Either way, Winnipeg declined to offer him another contract at the end of the season, and no other team was interested in him. Not even the HLWNA teams. According to the NAPH’s prospect and affiliate player listings online, he was now signed with the PHL equivalent in Russia.
Some people thought he’d been excessively punished because he’d had the audacity to hurt a superstar and cost the Seattle Rainiers and the NAPH shitloads of money. I’d wondered about that, too… until I’d pulled up some videos of his previous offenses. Yeah, no, we didn’t need guys like this in our league. He was notorious for hitting people high, boarding, and slew-footing. Honestly, after seeing all that, I was extra pissed at the league for letting him continue playing as long as he had. If they’d actually done something about him sooner, then Vasily wouldn’t still be recovering from a torn ACL and I wouldn’t be dealing with TMJ from my broken jaw.
Enjoy Russia, dickhole.
Meanwhile, Vasily and I had an extended off season to at leasttryto enjoy.
His recovery had been understandably slower than mine. Despite the two surgeries, he was still keeping himself in tiptop shape, and holy shit, he was built like a god. He’d start skating as soon as he was allowed to, but this kind of injury took longer to heal.
With only eight games played in the NAPH this past season, Vasily had been afraid the Rainiers would unload him. After all, they’d acquired him as a top six forward, and he’d barely played enough to demonstrate he was worth what they were paying him. He’d be a free agent after the upcoming season, and he’dhoped to sign an extension with Seattle, but after he’d fucked up his knee… well.
Turned out what little he’d played had been enough to impress the GM. Vasily had lived up to his hype during his handful of games, and she’d seen his work ethic while he’d recovered from the sprained knee. She had total faith he’d be back to his usual play soon enough.
She’d put her money where her mouth was, too—after the season ended, Vasily had signed a five-year extension with the team, complete with a three-year no-move clause.
“I’ve only got Alex Condit for so much longer,” she’d told him. “You’re exactly the caliber of center I need to fill his skates when he retires. There’s plenty of time for you to recover while he’s still playing.”
Well, hell. I couldn’t think of much that would make a man play harder for a team than knowing the powers that be had that much faith in him.
For my part, I’d been worried the club wouldn’t re-sign me. To my surprise, though, Alicia had not only signed me to the usual one-year contract, she’d added, “I’ve got my eye on you for next season. Continue developing the way you are, show me you’re ready, and we might be talking about a one-way contract next summer.”
Oh, fuck yeah. That meant she likely wanted me to come up to the Rainiers andstayup. Shine my brightest to impress her? Yes, ma’am!
That was work for next season, though. For now, it was summer, and Vasily and I were enjoying a vacation together. We had a wedding to attend in Italy, and after that, we’d head to Spain and Portugal for a few low-key, lazy weeks of enjoying the sunshine and each other. We’d still work out enough to keep ourselves in shape, but the primary goal was to relax and let Vasily’s leg heal. No strenuous hiking. No surfing.
Sitting in the sun by the pool? Indulging in good food and wine? Pretty sure we could handle that.
My PHL salary wasn’t enough to do much traveling unless I budgeted carefully. A boyfriend with a NAPH contract, though, meant first class flights and bougie hotels.
“I could get used to this,” I told him on our transatlantic flight.
He’d chuckled as he’d picked up his wineglass. “Consider it motivation to sign with the NAPH.”
“But it’s so much more fun to have you pay for it.”
He’d just rolled his eyes and laughed. He probably would’ve elbowed me if the armrest between us hadn’t been so wide. Seriously, first class wasamazing.
Our first week in Italy, we spent most of our time with some of Vasily’s teammates. One of them, Theo Mathis, was marrying the head equipment manager, Christian Hayes. They were having a destination wedding in Florence, and the hockey turnout was impressive to say the least. Theo’s past and present teammates, not to mention players who’d passed through the locker rooms where Christian worked, filled rows of chairs outside a gorgeous villa.
Apparently Theo had a lot of family in Russia, so this made it easier for them to fly out. Christian was estranged from his father—whowasn’testranged from that asswipe?—and didn’t have much extended family, so it was just his mom, sister and brother-in-law along with their baby, and an uncle with his wife and three kids.
Most of the guests were involved in hockey, though, so I was admittedly a little starstruck during the pre-ceremony cocktail hour. I wasn’t the only one, and I couldn’t lie—the best part was noticing that some of the younger guys were a bit starstruck by Vasily. Yep, he was a star, and I was the one on his arm. Fuck yeah.
The wedding was gorgeous, of course. Both of the grooms struggled to contain their emotions, which earned them some chirping from their guests. By the end, everyone—including the grooms and officiant—were laughing so hard we all had tears streaming down our faces. It was a sweet ceremony between two adorable men who were completely in love, and the hockey chirps just made it that much more memorable.
If I ever get married, I want it to feel just like this.
I glanced at Vasily.
Ifweever get married?
Well, no need to wander down that mental road. Though we were basically living together and had already checked off the“yep, we can handle ‘in sickness and in health’”part, we had only been together a few months. No need to rush anything.
After the ceremony, we watched from the sidelines as the grooms posed for photos with close friends and family in front of the sprawling vineyards.
I didn’t know their whole story, only that Theo had been called up to the Rainiers for a while to fill in for an injured player. During his extended stint in Seattle, he’d met and started dating Christian, the equipment manager and the son of the asshat former GM. Apparently the GM had outed them to the team, which had resulted in him getting his own ass fired, while the team had fully accepted the relationship. When Theo moved up to the Rainiers permanently, he and Christian were already living together, and they’d continued like that, both of them traveling with the team.
To my knowledge, there hadn’t been any issues aside from the former GM’s bullshit. The team loved them both, and if there had ever been any strife between Theo and Christian, no one had known about it. They roomed together on the road, lived together at home, and had even gotten engaged on the ice during warmups. I had no doubt they had their squabbles and fights likeany couple, but it never seemed to interfere with their ability to function in their respective jobs.
