“That’s enough about me, where’d you get signed from?” Nils asks.
“Toronto. AHL.” That’s all I manage to say as my mind tries to keep up with his.
“Nice, that must have been quite the move.”
Please don’t remind me.
I put on a polite smile and keep walking toward the exit with him. “Yeah, for sure, but I’m happy to be back home.”
We walk out of the building into the wet cold. Stockholm is like Toronto—the summers rule, but depending on your outlook, things go downhill in October. I shiver as I struggle to unlock my car, and Nils speaks up.
“Hey, I’m grabbing lunch with my girlfriend down the street. You should join us.”
I cock my head. “I wouldn’t be intruding, would I?”
Nils waves me off. “Nah, I invited you. Besides, I know what it’s like to sign in a city where I don’t know too many people. I’ll adopt you.”
My mouth curves into a small grin. “You’ll adopt me?”
Nils claps me on the shoulder. “You bet.”
“Thanks, I appreciate it.”
After I put my gear in the back, Nils leads me away from the rink to a small café down the street, and we walk in. It’s rather late, so all of the tables are empty except for one, and Nils speed walks right over to it and gives its occupant a warm hug.
That must be his girlfriend. She’s striking—long dark hair, sharp face, and her outfit might as well be professionally curated, given how coordinated it appears to my untrained opinion. Once she sees me walking over, she turns toward me and extends her hand. I didn’t just fall on my ass, so I’m certain that she means to shake my hand, not help me up.
“Hi, I’m Silja, you must be one of Nils’s teammates,” she says.
“Yup, I just got signed to Alvik and Nils invited me here. I’m Erik. Nice to meet you.”
“Oh, Nils invited you?” Silja turns to Nils. “You owe me a hundred kronor.”
Nils raises a cheeky eyebrow. “What for?”
“You know. We had a bet on whether you’d find a poor unsuspecting teammate and drag him along with you.”
Nils pulls his phone out to make the transfer. “That’s not all, I told Norre here all about my ass incident.”
Silja blinks a few times and parts her lips in disbelief. “Stop. You did not.” She huffs out a curt laugh before turning to me. “Sorry if he traumatized you this early on. He means well.”
“Oh yeah, I can be a lot,” Nils adds, smiling. “I’m gonna blame hockey for that.”
I smile. “Nah, it’s all good. I appreciate having the ice broken for me right from the beginning.”
“Yeah, he’s really good at that,” Silja says.
Nils cocks his head. “Nobody can resist me, especially not this one.” To that, Silja rolls her eyes.
“How long have you guys been together?” I ask.
“A little over two years,” Silja replies.
Nils pipes up as he puts an arm around his girlfriend. “What about you? Bring anyone back when you got signed here?”
Ouch. I mean, he asked, so I might as well use this as a chance to come out.
“Nah, I had a thing going on with a guy before I left Canada, but that ended when I moved.”
