enchanting | WN

cheers

TUESDAY, April 16th
"Let's share a toast for tonight's win, and for many to come!"

We all raise our glasses as the man who just held a short speech walks down from the chair he were standing on. Touching my glass with Steph's, we then take a sip from our drinks.

After the Leafs' win against Boston tonight, William invited me to this event arranged by the team. I haven't seen him for almost two weeks and therefore answered him yes over text, expecting for it to be a good chance to catch up as I've actually been missing him.

Though the only problem is that I haven't seen him all evening. Thankfully, Steph is here to keep me company while Mitch and Auston talks to others.

"Hey Steph!" A guy suddenly greets my friend happily, walking up to us. "Nice to see you, it's been a few weeks!"

They hug each other as I stay in my spot, observing the brown haired guy to see if I recognize him at all. Judging his clothing, I guess he's in the team, but that's pretty much the only conclusion I've got so far.

As they let go of each other, his brown eyes immediately lands on me. He takes in my looks in a pretty obvious way, making me slightly uncomfortable.

"We haven't met before," he says, an accent hiding in his words. "I'm Kasperi, Kapanen. People call me Kappy."

He reaches out his big hand which I look at for a second, before letting my hand shake his. "I'm Elle, it's nice to meet you."

"Elle?" He repeats, letting go of my hand as he raises his eyebrows. "I was sure you couldn't be single. Willy's lucky."

I can feel my cheeks heat up after hearing his words, finding myself smiling a little. "Yeah, me and William are not a couple."

"Oh really?" Kappy raises his brows again, this time with a small smile on his lips. "So you're here all alone?"

I notice Naia moving impatiently beside me, kinda obvious with her annoyance. "No," I start off. "I mean, Naia's here so-"

"What are we talking about?"

With big eyes, Kappy and Naia watches the guy who just slid into our conversation. Getting a little annoyed with the fact that William were gone all night and just decided to crash our conversation out of nowhere, I choose to look at the floor instead of him.

"Where have you been all night?" Naia is the first one to break the silence, she also seems to be the one to appreciate his arrival the most. "You really have been the worst company ever."

After watching Naia while she was speaking, I look at Kappy whose gaze is everywhere but in someone's eyes. Just by looking at him, I can feel the tension being built out of nowhere.

"Yeah," William starts, his gaze deeply laying on the guy in front of us.

It doesn't take long until I've figured out what makes his teammate so uncomfortable.

"Um, there was a lot of sponsors and important people I had to talk to, so.. sorry."

The four of us fall silent after his words, making the sound of others voices surrounding us much more obvious. During the silence, I notice the arm resting over my shoulders. For some reason, I find myself smiling very lightly at the sight.

William's staring comes to an end as Kappy eventually leaves us alone. He casually removes his arms from me, looking at us like nothing just happened.

"What?" He asks as we stay quiet.

The silence stays for a few seconds, as I try to process what just happened in my head. I've never seen him be this rude to anyone before, his behavior towards Kappy really made me thinking.