Eight Weeks (Unfrozen Four Book 2)

“have I known you twenty seconds or twenty years?”—Lover (Remix) [feat. Shawn Mendes] by Taylor Swift, Shawn Mendes

“You’re staring at her again,” Jane says with a chuckle. She leans against the railing of the ice rink, like I am previously doing to, apparently, stare at my girlfriend. “It’s adorable.”

“No guy ever wants to be called ‘adorable.’”

She shrugs, I think. I’m not really looking at her, but from the movements I could see beside me, I’d say she did shrug. “I suppose not. But it is adorable. I haven’t seen Sofia smile as much as she does recently, and I’m just happy to see her blossoming again, you know? She’s been holding back on her happiness for a while now.”

“Really?” I pull my eyes away from Sofia, averting them to Jane.

“Yes. And besides, I’m glad to know there are guys out there that are decent. Leon never looked at Sofia the way you do. He always gave me this strange vibe, and I told her, but Sofia wouldn’t listen. Well, I guess you know how the story with him turned out. I’m not sure why, but you don’t seem to be the guy to cheat.”

Cheat? Hell nah. “I don’t see the point in it,” I admit. “Why stay in a relationship if you’re lusting for someone else? Just end it and you’re free to do whomever you want, without any stress, unnecessary tears, and a cheater-title.”

The second these words leave my mouth, someone skates into me from behind, arms come up around my torso. If I didn’t know there’s only one person that’d wear wisteria-colored gloves with a hint of glitter, I’d have been out of this hug way before it even happened.

Sofia comes up beside me. I lay one arm around her, pulling her close to me to keep her in my space. She looks up at me, smiling. “There are some guys over there, currently trying to remember your name, Sir Superstar.”

My eyebrows dip. “Remember my name?”

“Yes. I’m assuming they’ve been keeping up with the U.S. college hockey. Probably livestreamed the games or watched them online somewhere. But they mentioned Colin’s name, thought that’d be you. One of the guys said Colin’s brunette, so this can’t be you and now they’re trying to figure out what your name is.”

Now, I knew our games are televised, but I didn’t think people outside of the U.S. really care about NCAA hockey.

“You probably shouldn’t have worn this.” Sofia reaches a hand up to the logo on my jacket. It’s the St. Trewery hockey team logo, even bigger at the back of my jacket.

“Probably not.” My hand slides down to her hip, tugging her just that tiny bit closer to me. “I didn’t think people here watched our games.”

Sofia grins, scrunching up her nose just a little. “Too bad they don’t rent out pucks and sticks. You could have challenged them to a shootout. Being their age, you know they would have jumped at the opportunity.”

“Wouldn’t have been fair,” I say.

“You know it’s not a 4 vs. 1, right? It would have been fair.”

I cock my head to the side, lifting my eyebrows. “Love, it wouldn’t have been fair because I’m far better than all of them combined.”

“Did you ever think about donating some of your cockiness? You have too much of it whereas others have none.”

“What did you say about my cock? I know I’ve a great one, but why should I give some of it to others?”

She sighs, dropping her head against my body. “Anyone ever tell you that you’re impossible?”

I think for a second, looking up into the dark sky as I do. “You just did. But that’s alright, I’ll fuck the attitude right out of you sometime soon.”

Her head snaps up, eyes wide and filled with a mixture of shock and confusion as they meet mine. God, she’s so fucking adorable, it’s giving me the cute-aggressions.

Jane is laughing, but stops when I give her a questioning, yet stern look. As quick as she started to laugh, she’s skating away to find her other friends.

“Come on.” Sofia skates right out of my arms, interlocking our fingers to make me follow her. I’d follow her anywhere.

“Where are we going?”

Her sweet giggles sound through my body like it’s fuel for me. Everything she does or says seems like a double shot of expresso with a little too much caffeine, giving me more energy than needed. “I bet I can skate faster than you.”

She can’t.

My little Icicle might be good with stunts and all, but faster? I highly doubt it. She never was.

↞♡↠

I was right. She’s not faster than me on the ice… and as it seems, a pretty sore loser. She’s scowling, her arms crossed over her chest to show her madness. And yet, I can’t help but find it cute.

Now I remember why I used to let her win all the time when we were younger, despite being a sore loser myself. Alright, and because of that stupid smile that sends electric shocks through my body whenever I see it.

We left the ice five minutes ago, and she’s still grumpy, grunting answers if she even does, rolling her eyes and sighing all the time. Either she’s the worst loser alive, or my Icicle is a little hungry.

When we were younger, Sofia used to get really moody whenever she was hungry. She would act like a total asshole, snap at people, and give the shortest answers known to humankind. Until she finally got food, and just like that, her mood was turned around again.

“How about we go drink some Glühwein, sit inside and just spend some time catching up? Kind of like letting a get-together sound itself out before we all head home?” Emma suggests. The other girls agree almost to instantly.

Is this what they do here? Go out and then let the evening “sound itself out”? If so, it doesn’t make sense. Just leave whenever you want to, honestly.

Either way, I still hate wine, and as far as I’m concerned, Glühwein is wine, heated and with spices and stuff. But wine.

Anyway, Sofia agrees with Emma, and I couldn’t possibly speak against it now, could I? I’m already outnumbered, being the only man with four women. So what I do instead only makes sense to me. “Sure, but can I borrow Sofia for just a minute? I need her to be my translator for something.”

The girls laugh, all except Sofia, of course. My little Icicle still hasn’t defrosted.

“Sure, you go do your thing.” Pia waves us off. “We’ll order for you then, okay? Don’t be too long!”

As we part ways with Sofia’s friends, I bring my hand to the small of Sofia’s back, guiding her toward wherever we will find food. It shouldn’t be too difficult as this whole entire goddamn Christmas market is made of food stalls, Christmas lights, a good amount of gaming stalls, carousels, and decorations.

I told myself I’d buy Sofia whatever she wanted to eat, but she’s a little stubborn, so when I ask her what she wanted, she responds with, “I’m not hungry.”

“Yes, you are, Icicle.”

She rolls her eyes, letting out a disagreeing gruff. “Am not.”

“Okay.” We stop in front of a food stall that seems to be only selling chocolate covered fruits. It’s not exactly what I had in mind, but it’ll do for now. I turn to Sofia with a smile. “Could you order me something then? I still don’t speak German.”

Earning myself yet another eyeroll, she obliges. “What do you want?”

“Anything you like.” Mainly because I’m certain that I won’t get a single bite from that thing. The second it’s bought, she’ll look at me with those puppy dog eyes, asking for just a small taste to check if it’s good, and before I know, she’ll have it eaten up.

But that’s okay, I’m not that much of a fan of chocolate covered fruits anyway.

Sofia orders a chocolate covered banana, and it’s suddenly even better that I won’t have to eat it because bananas are nothing but disgusting. They have a way too dominant taste. Put it in a smoothie, just the tiniest piece of it, and you now have a banana smoothie, despite the million other fruits you threw in there.

I hand her my wallet at the same time as she hands me the banana on a stick. She pays for it, then walks somewhere next to the stall with me.

The second we stand, I hold the banana to Sofia’s mouth, waiting until she takes a bite. And she does, without questioning me. Perhaps she didn’t think about it twice, but I’m sure she knows what I’m up to.

If there is one person in this world that always knew what I thought, and why I did certain things, it is Sofia. Even now I’m sure she had her assumptions the second I said she shall choose whatever she wanted.

“You’re mean, you know?” she says right after she swallows, yet she takes another bite.

“Just taking care of you, my Icicle.”

Sofia smiles softly, even more so when I bring my free hand underneath the banana to stop the chocolate from crumbling all over the floor.

“You didn’t have to do that, you know?”

I shake my head. “I know, but you get all grumpy when you’re hungry.”

It takes her a little while to eat that nasty thing, but I’d rather spend ten minutes watching Sofia eat a banana than sit in some booth and have to smell this heated wine for an hour.

When I get back from throwing the wooden stick away, I notice Sofia shivering slightly. I mean, I get it. She might be wearing a winter jacket, but perhaps putting on a goddamn skirt wasn’t her smartest decision. And I highly doubt these wisteria-colored stockings that only go to her mid-thighs do anything to warm her legs.

She looks sexy as hell, but I’ve been wondering when she’d start shivering.

Before I get to ask Sofia if she’s cold, which she would answer with yes, she’s already bringing her hands to my face, carefully pulling my head down until our lips meet.

She’s kissing me.

Sofia is kissing me.

Not for the first time, mind you, but it’s still… wow.

No, that’s false, it is the first time she is kissing me without me daring her to.

I’m not surprised that it feels right, a little too right, maybe. But then again, I’m convinced that Sofia and I were meant to be together from the second we met, so maybe “too right” isn’t a thing.

Now, I’m not some believer in everything supernatural, or people being destined for one another. For the longest time in my life, I didn’t even think soul mates were a thing. But Sofia proves me wrong.

She is my soul mate, and I will never believe anything else.

The way her tongue sweeps over my bottom lip startles me for a second, but fuck, I want her to do it again.

The banana taste is still there, but I don’t give a fuck. If I had to, I’d eat tons of bananas for her. I’d eat one or ten a day if she asked me to. Perhaps I’m a banana-lover after all.

Her mouth brushes mine, over and over again, and when I try to pull away from her to take a quick breath, Sofia finds it much better to slide her tongue into my mouth.

I’m not going to complain. So then I will die of oxygen-deprivation. At least I died a happy death, having kissed my childhood crush, my now girlfriend, for the last thing I did with my life.

As her hands slide down my neck, gripping on to my jacket tightly into her fists, an all too familiar desire surges through me and rushes right down to my balls.

I promised myself to not move too fast with her. We might have rushed into our relationship, but we also had to go a whole thirteen years without any sort of contact. Nonetheless, I want to go at her pace, do only what Sofia is comfortable with… and yet when her tongue touches mine, and she lets out the softest of moan right into my mouth, I’m so close to tipping over, losing the ground beneath me, that I barely realize what I do next.

Taking Sofia’s hands from my body, I interlock one with mine and make her follow me behind the rowed-up food stalls.

Nobody is back here, nobody and nothing except for a couple of extra trashcans from the stalls. Not sure if anyone is ever going back here either, or if they do, they’ll hopefully leave as quickly as they came.