The Risk of Falling

Chapter Twenty-Two: We Fall, We Fight, We Figure It Out

A/N: Hi everyone! Sorry this is slightly late. Towards the end, I had to come to a decision of how far forward I had to push these two. I actually ended up cutting some scenes after deciding on their value to the story. I think it might be well past time for these two to head in the same direction—the same one where they first started. 

Hope you enjoy!

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“I have not seen this many broad-shouldered men all in the same room in my entire twenty-four years of life.”

I suppressed a smile at Jillian’s awed muttering as we stood by a corner in the kitchen, chowing on some appetizers, sipping our drinks and surveying the pack of hockey players clustered by the living room, howling and cheering to the baseball game that was on Alex’s wall-sized TV.

Alex had mostly picked polished but simple furnishings for his sizeable apartment but he’d gone all out on the entertainment system. 

“Give me a big TV, a cold bottle of beer and a nice girl to put my arm on and I’m happy,” he’d said. 

Looking at him now, perched on the edge of his seat, his fist around a Budweiser, his face tense with nervous excitement and looking as pumped as if he were on the field himself, I didn’t doubt him.

Jillian turned to Zoe who was on my left—I was standing between the two of them. “How do you deal with beautiful, well-built virile men on a daily basis?”

The two women had only met two hours ago, after I convinced Jillian to tag along the last minute. She wasn't a sports fan at all and didn't know a single player in the team but I adored her. Plus, she offered the additional balance to the testosterone overdose. And maybe I shouldn’t admit this so I didn’t sound like a jackass but having here there mitigated the shared strong suspicion that Alex and I were together. It’s just a bonus and I think she knew that and was happy to help. I knew Jillian wasn't everyone's cup of tea and I had worried she’d feel out of place in this group of people who were practically strangers even to me. Alex, being good old Alex, disarmed her quite easily. She and Zoe took one assessing look of each of each other and instantly hit it off. I was glad for that because I was feeling that Zoe and I were a little outnumbered this evening. Many of the guys brought their dates/girlfriends/wives and most of them were soaking in the hot tub out on Alex's vast balcony. Jillian and I felt a little overdressed in cut-off jeans and colorful tank tops but luckily, Zoe, who would normally be the most fashionable female in the entire team, was surprisingly laid back today in a yellow cotton summer dress. She was still jaw-droppingly gorgeous but less intimidating and looking more like her natural self.

Zoe smirked and tipped back her drink. “I deal with it by forgetting the beautiful, well-built virile part. Too much muscle appreciation can get in the way of my professional neutrality.”

A soft pinging sound came from Jillian and she checked her phone.

“Ryan says he’s having a meat-fest,” she said before tilting her phone toward us. On the screen was the giant juicy beef roast that Ryan had taken a picture of from the dinner Elise had organized. He’d come as Luke’s date because he apparently wouldn’t take a female guest.

Then Jillian held up her phone to take a picture of the living room with all the hockey players in it.

“You got beef, we got beef cakes,” she said out loud the same time she was typing it into her phone. “We win this meat-fest. Sent.”

I rolled my eyes and popped a bacon-wrapped steak bite into my mouth. I was interested in the real meat. “It’s all very accurate description but it sounds a little something like male objectification to me.”