Archive of Our Own

September 2017

-

“What should we tell Shane Hollander?”

“You tell him I love him.”

Annie laughed to herself at the memory of Ilya Rozanov’s interview. He was always funny like that. Boston had just beaten Winnipeg. Shane Hollander hadn’t even been there, but the press had asked Rozanov about him anyway. They always did. And like always, Rozanov had been ready for it.

Annie just loved him. She’d been a big fan for a very long time, but she loved him especially now.

This season, his eighth with the Raiders, she was sure he was going to win MVP. Again. And he would win them another Stanley Cup. He had always been good, but now he was good. He was aging like a fine wine.

And he knew it. And she loved that he knew it. And all of Boston knew it. He was their ace in the hole to win this thing again.

And he seemed lighter and freer than he ever had before. He had always been a joker in interviews, but he seemed even happier now. He was clearly as excited about winning this season as the fans were.

Boston would have to beat Montreal though. New York had won in ‘17, but that had been a fluke. Montreal had won in ‘15 and ‘16 and had only lost in ‘17 because their captain missed the playoffs with an injury. Montreal was the team to beat.

Annie couldn’t be too mad at Montreal’s success though. She absolutely adored their captain, the very same Shane Hollander that Ilya Rozanov loved to tease through the camera. And sure, he was prompted to do so over and over in every interview, but he didn’t take the bait with other players as much. Rozanov liked bantering with Hollander.

Annie had some private theories about that that she would try to keep to herself.

She only had one other hockey obsessed girlfriend, Casey. There were tons of guys out at the sports bars all the time she probably could have tried to befriend, but she wasn’t looking for more and she was sure that they were. So she stuck with her one girlfriend. Annie and Casey had been trying for years to get their mutual best friend Morgan to join them in this fandom, but hadn’t had any success. Sure, Morgan would go to games with them if they asked, and she would wear the Rozanov #81 jersey that Annie had bought for her, but Annie wasn’t convinced she could name any players on the team other than Rozanov. At one point she’d thought that a touchdown was just another name for a goal. They’d gotten past that by now, so they were making progress, but slowly. Annie was sure that someday there would be a tidal wave that would overtake her and then they’d all be into hockey together.

The three had met in college almost ten years ago in Western Massachusetts and had all ended up in Boston. They’d been roommates for the first year, but had since moved apart. They’d stayed close friends, and all routinely went back to the same neighborhood in Dorchester where Morgan still lived. The bartender at their old favorite restaurant still gave them the student discount on the burger and beer combo that had been tenuous at 22 since they’d technically already been grads, but she just gave them a wink and a smile about it.

Morgan never wanted to leave that neighborhood. She was in a rent controlled two bedroom and used the second bedroom as an art studio. She worked in advertising for her day job, but in the evenings she was a painter, singer, poet, calligrapher, and novel writer. She was going to make a living on some kind of art someday, but none of them had any idea which one.

Casey was the practical friend. She worked in data science and was the only one of them who’d managed to buy her own place already. She rented the extra bedrooms to her two sisters for below market rent, which paid part of her mortgage. It worked for all of them. She had gotten a statistics minor and had done her thesis project on hockey statistics. She made Annie look like she’d just gotten into hockey last week. But it was always nice to have a walking encyclopedia to consult about hockey. Need to know who led the league in goals scored in 1993? Ask Casey. Need to know who the top draft pick was in 1980 and where they signed? Casey would know. Need to know Shane Hollander’s dev team stats? Casey definitely knew those.

Annie had moved to Beacon Hill when she’d started as an anesthesiologist at the local hospital, since the hours were unpredictable and she was often there until late at night. She was on the third floor of a 22 floor building with a doorman and security, and she felt very safe there. It also felt impressive to invite guests to, nothing like the old shared apartment. What she didn’t have now was space. She was in a one bedroom one bath now, whereas Morgan was in a two bedroom two bath and paid less than Annie did. So there were tradeoffs. Being a doctor sounded nice, but until she got out of debt, she wasn’t living anywhere better than this.

One perk to Annie’s housing situation, and the reason that she would probably stay there until she died no matter how much they increased the rent, was that Ilya Rozanov lived in the penthouse of her building.

She’d only laid eyes on him a handful of times since he’d moved in four years ago. He owned his unit, of course, he didn’t rent like she did. And his unit was the whole top floor, rather than one of ten units covering the same square footage, like most of the low floors.

Annie was constantly disappointed by how rarely she saw him. Sometimes she’d even loitered outside after games to try to see if she could spot him when he came in, but she hadn’t managed it. She had a theory that the penthouse had a separate elevator that meant that he didn’t have to go in through the front door, but she’d never been able to prove it.

The few times she’d seen him in person, he’d been pretty quiet and unassuming. He’d always had a hat on covering his iconic curls, or a toque in winter, and often had his hood up or sunglasses on. He was pretty clearly trying to stay incognito, so she didn’t bother him. Sometimes he was smoking, which she thought was crazy for a professional athlete, but she would never say a word about that online. His private life was his business, and she wasn’t going to bother him in any way.

It was pretty hard not to stare, of course. He was just so gorgeous. His face, his body, his sense of humor, everything about him was just the perfect man.

On the rare occasions she did spot him, Casey and Morgan always got the play by play.

Annie: He’s here!!!

Morgan: Who?

Morgan: Oh! Rozanov!

Morgan: The hot one

Casey: You know who he is, you have his jersey!

Morgan: I know who he is because he’s the hot one

Annie: FOCUS

Casey: What’s he doing?

Morgan: What’s he wearing?

Casey: Why’s that important?!?

Annie: A Raiders t-shirt and jeans

Annie: The jeans look so good on him

Morgan: Ahhhhh jeans on that ass would look so good

Morgan: Photo?!

Annie: Noooo I’m not a stalker I promised

Casey: Thank you!

Casey: But what’s he doing?

Annie: He’s talking to security at the desk

Annie: I can’t hear them

Morgan: Can he see you?!

Annie: I’m by the door

Annie: I was waiting on an Uber

Casey: Ooooohhh

Morgan: CANCEL IT

Morgan: What if it gets there while he’s still there and then you have to leave??

Morgan: You could miss your shot to have him fall in love with you

Morgan: Maybe he’ll see you waiting for a ride and offer to drive you!!

Annie: MORGAN!

Annie: Okay I cancelled it

Casey: Are you going to say hi?

Casey: Tell him Go Raiders or something.

Annie: I’m not going to bother him

Annie: I don’t want to make him uncomfortable

Annie: Or make him think I’m some weird fangirl

Morgan: But then how will he fall in love with you?

Morgan: Does he already have a girlfriend?

Annie: Dunno

Casey: Not publically, afaik he’s single.

Casey: And maybe kind of a slut.

Casey: Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Morgan: We stan a man’s right to be a slut

Annie: Hear hear

Morgan: Maybe with you!!!

Annie: I have to keep living in his building, I am NOT about to be his one night stand!

Morgan: What’s he doing now

Annie: He just gave the guy a tip and now he’s waiting for the elevator

Morgan: GO UP WITH HIM

Casey: Don’t, you’re right Annie!

Annie: Don’t worry, I’m not going to listen to her. I have the ability to think long term.

Morgan: I resent that

Morgan: I just looked him up. There’s a video of an interview. He’s shirtless and sweaty and soooooo hot. And he says to tell Shane Hollander he loves him. Who’s Shane Hollander?

Annie: I SAW THAT

Casey: Another player, he plays for Montreal.

Annie: HE SAID HE LOVES HIM

Annie: WEIRD THING TO SAY TO ANOTHER PLAYER, RIGHT?

Casey: He’s been doing that a lot lately

Annie: About everyone?

Casey: No, just about Shane. It’s like he’s teasing him.

Casey: Almost like a schoolyard thing?

Annie: Do you think it seems almost flirty?

Casey: Well I didn’t think it before!

Morgan: You’re saying WHAT is going on in the MLH????

Annie: You’re listening now?

Morgan: Okay I googled this Shane Hollander WHAT A HOTTIE

Morgan: Maybe hotter than Rozanov

Morgan: Or maybe tied

Morgan: Whoo boy, I am in love

Annie: Hahahahaha

Casey: Yeah, he’s super hot. He’s also a really good player. He’s got two MVPs and led his team to two Stanley Cups. He’s one of the best players in the league.

Morgan: Rozanov has two MVPs too, right?

Annie: Rozanov has THREE, thank you very much

Casey: But only one cup. Hollander has him beat there.

Annie: Boston will win this year and then they’ll be tied, you mark my words!

Casey: I know!!! I’m a Boston fan too!!!

Annie: lol I know I know

Morgan: I would watch the Montreal games for this Hollander guy

Casey: You don’t even follow Boston, I’ll believe it when I see it.

Morgan: Okay, okay, I won’t, but let me know if there’s any more tea.

Annie: Will do!

-

Annie collected the Rozanov and Hollander sound bites so religiously that she actually had started watching Montreal games when Boston wasn’t playing. She wasn’t rooting for Montreal, of course, but she loved watching Hollander on the ice.

“We play in Boston in two days, we’ll settle this on the ice,” was Hollander’s response to Rozanov’s latest comments. He’d played a day game in New York and would probably be flying to Boston today or tomorrow before the game. Or maybe taking a car? How did millionaire athletes travel from New York to Boston? She couldn’t imagine it was Amtrak.

-

The next day Annie was on a late shift at the hospital. She only had to stay until 11:00 twice a week. Most of her shifts ended earlier. But this particular shift had been grueling, and she hadn’t sat down in hours. Even though she was supposed to be off at 11:00, she didn’t make it out of the building until midnight. She got off the train barely willing to walk the hundred yards across the street, but with the last bit of energy she had, forced herself to put one foot in front of the other.

That was, until she stopped across the crosswalk from the building. She blinked a couple of times.

It wouldn’t have been that unreasonable for Ilya Rozanov to walk out of the building at midnight. He lived there and he had every right to come and go from his own building as he pleased. But this wasn’t Ilya Rozanov. This was Shane Hollander. He got into a black car so fast Annie almost could have believed she’d imagined it. But no, she was sure. He hadn’t been wearing anything that identified him as a Montreal hockey player other than the clear body language of someone doing everything in their power to go unnoticed and make themselves invisible.

Annie stared at the empty spot in the road for a long time. She was suddenly wide awake.

What the fuck had just happened?

Why was Shane Hollander here?

And why was he here at midnight?

She had to write it out so that she wouldn’t go to sleep and wake up tomorrow and wonder if she’d dreamed it.

Annie: Are you guys awake?

Morgan: Yeah

Casey: Yes

Annie: This is JUST for us, okay?

Annie: You're sworn to secrecy.

Annie: You know how I live in the same building as Ilya Rozanov?

Annie: I just saw Shane Hollander of the Montreal Metros walking out of the building as I was walking in.

Casey: What's he even doing there?

Morgan: Are you sure it was him?

Annie: Montreal plays in Boston tomorrow tonight! I'm sure!

Casey: So, what, they're friends?

Morgan: Hmmm. Maybe. I dunno.

Annie: He left at like midnight.

Morgan: That's kinda late.

Annie: I KNOW.

Casey: Did you actually see them together?

Annie: No, but there's no one else in this building he could be here for.

Casey: Okay so.

Casey: They're probably secretly friendly.

Casey: But let's keep an eye on it.

Morgan: Loooooord that would be so hot

Annie: I'm going to spontaneously combust at the mere suggestion.

Morgan: I mean he did say he was in love with him

Casey: That’s not quite what he said.

Morgan: I mean close enough!!

Annie: Hahahaha

Morgan: Quick let's look at every hockey highlight we can find of Montreal and Boston

Casey: That'll take a while.

Casey: They've been in the league for 7 years already!

Morgan: Really?

Casey: Yeah. Came up the same year. They were drafted together, 1&2.

Morgan: Omggggg

Morgan: That's so cute

Morgan: Only would have been better if they were drafted to the same team

Annie: I knooooowwwwww

Casey: No team ever gets the #1 and #2 draft picks.

Morgan: Yeah yeah, we get it, you're the one who actually really knows hockey in this hockey group chat

Annie: Hey, I do too!

-

The following day, Annie had a perfectly normal day, other than googling Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov’s names every thirty minutes to see if there were any stories about the two of them. They were both in Boston for the game today, obviously, but she could find no evidence online that they were seen together.

Annie wasn’t able to watch the game. For the second day in a row she was on the late shift, and she missed it. She would catch the highlights the following day on her day off.

The texts from Morgan didn’t come until 4:30 the following morning. Casey had been long asleep, and even Annie had been asleep a few hours, and neither of them saw them until morning.

Morgan: EMERGENCY MEETING AT MY PLACE AT 7:00 TONIGHT

Morgan: CANCEL ALL OF YOUR PLANS

Morgan: I HAVE DEFINITIVE, INCONTROVERTIBLE EVIDENCE THAT ILYA ROZANOV AND SHANE HOLLANDER ARE IN A RELATIONSHIP

Morgan: I’M SERIOUS. I HAVE A POWERPOINT.

Morgan: I’m making sangria. Someone bring guac.

And she’d sent a very excited looking selfie holding up her laptop with the first slide of the powerpoint on the screen. It said “Hollanov: A History.”

-

Annie read the messages bleary eyed before coffee and didn’t know what to make of them. Seriously, she did not have her glasses on and literally couldn’t see through the haze of morning.

But by the time she’d showered and had coffee, she’d come around to it.

Not the fact that Ilya Rozanov and Shane Hollander were in a relationship, no, that was very much not proven.

Instead, the part that was hard to comprehend was that Morgan had become passionate enough about hockey to create a powerpoint at 4 in the morning about two players.

From the look of the selfie, she maybe hadn’t slept either night. But that was Morgan. When she got excited, she went all the way. Annie was excited for this powerpoint.

-

“Okay, ladies, I am going to start with the powerpoint,” Morgan said.

“Okay great,” Casey replied dryly. There was sarcasm in her voice, but she, too, had cancelled her plans to make it to Morgan’s apartment by 7, so it’s not like she was uninterested. She was clearly curious too.

Morgan nodded through the sarcasm. She cast her laptop screen onto her television and stood to the side like a professor in a lecture hall. She had her hair tied back in a low pony tail and was even wearing a tweed blazer with elbow patches. She always liked to look the part.

She pulled out what looked like a magic wand and pointed it at the first slide, which read “Hollanov: A History.”

“Tonight I will take you on a journey back to the beginning.”

“How far back-” Casey began, but Morgan shook her head. “This is not a socratic discussion, you can wait until I call on you.” Casey snorted slightly.

Morgan switched to the next slide and tapped the screen lightly with her wand. On the left was Shane Hollander’s photo from the 2010 draft. On the right was Ilya Rozanov’s. Underneath each photo was a summary of their careers pre-draft.

“Who can tell me when Hollander and Rozanov met for the first time?” Morgan asked, like she was the leading expert on the subject in the room.

Casey raised her hand, and Morgan called on her. Annie knew Casey was just humoring Morgan, but she also needed to be correct.

“They played at World Juniors in 2009. I don’t think they met before that.”

Morgan nodded.

The next slide showed a photo from that game.

“That was the first time they ever played each other. They hadn’t mentioned each other before that in public. After that game, they did start to. They got asked about each other a lot.”

“They still do,” Casey said.

This time Morgan didn’t object, she just said “Oh, I know” and Annie was reminded of the day and a half she probably hadn’t slept while she’d been doing research.

Morgan moved on.

“Then they started playing each other a lot, and most of that you know. They talk about each other a lot.”

She pointed at a slide with eight different moving gifs of Ilya Rozanov’s face. He was smiling or winking or looking smug in all of them.

“These are all moments from last season when Rozanov said something about Hollander. Those are his expressions when he’s talking about him.”

The Rozanovs on the screen moving in repeating patterns did seem to love the subject they were talking about. And Annie had noticed that too. He never smiled more than when he was talking about Hollander.

But it wasn’t really enough to declare that they were in a relationship.

“I was going to do a slide like that for Hollander, but he doesn’t really do the whole ‘human heart-eyes emoji’ thing when he’s talking about Rozanov. So here’s just a slide of gifs of Shane looking hot because I couldn’t not include it.”

Annie laughed. She couldn’t help it.

“He is just so hot,” she agreed out loud.

“I know!” Morgan said. “Okay, so the next one won’t seem like much, but stick with me.” She flipped to the next slide, which was a post on Hollander’s Instagram. “Hollander never posts much, it’s mostly just stock content by his social media team. Pretty much nothing looks like he put it there himself, except that there was one video in 2012.”

Annie stared at it, her eyes narrowing slightly. It looked kind of familiar. Morgan hit play on the video, and Montreal’s win song came out of the speakers as they watched flashes of clips from Hollander’s rookie year. It could have been promotional material following him winning Rookie of the Year, but Annie got the sense from Morgan that there was something funny about it.

“He looks so young,” Annie said.

“Ohhhhh,” Casey said, “I remember this. It’s all of his clips against everyone else, nothing against Boston.”

Annie could feel her head tilt. Sure enough, there was nothing against Boston.

“Not the hat trick, not the deke to win in overtime, not Rozanov falling flat when Hollander outskated him and he couldn’t keep up. Nothing.”

Annie and Casey both watched as the win song kept playing.

“Why aren’t the Boston clips in there?” Annie asked, “Who made it?”

“That’s the thing, nobody knew,” Morgan told her. She waited for the clip to end, then flipped to the next slide, which was a screenshot from the comments. A reply Hollander made caught Annie’s eye as she read.

“My biggest fan made it, but they're a Boston sympathizer. Next time it'll be all clips from Boston games, promise.”

“Who’s his biggest fan?” Annie asked.

“I think Rozanov made it,” Morgan said, “But I’m going to put a pin in that and ask at the end of the slideshow. We’ll come back to this.”

Annie nodded, not at all convinced. It was certainly a weird post for Hollander’s Instagram, but it wasn’t exactly a smoking gun. But Morgan was not at all deterred.

“But here’s where the real evidence starts,” Morgan said, a very confident look on her face.

The next slide was just three fan photos with dates underneath. Shane Hollander outside of a cafe in 2014 wearing a pretty generic looking black CCM shirt on the left, Ilya Rozanov walking in a park in 2015 in a matching shirt in the center, and Hollander outside of Montreal’s practice rink on 2016 in a similar shirt on the right. The white logo was small over the breast of the black shirt, the shirt the kind of athleisure they were both paid a lot of money to wear. Annie felt like she was looking at an ad campaign with less professional photography.

“They both signed with CCM,” Annie began, “That’s their advertising-”

“No interrupting!” Morgan said, brandishing her wand. Annie was afraid that her knuckles were about to get smacked so she pulled her hands in close to her body.

“Those are not matching shirts,” Morgan said, “They are the same shirt.” Annie blinked at the photos, trying to spot anything that identified them as anything other than generic brand merchandise. “If I zoom in here-” she did so, zooming in on the hemline by Shane’s left hip in the first photo, “There is a little bleach stain that looks like the state of New Jersey.”

“It does look like that,” Casey agreed.

“Yeah,” Annie said.

“And then if I zoom in over here,” Morgan went on, looking at the center picture from 2015, “you will see the same stain.” It was distinctive. It was the same stain. “But this time on Ilya.” Annie nodded mutely. “And once again,” Morgan said, moving on to the last picture, “Shane is wearing it again, and it is once again the same stain. That’s the same shirt. They are wearing the same shirt.”

The silence in the room was deafening. For a long moment neither Casey nor Annie moved.

It did seem to be damning evidence.

“Wow,” Annie eventually said. She couldn’t think of anything to disprove it yet.

“That’s wild,” Casey said.

“That’s just the first one, I have another,” Morgan said.

Annie could feel herself leaning forward. Morgan had her hooked. This was suddenly a lot more interesting than it had been an hour ago.

Morgan flipped to the next slide. It was a Reddit post.

“Last season, March 2017.”

Annie looked at the post.

SHANE HOLLANDER IN A BOSTON RAIDERS HOODIE!!!!!!

Underneath was a grainy photo in terrible lighting of what appeared to be Hollander standing in the grass in the middle of a crowd wearing a Raiders hoodie at night. The people around him were milling about, and not one of them seemed to have noticed or cared about him. The lighting was distorted throughout the photograph, with patches of red light to Hollander’s left and patches of white light in front of him. Large sections of it were blurry. The hoodie he was wearing wasn’t really all that well focused, and Annie knew what it said more by historical reference than by what her eyes could tell her from this image.

It wasn’t a great photo.

One major selling point that it could be real was that it wasn’t in Hollander’s usual repertoire of four faces for the press. Normally, there was uncomfortable, neutral, forced smile, and bright smile. Annie had discussed this phenomenon with Casey before. This expression wasn’t taken from one of those images and cropped in. He looked confused and possibly disoriented. The exact expression you might have if you were woken up by fire trucks in the middle of the night.

Annie listened as Morgan read out the poster’s summary. She said that she’d taken the photo in the middle of the night when a fire alarm forced everyone to evacuate the building. She claimed to have lived in Hollander’s building for years, but to have only ever seen him in Montreal gear before. She said that the lighting was bad because the camera couldn’t handle the fire truck lighting.

Every single reply, every single one of them with no exceptions, went against her.

It’s not even a good photoshop

Faaaaaaake

Do not slander Shane Hollander like this.

Let it go, he’s ours

The shadows on his face aren’t right, seriously take a photoshop class if you’re going to try to fake people out.

Hahahaha you could maybe pull off this joke with other players, but SHANE??? As if.

You wish.

Boston fans sink lower every day

The lighting in the photo doesn’t match

You just wish you lived in his building

Boston will never not be jealous they didn’t draft Shane with the first pick

Hahahaha loser

“They kind of have a point,” Casey said as they looked through the comments.

Morgan nodded sagely before flipping to the next slide of the powerpoint, which was a close up image of the photo on Reddit.

“Yes, everything that they say seems correct. Unless you really wanted to believe this photo was real, you wouldn’t believe it was. And that is exactly why I believe it is.” She paused, but Annie and Casey just waited her out. She would have a thesis here. “If you were trying to convince people of a photo that was fake, you would use a better photo than this. The only person who would ever think this could be convincing would be someone who knew it was real because they took it. If this were fake, you wouldn’t use it to try to convince people, you would make a better fake.”

Annie could feel herself nodding. She could see it.

“If your goal was to make people believe you’d seen Shane Hollander in a Raiders hoodie, you would make the word ‘Raiders’ readable, for one.”

“That’s so true,” Casey said under her breath. Annie nodded along with her.

“And finally, for this slide anyway, if you were a troll faking people out with this photo, you wouldn’t leave it up when the comments went against you this badly. You’d delete it and try again later. But she left the post up. She hasn’t made a single other troll post on that account in any subreddit since. She’s not regularly doing this.”

“And it’s six months old,” Annie said. “It’s not that unreasonable that she could live in his building,” she added, gesturing to herself as she did so. She was living proof that people did actually live in the same apartment buildings as professional hockey stars.

“Exactly,” Morgan said, “Q.E.D.” She bowed a little. “The photo is real.”

There was another long pause while Annie and Casey both stared at the photo and Morgan stared expectantly at the two of them.

“So Shane Hollander owns a Boston Raiders hoodie,” Annie said.

“And that was only a few months ago,” Casey added, “And Ilya had his CCM shirt two years ago.”

“So I guess they steal each other’s clothes?” Annie asked. “But that is not a hoodie you end up with by accident if you’re Shane Hollander. Not your rival team’s hoodie. You don’t keep that in your apartment unless you have a very good reason to.”

“Yeah the CCM one could have been an accident somehow,” Casey added. “But that one isn’t. No way.”

“And whatever the reason they’re sharing clothes is, it’s been going on for several years.”

“Damn,” Annie said. And then she laughed to herself. “What else ya got for us?”

“Those are the best two pieces of evidence,” Morgan said sheepishly, “But let me continue with you along this journey.”

She flipped to the next slide, which read “Rose Landry: Shane Hollander’s Brief Foray into Public (Heterosexual) Romance.”

“I’m sure you both know this, but it was news to me so I will start with this: Rozanov has a history of being known for hooking up with women, going to clubs, dating, all of it. The only time I could find any evidence of that for Shane was with the actress Rose Landry. Did you know he dated her? That’s fucking crazy for both of them.”

“Hottest couple ever,” Annie said, but it was a little more absent and less excited than when that former couple was the subject of the conversation. She was just too distracted by the subject matter.

“He was never linked with anyone before or after that.”

Annie nodded.

“There was a mention of a high school girlfriend,” Casey said thoughtfully, “But no one during his professional career.”

Morgan’s eyes widened.

“Okay so that’s the first time my research failed me because I didn’t hear about that, but in my defense I started this research two days and six coffees ago.”

“We’ll let it slide,” Casey said with a smile lifting one corner of her mouth.

“Thank you,” Morgan replied. “Okay so we’re going to examine the period of time that they publicly dated.”

Annie just waited.

Next were a series of photos of Hollander and Rose Landry.

“He looks very happy,” Morgan said. Annie agreed, but she waited for the other shoe to drop. “He is a doting, perfect boyfriend.”

The lovely photos continued, until she stopped at a photo of him doing an interview after a game in the locker room. He had another CCM shirt on, but this time in white.

“And then we start a period where he never once mentions Rozanov’s name in two months. That appears to be a career first.” She moved on to a photo where he was sitting at a press table looking uncomfortable. “This mortified blush is the moment that a reporter asked something about Rozanov. He turned as red as a tomato, and managed to answer the question without answering it, deflecting so far to remove Rozanov from the conversation without mentioning him. He also rarely smiled in interviews during those two months and never joked.”

Annie nodded. He certainly did look uncomfortable.

“Let’s look at the other side of this.”

“Rozanov, on the other hand, had a terrible time for those two months.”

The next slide had about eight photos of him, either during games or during press, plus one of him at a restaurant. He looked miserable or angry in all of them.

“If you thought Hollander looked upset, you should see Rozanov. He was in a white-hot rage for two straight months.” She flipped to the next slide, which actually featured - unexpectedly - hockey stats. It was the first one since all the way back in the dev team era that she’d included any. “He played some of the best hockey of his career in that period-presumably because he wasn’t distracted and had nothing to focus on except hockey and working off his frustrations on the ice-that is, until-” she flipped to the next slide. “Boston vs. Montreal in December.”

Annie remembered that game. It had felt like a career worst for both Hollander and Rozanov. Boston had won 1-0, but it had felt like neither of the stars was even on the ice.

“They both played a terrible game, and were berated for it by the press. They both were miserable about it to the reporters afterwards. Hollander looked like a kicked puppy. Rozanov was uncharacteristically quiet and said nothing bad about Hollander at all, playful, bitter, or otherwise.”

Casey laughed bitterly.

“Not a good look for either of them.”

“And after that game, was the club,” Morgan said. She had a triumphant tone in her voice, but Annie didn’t recognize the story that was coming.

Morgan flipped to the next slide, which showed two photos that appeared to have been taken in a club. One was of Hollander with Rose Landry, the other was of Rozanov with a woman Annie didn’t recognize. Rose was clearly dancing with her whole body, her slinky dress swishing in a very flattering way, but Hollander was staring forward, looking like he was standing stock still. On the dance floor, he maybe looked like a serial killer. Rozanov had his hands all over the woman he was dancing with, and she looked lost in the moment, but Rozanov’s eyes were ahead of him, far to the left of the camera. He looked very focused on a point further away than his dance partner.

They were in different photos, but the lighting and color scheme was identical. It definitely appeared to be the same club. Annie tried to scan the background for any evidence of each other in the photos, but there was none.

“These were both taken the same night in December 2016 after that game.” Annie wasn’t surprised to hear that, it made sense. “In eight years in the public eye, it was one of the only times Hollander was ever spotted in a club. There was a Reddit post where people discussed that. It was a first.”

“That’s definitely his reputation,” Casey agreed.

“Yup,” Annie said, “But I don’t even remember when this happened. And it was last winter; I guess I just never heard about it.”

“It wasn’t a big story,” Morgan told her. “But I analyzed the photos. Unfortunately, there are only two. They were taken by two different people that night. There is a very specific pattern repeating in the lights on the wall that I think means they were probably taken at the same time. And if you look at the angles of the wall here-” she pointed to a spot to the left in Hollander’s photo, “and here-” she pointed to a spot on the right in Rozanov’s, “I think they are facing each other.” She drew the wall with her finger to demonstrate. Then she pointed at a dark-skinned woman with a curly updo at the far left of Hollander’s photo. She was almost out of frame. “Look at this woman here.” Annie did. She didn’t recognize her at all. “I think this is her ankle in Rozanov’s photo.” Annie stared at the ankle that just barely made it into the frame. “The anklet matches the bracelet on her left wrist.”

“Jesus Christ, Morgan,” Casey said, “How did you notice that?”

“It was the six coffees, but maybe yeah I saw Jesus and he gave me some help too.” Annie and Casey both laughed. “Right so if you consider the angles of the walls and the placement of that woman, I think they’re facing each other. And I think those expressions on their faces are while staring at each other.”

Those expressions suddenly looked like they were exploding with sexual tension.

It was a mic drop if there ever was one.

Annie’s eyes widened as she stared at the photos.

“Is that fucking foreplay?” she asked.

Casey shook her head.

“That’s wild.”

“I don’t know what it is, but now that I saw it I can’t unsee it,” Annie went on, “They look like they’re about to pounce on each other in the middle of the dance floor, either to fight each other or to tear each other’s clothes off.”

“Definitely to tear each other’s clothes off,” Morgan said. “Definitely.”

“I never would have believed it before this freaking slide show, but here we are,” Casey said.

“Once again,” Morgan said, sounding smug, “Q.E.-fucking-D.”

“And?” Annie asked.

“And?” Morgan echoed.

“Is there more?”

Morgan nodded, with a Cheshire Cat grin on her face.

“So the ragey angry hostile era ends with the all star game 2017.”

“Oh I definitely remember that,” Casey said. Her face was lighting up. Annie could feel her own doing the same thing.

“There was an article that called them on the ice ‘chemistry,’” Annie recalled.

Morgan flipped to the next slide, which was a looping gif of Rozanov skating over to Hollander and kissing him on the cheek. Hollander had the biggest smile on his face and definitely seemed to return his hug.

“Can I just say Q.E.D. again without explaining this one, or do you want me to tell the whole story?” Morgan asked cheekily.

“You’re doing great so far,” Annie said. “We love hearing it from you.”

“They put together one of the best performances two people have ever had on the ice together. They combined for six goals. Six! I don’t even know hockey and I know that’s impressive. When they were on the ice in a line together the opponents only took three shots on goal all game. They had control basically the whole time they were on the ice.”

“At this point I think you’ve been lying about not knowing hockey this whole time and it’s just a long con,” Casey said dryly. “You know everything and just never told us.”

“I do know everything, thank you,” Morgan said airily, in what could have been an “I’m a princess” voice. “But more to the point, Annie you were correct that there were a lot of people talking about how well they played together. But I think we should focus more on how they looked at each other.”

“And we’re back,” Casey said.

The next slide had a series of photos of each of them, which Annie absolutely believed were their faces looking at each other. In some, that was evident because you could see where their line of sight was. In others, it was just obvious. Morgan had been right about Rozanov’s heart eyes, but during that game Hollander had them too.

“Rozanov looks so in love,” Casey said.

“Especially in that one,” Morgan said, pointing her wand at one where Rozanov looked like he was about five seconds away from kissing the Hollander next to him on the bench all over again.

“How have we never noticed that before?” Annie asked, “You’re making it seem so obvious.”

“I don’t know how everybody on planet Earth missed this except me,” Morgan said, doing a melodramatic hair flip of her ponytail.

“Were there people doing deep dives on Reddit or anything?” Casey asked.

“Not really,” Morgan said. “There were a few scattered tweets here and there, but nobody put anything organized together. But only a little more left and then we’re done, I promise. Just a little more.”

“You don’t need to rush!” Annie said, “We’re enjoying this. You did a great job.”

Casey nodded in agreement.

“Why thank you. But I can’t leave out what’s left. So at the all-star game we have doe eyed in love Rozanov and Hollander. Then they separate, and we lose that. But they’re both in fucking great moods. Hollander is never seen with Rose Landry again. He smiles when they interview him about Rozanov, and even blushes - see this slide here - and jokes more. Rozanov is on top of the fucking world. Then his dad dies and he goes to Russia.”

“That was sad,” Casey said.

“Yeah,” Annie agreed.

“There’s nothing between them for a while,” Morgan went on. “They don’t talk about each other or anything until Rozanov’s first game back, which is in Montreal. Hollander gets hurt.”

There was a gif of Hollander lying on the ice. Annie was going to protest that she didn’t want to see Hollander get hurt, but she realized that Hollander was already down at the start of the clip. They weren’t going to see his injury because he was already injured before it started. There was a little red circle around the Boston player hovering over Hollander’s prone form, whom Annie knew to be Rozanov.

“Watch Rozanov here,” Morgan said as the video moved in slow motion. “All of the other players are fighting and yelling and all that, and he’s just silent. Staring at him. Maybe talking to him. I don’t know. He hasn’t even looked away from Hollander. Hasn’t looked up once.”

“How are you supposed to look when your secret boyfriend gets laid out on the ice and you aren’t allowed to react?” Annie asked.

“Exactly,” Morgan agreed. “You look devastated even though you know you aren’t allowed to look devastated and you’re trying to hide it. And then you play like shit afterwards.”

Annie and Casey both nodded.

“Rozanov signed in at the hospital at 8:01 the next morning,” Morgan said, “one minute after visiting hours at the hospital started.”

Casey’s jaw dropped, and Annie blinked at Morgan. She had definitely never heard this story.

Morgan flipped to the next slide.

“On the left is the sign in sheet from the hospital that day, see the date at the top? He was the first person to sign in that day.” The photo had been taken later in the day, because there were 15 or 20 names after his, but sure enough his name sat at the top. His handwriting was messy and pointy but clear enough, and Annie recognized it. He’d written and signed his name and marked the time in as 8:01am.

“On the right is something he signed for a fan, just to prove the handwriting is the same.” He’d written “Boston forever -Ilya Rozanov 81” in the corner. “The fan was from Montreal,” Morgan said with a smirk. “I really like him.”

“Me too,” Casey said.

Annie nodded.

“But holy shit,” Casey said, “8:01?”

“Yes,” Morgan said, “The second he was allowed in.”

“The second he was allowed in,” Casey echoed.

“He is so in love,” Annie said, shaking her head.

“Where’d you get that picture?” Casey asked.

“Facebook,” Morgan replied. “It was a Boston fan group and they were all saying he was such a courteous captain to visit an opposing player in the hospital.”

“Courteous captain or loving boyfriend, who can tell the difference?” Casey asked.

“They’re the same picture,” Annie said, mimicking a meme.

“Okay, then a few weeks later Rozanov was spotted in the Ottawa airport.” There was a photo of him in a black tank top with a black baseball cap and sunglasses.

“That is the single hottest any human being has ever looked,” Annie said, unable to stay on task.

“Hot as hell,” Casey said, nodding.

“Put it in the Louvre,” Morgan agreed, “Carve it out of marble.”

“I think if you were going to carve him out of marble, he’d be shirtless,” Casey pointed out, “And then you get the muscles.”

“We’re getting off topic!” Morgan said, “But you’re right. We’ll need to commission at least five statues made from marble, in varying states of undress. I volunteer to be the artist. I just need to learn the art of sculpting. How hard can it be? But it’ll take at least 100 hours and he’ll need to be here the whole time. Actually, they both will.”

Annie and Casey both laughed.

“Okay, right, anyway. So Rozanov is seen at the Ottawa airport. There were three photos I could find from that day, all at the airport. There was nothing afterward anywhere else in Ottawa. Nothing until three weeks later, when he’s back at the airport. He flies from there back to Boston, and we’re back on normal schedule and he’s seen in and around Boston like normal. But what happened during those three weeks in Ottawa?”

“What?” Annie asked eagerly when it became clear that Morgan was waiting for an answer.

“No, really, I don’t know,” Morgan answered, “But I can also tell you that there’s no evidence of Shane Hollander anywhere during those three weeks either.”

“Like in Montreal?” Annie asked.

“Anywhere,” Morgan corrected. “Hollander is originally from Ottawa and his parents live there. He also has a cabin-”

“They’re called cottages in Canada,” Casey interrupted. She didn’t get yelled at, Morgan just nodded.

“Right, yeah, cottage. He has a lakeside cottage a couple of hours north of Ottawa. His parents have one in the same area.”

“Are you a stalker?” Annie asked, but she was mostly amused.

“I’ve seen that documentary too,” Casey said, allying herself with Morgan, “He’s at the cottage at the lake and talks about his parents having one nearby. It looks nice.”

“Right, thank you Casey,” Morgan said. “It’s a cute documentary, you should see it, Annie.” Annie made a face at her. “Anyway, the nearest airport is in Ottawa. If you wanted to disappear off the face of the Earth for three weeks where there was no way that anyone could find you, that would be the place to go.”

“So Rozanov shows up in Ottawa and that definitely means he went up to Hollander’s place?” Casey asked. She didn’t sound convinced.

“I challenge you to find any corner of the city of Ottawa where Ilya Rozanov could stay for three weeks without a single photo surfacing on Twitter,” Morgan said.

“That’s true,” Annie agreed, “He couldn’t have stayed in Ottawa unless he stayed indoors the whole time.”

“For three weeks?” Morgan asked.

“Yeah,” Casey said, shaking her head. “On its own that would be pretty tenuous, but with everything else I think you’re probably right. He went up to Shane’s cottage.”

Morgan smiled ear to ear.

“Okay, last slide, I promise.”

The last slide was a two minute long video that they watched. Since the pre-season had started a few weeks ago-which was only a few weeks after he’d been spotted in Ottawa-Rozanov had taken on a new schtick.

“Tell him I love him.”

“Oh, Shane Hollander? Yes, the love of my life.”

“He’s the best.”

“Ahhh, my boyfriend Shane Hollander.”

“No, no, not that guy. Only Hollander. No one else interests me.”

The video played through the clips with sound, and any time there were responses from Hollander, he was blushing or smiling or shaking his head fondly. The montage seemed to go on forever even though it had only been a couple of months since the start of the schtick.

“And no one online ever says anything about it,” Morgan said, “They think he is just the world’s most secure straight man, to make jokes like that. But he’s just telling the whole world out loud and no one’s listening.”

“He literally called him his boyfriend,” Casey said. “Nobody anywhere thought he was serious.”

“I mean why would you?” Annie asked. “There’s a long history of Rozanov being a playboy with women.”

“Do you think it was all made up?” Casey asked.

“There did seem to be some firsthand stories online,” Morgan said, “But I don’t know, maybe it’s exaggerated? Maybe there weren’t as many?”

Annie shook her head.

“Or maybe this only got serious later. Your powerpoint pretty much said that. The all-star game, right? That’s when things changed?”

“Seemed like it,” Casey said.

“I will keep my eyes peeled for anything else about Rozanov being a playboy, but I don’t expect to see anything.”

“We will burn him at the stake for the betrayal if he does,” Morgan said.

“We are not burning a Boston player!” Casey said, exasperated.

“We’re not burning anyone!” Annie said, voice elevated. “But seriously I don’t think there’s a risk. I don’t think he’s hooking up with anyone else.”

“I agree,” Morgan said. They both looked at Casey.

“Yeah, I agree,” she finally said, “They’re in a relationship. You’ve convinced me.”

“So who made that Instagram video?” Morgan asked, circling back to the very beginning.

“Definitely Rozanov,” Annie said at the same time that Casey said, “Yes, it was Rozanov.”

“That was 2012,” Morgan said, “This has been going on forever.”

Annie looked up at the powerpoint.

“Don’t share this online. Let’s keep it private, maybe between us and other close friends if we have any. But don’t like blow it up and ruin their personal lives.”

“I would never!” Morgan said.

“I know,” Annie said.

“But seriously, when’s the next time Montreal plays in Boston?” Morgan asked, “You could just camp out in the lobby chairs.”

“Not here for more than a month,” Casey replied automatically. After a pause, she added, “Know anybody in Montreal?”

“Okay we’ve gotta get some Montreal girlies into our group chat,” Annie said.

“Yes, but like the chaos girlies, not just the hockey girlies,” Morgan said.

“Obviously!” Annie said, exasperated, “You’ve convinced us. But just don’t tell anybody where I live, I don’t want to dox my own location online by telling people I live in his building.”

“Good idea, that stays private,” Casey agreed.

“Of course,” Morgan replied. “Now get out of my house, I need to go to sleep.”

-

Annie wouldn’t have even begun to know where to look for “the chaos girlies” of the hockey scene. Neither would Casey. Casey could probably have pointed them to some very nice hockey statistics types, but they both knew that wasn’t what they needed.

So that left it up to Morgan. She had no connections to the hockey community, but within a week she’d invited five girls to a group chat. Angie, Tania, Lex, Jess, and Amanda. Annie didn’t know them each separately, but they were somehow all already shippers of what they called “Hollanov.” How Morgan had found them so quickly, Annie didn’t know. But by the end of the week, Morgan had convinced Annie to make an AO3 account. The website was for fanfiction, which Annie had always thought was for Harry Potter and Marvel. But it turned out that some of it was for hockey. And most of the fanfics didn’t actually feature much hockey at all. So far she’d only dabbled and she’d mostly stuck to the more hockey centric fics, but boy could she ever imagine getting sucked into this rabbit hole.

The girls in the group chat combined to have what felt like a red string board worth of data of everything Hollander and Rozanov had ever said about each other. Hollander hadn’t said anything that could even remotely be considered incriminating. But three days after Morgan’s powerpoint, Rozanov was asked what he thought of Hollander pulling ahead of him in the scoring race, and he’d said he’d have him beat by the next time they faced each other. Then he blew him a kiss and said “Sorry, my love, I know you’ll be sad.” And then he’d winked. The audience had laughed. The group chat had squealed.

“Sometimes I think he knows about the fanfiction and does it on purpose,” Morgan said a few weeks later, when Rozanov made good on his promise and then said “Tell my poor sad boyfriend that I’m keeping this lead this time.”

Once again, the audience cracked up. Boston hockey Reddit thought it was epic trolling from the straightest straight guy to ever live. Montreal hockey Reddit was burning effigies to Rozanov for making a joke of their favorite player.

New York hockey Reddit was standing at attention in case he ever made a joke like that about their own captain, who actually was gay. He’d come out at the end of last season, and there had been rumors that he’d faced homophobia from inside the league, but no outright accusations had ever been made. But Rozanov didn’t say a word against him for being gay. He mocked him, but only about getting old and losing his hockey skills. As hard as Reddit tried, they couldn’t find anything homophobic about it. He’d passed their tests with flying colors so far. But that was only so far. They had their pitchforks and torches at the ready in case that ever changed.

Annie kept her posts about “Hollanov” (as she’d learned from Morgan that Hollander and Rozanov were called when you shipped them together) in spaces that would be friendly to the concept. Hockey Twitter and Hockey Reddit were hostile at the best of times to shipping two players together. No amount of evidence presented to them would convince them otherwise, and it just wasn’t worth it to fight through the homophobia to even start the conversation.

Annie mostly kept her Hollanov fandom presence on AO3. After Morgan introduced it to her, it took Annie a few days to get into reading fanfiction, and then another few weeks after that before she started writing her own. It was just so fun! Morgan was very into it. It turned out that she had almost 50 fanfics that she’d written in other fandoms that she’d never shared with Annie or Casey before. Annie loved bouncing creative writing ideas off of each other in the late evenings with a glass of wine or brownies. Casey wasn’t into writing so much, but she would read and compliment Annie or Morgan on their fics because she was a good friend. She made an account just to be able to leave Kudos and comments.

“I just can’t see how you can work Rozanov into your Mafia AU Revenge,” Annie said over the phone one night, “I get how Shane has to get vengeance against the mafia who killed his whole family, but how do you get Ilya in?”

Morgan laughed.

“You have to think big picture here,” Morgan said, “Ilya is a part of this mafia. But he's just a menace waiting to be redeemed, not an actual murderer. Hollander starts out hating him because he's part of it, right?”

“Right.”

“But he’s like that because his family's terrible and brought him into this life. But he wasn't there when Hollander's family was killed, he was just a kid then too, like Hollander. Eventually, when he turns on them, he's Hollander's only source of information about how to get to the kingpin to kill him. Hollander doesn’t have a choice but to work with him.”

"Ohhh," Annie said, "I can see how they could end up falling in love."

"They're always going to fall in love," Morgan said, "It's inevitable in every universe."

Between Annie and Morgan, they wrote a dozen fanfics within the first few weeks. Some were normal: (a) Hollanov meeting at a bar before the all-star game, (b) Rozanov meeting Hollander’s parents, and (c) Scott Hunter’s perspective on Hollanov. Some were…slightly less normal, but still mostly reasonable concepts: (d) Rozanov’s friend seducing Rose Landry so that she would break up with Hollander, (e) Rozanov being wildly jealous of anyone even looking at Hollander, and (f) Hollanov getting a fake marriage for immigration purposes. Some were just way too out there, but Annie was learning that people really liked that on AO3: (g) a law office sitcom fic, (h) Hollanov together on a space ship on a mission to Tao Ceti to save humanity, (i) Hollanov regency fanfic where they were competing to marry princess Jacqueline until they realized that they were in love with each other instead.

Everyone on AO3 was so nice. It was like no other website Annie had ever been on. People were kind and thoughtful and funny and sweet and she wished that she could thank all of them. She did, when people left comments, but she wished that she could say thank you to everyone who read it. (Thank you. <3)

There were repeat commenters, too, which was really flattering. Morgan had 624 people following her. Annie only had 12, but she thought that was amazing for never having posted before. A bunch of the repeat commenters had been invited to join the group chat. Most of them were hockey fans, though they weren’t all fans of the same team. But their Hollanov fandom bridged the divide, and Annie could handle being in a group chat with Montreal fans…mostly. Banter with rivals was usually much more fun than any kind of conversation with non-fans.

Annie: Are you guys watching this game?????

Morgan: What game?

Annie: The Montreal-Boston game!!!!

Morgan: I told you, I'm in it for the chaos more than the hockey!

Tania: This is the Rozanov vs Hollander game. This IS the chaos!

Amanda: On it!!!

Casey: I'm watching!

Angie: I just turned it on!

Jess: I'm at the game!!!

Annie: Omg!!!

Photo

NICE VIEW

Casey: Are you in the first row??????

Jess: Third!

Angie: Can you hear them talking through the glass????

Jess: Not talking, but definitely when they yell!

Lex: I'm at the game too! Opposite side, way high up

Photo

Casey: Perfectly centered, NICE.

Lex: Always! My favorite seats, the birds eye view.

Jess: We should meet up later!!!!

Lex: Yes! Between the periods!

Annie: Wow

Morgan: They're just staaaaaaaring at each other

Casey: Loooooong drawn out stare.

Angie: That, my friends, looks like foreplay

Tania: The announcers are still talking like they're rivals who hate each other, they so don't get it!!!

Annie: You don't undress someone you hate with your eyes like that

Lex: Enemies to lovers AU????

Morgan: IT'S NOT AN AU IF IT'S REAL

Annie: no way they're enemies though! They're secretly in love

Jess: Ommmgggg they're talking at center ice!!!

Lex: What do you think they're saying???

Casey: Rozanov is smiling.

Annie: Such a sexy smile

Angie: What I wouldn't give to be that close to that smile

Annie: WHAT WAS THAT

Morgan: DID YOU SEE THAT

Annie: OOMMMGGGG

Morgan: WHAT DID HE JUST DO WITH HIS TONGUE

Morgan: WHILE LOOKING AT SHANE HOLLANDER

Casey: WHAT DID WE JUST WITNESS

Lex: I missed it!!!!

Jess: I couldn't see it from here, what happened????

Lex: Omg I need to watch the TV feed later!

Annie: He took his mouth guard out and ran his tongue like along his teeth

Morgan: The chokehold that man has on me

Morgan: Like that was so sexy

Annie: The chokehold that that man has on SHANE HOLLANDER

Casey: We can only wish we knew what it felt like to have Ilya Rozanov look at us like that.

Annie: But he knows!

Morgan: I bet he knows a hell of a lot more than that

Angie: Puck drop!!

-

It was nice to have friends to chat with about hockey. Annie had always had Casey and she’d never taken that for granted, but now they had a whole group around them. There were always at least a couple of people watching every live Montreal or Boston game to talk about the games with. Both Annie and Casey found themselves watching more Montreal games because of the Montreal fans’ influence (NOT that either of them would actually be able to root for Montreal, but it was always fun to watch Hollander).

“I want Hollander to do well, but I need Boston to win even more than that,” Annie said, when Morgan quizzed her to find out if she was sure she wasn’t secretly rooting for Montreal. “My priority is Boston first, then Hollander.”

“Hollander should be the second best player in the game after Rozanov, obviously,” Morgan said.

“Obviously,” Annie agreed.

The new normal rolled in so quickly that Annie started to worry about what the offseason would be like. All day every day she had the chaos girlies to talk to about hockey, and at night there was a hockey game to watch more often than not. It was the most fun she’d ever had during a hockey season, and she’d loved hockey since she was a kid.

About halfway through December, it was Annie’s turn to add someone to the group chat. Morgan had found everyone else, but Annie offered her first invite to her favorite commenter.

Annie’s AO3 was booming, and her first foray into fanfiction was going swimmingly. She loved all of her repeat commenters, but she loved ILoveShane1221 best.

• ILoveShane1221: Shane Hollander under the shower in the fic so hot but in real life soooo hoootttt
• ILoveShane1221: Ilya fell harder NO, Shane fell on the floor and can’t get up like an old man
• ILoveShane1221: Shane in your fanfiction <3 <3 <3 I dream about that tongue thing tooooo I want it on me all the time just like that

She was the first AO3 user to comment on all of Annie’s fics, which meant that she had to be subscribed. And her comments made Annie laugh more than some entire fics did.

It turned out that ILoveShane1221’s real name was Lily, and that she had never been in a Hollanov group chat before but was happy to join theirs.

Annie: Omg you guys! This is Lily

Annie: She commented on my fanfic and I was dying. She's so funny so I said she had to join our group chat

Annie: I shared my favorite comments but there were like 100. You should go check my account. She’s ILoveShane1221

Morgan: Oh, you commented on my account too!!!! I love you. You have the best comments

Casey: Hi Lily

Morgan: Exciting

Lily: Thank you for inviting me

Casey: Please tell me you live in Montreal WE NEED INTEL

Lily: Sorry no

Morgan: I’m about to move there if we can’t find someone

Annie: Montreal game starts in five minutes, you up for a live chat Lily?

Lily: Hell yes, was going to watch anyway

Casey: Another hockey fan!

Angie: You like hockey or just you like hockey boys?

Lily: Ha!

Lily: I like hockey.

Morgan: The boys are just a plus? Lololol

Lily: Eh. Most of them are okay. Shane Hollander though. fire emoji

Morgan: I KNOW RIGHT

Annie: Also Ilya!!!!!!

Lex: We loooooove Ilya in this group chat

Tania: We also love Shane! We love both

Jess: This is a hollanov group chat

Lily: Then I am in right place, I also love Hollanov <3

Lex: They are sooooo in love

Lily: For real, yes

Annie: I KNOW! FOR REAL

Morgan: I love this group chat

Tania: Hollanov is life

Annie: Stick around to watch the Montreal game with us!!!

Casey: We live blog a lot of their games

Lex: Both Boston and Montreal. We’re equal opportunity fans

Lily: You love both? I don’t think you can love both.

Annie: We dooooo

Morgan: Yeah it’s weird but we like Shane and Ilya both so we root for both of them

Lily: Who do you root for when they play each other? I don’t know if I can continue in this group chat if it’s Montreal. D’X

Annie: Boston!!! I live here!

Casey: Boston for me, I live here too

Jess: Montreal, I love Shane more

Lex: Montreal!!!! Born and raised

Annie: But you live in New York now, you traitor

Angie: Boston!

Tania: WINNIPEG

Tania: RIP our chances so I go with Montreal

Jess: Lex move back to Montreal so we have our girl there

Annie: Lily, you’re a Boston fan??? But you love Shane more!

Lily: Yes I love Shane more. But Boston needs second championship

Annie: WE DO THIS IS OUR YEAR

Angie: LETS GO

Casey: Trust me you’ve found your people

Tania: I’ll be happy for Ilya if they win

Lex: My dynasty will NEVER BE KILLED

Lex: But if it has to be anyone let it by Ilya <3 <3

Lily: No more for Shane. He has enough. Only for Boston.

Morgan: But you love Shane!!!

Lily: He has enough!!!

Angie: Go Boston!

Annie: Hell yeah, loyal to Boston, my kind of girl!

Morgan: But Shane’s amaaaaaazing.

Lily: Eh. He has a weak backhand

Jess: A WEAK BACKHAND

Lex: YOU DID NOT JUST

Morgan: BUT YOU LOVE HIM HOW COULD YOU SAY THAT

Casey: He has a weak backhand??? I’d like you see YOUR backhand! Shane is AMAZING.

Annie: He’s been MVP twice!!!!

Lily: Ilya has been MVP 3x. Better player. Better backhand

Morgan: WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR LOYALTY TO SHANE, LILY

Angie: I’m dyyyiiiiing Lily you’re so funny

Jess: I’m so glad you’re here Lily you are craaaaazy

Morgan: You better make it up to Shane Lily or he’ll never forgive you

Lily: I think he will forgive me

Lily: If I do that thing he likes with my tongue

Annie: OMMMGGGGG

Morgan: LILLLYYYYY

Jess: I CANT

Angie: SCREAMING

Annie: Lily!!!!!

Casey: We ship Hollanov, Shane’s not for us!!!!!

Angie: I’m DYING

Lily: Okay Shane is only for Ilya

Lily: I’m sorry. Only for Ilya

Morgan: AND YOU BETTER REMEMBER IT

Annie: Lily I can’t XD XD

Jess: What I wouldn’t give for three minutes ago before I heard you say that because NOW I WANT IT TOO

Morgan: Nooooo

Angie: OMG SAAAAME

Lex: I know right?! I wouldn’t kick him out of bed!!!

Annie: AHAHAAH

Lily: NO. Shane is Ilya’s only

Jess: Okay okay but you started it

Lily: Only Ilya’s!!!!

Annie: Okay okay!

Morgan: We remember our roots!

Casey: We are here for HOCKEY and HOLLANOV IN THAT ORDER

Lex: That’s you! I’m here for Hollanov!

Morgan: I’m barely in it for the hockey, that’s incidental

Tania: I’m here for that thing Ilya did with his tongue when he saw Shane on the ice

Annie: He did it twice, I SWEAR it was on purpose!!!

Morgan: It’s been in EVERY FANFIC since then

Jess: I bet Shane fucking loves it

Lily: He does ;)

Annie: I knoooooow

Morgan: HOW COULD HE NOT

Lex: We do too!!!

-

Lily was a great addition to the group chat. It also seemed like she had read every single fic that had ever gone up on AO3, so she was great to consult for fic ideas. Despite everyone’s encouragement, she had no interest in writing herself, but Annie got plenty of ideas from her. Her best fanfics in the latter half of the season were full of Lily’s inspiration.

Annie never could have come up with some of them on her own. It was Lily who had suggested that Annie have Hollander’s teammate Hayden Pike accidentally hear Rozanov give Hollander a blow job on the phone. And when Annie couldn’t figure out how to make it happen realistically, it was Lily who had suggested that Pike’s wife was on the phone too to encourage him not to hang up. Lily was dying laughing by the end, and despite having had the original idea AND beta read three different versions of the fic, Lily had still left four comments on the fic.

She’d also suggested that Annie write a SECOND fake marriage fic, though this time it was a real marriage that they were just PRETENDING was a fake marriage. It had seemed convoluted at first, but the team effort had resulted in a pretty fun fic after all.

Annie always texted Lily. She’d tried to call once, but a generic robot voicemail had picked up and Lily had told her just to text. It would have been nice to video chat, or even just talk on the phone, but Annie understood that some people wanted to stay anonymous online.

Most of the Boston girls in the group chat got together once a month for dinner or drinks or to go to a game together, but Lily had never joined. Annie had tried, but Lily hadn’t budged. Annie hoped that she wasn’t worried about what they would think about her appearance or her age or anything else. Everyone had always adored her. But for whatever reason, Lily wanted to remain anonymous.

She had once said that one of the reasons that she didn’t want to write fanfiction was that English wasn’t her first language. There had never seemed to be any kind of language barrier by text, but Annie wondered if Lily was hesitant to speak by phone because of the language issue. She could imagine that a conversation out loud might be more intimidating than texting, but she hoped that Lily would know that they would never judge her if she had an accent.

It was a shame, because Annie would have loved to meet her.

-

Lily: I am the biggest hollanov shipper. I promise.

Morgan: No it’s meeeeee

Annie: I shipped Hollanov before you knew who they were Morgan!!!!

Casey: That’s true she did!

Lily: No I shipped them before any of you had heard of them

Lily: Maybe 2008

Annie: NO YOU DID NOT

Angie: Had they even met then?!

Casey: They met at the World Juniors that year.

Casey: But how did you even know about them well enough to ship them then?

Lily: I told you

Lily: I am the biggest hollanov shipper

Casey: Was there even any information out there about them yet then???

Casey: Like I thought I knew everything about hockey, but I didn’t know them in 2008!

Lily: I read everything about Shane

Lily: Every article

Lily: Before anyone else knew anything

Lily: I wanted to know eveeeerything

Lily: I NEEDED them to get together

Lily: I was dying for it

Tania: I’m dying, of course you were XD

Annie: Every article about Shane?? Not Ilya?

Lily: I read those too ;)

Casey: But you love Shane best

Lily: I love Shane very best

Morgan: The OG shipper I bow down

Annie: And I thought I was the OG shipper, I told you about them!

Morgan: We have you to thank for this group chat!

Lily: Thank you for the group chat

Lily: I had no one to talk to about this before

Angie: You were ALONE thinking about it for all those years?!

Annie: Well we know she read every fanfic!!!

Lily: Yes I did

Casey: All of them?!

Morgan: Did you read the one where they were secretly in Hayden’s backyard?! That one KILLED ME DEAD a few years ago

Lily: ;) ;) Oh yessss I liked that one. Was very funny and sexy.

Angie: Of course you did

Morgan: What’s your favorite fanfic?

Lily: I like fanfic, but I mostly like the videos on youtube

Annie: The editors are so good!!!

Morgan: Ooohhhh then which is your favorite of those?

Lily: I like this one [link] because it’s set to Boston’s win song XD

Casey: You are the weirdest Shane stan I have ever met

Angie: No, I love it

Tania: I can’t believe that’s your favorite

Lily: Yes I am Shane’s #1 fan

Lily: But I also like Boston

Lily: It is our win song and Shane what’s not to like

Annie: XD XD XD

Annie: I CAN’T

Annie: I’ll watch though for real

Lily: Here’s my playlist of my favorite videos of Shane [link]

Morgan: Excited to watch!

Angie: Do you have one for Ilya?

Lily: No, but I watch sometimes because he’s better MVP of hockey

Annie: I STILL CAN’T BELIEVE YOU SAID SHANE HAD A WEAK BACKHAND

Casey: Right?! One of the best players there is!

Lily: One of the best, yes. But not perfect. Has weaknesses.

Morgan: You tell em! (I don’t know enough about hockey to know hahaha)

Annie: Nothing about Shane’s game is weak Morgan!!! Don’t listen to her!

Casey: Are you overcompensating to try to pretend you don’t worship at Shane’s altar an unhealthy amount?

Casey: Because we already know you can’t hide it!

Morgan: And we’re right there with you!

Annie: You don’t have to pretend to us!

Lily: Hahahaha I know

Lily: Okay, he is perfect

Lily: I like him very much

Casey: We know you do <3

Lily: No weak backhand

Annie: I KNEW IT

Lily: It was just fun to say

Annie: I knew you didn’t really think that!

Morgan: That’s my girl <3

Angie: Okay good Lily remembered she loves Shane <3 <3

Lily: I did not forget!

Lily: I do not forget something like that

Casey: We all know you love Shane.

Annie: We all do!

Annie: Lily just loves him best

Lily: Yes <3

-

“Do you want to try to go to the game last minute tonight?” Annie asked Casey. Her phone was on speaker on the counter while she chopped up veggies for tomorrow’s lunch.

“Uh,” Casey’s voice came through the phone, “I don’t think I can, I have an early morning tomorrow, sorry.”

“I wish Lily would go with me,” Annie said.

“You know, it’s weird, she’s SUCH a big Boston fan, but she never talks to us during their games.”

“Yeah, it is weird,” Annie agreed. She’d thought about this before too.

“It’s not like she doesn’t watch hockey. She live chats Montreal games sometimes.”

“And both of the New York games we watched for fun, she joined for those too.”

“Right! Even New York! But she has never, never once, sent a single text during a Boston game. It’s so fucking weird.”

“You’d think she’d have the most feelings during those.”

“Maybe it’s like a religion to her and you don’t interrupt church by using your phone?” Annie thought out loud.

“I’ve thought something like that,” Casey agreed, “Or that she’s so superstitious that she doesn’t touch her phone during games or something.”

Annie put the cut celery into the container and moved on to the carrots.

“Yeah that could be, sports fans are like that. We do weird stuff like that.”

“I know, I definitely do,” Casey said, “But every single game? It’s weird.”

“Have you ever asked her?” Annie asked.

Casey hesitated so long it made Annie look over to the phone.

“I don’t want to draw attention to it,” Casey finally said.

“Why not?” Annie asked.

“I don’t know!” Casey replied, and Annie realized that she wasn’t hiding something that she knew, she genuinely didn’t know.

“But it’s like I don’t want to make her feel weird for whatever her quirks are.”

“Right, definitely,” Annie said.

“I understand being weird and superstitious and having quirks people don’t always understand,” Casey said, “I just wish she would tell us so it wasn’t such a big mystery.”

“Me too,” Annie said.

“Maybe you can get Angie to go with you,” Casey said, changing the subject, “She’s always good for a game.”

“She’s great,” Annie agreed. “The whole group chat’s great, really. Can you believe it was Morgan who brought us all together?”

“Morgan, the world’s biggest hockey fan,” Casey said dryly. “Sometimes I feel like this whole thing’s a fever dream.” She laughed. “She asked me to go to the game last Saturday with her. You were working and she wanted to go. Her! Morgan!”

“Did you go?”

“No! I was at my mom’s place with my sisters! I felt so bad, I was the reason that Morgan missed a hockey game. What kind of weird parallel universe is this?”

“I don’t know, but I love it,” Annie said.

“Definitely agree. I don’t know if she realizes that this is a commitment for life. She’s in now, she’s never getting out.”

Annie laughed and started putting the cut carrots into the container too.

“We’ll see how that goes. But at any rate now she can never pretend she doesn’t understand hockey anymore.”

“I do think she said ‘field goal’ on purpose that one time,” Casey said. They’d discussed it before and it was probably true.

“Yeah, I know it, I shouldn’t have reacted.”

Annie took the cutting board and knife over to the sink to wash them.

“She’s going to have to make those jokes about baseball now, it won’t work for hockey anymore.”

-

Annie: Hey Lily, you gonna watch the Boston game tonight?

Lily: Of course. Boston will win.

Annie: You always say that!

Annie: I hope so too, but I’m not always as confident as you!

Lily: I am usually right. They have won 13 of last 17 games. They will win again!

Annie: I KNOW

Annie: They’re close to the best record in the league again!

Lily: Yes :) I am proud of my boys. We will get there.

Annie: We will!! Go Boston!!

Lily: Go Boston always :) :)

Lily: Just too bad it is not against Montreal. Those games are the most fun.

Annie: Totally. I love watching Hollander and Rozanov face off

Lily: It is the best. It gets my heart racing just thinking about it

Annie: Because you get to watch Hollander AND Boston?

Lily: Yes. Is the best.

Annie: Are you sure you aren’t rooting for him to win? At least a little bit?

Lily: My perfect Montreal game is that Hollander scores a hat trick and Montreal loses to Boston 12-3

Annie: Hahaha that’d be awesome

Lily: I want Montreal to lose every game but Hollander to come in second in goals scored in the league

Annie: To Rozanov?

Lily: Yes. Of course.

Annie: But you love Hollander better! You don’t want him to win the scoring race?

Lily: Rozanov should win. Hollander in second

Annie: Lol I can agree with that as a Boston fan!

Lily: Win by one would be best. Close race. Both very good. But Rozanov wins.

Annie: Cheers to that!

Annie: Where do you watch games? At home?

Lily: I go to the arena for games :) But I do not use my phone during them sorry

Annie: I know I know

Annie: You go to all of the games? Do you have season tickets?

Lily: Something like that.

Lily: I need to go now to drive to arena.

Annie: But it’s so early! The game doesn’t start for four hours!

Lily: I will make a stop first.

Lily: Go Boston!

Annie: Go Boston!! Enjoy the game!

-

“Season tickets!” Morgan repeated when Annie told her two best friends about that conversation later that night. Morgan had invited them all over to her apartment to watch the game together. “Lucky.”

“Do you think she’s rich?” Casey asked.

“What do you think she does for work?” Annie asked, “To be able to have that flexibility for her schedule?”

“Dunno, but I want that job,” Morgan said. She grabbed the bottle of wine and topped off all of their glasses. The charcuterie on the table was mostly picked through, and the fruit was gone.

Annie resisted asking about the chocolate cake that she knew was in the fridge.

“She doesn’t talk during the away games either,” Casey pointed out. “Do you think she goes to those too?” Her eyes were on the tv screen, which was focused on Rozanov at center ice as he waited for the game to start. He appeared to be chatting with San Francisco’s starting forward, another Russian named Smirnov. There didn’t appear to be any animosity between them as they chatted. Annie wondered what they were talking about.

“That would be crazy rich,” Morgan said around a sip of wine. “The flights and hotels and all that.”

“What I wouldn’t give to not have to work,” Annie said.

“I mean maybe she does, some people work remote and can do that,” Casey said.

“Too bad being an anesthesiologist doesn’t allow for that,” Annie said, scrunching up her face. “There are drawbacks to this job.”

Rozanov and Smirnov bent for the face off and all three women watched in silence for a moment. Rozanov won the face off quickly and passed the puck off to his left wing, who passed it back almost too quickly to follow.

“She talks about Hollander so much more than Rozanov though,” Morgan said. “She’s completely obsessed with him.”

“She talks about how hot he is a lot,” Annie told her, “But today she said she wanted Rozanov to win the scoring race and Hollander to come in second.”

“Really?” Casey asked as she reached forward to add a few more bites worth of food to her plate, “I would have sworn it would be the opposite. She would want Boston to win the cup but Hollander to win the scoring race.”

“I would have thought so too!” Annie told her, “But you can see the texts if you want.”

“No, I believe you,” Casey said.

“She’s kind of unpredictable,” Morgan said. “She talks about nothing except hockey all day every day EXCEPT when Boston is playing and then she goes radio silent.”

“Someday we’ll get her to live chat a Boston game with us,” Annie told her. “Or to go to a game with us. We’ll make it happen someday.”

“I hope so,” Casey said, “That would be so fun.”

-

A week later, Morgan made a plan to go to a sports bar to watch the Boston vs. Montreal game and invited everyone in the group chat to join. Morgan! In a sports bar! But she showed up in her Rozanov jersey and focused on the game with rapt attention. She analyzed every facial expression the cameras caught from either Rozanov or Hollander. Afterwards, when Rozanov was being interviewed, she continued her analysis even with the sound off.

“I bet they just asked him about Hollander now!” she said, “Look at the way the corner of his mouth turned up. I bet they did, seriously. He’s trying not to smile, look at the wrinkles by his eyes. He wants to smile so bad.”

“He’s not hiding it well at all,” Annie agreed. “He used to be able to, but he can’t help smiling now.”

Rozanov was shirtless and glistening with sweat and the epitome of male hotness, but all any of the girls could focus on was how fond he looked of Hollander. Morgan even forgot to comment on how attractive he was, because she was too focused on how in love he was.

“Come back to my apartment,” Annie said to both Casey and Morgan as they were leaving the bar. It was pretty early, only around ten thirty. She didn’t flag it for anyone else. She still didn’t want the rest of the group chat to know where she lived. That was partly to protect herself, and partly to protect Rozanov. It wouldn’t be kind to him to let fangirls know where he lived. Casey and Morgan had never interrupted his privacy, but Annie didn’t really know the rest of them all that well, and she didn’t want to risk it.

The girls walked slowly down the sidewalk as they approached the building. It was cold and they were bundled up, but they had some fading residual warmth from the alcohol, and they didn’t rush.

“Let’s warm up in the lobby by the fireplace,” Annie said when they reached the building.

They idled there for close to half an hour before there was any evidence of hockey players.

Annie’s hands were in front of the fire when Morgan gripped her elbow tightly.

“That’s Hollander!” she whispered sharply, with wide, shocked eyes. Annie’s eyes whipped towards the door. She looked around wildly when there was no one at the front.

Morgan’s gloved finger pointed to the windows to their left. A figure that did look like Shane Hollander was walking with hunched shoulders in a long coat around the side of the building.

“I just knew there was a back entrance with a private elevator!” Annie said. She had to resist jumping up and down in glee.

“Do you think Rozanov’s already upstairs?” Casey asked, as Hollander’s figure dipped out of view past the sight line of the window.

“Probably, I wasn’t looking that way before,” Morgan said. “But now you know where to look for him, Annie.”

“I’m still not going to stalk him,” she said. “I’ll just look that way occasionally just in case.”

“Good,” Morgan said. “Just in case.”

They agreed not to stay in the lobby any longer and to leave Hollander and Rozanov in peace.

After the girls left, Annie kept an eye out her own third floor window to see if she could spot Hollander’s retreating form later in the night, but she never did. It wasn’t any of her business anyway, so she let herself go to sleep hoping they’d had a good night.

-

Annie didn’t see Rozanov again in person once in the next few months. She saw him on TV nearly every day, but she never once saw him at the apartment. She’d stuck to her word not to specifically watch his path around the back of the building, but she’d thought she’d get a glimpse of him once or twice in that span.

About three months after she’d spotted Hollander there the second time, she made the fatal error of forgetting that she was trying not to dox her own location in the group chat.

Annie: I can’t believe I live in Ilya’s building but I’ve never met him, life is so unfair

Lily: You live in Ilya’s building?

Casey: That’s how the group chat started.

Morgan: Back when there were only three of us!

Annie: Yeah, I saw Shane leave the building once after a game

Lily: I didn’t know you lived there

Annie: Yeah!

Lily: That’s crazy

About thirty seconds after Lily sent the last message in the group chat, she texted Annie separately.

Lily: Let’s meet up sometime

Annie: OMG!!! I’ve been dying to forever! That would be so fun!!

Lily: I am in town today but leave early tomorrow. Can we get together tonight?

Annie: It’s already 8:30 and I probably need to be in bed by 11…

Lily: I can come to you and I will leave early, I promise

Annie: Okay!

Lily: What’s the address? I will come as soon as I can.

Annie was too excited while she was texting Lily to wonder about why Lily was so interested in meeting her now, of all times, so she agreed immediately. And when Lily asked that she wait for her in the lobby to bring her upstairs rather than tell reception to let her up, Annie didn’t question it.

It was only when she’d put her phone down that Annie started to question it.

Lily had never had any interest in meeting her until the moment she’d found out that Annie lived in Rozanov’s building. Was she a stalker? Annie really really hoped that she wasn’t going to cause any trouble for Rozanov. They definitely wouldn’t see him, since Annie almost never did, which was a saving grace. Annie absolutely adored Lily and didn’t think she would do anything rude or intrusive, but she still didn’t want to risk it. But now that Lily knew what building he lived in, would she come back later? Annie crossed her fingers that she hadn’t just done something terrible to Rozanov.

Annie got to the lobby five minutes before Lily had said that she would be there, and waited by that same fireplace where she’d once spotted Hollander. It was almost nine and pitch dark out, but there was just enough ambient city light that she could see the immediate vicinity around the building and across the street towards the subway Lily might be coming from. Annie actually had no idea where she was coming from, she hadn’t asked. It just had to be within 25 minutes from Annie’s apartment, because that’s how much lead time she’d had.

Right at nine, Annie saw a shadow to the side of the building. It was a man in a black hoodie with the hood up, wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses. He had come around from the back of the building and was looking in. He was mostly in shadow, but there was just enough light on him that Annie could see some details of the figure in the darkness.

In any other circumstance, Annie might have thought it was some kind of criminal - who wore a baseball cap and sunglasses to sneak around at night? - but she didn’t have time to. Because she recognized him immediately. She would have known the curve of that jaw, the shape of that face, the size of that body, the set of those shoulders, anywhere. She had memorized every inch of that man a million times over.

It was Ilya Rozanov.

Just as soon as they saw each other, he was gone. Annie’s eyes followed him until he was out of her sightline.

She whipped around to the front door. Had Lily spotted Rozanov? Was she going to run after him? Annie certainly wouldn’t, but if Lily was a stalker, would she?

But there was no sign of anyone in the doorway or outside.

Where was Lily?

It was now 9:03, which wasn’t really all that much later than 9:00, but Annie’s heart was racing as she watched the crosswalk in the direction of the subway where she hoped Lily would appear from.

Suddenly she was desperate to see Lily. She had to tell someone the wild thing that had just happened.

At 9:05, she pulled out her phone. If she couldn’t tell Lily, she would tell Casey and Morgan.

She’d only typed into the text as far as “YOU GUYS” when a message popped up on her screen from Lily.

Lily: I can’t make it anymore. I’m sorry.

Annie’s vision whited out.

Lily couldn’t make it? And she’d gotten that text about 3 minutes after she’d seen Ilya Rozanov sneaking around in a baseball cap, a hoodie, and sunglasses late at night. Which was probably the exact amount of time it would have taken him to get back to the elevator and up to the safety of the penthouse.

Rozanov hadn’t been leaving, he’d gone out specifically to look in the lobby of the building from outside, and then gone back to his apartment. He hadn’t wanted to be seen, he had only wanted to see the person standing in the lobby. And then had gone immediately back inside.

Annie’s brain was short circuiting, but one thought cut through crystal clear: Was Ilya Rozanov really Lily?

It made sense. In a thousand million ways it made sense. Of course he couldn’t text during Boston games. Of course he obsessively watched Montreal games. Of course he needed someone to talk to about his love for Shane Hollander under an alias, when there was probably no one on Earth he could safely talk to about that as himself.

Annie got back to her apartment and had her computer in front of her almost without thinking about it. Lily had never once sent a single message during a Boston game, not one single time. When Annie started to cross reference the Boston Raiders schedule, Lily never texted during what were probably practices in the morning, and there were long stretches on travel days where she had gone radio silent.

Annie looked at the messages Lily had sent. A lot of them weren’t hypothetical or vague. They were specific and told as fact. They looked different in this new light.

-

Lily: I think he will forgive me

Lily: If I do that thing he likes with my tongue

-

Lex: They are sooooo in love

Lily: For real, yes

-

And he’d said it a million times to the press, too.

-

“What should we tell Shane Hollander?”

“You tell him I love him.”

-

“Ahhh, my boyfriend Shane Hollander.”

-

Annie had known for six months that Hollanov was real. She had talked a lot to the group chat about the publicly available knowledge, but she’d never shared the truly damning evidence that Hollander came late at night after games sometimes.

But she never in a million years would have predicted that Rozanov had found his way into a group chat to talk about that boyfriend. Of course he would. He said the quiet part out loud to the press on a daily basis and no one believed him, why wouldn’t he be able to pull off the same thing in fangirl spaces.

Annie wasn’t going to out him to the group chat at large. She couldn’t. She’d protected him this far, she’d continue to protect him. But she would spontaneously combust if she didn’t tell someone, so she turned to the two people she most trusted in the whole world, and the two people she knew she could trust with this secret.

-

Annie: MORGAN. CASEY. THIS DOESN’T LEAVE THIS GROUP CHAT

Morgan: Omg you made a new group chat like the original?!?! What’s the news!?

Casey: Do tell!!

Annie: So you know how like an hour ago I told the group chat I lived in Ilya’s building? I never said that before except to you two because I didn’t want to give away where I lived

Annie: But I fucking forgot it was supposed to be a secret

Annie: And I said it

Casey: Yeah, you told everyone

Annie: Right, so after that I got this message from Lily

Annie: She wanted to meet up

Annie: I asked her before and she said no

Annie: So I was like awesome, FINALLY, we’ve been in the same city for like a SIX MONTHS and never met

Casey: Right

Annie: So she wanted to meet at my apartment

Annie: Like tonight. Immediately.

Morgan: AT YOUR APARTMENT? LIKE SHE WANTED TO MEET ROZANOV?

Casey: Is she a stalker?!?!

Annie: NO. HOLD ON

Annie: Let me tell it!!! I’m dying here!

Casey: Okay!

Annie: So I wait in the lobby like we plan

Annie: It’s late, like 9:00. So it’s dark outside

Morgan: OMG

Annie: So like exactly right at 9 I see someone outside. Wearing a hoodie with the hood pulled up and a hat and sunglasses IN THE DARK. A MAN.

Morgan: WTF

Casey: Holy shit

Annie: RIGHT?!!?!

Annie: EXCEPT I KNOW THAT PERSON

Annie: Even with sunglasses and a fucking hat on

Annie: I WOULD KNWO THAT FACE ANYWHREE

Morgan: WHO WAS IT

Annie: IT WAS ILYA ROZANOV

Casey: Ilya was there?

Casey: What was he doing there?!!

Annie: AND THEN LILY NEVER SHOWED

Annie: She said she couldn’t make it and she was sorry!!!

Morgan: WAS LILY ILYAAA????

Annie: YES

Annie: I THINK SO

Annie: 99.999% sure!!!

Casey: HOLY SHIT

Annie: So I went back and read every fucking message since she joined the group chat

Morgan: YOU READ SIX MONTHS WORTH OF MESSAGES

Annie: YES I DID

Casey: Lily never ever messaged during Boston games!!!!!

Annie: I KNOW. EXACTLY.

Morgan: HOLY SHOT HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT

Annie: And like I checked the schedule!!! She commented on so many Montreal games BUT NEVER ON GAMES AT THE SAME TIME AS BOSTONS

Annie: She also didn’t message during Boston practices or their flights to away games!!!

Morgan: AHHHHH THIS IS THE GREATEST DAY OF MY LIFE

Casey: HOLY SHIT

Annie: SHE WORSHIPPED SHANE BUT WANTED BOSTON TO WIN THE CUP

Morgan: SHHE DID

Casey: SHE’S FUCKING OBSESSED WITH HIM

Annie: And sh once said “he’ll forgive me if I do the thing he likes with my tongue” LIKE IT WAS ALREADY SOMETHING HE LIKED

Morgan: NOT HYPOTHETICAL

Morgan: LIKE HE ALREADY LIKED IT

Casey: She’s fucking obsessed with Shane.

Casey: Like full on huge massive crush.

Annie: NOT A CRUSH THEUY’RE CLEARLY TOGETHER

Morgan: HOLLANOV HOLLANOV HOLLANOV

Annie: BUT YOU CAN’T TELL ANYONE

Morgan: Why not?!!??! Everyone will DIE

Annie: SHE’LL LEAVE THE GROUP CHAT

Annie: SHE’LL NEVER SPEAK TO US AGAIN

Casey: You’re right!!!!

Morgan: I will die with this secret!!!!

Annie: He can’t even know we know who he is!!!!!

Casey: SHE. Say SHE. You can’t use “He” or she’ll know!!!!

Morgan: MY LIPS ARE SEALED

Annie: The group chat is SACRED and she is our FRIEND we can’t ruin it!!!!

Casey: I would NEVER.

Morgan: She is the number one shipper I STAN FOREVER

Annie: But seriously

Annie: go back through all of the messages

Annie: And just imagine reading every message that Ilya Rozanov sent it

Annie: You’ll see the whole thing with new eyes

Morgan: I ALREADY STARTED

Casey: I will!!!!

Annie: And this can never leave this group chat!!!!

Morgan: I’m glad to have the original chat back

Morgan: I love you guys

Casey: I’m so glad we started the hollanov group chat but yeah this is the OG.

Annie: And what happens in this chat can STAY in this chat

Annie: We protect Lily and her secret AT ALL COSTS

Morgan: WE DIE FOR LILY LIKE LILY WOULD DIE FOR SHANE

Annie: Hollanov is the BEST EVER

Casey: I can’t believe it’s real <3 <3 <3

Morgan: Group chats are the BEST

Annie: I love you guys. And Lily. And Shane.

Casey: And also hockey! Don’t forget hockey!

-

Annie didn’t say a word in the group chat for 2 days. She waited for Lily to come back. She needed her to come back and everything not to be ruined. When Lily still hadn’t said anything after 2 days, Annie popped back into the group chat first.

Montreal had a day game, and she started with hockey and nothing but hockey. Casey and Morgan joined in, maybe overly interested in the game, but Annie hoped it wasn’t noticeable. Other people in the group chat started talking about the game, but Annie’s eyes glazed over them. She barely noticed who said what as she held her breath hoping that Lily would come back.

She didn’t, during that game, but she did, during Montreal’s night game against Ottawa two days later, on Boston’s off day.

Lily: That was a good deke

Annie: The best!! Hollander is so talented

Lily: Yes, the most talented

Casey: He has time for a hat trick, I think.

Morgan: Has he done that before? I don’t think I’ve seen one yet

Casey: Three times this season, maybe?

Lily: Four. New York twice, Winnipeg, and Boston (boooo)

Casey: I forgot about Winnipeg!

Tania: Everybody forgets about Winnipeg

Lily: Was a good game for Shane, I don’t think he forgets about Winnipeg

Angie: You have a good memory, Lily!

Annie: Lily’s the queen of Shane’s stats lol

Lily: Maybe ;)

Casey: I can’t believe I forgot one, I’m a failure

Lily: Not a failure, not everyone can be on my level

Morgan: Yeah, of course Lily knows best!

Lex: That was almost a third goal!

Lily: Yes it was a good shot, but good save by Wyatt Hayes

Morgan: Is he a good goalie?

Casey: He’s excellent. Plays for a bad team though.

Lily: Is a shame that talent is wasted

Lily: Maybe Ottawa will get better next year

Annie: Really? Do you think they will sign anyone this offseason?

Lily: You never know

Casey: Could be an interesting free agent market. There are a bunch of big stars, it would just depend on whether they re-sign with their current teams.

Morgan: Are Rozanov or Hollander free agents?

Lex: Hollander isn’t. He’ll be in Montreal forever.

Casey: Technically Rozanov is, but he’ll almost definitely re-sign with Boston. He probably wants to play his whole career there.

Annie: Boston’s GREAT, who wouldn’t?

Amanda: Boston’s great, but so’s Montreal!

Annie: He’s a franchise icon in Boston, he could probably have his number retired here if he stays for the rest of his career. And he’d be beloved for the rest of his life. It would be giving up A LOT for him to leave.

Casey: I mean there’s that, but also Montreal couldn’t afford him even if they wanted to. With Hollander’s contract extension last year and Pike and Boiziau’s salaries, they’re almost at their cap. They actually don’t have the salary space for him.

Morgan: That’s a shame, it would be so cool to see them play together

Annie: They’d be unstoppable

Lily: Maybe someday <3

Lily: Not in Montreal though

Morgan: That would be awesome

Annie: I hope it happens

Lily: Me too :)

-

When Lily started texting back again, Annie breathed a sigh of relief. She didn’t bring up what she knew, and neither did Lily. Annie very carefully tried to remember not think of Lily as “Ilya” to avoid confusing herself.

Annie didn’t message Lily again separately, she decided to let Lily come to her. And Lily did, a few weeks later, in early April.

Lily: I had an idea for a fanfic. Hear me out.

It was just like it had been before. Annie leaned into it maybe a little more indulgently, and wrote exactly what Lily asked her to. Lily loved it, and it seemed like their friendship was back where it was supposed to be. They could be friends just as long as they silently agreed not to mention what had happened the night that they were supposed to have met up.

Annie was pretty sure that Lily knew that she knew. She didn’t think Lily thought she’d gotten away with it. But Lily wasn’t bringing it up just as carefully as Annie wasn’t bringing it up.

-

It struck Annie later that she’d been reverse catfished by Ilya Rozanov. An incredibly attractive, famous, successful person had pretended to be an anonymous nobody fangirl online in order to have a conversation.

Annie wondered sometimes if he was lonely. He lived alone and had a long-distance boyfriend who lived hundreds of miles away. It had to be hard to make friends in his position too, when everyone knew who you were and wanted something from you. Annie vowed to never be that person. She would be what Lily needed and only what Lily needed.

-

Lily: If you can keep a secret, you can come and say hello

Annie dropped her phone. It landed in her lap on the blanket covering her crossed legs, and bounced onto the rug on the floor. Even as it was skittering away, Annie was already falling over onto the floor trying to grab it. She didn’t manage to get up off of the plush white carpet or untangle herself from the blanket before she had the text thread pulled up again.

Lily wanted to meet her.

Ilya Rozanov wanted to meet her.

Annie stared at the message for five more seconds before she focused to try to figure out a response. She had to respond. But it was hard to string two words together into a thought in her head over the static.

Annie: Yes!!

Lily: Reception will let you up

Annie: Now?

Lily: Yes.

Annie panicked. She was in pajamas and glasses, hair back in a ponytail and cozy socks on.

But as she stood up, panicking about getting dressed nicely enough to meet Ilya Rozanov, she remembered that this wasn’t about meeting a famous hockey star, it was about meeting Lily. She would leave the glasses on and the hair up, but put on real clothes. That seemed like a happy medium.

She didn’t know what would happen when she got down to reception. She was in the elevator before she worried about what that would look like.

“Hello, I’m a really big Boston Raiders fan and I desperately want to meet their star center. Will you let me up to his apartment?”

That was sure to go over well.

And even if they didn’t think she was a crazy fangirl, how did she ask without them thinking it was for a hookup when you have to see them every day from here on out?

Or, worse, what would happen if they realized that there was a scandal that was probably worth six figures about the world’s most famous hockey player pretending to be a woman online to connect with other women about how hot another hockey player was?

Or, maybe even worse, what if they realized that there was a potentially even bigger scandal that he was actually already for real dating his rival MLH star?

Annie’s panic swirled in a thousand directions as she got off of the elevator and headed to reception.

Her brain stayed frazzled just a little too long and she stood at the desk silently, as though waiting on them.

In response, one of the men nodded to her deferentially and said, “Penthouse, elevator 3.”

He gestured towards the elevator bank, where the doors of the third elevator were opening up.

Annie nodded and said “Thank you,” before walking away. They’d known who she was and they’d already had his approval. She hadn’t needed to ask at all.

She’d probably been in elevator 3 a thousand times, but she’d never taken it all the way up. She just stared at the sensor which normally would have waited for key access, but the button for the penthouse was already lit up, the override by security successful, and she was being whisked up before she could start a second anxiety spiral about how the interaction with Ilya Rozanov would go.

He was waiting for her, because the door opened only a few seconds after she stepped off of the elevator.

She was glad that she hadn’t dressed any more nicely for this late hour, because he was in a black sleeveless athletic shirt and track pants. His curls were soft, like they’d dried naturally after a shower earlier.

“Annie,” he said from the doorway, nodding once. His beautiful face was neutral, almost expressionless other than one raised eyebrow.

“Lily,” Annie replied, also neutral. She would have smiled, but she was too nervous, with those deep eyes staring into her soul, trying to read her to decide if he could trust her.

You can, she wanted to say.

“Call me Ilya,” he said, stepping back and holding the door open for her.

I’m in Ilya Rozanov’s apartment.

Morgan and Casey were going to flip about this later. She’d come here so fast she hadn’t even told them about the invitation. Hopefully, if this went well, they could meet him later too.

There was a bottle of seltzer on the counter and two glasses.

“Water?” he asked, as he poured one for himself.

“Sure,” she replied. It was his night off, but he probably had practice in the morning or something, so he wasn’t drinking.

He poured her seltzer silently before handing it to her and making his way to his dining room table, where he sat in the end seat. Annie didn’t know what else to do, so she sat in the seat to his left.

“You did not tell anyone,” Ilya said. He was watching her carefully. Annie wondered what he saw.

Annie didn’t want to lie. Not to him. Not when everyone was probably lying to him all the time. Not when he couldn’t trust friends to be honest with him.

“I told Casey and Morgan,” she said. “They’re my best friends. They wouldn’t tell a soul, I promise. But I needed to talk to someone I trusted about this, or I was going to explode. They already knew you lived here in my building, they’ve known that for years, and they’ve never told anyone that part. They would protect you just as much as I would.”

“Sure,” Ilya said neutrally. He was thrumming his fingers along his glass. Annie took a sip of her drink nervously, looking around his apartment.

She could only see a small fraction of it. She was in a dining room with abstract artwork taking up most of the wall. The table and chairs were matching dark wood. She could see into his living room, where a long couch stood against one wall and a giant TV was mounted on the opposite.

“They did not tell anyone else?” he asked.

“No, and they wouldn’t,” Annie said, returning her attention to him. “They love you.” And then she added, “They love Lily. We’re all very loyal to her because she’s such a good friend to us. And we understand exactly why she’s in that group chat and that she has no one else to talk to. We want to be there for her.”

Ilya nodded.

“Not her,” he corrected. “I just needed someone to talk to. But I’m always me.” He smiled wryly. “Only a man.”

She understood what he meant. From the outside, posing as a woman online might seem to have certain implications, but that wasn’t what was going on here.

“But they really do love you. All sides of you. We all do.”

“I know,” Ilya said. “I know that. Or I would not have stayed.”

Annie let out a breath she hadn’t realized that she’d been holding. She felt lightheaded with relief. She needed him to know just how loyal they were to him.

“I’m glad you stayed,” Annie said, smiling shyly.

“It is a secret,” Ilya said seriously, “And it needs to stay a secret.”

“It’s not my secret to tell,” Annie said quickly, “I would never. Neither would Casey or Morgan. But will it always be a secret? For you and- for you to keep? Or someday will you-”

“Is complicated,” Ilya said neutrally. “Is a secret until we figure some alternative. But we have none.”

Annie’s heart sank for him, even though she’d already known all of that.

“Is it serious?” she asked. The corners of her lips turned up, without really smiling. She crossed her legs under the table as she relaxed a little.

Ilya’s forehead wrinkled and he looked away as he decided what to say. She would wait for him to be ready.

“Yes,” he eventually said. “Not many people know. But now you.” Annie nodded. “But it is serious.”

“It’s such a long distance,” Annie lamented, “I wish he could play for Boston.”

Ilya laughed out loud, catching both of them off guard.

“Shane Hollander is not leaving Montreal,” he said.

Annie winced.

“And you’re not leaving Boston.”

“Mm,” Ilya said noncommittally. He was kind of unnaturally still.

Annie watched him. She felt so bad. It must have been so hard to love someone so much and be so silent about it. She needed to change the subject just a little to think of happier thoughts.

“I remember thinking it was crazy that you loved Boston so much but Shane was your favorite player. It makes so much sense now.”

Ilya smiled, and this time it was fond. His eyes crinkled, and his posture relaxed.

“Yes,” he said, “but is true. I cannot pretend my favorite team is Montreal. Blech.”

Annie laughed easily.

“Of course not,” she replied, “Raiders forever.”

“Mm,” Ilya hummed in agreement, rather than responding in words.

“I’m glad I can trust you,” Ilya said, bringing his glass to his lips.

Annie nodded.

“Always.”

She took a sip, just to match what he was doing. When he finished his glass, so did she.

“Is enough for tonight, I think,” he said.

“Okay,” she said, standing up, as he did. This had been such a trippy night.

“Goodbye, Annie,” he said as she stepped outside, “I’m sure I will see you later.”

“Goodbye, Ilya,” she replied. “See you.”

She was giddy in the elevator all the way back down to the third floor.

-

“Casey!” Annie whisper-yelled into her empty apartment fifteen minutes later, “Casey, Casey, Casey, pick up!” She pulled the phone away from her ear to look at it as the ringing continued. Her hand was shaking. She had an insane amount of adrenaline.

Casey didn’t pick up, just as Morgan hadn’t ninety seconds ago.

“You are going to regret not taking my call!” Annie said into the voicemail before ending the call. It wasn’t all that different from the message she’d just left on Morgan’s phone: “When you hear why I’m calling you’re never going to let a call from me go to voicemail ever again, mark my words.”

She faceplanted onto her bed like she used to as a teenager, the phone bouncing harmlessly next to her.

She squealed loudly into the mattress, kicking her feet in the air.

She’d met Ilya Rozanov! Ilya, really. She was on a first name basis with Ilya Rozanov. On a first name basis using two different first names, even! And as of right this second, she was the only person in the world for whom that was true.

She hoped it wouldn’t stay true for long. He would love Casey and Morgan. He already did. She just needed to show him that he would like them in person, too.

-

Casey and Morgan were, predictably, deeply jealous but also thrilled for her. They made her give a minute by minute replay of how it all went down.

Annie’s main takeaway was that despite everything-both the bravado of his media persona and the secrecy around Lily-Ilya Rozanov was just a really normal guy. He was worried about his privacy, but he was lonely and needed friends.

“You really met him,” Casey said, windswept by the story, “That is so awesome. We stan him forever. Both of them. Lily and Ilya. We stan both of them.”

“And Shane!” Morgan said, “You can’t forget Shane or Lily wouldn’t forgive you for forgetting him.”

Casey and Annie both laughed.

“We stan everyone involved,” Annie agreed.

-

There was only one more week of the regular season. Boston had locked in a playoff spot, though whether it would be the top spot in the division or the top wild card seed remained to be seen. They would play one more game in Boston, then play in Ottawa, before finishing out the year in Montreal. The division looked likely to come down to the final game. Boston was likely to beat Winnipeg at home and then Ottawa on the road by large margins before they made it to Montreal. Assuming Montreal won their penultimate home game against Philadelphia, Montreal and Boston would be very close in the standings going into the final game.

Annie would be sad to see the regular season end, but she was excited for the playoffs to start.

She got a nice surprise on the morning of the final regular season game. It was a Tuesday, and a rare day off from work or responsibilities.

“I won my work’s raffle for two free tickets to tonight’s game!” Casey told Annie over the phone. “They’re great seats. Can you make it? Otherwise I’ll check with Morgan.”

“I’m free!” Annie said, “Though Morgan might be bummed not to get to go.”

“World’s biggest hockey fan, I know,” Casey said.

“Hopefully it’ll be okay,” Annie said. “Maybe we can make a plan to go to a playoff game together!”

“That sounds expensive,” the ever-practical Casey said.

“Maybe you’ll win the work tickets raffle again,” Annie said.

“Does your hospital do them?”

“Yeah, but I think there are like hundreds of people who enter them and there are only a few games a year. They probably all go to somebody who knows somebody.”

“Okay,” Casey said. “We’ll check all of the ticket websites. We’ll go to a game all three of us.”

-

Annie: Casey and I are going to the game tonight! Go Raiders!!!

Lily: No Morgan?

Annie: Casey won free tickets at work, but there were only two :(

Lily: Does Morgan want to go?

Annie: Let me check

Annie: She totally does

Lily: I’ve got you

Annie: You can get us covered???

Lily: You’re my girls :) :)

-

“AAAHHHHHH,” Annie screamed into her apartment, jumping up and down on her toes.

Two hours later, Annie, Casey, and Morgan found themselves in seats so nice they were padded. Annie had never sat in padded seats at this arena before. They were three rows off the ice and had a thrilling view of the game.

Ilya never came over to them or acknowledged them or anything like that, but Annie felt warm and fuzzy to think that he knew that his good friends were here to support him.

-

Annie: A HAT TRICK!!!

Lily: I had my good luck charms there which was very good for me :)

Annie: You might need us for the playoffs!

Lily: I just might ;)

-

Annie didn’t hear from Lily again after the team left for Ottawa. The Raiders trounced the Centaurs, which Annie watched at Casey’s apartment with Casey and Morgan. Somehow, they’d returned to watching most games just the three of them. It was still fun to hang out with all of the girls-Annie loved them all-but it was a little easier not to have to think before she spoke each word when it was just Casey and Morgan, from whom she kept no secrets.

She didn’t drink with the other girls anymore. She didn’t trust herself to. The secrets she was holding onto were too big to mix with alcohol.

But with Casey and Morgan, she could relax.

-

The following day, Wednesday, a story broke that confused the group chat. It was the day before the final home game of the regular season, which Boston would play in Montreal. Hollander v. Rozanov.

Tania: WHY WAS ILYA ROZANOV AT THE METROS TEAM PARTY???

link

photos

Lex: It says it was a Metros friends and family party at Hayden Pike’s house. Rozanov showed up for like five minutes and then left.

Annie: Wait what? He was only there for five minutes?

Casey: I found another article. There’s a photo of him talking to Hayden Pike.

Casey: Actually, Hayden is the one talking. His face is red. Maybe angry. Ilya looks confused.

photo

Annie: oh my god poor Ilya look at him

Morgan: Don’t yell at him, Pike!

Morgan: Not for showing up as Shane’s date to the Metros party!!!

Angie: I don’t think he was Shane’s date

Tania: Probably not

Tania: But like literally no one can figure out why he was there

Tania: And then he just left

Casey: I wonder what happened.

They discussed it for a while. Annie watched as message after message came in, but none were from Lily. She wouldn’t pry. That’s not what she was here for.

Even the next morning, there were no messages from Lily.

Annie tried not to be disappointed. Lily-Ilya-didn’t owe them anything from that part of his life. All Annie needed from him was to be a good friend to them, and he had always been that.

She didn’t mean the tickets. That had been cool, but not necessary. She had a friend to talk with, and relax with, and laugh with. Even if most of it was by text, that was a very nice friendship to have.

-

The Raiders lost the game in Montreal. But they flew back to Boston knowing that they would be starting the first round of the playoffs shortly, and Annie hoped that was still enough good news to keep them going.

Lily: I have to tell you what happened

Annie: Omg!! What was it?!

Lily: I will pour wine.

Annie stared at her phone. Now or never.

Annie: Can Casey and Morgan come?

Lily: Sure.

It was a 37 minute drive in no traffic to get from Morgan’s apartment to Annie’s. She got there 29 minutes after Annie texted her. Annie wasn’t sure how she even managed it because you couldn’t speed on those roads or you’d get pulled over. Maybe she’d found a break in spacetime. Whatever it was, Annie was grateful.

Casey had already been there for ten minutes. The three of them headed up to Ilya’s apartment together-once again via the lobby-and collectively tried to play it cool.

Morgan and Casey had still never met Ilya. In the elevator, Annie tried to remind them that he was just a normal friend, and there was no reason to freak out. While they were in the elevator, she was careful to state no names or details or anything else that could incriminate anyone involved.

“Casey and Morgan,” Ilya said in greeting. “Hello Annie.”

“Hi,” Annie said.

“I’m Morgan,” Morgan said, looking a little starstruck.

“I know,” Ilya said, a smile pulling up one corner of his lips. Annie had no idea how he knew which of them was which. Had they shared photos before? She couldn’t remember. But they probably had.

“You brought it?” he added to Morgan.

“I did,” Morgan said, pulling up the strap of her purple shoulder bag a little.

“This should be good.”

Ilya invited them in. Unlike last time with the seltzers, this time there were two bottles of wine on the counter, one a rosé with an icy cold sheen to it, the other a deep red. Annie didn’t recognize the brand names.

“I will start with the story,” Ilya said easily, as though they were old friends who got together all the time. But in a way, they were. They were friends who talked together and told stories all the time. Maybe never in this exact group, but they were friends all the same.

“I can pour wine!” Morgan said, “What does everyone want?”

“I want the rosé,” Annie said.

“Me too,” Morgan agreed, “I’ll pour our glasses. Casey?”

“Red, if it’s being opened anyway,” Casey said.

“It is,” Ilya said, and he took the bottle himself and opened it to pour glasses for himself and for Casey.

This time, they settled themselves comfortably on the couch. It was long, and there was plenty of space for all of the girlies. Annie didn’t think Ilya would mind being called that. In fact, she rather thought he would have loved it.

“I was in Montreal for the game,” he told them. “I would not see Shane until that night. We had practice early, and then I was probably going to just kill time a while playing video games with Connors.” Annie, Casey, and Morgan nodded eagerly. Annie knew Connors was one of his Boston teammates. She still had no idea how exactly he’d ended up at Hayden Pike’s party. “So I get this text from Hayden Pike.”

He held up his phone to show them. It had come from an unknown number that Ilya still had not bothered to label in his phone.

This is Hayden. Team bbq at 3:00 at my house! Be there! Time to celebrate the end of the regular season before we take off for New York tomorrow night. (We’re gonna crush the Admirals!) All players and their friends and family welcome. We’d love to have you!

“I am not friends with Hayden Pike. Of course I know him, but we are not friends. I think he hates me.” He laughed a little to himself. “But I thought, oh, for players, he is inviting anyone who is around, including the Raiders. I don’t know, maybe they do not have enough friends to fill up a party so they invite the real fun crowd? Whatever, I think, I will go.”

Annie snickered at Ilya thinking that’s why Hayden had invited him. But she knew she was waiting for the real reason.

“So I text Shane to say I will come. He does not reply. I think okay, it’s fine, he does not care. So I go.”

He tapped on his phone a couple of times until he pulled up the contact info for a woman named Jane.

“Shane is in my phone as ‘Jane.’ You know, Shane. Jane.”

Annie nodded. It was just dawning on her where this story was going. Morgan gasped a little on the other side of Annie. Annie had completely forgotten that she and Casey were here, she was so lost in Ilya’s story.

“I am in Shane’s phone as ‘Lily.’” He gave them a pointed look. He was, of course, in their phones the same way. “Hayden thinks Shane has a girlfriend named Lily. So he invited her. Teammate’s girlfriend invited, you know. But he invited me. He did not realize he invited me. I did not realize he invited Lily. Honest mistake.”

He shrugged, but he was grinning widely. He was very amused.

At the break in his story, the girls erupted.

“Oh my gooooood.”

“I can’t believe it!”

“That’s insane, did he realize?”

“I don’t think he did,” Ilya said, shaking his head. “He’s very dumb. His wife realized. She is very smart. But she did not tell him.”

Annie cracked up. She could tell exactly why Hayden hated him. But he was so funny!

“Will she tell anyone else?” Casey asked soberly. She sounded worried for Ilya and Shane. Annie stopped laughing.

“I do not think so,” Ilya said. “She is a good friend to Shane. And to me.”

“And then you left when you realized?” Morgan asked.

“We both did,” Ilya told them. “Did not make it into the story, I guess. Makes a better story if I am a villain for showing up uninvited. We left together.” After a pause, he added. “We went back to his house.”

“Oh my god, that’s wild,” Morgan said. “But I’m glad it ended up okay and you guys were together.”

“Yes, it is all okay if we are together for it.”

“That’s sweet,” Annie said.

“You really love him and he loves you, huh?” Morgan asked. She sounded touched. Happy for him. Truly happy for him as a person, not gushing like a fangirl.

“So much it breaks my brain,” Ilya said. “So much I don’t think ‘Why does Hayden Pike invite me to the Metros party,’ because all I think is I want to go to a party with Shane.”

Annie sighed. It was so charming and romantic. It was so not what the powerpoint had felt like when this all started, which was why, when Ilya brought it up, it felt like a hard left turn in conversation.

“So the powerpoint,” Ilya said, “You have never let me see it. But now you will present.”

Morgan looked embarrassed almost. It wasn’t serious enough for this conversation. It felt intrusive.

Ilya loved it anyway.

“Yes, I made the Instagram video,” Ilya said proudly. “I think I did a good job.”

“You did!” they all agreed.

“I never noticed that stain,” Ilya said, frowning at the shirt. “I wonder if I still have it. Or Shane does.”

Morgan laughed, but said “You should probably check.”

Ilya shrugged helplessly.

“I have a lot of CCM stuff,” he said, “They never stop giving it to me.”

“Yeah, I knew about him wearing the Boston sweatshirt outside,” he said. “He told me. He was very worried about it. He has anxiety, you know.” Annie’s heart sank as she thought of poor Shane in that moment. “But no one ever mentioned it again. One post, no one believed her, and then she didn’t try again. So it ended up okay.”

“Oh god, that club,” Ilya said. Annie thought he sounded too excited for how miserable his expression was. “I thought I would die. Fucking Rose Landry.” His face scrunched up. “They are still friends.”

There was an awkward silence.

“You don’t like her?” Annie asked at the same time that Casey said “Do you think it’s okay that they’re friends?” Annie interpreted that as “Are you jealous?” but she didn’t translate her well-meaning friend’s slightly inappropriate question.

Ilya shrugged miserably.

“I am glad that he has friends he can talk to. I am happy for him.”

Annie reached forward and patted his hand where it sat on his leg, a little awkwardly.

“You do, too,” she said, “You have us.”

-

One month later, the news broke that Ilya Rozanov had signed with the Ottawa Centaurs. It shocked the world. Boston fans throughout New England cried. Some of them burned jerseys. Within two hours of the announcement someone shared their old jersey online which had been edited to say “Fuck Rozanov.” They hated that he was leaving. They were broken hearted. They were devastated and felt abandoned.

Annie had cried over it, too, but for different reasons.

Ilya had told them the night before, in his penthouse away from prying eyes. He’d invited all three of them, and they’d eaten a home cooked dinner of beef stroganoff that Ilya said was his maternal grandmother’s recipe. He’d told them about the move once they were sitting down, with good food in their stomachs and the prospect of a delicious looking honey cake with layers of cream sitting in front of them for when they were hungry again. By the time he told them, they were already sure that there was heavy news, because his smiles throughout dinner had been bittersweet.

Annie cried sad tears at the thought of losing her friend in the building. She cried sad tears that she’d only really known him for the most fleeting end of his hockey career in Boston. She cried sad tears that she’d only gotten to go to four games as his friend to root him on. He’d called them his good luck charm and they’d rooted like hell for him, their friend.

But she also cried happy tears. She understood why he would want to be in Ottawa. She understood that his heart was so far away from Boston, but it wasn’t far at all from Ottawa. She understood that he’d missed having family close by who loved him, that he hadn’t felt that in years, and that he would have that in spades with Shane’s parents, who loved him like their own son. She understood that it could never have been Montreal, but Ottawa was a perfect close second. In some ways, it was safer than Montreal. It was the best option. Shane, and Ilya, and everyone involved would be happier that way.

“I’ll go to all of the Ottawa-Boston games,” she told him. “I’ll still be your good luck charm, even against Boston.”

Ilya gasped in mock outrage.

“You would root against Boston!”

“We would root for you!” Casey insisted.

“Against anyone,” Morgan said. She had the least investment in Boston as a franchise, but Annie still thought it held true for all of them.

“What was it you said?” Annie asked. She made a mock announcer voice. “Rozanov scores three goals and does something that's never been done before as Boston wins 12-3.”

Ilya barked a surprised laugh.

“No, we want Ottawa to win!” Morgan insisted.

“No, it’s perfect,” Ilya said warmly. “You can root for Boston, I would not have it any other way.”

“But we will also root for you,” Casey said.

“Perfect,” Ilya told them. “And you can come visit and see a game in Ottawa. I will find somewhere for you to stay.”

Annie held her breath. Would he add that he would introduce them to Shane?

He didn’t, but that was okay. Baby steps. This friendship was so new, but it wasn’t ending. Lily had stayed in the group chat. None of the other girls knew. Annie, Casey, and Morgan had kept this secret closely guarded, and always would, as long as Lily wanted them to.

They were all ride or die for the group chat.