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Alana

S weet Nothing’s New Year’s Eve party had been in full swing for nearly three hours, and I had yet to make an appearance. Liam had gone down early to greet people, and I had procrastinated in every way imaginable to avoid showing up. I knew there was a high chance of bumping into someone who was going to want to talk to me about Kai. It was a toss-up whether they would ask for the gossip, or if they would plead his case.

Either scenario was less than ideal. The likely combination of both, even more so.

When I had truly run out of things to do and started to feel bad about leaving Liam on his own, I headed downstairs.

“Alana.”

For a brief moment, I thought I was making him up, but Kai always had a very specific way of saying my name that even my memory couldn’t replicate exactly. Of course, he would be the first person I see upon entering what should have been our engagement party.

It was too late for me to turn around now .

“Kai,” I replied, false pep making me sound high-pitched.

“Happy New Year’s Eve.” Kai raised a glass at me, which would have worked better if I had one to clink against his. As it was, my hands were hovering in the air, and I wished I had picked a dress with pockets. But no, I had to wear a dress that I knew would fuck with my boyfriend.

“And to you. Wasn’t expecting to see you here?”

“I was invited, wasn’t I?”

“Technically, sure. I guess, I thought you would…it doesn’t matter,” I said.

“We still share friends, Alana. They said they were coming, and I didn’t want to spend New Year’s alone.”

I nodded. I really had no clue what to say to him anymore.

“Where’s your—”

Liam was not a small man. No one would ever say that they hadn’t noticed him if he was in a room and yet, as I felt a hand come around my waist and pull me ever so slightly backwards as a drink came into my line of vision, I realised that I hadn’t seen him coming. I knew he was out in the party somewhere, but I hadn’t had a chance to look for him. Clearly, he had seen me. I took the drink, a whisky neat, and laced the fingers of my other hand through the one on my waist. That was where my hands should be.

“You must be Kai,” Liam said. I doubted Kai even noticed the edge in his voice.

“Holy shit, it’s you,” Kai near squealed. I refrained from laughing out loud at his excitement. It dawned on me then why he had still showed up. He could have talked his friends out of coming here if he really wanted to; they weren’t that attached to me. We hadn’t spoken since the break-up. But he thought a ‘chance’ encounter with his favourite NHL player might happen. Kai was probably getting more than he bargained for, actually. The Panthers had a home game this week, and Teddy had caught wind of the party, so he was planning to drag as much of the team to the bakery as possible.

“Yeah, it is,” Liam said, his voice softer now, morphing into the version of himself I saw every time he was approached by a fan. Muller had been buried. He was all Gunner now.

I zoned out and let Kai have his moment with Liam. I could feel the rumble of Liam’s voice against my back. I was pleasantly swimming in the sea salt scent of him. My fingers had unlaced from his and were aimlessly tracing the veins of his exposed forearm. The warm weight of his hand splayed against me was a grounding force.

“You okay?” Liam’s voice in my ear brought me fully back into the room from where I had zoned out looking at Teddy and Maxxy by the counter. Kai was no longer in front of us.

“Yeah. I thought that would be worse,” I admitted.

“He’s smaller than I thought he would be.”

“You mean he’s smaller than me? Almost everyone is. Even you barely beat me.” I had almost put on heels to come downstairs tonight but ultimately just threw on a pair of Converse because the dress was doing most of the work, and that was the most important part.

“That he was fine with, but sex toys were too far for him?” I turned around and both of his hands settled on my lower back.

“You’re going to have to let that one go eventually, you know that right? ”

“I just cannot comprehend how he could know what you look like when you come and not want to do everything in his power to make you look like that as much as possible.” His hand squeezed my ass, and my thigh slotted in between his.

I rolled my eyes. “Looking past that, that wasn’t too bad, was it?”

“No different to any other fan interaction I’ve had. He really knew my stats.”

“And used them to try and convince you to go back to the game?”

“Yeah, like I said, it was no different to any fan interaction. You ready to join this party?”

I sighed. “No. Yes. Don’t know. Sorry.”

“Why are you apologising?”

“This is my party, and I have left you to deal with it. I don’t think I have it in me to pretend I want to be here at the moment.”

“You haven’t left me to do anything. I’m good at schmoozing. Always have been, so you don’t have to be if you don’t want to. So, I’ll ask you again, are you ready to join this party?” He squeezed my ass and dropped a kiss on my shoulder.

I paused and really thought about my answer. In the end, I didn’t have to answer out loud.

“Okay, look, go back upstairs and finish a book or something. I will be up at five to twelve. Can I just make one small request?”

“Don’t see why not.”

“Can you leave this dress on? Or at least be in it again by the time I come upstairs?”

His pupils were blown, and I could feel him getting hard against my leg, which meant, as I suspected, the dress was doing its job.

“I think that can be arranged, Muller,” I replied, smiling as I pressed a quick kiss to his lips and went back upstairs to my apartment.