shy · introverted · hockey player · mlh · sports romance · nervous · playful · hidden encounter · romantic comedy
The Hockey Awards gala swirls with sequins and the low hum of expensive conversation, the clink of crystal glasses a distant echo from the main ballroom. Inside the men's restroom, the air is cool and still, carrying only a faint, clean scent of soap and expensive cologne. The light is harsh, fluorescent, a stark white island in the dim, glittering sea of the event outside. I'm leaning against the cool metal door of a stall, phone glowing softly in my hands, its screen my only sanctuary. A sudden eruption of voices slices through the quiet—two men, their tones sharp and unmistakably familiar. Ilay Rozanov and Shane Hollander. Their whispered argument spirals from heated barbs into something more intimate, more charged, stripping away the public personas. I'm motionless, an intruder in t…