“Week six. That’s when we have a long stretch of home games, and he’ll be here for all of them.”
“Aww, you’ve already memorized his travel dates,” says Nils as Silja taps away at her phone. I roll my eyes.
Silja puts her phone on the counter. “The first home game of that week is on a Friday. I’ll take that day off and keep him company.”
“That’d be kind of you, thanks,” I say.
Nils pumps the air. “Nice! Silja can teach Luke how to drink like a Swede while they wait for us after our games.”
“Sounds like a plan!” Silja leans into an excited Nils who lifts her off the ground.
“Okay,” I start, hoping to get a handle on the situation before it gets out of control. “Please be chill with Luke.”
Nils chuckles. “Silja, get Luke drunk and wingman Erik like your life depends on it.”
“What?” Silja and I say in unison. Unfortunately for me, our collective shock doesn’t stick to Silja, who almost instantly adopts the same scheming smirk as her boyfriend.
“Guys, come on. You don’t need to feed into this.” I fix them with a pleading expression that I hope convinces them to let this go.
Silja’s expression softens. “Don’t worry, Erik. I’m not going to poke around or anything. If he doesn’t feel the same way about you, I won’t try to change that.”
Relieved that those two are at least thinking about backing off, I sigh. “Why are you guys more excited for Luke to visit than I am?”
“We aren’t. You’re in denial,” Nils says.
He’s got me there. “Okay, fine, but again. He’s here for a week. There’s nothing I can do about that.”
Nils plonks the baking dish on a trivet. “Do you want me to nick his passport when he isn’t looking?”
“Nils, what the hell? No. Please don’t force him into anything.”
Silja giggles. “Don’t worry, I’ll try to keep him in line, even though I’d like to watch more of the Luke and Erik show.”
“If you like watching tragedies, you’re in the right place,” I mutter.
Nils plates up the meat and serves us while frowning at me. “Look, man. I don’t know exactly how you feel, but there’s way more to a relationship than being together physically. Silja spent half a year on exchange in Spain, and that was barely two months after we met. Now look at us.”
Living together in Stockholm, practically married at twenty-two, and the subjects of an adoring fan page with over 50,000 followers. That’s as far as you can get from having a stubborn crush on an almost-boyfriend, one that I don’t necessarily want to shake. One that Luke and I are both feeding into with horny texts and frequent check-ins, like it’s a game of chicken that neither of us wants to tap out of.
I don’t even want to think about how we’ll get out of this.
“Seriously,” Silja says, taking a bite of her food. “Tell me if I’m overstepping, but if you two like each other, what’s stopping you from getting together?”
“An ocean and six time zones? He deserves more than someone who goes to bed at the same time he gets off work.”
Nils sighs. “Okay, this conversation isn’t going anywhere. All we’re trying to say is that you two still like each other despite the distance, and despite the many months you’ve been apart. Just a little something to think about.”
I’ll give him that. Liking Luke isn’t sending me into a spiral or messing with my performance on the ice, and as long as it stays that way, it’s tenable.
I’m not sure how I’ll react when Luke visits, but I can’t deny how excited I am for him to come here.
He’ll arrive in Stockholm as my friend, and I’m hoping he leaves the same way.
My heart won’t make it through the only sensible alternative, which is losing Luke completely.
BATHSTREET BOYS GROUP CHAT
Yo so I’m going to Sweden in two weeks
