keep yourself warm, ch. 9
“I just… I was surprised, okay? I’d had such bad luck with actors that I’d figured I’d branch out and Shane Hollander? Athlete? Hockey player? My brothers all played so I knew what to expect. I mean… I thought I knew what to expect… I definitely didn’t expect you.”
“To be gay?” Shane deadpans.
“To be lovely,” Rose corrects. “But also, yeah, gay! I definitely wasn’t expecting the gay thing! But I guess I should have known you weren’t using me. I mean, you were always too good of a guy to willingly lead me on like that.”
“I am still sorry about it,” he tells her.
“Eh,” she shrugs. “I mean, I got a best friend and a good chapter for the memoir. I think it’s okay.”
“He didn’t take the hint though?” Hayden asks and Shane shoots him a look because he thought Hayden was the one person here staunchly on his side.
“God, no!” Rose laughs. “He just said… ‘yeah, must be… but not like publicly’ and I thought ‘oh boy … we’re really in it now’.”
“How was I supposed to know you were asking me if I was a gay hockey player?” Shane asks.
“Yeah, well, we all have our blindspots!” he groans.
“Yes,” Ilya agrees, planting a soft kiss on his cheek—himself madly in love with Shane and his blindspots.
“How’d you get it out of him then?” Svetlana asks, her voice as neutral as if Rose were a fellow spy torturing the enemy for secrets and not a ridiculous twenty-three year old thespian, halfway through a martini, outing a gay man to himself.
“I told him I didn’t think I was doing it for him,” she shrugs. “I remember because I don’t usually objectify myself quite that much and it made the whole messy conversation feel even messier. For me at least.”
“What’d he say?” Ilya asks.
“Oh he lied,” she says easily but the detail certainly isn’t that easy for Shane.
“To you maybe,” he admits. “But also to myself,” he argues. “I mean… I really, really did want you to do it for me Rose!” he offers but it’s a terrible consolation prize.
“Ah, yes. I can hear the wedding vows now.” Rose jokes, adopting an overly flippant tone, “’I worked really, really hard to be into you and I’ll continue to work really, really hard for the rest of our lives—just you, me, and my viagra, baby!’”
“Honestly,” Ilya murmurs, taking another sip from his glass. “Those are maybe better than Shane and my vows.”
“We didn’t want to write our own, babe!” Shane huffs, and even though no one else here has ever been privy to this fight, he’s annoyed enough that it’s obvious it isn’t the first time this has come up.
“Yes, but we maybe should have Googled what we were signing up for first!” Ilya argues.
Summary: Newly obsessed with romance, Ilya and Shane’s seven-year-old daughter decides she wants to hear her parents’ love story. Fortunately, Jackie, Hayden, Svetlana, and Rose are all on hand at the cottage to help her parents figure out how to tame it down.
reminiscing • chosen family • they drink by a fire • that’s the plot basically • the peanut gallery is loud • idiots in love • make shane blush 2031 • leaning into the romance of this romance bb • ruby pike is not actually a villain • domestic hollanov and friends • siri play casual by chappell roan on repeat at progressively louder intervals • hindsight is twenty-twenty • mika the daughter • kaya also the daughter • at the cottage with the whole crew • the angst of memory • fluff but sometimes you might have to squint to see it
