Page 31 of Bar Down

Eli covers his face with both his hands and mumbles something in Finnish. I laugh again and pull his hands away, dropping more kisses on his reddened cheeks.

“Second off, was the arena packed full of people or was it empty?”

“Shut up,” he says, trying to swat me away, but I’m not letting up. I get on top of him, pinning him down with my hips.Eli grunts when he feels my hardness, but his hands snake up around my waist as he pulls me closer.

“I’m serious, I need to know more about this dream. What were the logistics of bending me over the net?”

He sighs. “If I tell you, will you stop bothering me about it?”

I smile wide and say, “Never.”

Eli is quiet for a moment before saying, “The arena was empty, obviously, I’m not a perv. And you weren’t fully bent over, more like you were facing the net, gripping the top bar, and I was, you know…taking you from behind.”

“Hm, well we don’t have a net here, but you couldtake mefrom behind by that dresser.” I laugh and wiggle my eyebrows.

Eli’s pupils expand and I think he really likes the sound of that, but then he says, “The dresser is too low, but we can try the kitchen counter.”

“Who are you?” I stutter a laugh. I never would have thought he'd suggest something like this, since he’s usually very careful about his space, always keeping it nice and tidy.

“Duke Elias, about totake youfrom behind,” he jokes and I fucking love this silly version of him.

“You need to stop talking to Alice so much, she’s a bad influence with those damn romance books.”

“Don’t complain, you’re the one reaping the rewards.”

Eli

Ash’s phonerings while we’re at breakfast and I peekDadon the screen before he silences it. It lights up again and again while we drink our coffee and eat the pancakes I made us.

“Are you going to answer that?” I say, taking him in. He’s wearing nothing but a pair of light blue boxers and a silver necklace. I linger on his collarbones and his freckles, but my eyesalways come back to that flower tattoo, right above his heart. The one he still hasn’t told me about, and I haven’t pressed. He notices my stare and rubs at it gently, shaking his head no.

I try not to push on the topic of his father, since I know they have a tumultuous relationship. So instead I ask, “What’s the meaning of the tattoo?”

Ash stops rubbing at it and looks at me with a serious expression on his face. It cracks when he gives me a smirk and says, “When are you going to tell me what all the Finnish words you call me are?”

I smirk right back and say, “Hm, good point.”

We continue eating our pancakes in comfortable silence, but his phone won’t stop ringing. With a sigh, Ash picks it up and stands up, facing the bedroom. “I’ll go take this, be right back.”

The clock on the stove tells me it’s 11 a.m., which means this is the perfect time to call my family. With the seven hour time difference, I’ll be catching them right around dinner time. I grab my laptop from the coffee table and log into Zoom. From the bedroom, I can hear Ash’s voice rising, talking to his dad. I don’t know what his family dynamics are and he wouldn’t tell me even if I asked, but from the sound of it and the fact that they didn’t even show up to the final game, I don’t think things are going well between them.

After about three seconds, my mom’s face lights up the laptop screen. She beams at me and starts asking me a billion questions in Finnish. I laugh and respond to each one, cherishing each chat with her. She’s amazing and has always supported me and my dream, and so has my dad, who pokes his head in front of the camera.

“Eli, congratulations! The game was incredible.Youwere incredible. Mark my words, they’re going to call you up to the NHL in no time.”

I smile and thank him, but I think he’s getting ahead of himself. Sure, this season was great, and we won, but Detroit already has two amazing goalies and there’s no way they would bring me up so soon.

“Wish we could have been there,” my mom says.

“Yeah me too, sorry I couldn’t get you tickets this time.”

“Ohhani,don’t apologize. We just didn’t have the money for this trip, but we’ll start saving up for the next one.”

I looked up tickets for all three of them to come visit this past week and the price was insane. Even with my savings, I couldn’t afford the tickets, and it killed me that they couldn’t see me in person.

“How is Edvin’s training going?” I ask. My brother is ten years younger than me and he’s a goalie too. Just like he trained me when I was in a Finnish league, my dad is training Edvin as well.

“He’s doing fantastic, shows lots of potential, just like you did. Maybe you can give him some pointers this summer.”

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