Seattle
December 2016
“Babe, you might have better luck finding it if you just—chill for a second.”
“Kolya.” Valeri fixed him with an unimpressed look. “Passport is important. If you will not help me look, then get out of my way.”
Cole threw his hands up in surrender as Valeri continued tearing through the office. Well, they called it the office. It was more of a junk room, really, catching all the detritus that had accumulated over the years as they came and went. He was pretty sure there were still unpacked boxes in here from when he had first been drafted to Seattle.
“I still don’t know why you think it’s in here,” he said after a moment, leaning against the door frame.
“Why not?” Valeri asked as he scattered a bunch of loose papers on the cheap Ikea desk. “This room is like—what is word…?” He paused, and Cole recognized the expression on his face, the one that meant he was sifting through all the English words and idioms in his head. “Zhiroulovitel’. You trap things in it.”
Cole frowned for a moment. “You mean a grease trap?”
“Yes!” Valeri gave him an excited look, only to remember a split second later that he was annoyed with him and so went back to scowling at him, instead.
Cole huffed a laugh as Valeri returned to his search, and once he had exhausted all the junk on top of the desk, he reached for one of the drawers, Cole only remembering what a bad idea that was after he had already opened it.
“Val, wait a minute—”
But Valeri was already digging through the drawer, and Cole could see the exact moment that Valeri saw what Cole himself had hidden in that drawer only a few weeks ago.
For a moment neither of them said anything, Cole staring at Valeri staring down at what he had found. Then, Valeri straightened, and held up the travel brochure, the words Visita l’Italia! printed boldly on the front, along with an envelope of what were unmistakably plane tickets.
“Planning trip?” Valeri asked, one dark eyebrow raised in a perfect arch.
Cole cleared his throat, rubbing a hand over the back of his neck. He knew better than to keep secrets from Valeri. He always found out.
“You know we’ll have been together five years in February?” he blurted out nervously. Valeri just gave him a look.
“Da,” he said flatly. “I am aware of time.”
Cole was floundering, wilting under that impressively unimpressed stare. “I just thought it would be, you know, nice,” he shrugged helplessly. “To go someplace just for the hell of it for once, not because we’re there to compete. And we met in Italy, so…”
Valeri visibly melted in front of him, his icy stare turning into something soft, something warm. “Kolya,” he murmured, crossing the room, the brochure still crumpled in his hand as he backed Cole against the wall, the search for his passport completely forgotten (for now).
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Photo by S O C I A L . C U T on Unsplash