Page 87 of The Long Game
Ilya woke up from his pregame nap to find about a hundred texts from Shane on his phone. Most of them asking him to callas soon as possible. But also assuring him he was fine. But to call him. Soon. Now, if possible.
Ilya called him.
“Jesus. Finally,” Shane said.
“I was asleep. What is it?”
“I met with Crowell.”
Ilya propped himself up on an elbow. “Oh yes?”
“It was weird.”
“Weird how?”
“He basically said—I don’t even know what he said. He’s really intimidating.”
“Tell me one thing he said.”
Shane exhaled loudly. “First of all, he told me we were doing good work with the Irina Foundation. He asked me to tell you that.”
“Okay.”
“But he also, like, told me not to come out, maybe?”
Ilya sat all the way up. “I don’t understand.”
“He said he’s heardrumorsabout me being gay and basically that he’d like them to stay rumors.”
“He said this?”
“Not exactly. Like I said, it was weird. The way he talks, it’s friendly and scary at the same time. I hated it.”
Ilya was starting to get angry. Mostly at Crowell. A little bit at Shane. “What did he say?”
“I think he doesn’t want another Scott Hunter. He doesn’t seem to be a fan of activism in hockey. Or anything that isn’t hockey in hockey, really.”
“He is a fan of money in hockey,” Ilya said.
“He was talking about how great diversity is, and about the league’s LGBTQ initiatives, but also that he hates distractions from the game. The whole meeting felt like an indirect threat.Like, he wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to surprise anyone by coming out on social media or something.”
“Or kissing your boyfriend on TV.”
“Right. I mean, obviously I’m not going to do either of those things.”
“Obviously.” Ilya said it bitterly, but Shane didn’t seem to notice.
“But also it was like he was daring me to accuse the league of not being, like, queer-friendly or something. By listing all the stuff they do.”
“Gross.”
“It was, a bit. Yeah.”
“So what are you going to do?”
“Nothing. I wasn’t going to do anything anyway, but I still feel slimy after that meeting.”
Ilya’s jaw clenched. He knew all too well Shane had no intention of going public about their relationship, but if there had even been a chance and Crowell had crushed it...
