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Eventually they got to the woman with the demure cat mask, but before Carlo could introduce himself, Amber stepped in front of him and whispered urgently “he’s off the list, he’s off the list.”
The woman tilted her head and whispered back “I wouldn’t have done it at the wedding anyway.” Amber looked briefly confused, but when cat woman clarified “I would have waited until you were clear,” she nodded to herself like that made more sense.
Then she linked arms with her cat guest without introducing Carlo at all, and sauntered away across the room where he couldn’t hear their conversation. It seemed to be very involved and detailed.
Later, he when he asked about her, Amber simply said “That’s DJ Meow Meow, she’s not speaking to men right now.”
“I’m sorry, DJ Meow Meow? The one with the residency at Marquee?”
Amber shrugged. “I guess.”
“And what do you mean, she’s not talking to men? Roz was all over her.”
Amber turned to look at Roz, still hanging on several of the other WAGs. Meow Meow was on the other side of the room, whispering in a corner with Hollander. Which she decided not to point out to Carlo for the sake of his sanity. He’d been shooting anxious glances at the Metros captain at first, but seemed to forget he was there as the day went on.
“You know how Roz is.” She told her now husband.
“I do,” he answered cautiously “but how do you know?”
“Jane tells me everything,” she answered. It wasn’t completely a lie.
“Where is Jane, anyway. I thought we’d get to meet her finally.”
“She’s very busy.” Amber replied, with a mysterious smile on her lips.
Carlo decided that if he lived 100 years he would probably never be able to catch up with this woman.
---
“My girls!” Ilya called from behind them.
Nasreen tensed before she realized that the man calling out to her and the other WAGs/Exes was their friend Lily, aka Ilya, aka Ilya Rozanov feared hockey captain and general menace. At the bar, Ryan looked over with more than a little panic on his face. Carmella and Cliff had disappeared somewhere and St. Simon was talking to Carlo.
“Are we hugging? I am a hugger” Ilya announced to no one and everyone at once.
Crystal immediately wrapped her arms around his waist, she came up to his mid chest and had to strain her head back to see his face from up close. Svetlana, who walked in with Roz came in behind them, then Mei snuggled up to his side, Jen took his other side. Nasreen found her bearings and stuck herself between Crystal and Svetlana while DJ Meow Meow gave Roz a fist bump, but stayed back for the moment.
Latonya had been a few feet away with Lars, and both of them hugged everyone from the outside. Finally, Meow Meow leaned against Latonya’s back, keeping her face carefully turned to the side so as not to smush her cat mask.
They began to gently sway with a smiling Ilya in the center, radiating pure bliss.
“What are we hugging about?” Lars asked his wife in his heavy Norwegian accent after the circle seemed to go on an unreasonably long time. He got a shush and a pat on the shoulder as they all continued to sway in their collective embrace.
---
“You know, I tried to convince her to make you wear the Bjork goose dress to the NHL Awards.” Roz told Ryan, they were both a little buzzed, but not as blasted as Ryan would need to be to understand that sentence.
“What? Who?” He asked and Roz pointed his beer bottle at Nasreen.
“You talk to Roz?” He asked his girlfriend.
She shrugged. Ryan had a terrible thought.
“Is this because of the… you know, the thing on the bus?” He whispered urgently.
Roz looked confused, then surprised, then amused, then troubled.
“You are concerned it’s homophobic joke?”
Ryan shrugged one shoulder and nodded a little.
“Was not my intention, just thinking of silly clothes. But I can see how you might think that. My bad.”
Ryan opened his mouth, but no words came out. He looked at Nasreen, who shrugged again.
“Next year, I’ll convince her to make you wear Centaurs’ mascot costume. Is ugliest mascot.”
“What the fuck?” Ryan finally said.
---
“Shane Hollander.” Svetlana said in a monotone.
Shane looked up from where he’d been checking his phone in the corner and wondering when was too soon to leave a wedding you came to alone but also with your secret boyfriend who you couldn’t talk to or acknowledge and who everyone thought you hated. Except the bride and her friends, who were also your friends, but you couldn’t let anyone know that either or it would possibly out said secret boyfriend and put his life in danger with the entire Russian government.
“Hi.” He said back, also in a monotone.
Sveta looked him up and down.
“Are you enjoying yourself?” She asked
“I’m having a blast.” He replied.
She put one hand on his chest and pushed him against the wall. His eyes widened and he looked left and right, trying to indicate that they were still very much at a public event.
“No one is looking.” She answered his unspoken reprimand. Then she smirked and leaned in. “Live a little.” She told him before whispering a room number in his ear and sauntering away back to what he’d already started to consider Roz’s side of the room.
He looked down at the phone, still in his hand.
Jane: You could have just texted me, you drama queen.
Lily: That’s not as fun as watching you squirm.
Jane: :[
---
DJ Meow Meow sidled up to Shane has he stood near the wall.
“Greetings fellow introvert.”
Shane stammered a little, touched his eyebrow. “I’m not…”
Meow Meow bumped her shoulder into his. “You don’t need to lie, it’s just the two of us.”
Shane ducked his head and nodded a little. He touched his eyebrow again and then forced his hand back down by his side.
“It’s weird, right?” Her voice made it more statement than question.
He tipped his head back against the wall and let out a breath he felt like he’d been holding all afternoon. “So weird.”
---
“I still don’t understand why Shane Fucking Hollander is here” St. Simon whispered to Cliff and Ryan while keeping an eye on Roz.
“Oh, that’s easy” Ryan’s girlfriend Nasreen told them. “Shane was the person who tracked down Latonya when Lars had that allergic reaction at the Centre Bell.”
Lars, who’d been next to them, raised his beer and said “to Shane Hollander!” quietly enough not to set Roz off. Latonya added “my angel” in the same low tone.
“What does that have to do with Amber and Carlo?” He asked.
Latonya glanced at Nasreen, they had not considered follow-up questions.
“I invited him.” Roz said from behind them. “He did Lars a solid. Plus he was in town anyway.”
St. Simon rolled his eyes. Of course Rozanov would invite a total stranger that he claimed to hate to someone else’s wedding.
“Why the fuck did he come?” St. Simon asked at the same time that Amber threw herself into Shane’s arms across the room.
“Amber was very grateful. You know all the WAGs have a soft spot for Lars” Nasreen blurted.
Lars blushed and ducked his head. He really was the sweetest man.
At that moment Carlo butted in to the conversation to ask Roz a very convoluted hockey question while dragging him away from the center of the room.
St. Simon shrugged. If no one else had a problem with Hollander being there, he supposed that he didn’t either.
---
“Hey baby.” Latonya handed Shane a cold ginger ale. “How are you doing?”
Shane shrugged one shoulder, not knowing how to explain the strange combination of anxieties mixed with the happiness of being in a room with people who knew about him and Ilya. Outside of his parents and Hayden, he never had this. Except they couldn’t even look at one another.
“It’s a lot.” Latonya articulated his feelings.
He nodded.
She rubbed his arm and changed the subject. The lease on her dental office was about to be up, and she was wondering if Shane had any advice on how to approach her landlord about buying the building. It was an obvious distraction, but he did have a lot of thoughts on how she could negotiate the sale.
---
Jane: Here
The hotel door opened, and he found himself yanked bodily into the room, but not by Ilya.
DJ Meow Meow’s gigantic cat head loomed above him. He flailed, she steadied him. She’d changed from the one she wore at the wedding to the much more recognizable one she wore for shows.
“Hi Jane!” She shouted from inside the head. “Bye Jane, I have to go to work, I love you!” Then she was out the door and Shane was face to face with Ilya and all the other WAGs minus Amber.
He raised his hand in a tentative little wave.
“We’re playing truths or dares!” Jen yelled. She was clearly a little bit wasted.
Ilya steadied her while all the WAGs looked pointedly at him. “It’s your turn” he said.
Shane sighed. Despite his usual aversion to parties, this was exactly what he wanted to be doing, but he wasn’t about to let his boyfriend have the satisfaction of knowing that.
Ilya absolutely knew it anyway, damn him.