to the basket, grabbed it in one hand and Fabian’s free hand in his other, and led him to the line for the cash. They hadn’t been standing in line for more than five seconds, that Fabian let out an excited little sound and ran off again.
“Stay there, I’ll just be one second,” he promised Ryan when he made an incredulous sound at being deserted. The line had half a dozen people in it, so hopefully he was quick.
“Fancy seeing you here, again.”
Ryan turned and, of course, the guy from the hair tools section was in front of him in line.
“Yeah, still here.” God this was awkward.
“You’re in town for those hockey camps, right? With Rozanov and Hollander?”
They shuffled forward as someone got to the register, and they thankfully had only one bottle in their hand – this might be quicker than he expected.
“Yeah, that’s right. Starts tomorrow.”
They shuffled forward some more.
“It’s awesome to see what they’ve done with that initiative, eh? So much money raised.”
“Yeah, it’s really great.”
Another person made it to the register, but their basket was as full as the one Ryan was holding. They’d now reached the part where the line snaked through some narrow shelving and Ryan was trapped between random-hockey-fan and two girls that were debating mascaras behind him. Or he thought it looked like mascara tubes, who knew really.
Thankfully he saw Fabian return his way through at that moment.
“Sorry, that’s my boyfriend there,” he said with a big smile as he passed between the two girls reaching for Ryan’s hand. “Oh, and the Kush brow gel is far superior to the Benefit one, save yourselves a return.”
The brunette thanked him and Ryan once again couldn’t help but smile.
“I’m done for real this time, I promise,” he said as he waved a large colourful rectangle at him.
“I’ll believe it when we leave the store,” Ryan teased as he bent to kiss him.
“Oh, Mr. Salah, I am such a big fan,” Ryan heard someone behind him say. Sure enough, the woman with hockey-fan from before was speaking to Fabian.
Ryan braced himself as Fabian started chatting with the woman. She was perfectly pleasant and hockey dude seemed to be smiling, but he was never sure how people would react when they saw them together, let alone when people knew who he was.
They shuffled ahead a bit more and Ryan was asked to take a picture and then handed a phone. He took a picture of Fabian with the couple. Ryan handed the phone back to the man and he smiled brightly at him.
“I’d wondered where you’d gone when you weren’t on the Toronto lineup,” he admitted to Ryan. “Then my wife introduced me to Fabian’s music, and we were listening to an interview on CBC where he mentioned you were together, and you were travelling with him. Was happy to see you were doing okay.”
“Oh.” That was not what Ryan had expected to hear. “Toronto fan then, I take it?”
“Oh god no, I hate them. Go Centaurs!” The man cheered with a broad smile. “But we’re from Nova Scotia, moved here some years ago for work. It’s always nice to see a local kid make it. You seem much happier now, though.”
Ryan nodded, holding back a smile. “I really am, yeah.”
It was finally the other couple’s turn, and they wished them a good day and went to the farthest register just as the one in front of them became available.
Fabian started emptying the basket excitedly and Ryan frowned.
“Why do you need two new eyeshadow palettes?”
“Nope, this is a Charlotte Tilbury face palette that Angélique was wearing, and this is the new Urban Decay Naked Cyber shadows palette. See how pretty it is?” He was showing him all the shiny and shimmery pastel colours on the back before handing it to the cashier to scan.
“I thought the stick thing was the contour whatever you chased someone down for?”
“Yes, but they aren’t the same. I promise I need both.”
“You’re the expert.” Ryan kissed his forehead as the various face products were scanned. They left the store, bags in hand, and headed for the mall exit, heading back to their hotel a block away.
“Sorry we got accosted in line like that. I would have pulled you away had I known,” Fabian offered when they were outside in the warm July air. He moved their joined hands to drape Ryan’s hand over his shoulder while they waited for a light to change.
“Nah, was okay. They were nice.”
“I could feel you getting tenser when he was talking to us.”
The light changed and they made their way across the quiet street. “Guess I’m still not used to how hockey fans’ll react to me.”
“Well, I think you’re pretty amazing, Ryan Price.”
“Do you now?” Ryan smiled at Fabian, seeing his wide grin reflected back to him from Fabian’s equally wide sunglasses.
“Mm-hmm. Enough that I’m willing to skip lunch and spend a few hours in our room showing you just how much I mean that. Might have sneaked in some nice bath oils in our basket at the drugstore when you weren’t looking. We can take advantage of that ridiculously big bathtub now that the soap isn’t trying to turn me into a lizard.”
Ryan pretended to think about that for just a second. “I mean, sounds like a real sacrifice, but who am I to say no, really. But I am hungry, so we need to order room service.”
“I guess I can concede to room service when I made you shop all morning.”
Ryan kissed him just before they walked into their hotel. “Spending time with you, even shopping for makeup, isn’t a hardship. Promise. Now, I believe I was promised a good time?”
Fabian propped his sunglasses on top of his head and kissed Ryan. “Right this way, big guy.”