Page 77 of Sven

Alice smiled and clapped while Sydney leveled her with a look. “Are you sure this is a good idea?”

“I don’t know,” Natalie said before taking a bite of her tortilla chip.

“I think it’s good. Sven has changed a lot this year,” Alice said before taking a sip of her beer.

“Hmmm,” Sydney hummed cautiously. “He’s still your boss.”

“I know, that’s the thing about it, but also, this isn’t permanent. Everything feels so transient right now. I’m still trying to figure out what’s next.”

“So, what happened after the little baby cock-block?” asked Alice.

“Well, he went to take care of Winnie, but that night, when he put her down, he made us a nice dinner and kind of laid everything out.”

“Oooh,” Alice swooned.

“Okay... what did he say?” Sydney asked like she was coming around to the idea.

“Well, he told me he had feelings for me, which he already had but after I kissed him, he asked if it was something I had any interest exploring... I said yes. We made out but ultimately decided to take it slow. Then he left in the morning for this road trip. And since we’ve talked every day, and it’s been wonderful,” Natalie said, trying to bite back the smile that wanted to spread across her face.

Alice was already gone and ready to jump on the Sven and Natalie bandwagon, but Sydney wasn’t sure, which is exactly what Natalie thought would happen.

“What do you want?” Sydney asked.

Natalie closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She knew what she wanted. She wanted him. “I think I want to see where this goes.”

“Awwww, yay!” Alice said with a big grin.

“He is hot,” Sydney said, motioning to the TV.

And she was not wrong.

The game was resuming, and there, on the screen, was Sven as they got ready for the second period.

“When is he coming home?”

“They come home tomorrow,” Alice answered. “Sorry, I’m just ready for Taylor to be home. I’m used to hockey seasons growing up with my dad, but now, being with Taylor, the road trips have gotten harder.”

“Aren’t you glad I convinced you to move up here?” Sydney said with a self-congratulatory smile.

“I am,” she said as they settled in to watch the game.

It was about seven minutes into the second period in a scoreless game. But Murphy pulled a tripping penalty and put them on the power play. She knew Sven was not happy being on the second power play unit, but when Taylor took a shot from the top, it bounced off the goalie’s pad, and Sven got it and sent it back to the net. It went in over the goalie’s glove.

Natalie and Alice both jumped and cheered, while Sydney smiled and shook her head at them.

“Never in my life did I think I would see you cheering for a hockey game,” Sydney said to Natalie.

“Well, you’re the one that got me this job,” she said, throwing a pillow at her.

“Yeah, I got you a job. I didn’t know I was getting you dick, too,” Sydney said.

“Hey, you haven’t gotten me dick,” Natalie protested.

“Yet,” Sydney said, leveling her with a glance.

There was no arguing with that. While nothing but kissing had happened with her and Sven, she definitely wanted more to happen. Lots more. And the more they talked, the more she realized she actually liked him. They had a surprising amount in common for being so incredibly different.

After the game, which sadly the Magic lost one to three, the girls headed out and Natalie headed up to the guest room to sleep. But this time, she didn’t stop at the guest room at the top of the stairs. She continued down the hall past Winnie’s room and into Sven’s. She’d been tempted to sleep in his bed, but that was weird.

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