By the time Shane and Ilya decide to be together, they would have both been under heavy scrutiny about their sexualities.
Shane alleviated some of that scrutiny by getting into a very public relationship with Rose, but I don’t understand the writing for Ilya.
David says Ilya has a “reputation with women”. Is that reputation not having any because we don’t actually see Ilya having any kind of public hookups. He isn’t even really using Sveta for that since when he brought her up to Shane, he had no knowledge of her after many years. Given they are both around the league and famous in the league coupled with the fact that Shane would have been obviously curious about Ilya, him not knowing means Ilya wasn’t taking Sveta to public outings.
Sure his teammates would have seen him in bars and taking women home but years with no girlfriend- absolutely nothing coming from those hookups - would have been suspect.
Perhaps the book showed Ilya having public girlfriends but at least in the show, tongues would have been wagging after “all these years”.
When Ilya told Shane he never hears about him hooking up with “gworls”, Shane should have looked him straight in the eye and said “And I never SEE you hooking up with girls, despite your talk. Clearly you’re obsessed with me.”
