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1
Hayden asks Jackie to drive them home after dinner at Shane’s, because his brain is fried. Fried by accidentally overhearing Rozanov talking to Shane in the kitchen, and hearing Shane – Hayden’s best friend, his captain, the best hockey player of their generation – whimper Ilya, fuck, please, please, as though he’d die if Rozanov didn’t fuck him there and then.
“Are you okay, babe?” Jackie asks after a couple of minutes of driving in silence.
Is Hayden okay? Good question.
It’s not like he’s a prude. He and Jackie have four kids, for heaven’s sake. And they’ve tried fun things, like vibrators to use together during sex. That’s exciting, right? Hayden finds it exciting. But maybe it isn’t. Oh god, what if their sex life isn’t exciting enough for Jackie?
“Babe?” Jackie asks.
“Uh-huh, yeah. Super okay,” Hayden says.
“Right. I definitely believe you when you speak in that voice.”
“Are you, like.” Oh god. “Like. Satisfied?”
“Yeah, sure,” she says. “Dinner was really good. They always make nice food for us.”
“No, no, dinner is not what I meant.” And now that he thinks about it, he kind of doesn’t want to eat any more dishes that were cooked in a kitchen that Shane and Rozanov have one thousand percent had sex in. Exciting, power-dynamic-y sex that Hayden really doesn’t want his mind to dwell on but can feel himself starting to obsess over.
Jackie gives him an appraising look before turning her eyes back on the road. “Then what did you mean?”
“When I was coming back from to the bathroom, I heard Shane and Rozanov talking in the kitchen.”
“Right.”
“Rozanov was saying, um. You know. Stuff.”
“Stuff?”
“You know.” Hayden can’t repeat it. He’d literally die if he said the words he heard while walking past that kitchen out loud, ever, even to Jackie.
“About you? Look, you know Ilya just likes to talk shit, he’s lovely, really.”
Hayden shakes his head so emphatically that he cricks his neck. “It was not about me. At all.”
“Okay, then what is happening with you right now?”
Hayden takes a deep breath. He can do this. It’s Jackie. She’s cool. She’s the love of his life. He can talk to her about this. “Rozanov was talking about sex.”
“Babe, they’re adults, and I know you’re cool with Shane being gay. You can’t be shocked at them stealing a moment to talk about sex when they didn’t even realise you could hear them.”
“That is not why I’m shocked,” Hayden says. “It was kind of intense, what he was saying, like what he was wanting to do to Shane, and he sort of made – made Shane ask for it all – ugh, I don’t know. And Shane did ask him for it and Rozanov told him to go back out there and finish dinner with us and then – then if Shane was good, he would,” – maybe Hayden can just jump out of the car into the road and hope to be run over – “reward him later. And he called Shane his – never mind,” he cuts himself off. No way is he repeating those words about Shane. He’s just not.
Jackie laughs. “Oh my god,” she says. “Is that why poor Shane looked like he was dying all throughout dessert?”
“I assume so, yeah.”
“Okay, well, good for them,” Jackie says.
“You wouldn’t say that if you’d heard the details.”
She grins and turns to look at him while they wait at a red light. “Try to put it out of your mind and when you can’t, just focus on being happy for Shane.”
“Yes,” Hayden says. “Cool. Definitely.”
Jackie gives him another sideways glance before the light turns green and she drives on. She doesn’t say anything, but even when she’s looking straight ahead at the road, he can tell she’s waiting for him to break and tell her. So he might as well get it over with. “Do you want me, uh, I don’t know. To, um. Sometimes make you… beg?”
“Babe, I beg you daily to put your cereal in the bowl before the milk like a normal person. Is that not enough?”
“It’s not wrong to put the milk in first!”
“It is, but I love you anyway.”
He huffs out an annoyed breath. “Anyway, you know what I mean, right? About the begging?”
“Yes,” she says, clearly trying not to laugh. “I get it.”
“I mean, Shane seemed to enjoy it. I think.” Hayden’s never going to be able to look Shane in the eye again, but he can sort of see how it’s something someone like Shane might get off on.
“Hayd, listen. I’m not Shane. And I really need you to know that I’m happy to try new things if you want, but from the way you’re talking about it, you don’t actually seem very into this idea.”
“I guess not,” Hayden says, and knows she can tell he means thank you I love you you know me.
“Do you want me to make you beg?” she asks.
“I think I’m good,” he mumbles.
She says, “That’s what I thought, babe,” and pulls into their driveway.
Once they’re inside the front door, Jackie says, “Well, we may not play sex games while having our friends over for dinner, but the kids are with my parents overnight. And I, personally, find our suburban parent sex life very hot.”
She giggles as Hayden sweeps her up and kisses her, moans when he backs her up against the shoe cabinet that they never bother closing, and she laughs outright, happy and so, so sexy, when he slips his fingers up her skirt and into her underwear. No begging required.
2
Cliff drops down onto the grass. No fucking chairs. Roz has always been chaotic, but Cliff figured that Hollander would rein that kind of thing in. Apparently not.
“Marlow,” a voice to his right says.
Cliff turns his head and sees the Voyageurs’ Pike and Boiziau heading up to him.
He pats the grass next to him with the hand that’s not holding a beer. He guesses none of them are keen on taking any old grudges off the ice today, so they might as well sit down with him.
“Good of you guys to be here,” Cliff says while Pike and Boiziau drop down next to him. There are no other Voyageurs at the wedding.
Pike grimaces. “Don’t fucking get me started.”
“Fucking assholes, all of them,” Boiziau mutters.
“That bad, huh?” Cliff asks.
They both nod.
“After he won us three Cups, can you fucking believe it?” Pike shakes his head. “I mean, I knew it was gonna be – you know, it’s not like I was great about it at first. But they didn’t need to get into the whole – never mind,” he cuts himself off. “Let’s forget about it today.”
Boiziau nods. “Let’s.”
They all look over across the bit of grass that people are dancing on. Off to the side, Roz is sitting on the ground with Hollander tucked tightly against him.
“Fucking married,” Cliff says. “Those two. Can you believe it?”
“No,” Boiziau says. “And no chairs. What the hell were they thinking, not having chairs at this thing?”
Cliff shakes his head fondly. “Crazy fuckers.”
Across the improvised dance floor, Roz is standing, holding out his hand to pull Hollander up, and leading him across the garden, into the house. Hollander’s face is flushed and his eyes bright, and they both look out two seconds from tearing each other’s clothes off. But in a sweet, loving way. Cliff’s sure no one has ever looked at him that way.
Pike shakes his head. “Sneaking out of their own wedding to fuck. These guys have no shame. Shane used to be so… I dunno.”
Boiziau laughs. “Yeah. Look at him now.”
“He’s trying to be subtle,” Pike says.
Boiziau and Cliff both scoff in response, and Pike laughs. It’s nice, this moment, seeing how much Roz and Hollander are obviously in love, how long they waited for this, how they’re both clearly floating on cloud nine. Cliff has never thought about wanting to relate to something like this. He usually fucks girls he meets at clubs, and doesn’t think about them again. He thinks they don’t think about him either, but he’s never tried to find out.
He does remember one girl he met in a shitty bar in Detroit after a devastating loss. She’d known her hockey, she’d been really fucking hot, and she’d looked him in the eye while telling him she was sorry about how he’d fucked up his knee during the game. She’d also given him a damn good blowjob, and pulled his hair just right when he’d eaten her out. Marrying someone like that wouldn’t be a bad thing, probably. He’s getting older, and at some point settling down might be nice.
Maybe he can look into that right now, carpe diem and all that shit. There are some hot girls here, too. He lets his eyes wander across the garden. “Hey, one of you guys know that chick table dancing with Rose Landry? Best tits I’ve seen in years.”
Boiziau chokes on his beer.
A fist connects with Cliff’s jaw and Pike yells, “That’s my fucking wife, asshole!”
Ah well. In the end, they’re never really off the ice.
3
4
Drew apologises for having to leave early to make his flight, waves to Ilya, Shane, and Svetlana, kisses Rose on the cheek. He thanks the maitre d’ as he leaves the restaurant. Drew is a complete darling.
It’s nice whenever Rose can get together with her boys and Svetlana. Sadly with their schedules, they don’t manage often, so she appreciates it all the more that they were nice enough to encourage her to bring Drew, even though it’s only been a couple of months.
“Okay, time for game,” Ilya says, as soon as Drew is safely out of earshot.
“Nuh-uh,” Rose says.
“Yes, we have to do this with all of them, Rose. It might save you valuable time. Let’s play,” Svetlana says.
Rose sighs resignedly and makes a go on if you must motion. She can’t pretend she didn’t know this was going to happen.
“Gay,” Svetlana says.
“One hundred percent gay. Gayer than Shane,” Ilya says.
Shane huffs. “Hey!”
“You are very gay, Shane,” Ilya says. “You know it’s true.”
Rose finds herself nodding seriously. It is the truth, after all.
“Fuck off, Rozanov,” Shane says. Then, looking at Rose, he adds, “You know I’m not the best with this, but, um, yes, maybe, he might be. I think he was maybe – um, looking -”
“He was really hoping you guys were going to want him as a third,” Svetlana says.
Shane goes scarlet. Ilya smirks and says something in Russian that makes Shane squeak in protest and Svetlana smile dangerously. Rose is really going to try and have to learn Russian. Maybe she should take that role as Anastasia her agent emailed about.
She sighs. “Okay, fine, I have noticed some signs myself. But I genuinely think Drew might be bi! He hasn’t said anything to indicate he might not be into me.” He doesn’t seem that into the physical side of things, but he certainly doesn’t appear to have the same fear of sleeping with her that was obvious with Shane and some of her other gay exes. She’s pretty sure with time, they’ll connect more, and that might help.
Svetlana pats her arm. “He isn’t bi.”
“How do you know?”
“Look at me in this dress. He has not noticed. At all.”
“Maybe you’re not his type!” Rose knows that’s a weak argument. Even she is noticing Svetlana in that dress. It’s very hard not to.
Rose sighs. “I was really hoping you guys were going to love Drew and tell me he’s definitely not fully gay.”
“Oh, we really like Drew,” Svetlana says.
“Fun guy, yes,” Ilya says. “But, like we said. Definitely gay.”
Of course, Rose knew, really. She just hoped that after years of dating gay guys, she might be overly attuned to possible signs, and her judgement might be off. “I can’t believe I brought him to meet you guys only for you to make me question our relationship. You do this to everyone, you know?"
“Do we?” Shane looks at Ilya for confirmation.
Ilya nods. “Everybody is very jealous of us.”
“Speak for yourself, Rose. No one makes me doubt my relationships,” Svetlana says before taking a sip of her cocktail.
“You don’t have relationships, Sveta,” Ilya says.
“Therefore, I never have doubts.” Svetlana raises her glass. Rose clinks her own against it. She may not be like Svetlana, but she can see the appeal of her philosophy.
“Look, Rose,” Shane says seriously. “In the end we can only tell you what we think. It’s not like we can be sure he isn’t attracted to you.”
Svetlana nods. “Don’t break up with him on account of what we think. We might be wrong.”
“We are not wrong,” Ilya says.
There’s a sound that seems to be either Shane or Svetlana kicking his shin under the table.
“I’ll talk to him,” Rose says. “Bring it up and see what he says, if I can support him.”
“Your life is like movie,” Ilya says. “You know, old movie with the big hamster we watched, Shane?”
“Groundhog Day,” Shane says.
“Yes, this,” Ilya says. “Is an endless loop of gay boyfriends for Rose. Good movie, you should watch.”
Svetlana snorts and Rose narrows her eyes at Ilya. “I have had plenty of straight boyfriends, I’ll have you know!”
“Ah, yes? How many, Rose?”
“At least four!” Well, at least two. Two others are question marks to this day. At the time, she hadn’t been confident enough to approach either of them about it. She’s used to boyfriends realising they’re gay and breaking up with her as a result. Shane is the only one whose hand she’d held through acknowledging it.
When it’s time to get the next round, she volunteers and asks Shane to help.
“What do you think, Shane?” she asks once they’ve ordered from the bartender. “Ilya and Svetlana, it’s great to have their opinions, but I really want yours. You’re the one who actually knows what it’s like for me to bring this up to him. I was really worried I’d upset you when I talked to you back then.”
“For what it’s worth, I’m glad you talked to me about it. I think you should go for it. If he tells you he’s attracted to you, great. If he takes you bringing it up badly, you can back off nicely.”
“True, you’re right, thank you. I’ll talk to him soon. Hopefully he’ll feel okay about having the conversation.”
Shane leans back against the bar next to her. “I think he will.” His eyes are fixed somewhere across the room. Rose doesn’t have to turn her head to see who he’s looking at. “I think he’ll thank you every day for the rest of his life.”
5
“Uncle Shane? Uncle Ilya?”
Shane turns around from where he’s trying to neatly deposit slices of the ptichye moloko Ilya made for dessert onto plates. Hayden, Jackie, and the kids are over for dinner for the first time in ages. “Hey, Ruby.”
Thankfully, Ruby and Jade are fairly easy to tell apart nowadays. Ruby wears colours, Jade wears black and only black.
“Are you trying to steal dessert?” Ilya asks as he opens a new bottle of wine. “Smart.”
She rolls her eyes. “I’m not Amber,” she says. “I have manners!”
“That is true,” Ilya says. “Shane, give Ruby extra ptichye moloko because of her good manners.”
Ruby grins, but only briefly. She looks down at her neon-coloured trainers. “I, um, wanted to ask you guys something. Something I don’t want to ask my mom and dad.”
Shane whips his head around to look at Ilya. He isn’t sure that he’s equipped to deal with pre-teen girl kind of questions. Ilya gives him an encouraging look, a we can do this.
To Ruby, Ilya says, “Good idea. Shane and I are much smarter than your parents. Much smarter than your dad, at least.”
“Ilya,” Shane admonishes, but Ruby laughs nervously.
“It’s not about being smart,” she says. “It’s – like – um.” She takes a deep breath. “Our first school dance is coming up.”
“That’s fun,” Shane says, trying to sound enthusiastic.
Ilya rolls his eyes. “Shane is lying, Ruby. He does not think dancing is fun. But I do. What do you need help with?”
“This guy asked me to go with him,” she says. “And we’ve hung out, you know, during our breaks and stuff. And we text. But I’m not so sure I want to go to the dance with him.”
“Do you not like him?” Shane asks. He can totally do this. He can give hip, cool-uncle advice. “Or is there another guy you would rather go with?”
She picks at her phone case. “I – I like him, but then I was thinking about you guys, and you know how Jade and I did the wedding for you when we were younger? And, um, there’s this girl in one of my classes. She’s – she’s really cool, and pretty, and – yeah. I really want to go with her.” She blushes and keeps her eyes on her hands.
Shane has no clue what to say, but thankfully, Ilya is much better at this kind of thing.
Ilya says, “Okay. When are you going to ask her?”
“I don’t know if I’m going to! I want to, but what if she says no?”
“Hmm,” Ilya goes thoughtfully. “That would be shi- that would suck. But maybe she will say yes, right?”
“I guess,” Ruby says. She sounds doubtful. “What if she tells people and they’re mean about it?”
“If they are,” Ilya says. “I will come and tell them that if they do not stop, I will beat them up. Like when I punch people during games. You have seen me do this, yes?”
“Ilya!” Shane says. “You are not going to threaten to beat up middle-school kids. Ruby, if they’re mean, we’ll come to your school and tell them it’s cool to be gay.” Not that he has the first clue about how to pull something like that off. But he’d try.
“Right,” Ilya says. “Okay, Hollander. Going to school and telling kids that it’s cool to be gay will make you seem like definitely not a boring nerd.”
Ruby giggles, so Shane decides not to argue. She bounces on the balls of her feet. “Was it easy? When you guys asked each other out?”
“Oh yes,” Ilya says. “Was very easy to get Shane to say yes.”
“Fuck you, Rozanov,” Shane says in Russian.
Ilya winks at him.
Ruby says, “Some day I’ll learn Russian and then you guys won’t have a secret language.”
“That will be great,” Ilya says. “Then the three of us can have secret language and make fun of your dad’s passes and he will not know.”
“Ilya,” Shane says, but Ruby just beams at them.
“You guys really made me – I mean, you really helped me – I, yeah, thanks.” She quickly hugs first Ilya then Shane around the middle and darts back out of the kitchen.
“Extra dessert for her,” Ilya announces, as soon as she’s gone.
“Yeah,” Shane says. He feels a little dazed. “Wow.”
“She is brave,” Ilya says. “She is so young.”
Shane nods, and then remembers a specific part of the conversation. He groans and buries his face in his hands. “I can’t believe I just assumed she was talking about wanting to ask a different guy, not a girl.”
“Yes, that was very homophobic of you, wow,” Ilya says, grinning and pulling Shane into his arms.
Shane squirms in Ilya’s hold. “Stop it. We have guests waiting for us to bring out dessert.”
Ilya ignores him and scatters little pecks along Shane’s cheekbones, up between his eyebrows and across his forehead. “So – what is word – heteronormative,” he murmurs. “Terrible. I think I will have to punish you for this.”
“Oh, fuck off, Rozanov,” Shane says. He leans in to catch all of Ilya’s kisses.
+1
The gala is a resounding success, and they well exceeded the fundraising goal for the year. There was no doubt about it, not with Yuna in charge, but it’s still the biggest event the Irina Foundation has ever organised, so there were what Yuna calls unknown unknowns. Now everything’s running smoothly, the food has been eaten, the speeches are done, and people are starting to dance.
David has just persuaded Yuna to relax and have a glass of champagne when Ilya and Shane find them.
The boys both look dead on their feet. Ilya gave a very moving speech, but David knows talking about his mother in front of hundreds of people exhausts him. Shane looks a little absent, like he sometimes does at big events, some sort of shield between himself and the rest of the world. They’ve had to socialise all night, so it’s no wonder. Shane and Ilya are firmly holding onto each others hands, but they are smiling, even as tired as they clearly are.
“Congratulations,” David says. “It’s a huge success.”
“It’s all down to you, Mom,” Shane says to Yuna. He’s talking a little more slowly, a little more quietly than usual, like it’s an effort to string the words together. “Everything went so smoothly.”
Ilya nods. David can see him squeeze Shane’s hand. “Yes, Yuna. You are the best at events. Only next year, maybe it will be time to finally have some fireworks. What do you think?”
“No,” Shane says. He seems to come back a little at the suggestion. “We’re not having fireworks.”
“Okay, Shane,” Ilya says, clearly a lie, an angelic smile on his face. He makes obvious pleading eyes at Yuna and whispers, “Rockets, please!”
Shane smiles fondly and shakes his head. “No fireworks.”
“Boring,” Ilya says. “We will talk about it next year.”
Shane doesn’t argue any further, which seems to concern Ilya.
“Do you want to go home?” he asks.
“We can’t yet,” Shane says. “We have to stay at least a couple more hours.”
Ilya looks at him for a moment, clearly checking for something. Then he nods. “Okay. Now come dance.”
“Ugh, no, you know I’m a horrible dancer.”
“No, we have to dance, Shane,” Ilya says. “It will motivate everyone else.”
“People are already dancing,” Shane says. “I don’t think we need to motivate anyone.”
“Yes, yes, we have to. You are good at being role model. We are best couple in the world. Everybody knows this. They need to see us dance. We will make them jealous.”
Shane grimaces. “Jealousy is not the same as motivation.”
Ilya leans in close to him and says, so low that David barely catches it, “No one will try to talk to you there.”
It makes Shane’s face go soft in an instant, makes him follow Ilya onto the dance floor easily. David and Yuna watch as Shane tucks his face into Ilya’s neck and Ilya gently sways them from side to side. He wraps one arm around Shane’s shoulders, his hand covering Shane’s ear. To everyone else, it will look like a possessive, affectionate gesture. But David knows Ilya is making things as quiet for Shane as he can.
“The best couple,” Yuna scoffs, even as she obviously beams with pride and love at their boys.
David remembers Shane looking them right in the eyes years ago, saying I’m going to ask Ilya to marry me. Tonight. without a hint of doubt or hesitation. Yuna had screeched like David had only heard her once before, when they’d been at a Corey Hart concert in ‘87.
“Don’t tell me you disagree,” David says.
“They’re the second-best couple in the world,” Yuna says, smiling up at him.
David feels his lips pulling into a grin. “They’re our sons. You can let them have the win for best couple.”
Yuna shakes her head. “No. We made Shane, so really, we’re responsible for their happiness. We win. We’re the best couple. Now let’s go dance.”
And David, after all these lucky years of marriage, knows a whole lot better than to question his wife.