Page 13 of Sven

“Are you sure?”

Her knee brushed his with how close she sat. Winnie turned in his arms and reached for her mother.

Sven handed her the baby as he stood. “Of course. Anything you need.”

By the time he got upstairs, he realized he was already late. They were doing practice skate before video game review, and there was no way he would make it there in time to gear up, but he would figure it out. He quickly put on his Magic T-shirt, hoodie, and athletic pants, then threw together a smoothie and made it to the ice as quickly as he could.

Unfortunately, he made it late and had to do bag skates. He needed to talk to someone at the center about what to do. If this situation took a wrong turn, it could be a PR nightmare, so someone in PR should know, and honestly, he was afraid of Hillary because she was a ballbuster.

The only person he could stomach talking to about this was Sasha. He just hoped she wouldn’t tell Conner. Conner had been on his ass lately, and this would not help.

After he’d finished up, he had a moment before his session with a trainer. So, he made his way to the business side of the Magic center and knocked on Sasha’s office door.

His heart was beating out of control. How on earth did he get himself in this situation?

“Come in,” called Sasha.

Sven pushed the door open, but his feet were cemented in place.

“Hi, Sven. What can I do for you?”

He needed to talk. It was his turn to do something, say something, anything, but he just stood there.

“Is everything okay?” she asked, concern coloring her voice.

He took a deep breath, closed the door, and dropped into the chair across from her.

“Sven? You’re kinda freakin’ me out.”

“Join the club.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Well... nothing is wrong per se... Can I trust you to keep this just between us? At least for a while?”

He was regretting coming to her. He knew he needed to go to someone. Maybe he should have gone to his lawyer first. Fuck... this situation had him so out of his depth.

“That depends, but I promise to help in any way I can.”

He nodded and moved to stand. “I should just go.”

“Sven. Sit down. What the hell is going on?”

“Will you at least not tell Conner?”

“Yes. While I can’t promise not to go to Hillary, I won’t tell Conner if you don’t want me to.”

“Yesterday... I found out...” He raked his hand through his hair. “I have a baby.”

Sasha’s jaw dropped, and she just stared.

“I have a little baby girl, and her and her mother showed up on my doorstep the other day,” he said, his foot jiggling so hard it shook his whole chair, sloshing the water in Sasha’s cup.

“Okay... Did she want anything from you? How old is the baby? Sven... you’re a dad?”

He nodded. “I don’t think she wants anything from me...”

“Where are they now?”

---