So Be It // o. maatta

Chapter Sixty-Nine

Chapter Sixty-Nine: Olli's POV

"You're what?" Jussi sputtered from the seat next to mine.

"Engaged." I repeated, quietly. Besides Alex and I, he was the first one to know. I mean, he had been there for me the entire season, and was helping me prepare for the Olympics. He deserved to know.

"To Alexandra?" He asked, slowly.

I nodded, silently.

"You're engaged to James's sister?" He asked me in Finnish, so the other guys wouldn't understand.

I replied to him with a "Yeah." in English.

He looked deep into my eyes for a minute, or two, giving me that disappointed, 'You're only nineteen' look I was expecting, but then he whispered, "Congratulations."

My lips broke into a small grin, as did his.

"When did you ask her?"

"Only a couple days ago."

"What day?" He questioned.

"Tuesday." I responded, more specific.

"You scored the game winning goal on Wednesday night." He pointed out. "You must be pretty happy with your engagement."

"I am, Jussi." I told him softly, gazing into his eyes, "I mean, she's my picket fence; my world; my one and only."

"Don't you mean your one and Olli?" He interjected, large smirk on his face.

"That was a completely cliched and overused pun." I chirped.

He shrugged. "But does that really Maatta?"

I chuckled, quietly, before looking up at him again. "But seriously, Jussi, she's my everything. I'm so damn happy. Did you feel this way when you got engaged to Salla?" Salla was Jussi's wife, obviously.

"Well, bud, I was a few years older than you when I got engaged. But no, this isn't how I felt when I got engaged to Salla. I always felt that way about her, and I still do." He leaned back, into his plane seat, and folded his arms. "And hopefully you'll always feel that way about Alex, too."

I smiled a small smile, staring at my hands. I didn't hope that I'd always feel that way about Alex; I knew.

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Alex's POV

"Fuck this." I hissed, unimpressed with the box of tampons I was rooting through.

Just as I was selecting one, my phone buzzed on my desk.

I jumped up to grab it, excitedly answering the call. I may have loved Olli's calls more than I should have....

"Hello?"

"Hey, hun." He greeted, his accent perfectly blending with each syllable. "How are you?"

"I've been better." I admitted, truthfully, twirling the wrapped tampon between my fingers like it was a baton.

"What's a matter?" He asked, quietly, sounding genuinely concerned.

"Eh, my period, ya know? I mean, what the fuck's even the point? It's like, 'Congratulations! You went another month without managing to get knocked up! As a reward, you get to bleed from your vagina for five days straight, you get to be all fucking moody, and you get to have cramps like there's no tomorrow!'" I scoffed, more than likely making him feel awfully uncomfortable. "Pisses me off." I slammed the tampon down on my desk. "So, how's Beautiful Buffalo?"

He didn't say anything for a few moments, before uttering, "It's snowy."

"That's descriptive." I snarked, automatically regretting it. "Sorry, babe. It's just hormones-"

"It's fine." He replied. You could hear that cute-ass grin in it. "It doesn't bother me. I get it. But I have to go; we're headed to some team dinner, or some sort of mockery. Love you, text you later."

"Love you."

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Olli's POV

"Do you think I should talk to James about it?" I flopped on my back, into the mattress, after dinner.

"Ever?" Robert, my roommate, asked. I had told him about the engagement when we first dropped our shit off in our room. "Because I think it may come up eventually. I'm just spitballing here."

"Not ever. Like, on this trip." I clarified.

"Did you talk to Alex?" He sat, untying his shoes.

"She told that she would handle it, but..."

"But Little Olli wants to be her knight in shining armor, eh?"

Warmth spread across my cheeks, and I tried to mask it, but Rob just smirked. "Mhmm. So, if you really want to talk to him, you should...."

I rubbed my face, nervously, when suddenly, an idea hit me. We were going to Toronto after we played Buffalo, and we had a day off. I could somehow catch a train to Whitby; it wasn't that far from the city, and I could talk to the Neal's. That way, I didn't have to face James, because honestly, James scared the shit out of me. All I needed was their address...

"You look like you're plotting something." Bortz pointed out, dragging me from my thoughts.

I nodded. "I've got a plan."

Without missing a beat, he looked to me, and nodded. "I'm in."