Chapter Text
“Hey babe?!” Leah looked up from her book and saw Max coming down the hallway, phone in his hand and a bewildered look on his face. Her first reaction was anger.
Every time Max opened his phone she prepared for some sort of adverse response, some sort of harassment or banning. Looking closer she realized that his lips weren’t turned down like they usually were when some transphobic asshole was trying to ruin his day. Instead, they were quirked up a bit in amusement and a sparkle of mischief lined his eyes.
“Everything okay?” He came up beside her, chuckling, and showed her his phone by wrapping his arm around her shoulder and holding it up. The screen showed his email app and at the top, the email [email protected] was displayed. “You just casually email Rozanov now?” Leah raised an eyebrow at him.
He laughed harder and smiled wider. “The guy is a menace Leah. In the best way. But we usually only email about the camp. But look” he shook the phone for emphasis. Her eyes travelled down the email thread to the latest one ‘BBQ at this address next weekend. You and Leah will come yes?’ Both eyebrows were raised now. “Uhhhh?” Max was laughing into her shoulder now.
“What is so funny?” He shook his head, breath hitching as he tried to get his giggling under control. He wheezed some more, knocking his shoulder into Leah’s, “he forgot to hit blind copy”. Max had moved away, leaning his upper body on the counter while Leah picked up his phone.
She scrolled to the top of the email and clicked on the little arrow beside the “to:”, a whole list of names appeared. She scanned them, “they’re all queer” she mused then for absolutely no reason shrieked with glee. “Is Ilya Rozanov having a queer barbecue?!”
“What does one bring to a barbecue with a bunch of queer hockey bros?” Max was holding a case of beer, rotating it slowly. Leah plucked it from his hands and plunked it into their shopping cart. “Well first” she held up a finger as they wandered the aisles aimlessly. “You need a million dollar salary” Max scoffed as he walked by her, bumping his shoulder with hers.
“Well we are both out then. Maybe if female athletes were paid the same…” he trailed off, grabbing a bag of ketchup chips and throwing them into the cart. “Maybe if you had a fucking league to play in” she grabbed the kethcup chips and put them back on the shelf, “Babe, no one likes these except us” Max sauntered back toward her, hands in his pants pockets.
Reaching across her body he grabbed the same bag, kissing her lightly on the lips as he put the chips back in the cart. “Exactly. WE like them” he winked and continued down the aisle.
Leah spent that night staring at the ceiling. Max was pressed into her side, his warm body keeping her somewhat grounded as her thoughts became incessant. There wasn’t much to Rosanov’s email and Max would just say she was making a mountain of a molehill but she couldn’t stop thinking about spending down time with all the guys listed in the “to” section of the email.
In her head she went over the names again, for the hundredth time: Eric, Kyle, Ryan, Fabian, Troy, Harris, Scott, Kip, Rose. Repeated like a curse, the names lost all meaning after a few minutes, becoming useless in her overactive brain.
Max stirred next to her and she wondered if he could feel her heart picking up speed. Again, again and again. The names were competing for space as she listed everything she knew about them, who she had met, who…who what?
Who might be openly transphobic at a queer barbeque? Yeah, absolutely. Sometimes the worst of them came from inside the community. She exhaled loudly, realizing too late that she probably just woke Max up.
A warm, dry hand spread across her chest and she closed her eyes and smiled. “You’re spiraling about something” it wasn’t a question. She felt him pull his body up, closer to her, felt the weight of his arm rest beside her head as he propped himself up.
“I’m just worried about seeing these guys outside of work, that’s all” Max nodded, knowing how to read between the lines. She turned her head to look at him and his hand immediately cupped her cheek. “Rozanov is a good guy” his thumb rubbed her cheek, “he wouldn’t invite assholes” there was a soft stutter in his voice, an uncertain hitch only Leah would catch.
Again, she had slightly missed the mark. Why was he comforting her right now? As if to make up for her lack of insight she grabbed his face and brought it down to hers. “If anyone is a piece of shit I’ll fight them” he huffed out a soft laugh. “Yeah babe, I know. I’ll throw a few punches too”. She sighed contentedly and buried her face into his chest. Fuck, they made a great team, she thought as she let his breathing lull her to sleep.
“This has to be it” Max had his phone out, GPS pulled up and his eyes forward. Leah hummed; it certainly was remote. She didn’t take Rozanov for a cottage guy, but stranger things have happened.
As much as they both tried to leave late so they wouldn’t be the first ones there, that did not work. Chronically early, never late and a bit nervous Leah had shepherded a slightly harassed looking Max out the door earlier than either of them had planned.
“We will definitely be the first people here” he tapped her thigh playfully as they rounded a corner and pulled onto a paved driveway. It didn’t take long for a massive cottage to appear ahead of them.
“It’s so….” Max waved his hand vaguely in the direction of the floor to ceiling windows reflecting the light “millionaire?” Leah finished. Max nodded, craning his neck to get a better look as they pulled in beside a Land Rover and some fancy sports car.
“Well at least their money will be good for something if some of them agree to support the foundation”. Max nodded again; he was staring at the Land Rover.
They had a simple song and dance for when they became friends with professional athletes: we have a foundation for trans youth in hockey, will you help? Because most of their friends were underpaid athletes who already did what they could for the foundation, they didn’t get a chance to bring it up amongst the elite very often.
“That’s Hollander's car” Max said, still staring at the Land Rover. It made sense he was here, they ran the Irina Foundation together and spent most of their summers at the camp.
“And that’s also Hollander” Max had turned his head to look toward the house and was gaping, panic rising on his face. Leah scrunched her nose in confusion following Max’s eyes. Oh nooooo. Oh fuck. She didn’t think she’d exclaimed out loud but she felt Max’s hand clamp on her arm.
Hilariously she bent over at the waist trying to hide herself from view, “we aren’t THAT early are we?” Leah said into her knees.
Max laughed nervously and rubbed her back. “No. The email said anytime after 4:00 pm and we pulled in at 4:15.” She was pretty certain that they weren’t supposed to have seen Ilya and Shane making out.
“Well…” Max clapped his hands together and opened his door. “What are you doing Max? Get back here” she hissed reaching for him as his door closed. He infuriatingly turned toward her and winked, walking toward the trunk.
Ughhhh, she hated awkward situations and she was going to kill her boyfriend.
“Leah. They probably already saw us, waiting in the car staring at each other isn’t going to make this less awkward” she heard him move some bags around and close the trunk. He stopped by the hood of the car and turned toward her, arms laden with food and booze.
Just as she was about to become less of a scaredy cat and open her door she heard the sound of another car behind them. A sleek silver sedan pulled in beside her, Rose Landry in the driver's seat. She must have felt Leah looking at her because she turned and smiled warmly, adding a little wave.
Leah watched as Rose put on a pair of sun glasses and touched up her lip stick. Max heard her too and turned toward her car as Rose got out. She smiled as Max chatted about god knows what. He nodded toward Leah who wanted nothing more than to sink farther into her seat when Rose smiled at her again.
At that moment, Shane decided to open the front door and exclaim something Leah couldn't hear through the pounding of her heart.
He practically ran towards Rose, grabbing her in a hug and almost swinging her around. Leah could hear her laugh. Hmm, her heart must of stopped. That makes sense.
Oh she was so close to an anxiety attack. This. This was going to change everything. Sure, there were other queer hockey players, some still playing, others retired. Fuck, Scott had kissed Kip ON THE ICE. ON NATIONAL TELEVISION.
But this? The biggest rivals in the NHL?
"Holy fucking shit"
Leah opened the car door.