Chapter 6 – Road

NOTES: bold text indicates text messages. Italics indicates Russian Language. Bold and italics will denote another language but that's for later in the story!

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Soundtrack: David Archuleta - Crush


It had been two days since Sasha left for the Caps 6 day road trip. They had exchanged a few text messages but Sasha still hadn’t said anything to Nef about their attraction. The caps had just beaten the Rangers, 5-4, in a game that went to over time. When Sasha got back to his hotel room he called Nef.

“You sleeping?” he asked?

“No, I’m awake.”

“We stay in New York tonight and fly to Min-nah-shoda tomorrow.”

Nef laughed at the way Sasha said Minnesota.

“Why you laugh at me?”

“Minnesota. Sota not Show-da.”

“Whatever. Is weird word. Is weird place too!”

When Ovie walked into the hotel room he saw that Sasha was laying face down on his bed on the phone and asked if he was talking to Nef. He shook his head yes and Ovie yelled “Hey Sexy lady!” Nef laughed at him. Ovie and Sasha were very much like brothers that loved to torment each other. Ovie reminded Nef of one of her younger brothers that relished in causing trouble.


“When are you going to tell her you want her?” Ovie asked

“I going to kill him.”

Ovie took the phone from Sasha and sat on his back so that he couldn’t get the phone back. Nef heard wrestling and heard Sasha yell “Give it back!”

“Hi Sexy,” Ovie said.

“What’s up!”

“Did you see the game? We were amazing.”

Nef told him that she saw the game but that they were okay, not amazing. Nef enjoyed teasing Ovie and Sasha about the games when they were in a good mood. She often jokingly told Ovie that he wasn’t a superstar.

“Whatever, I know you want me! Everybody wants Ovie.”

Sasha was finally able to wrestle the phone away from Ovie.



Sasha’s POV

“Sorry about that,” I told her. “He not know when stop playing.”

She laughed at that and told me Ovie reminded her of her younger brother Set. He was named after the Egyptian God of Storms and Chaos. In the month that I had been talking to Nefertiti I had learned a lot about her and her family. Her parents were from Egypt. They had moved to the US a few years before starting a family. Her father’s name was Adjo and her mother’s name was Nefetiri, like Nefertiti but a little different. Nef had a twin brother and two younger brothers. Imhotep was her twin, and then there was Khai, followed by Set.

I knew her whole life story. I could ask her a million questions about her family and grow up in the US but I couldn’t tell her that I thought she was attractive…at least not in a language that she understood. I am such an idiot. It shouldn’t be this hard to say “I like you. I would like to kiss you.” Instead I asked her what it like was to live in Egypt. I had learned that she has lived there with her grandparents for a while.

“Just tell the damn girl that you like her!” Ovie shouted.

“I am going to kill you slowly,” I threatened.

Ovie had taken to teasing me about Nef whenever the opportunity presented itself. He flirted with her and asked if I was jealous. He said things in Russian that I might actually kill him for if he said them in English.

“Hey it’s good thing Nef doesn’t speak Russian,” Ovie said “Or she would know what a wimp you are.”

“What did he say?” Nef asked.

“Nothing, he is idiot.”

“He is an idiot,” she corrected.

I talked to Nef for a few more minutes before she had to go to bed. She had work and class the following day.

“And you can’t tell her because…”

Please, please let him find someone else to bother. I took one of the pillows from my bed and hit him over the head as hard as I could. For a moment he looked shocked and then he smiled. I was ready for him to push or hit me but he didn’t, instead he took his phone into the bathroom. He stood in the doorway and said “I’m calling Nef.” Shit. I rushed to the door but he had closed and locked it before I could get there. I grabbed my phone and called Nef, hoping that I would get her before Ovie did. Thankfully she picked up

“Hello,” She said.

“If Ovie call you no answer.”

“Why? Wait, that’s my other line. Hold on a second,”

“No, no ans-“

Shit. She answered her other line and through the bathroom door I could hear Ovie start to talk. I started banging on the bathroom door and Ovie laughed. Dammit!



Nef’s POV

Sasha called back not too long after we hung up.

“If Ovie call you no answer,”

“Why? Wait, that’s my other line. Hold on a second,”

“No, no ans-“

It was Ovie. I answered and heard his boisterous laugh.

“What’s going on,” I asked.

“He hit me with a pillow so I call you. He not want me to talk to you. He scared I tell you that he like you but he to wimpy to say it to you.”

“You are such a bully,”

“You help me tease him so you bully too!”

I laughed at Ovie. Ever since we went to the 18th Street Lounge and he found out I spoke Russian he had gotten worse with his teasing of Sasha. I heard banging on the door and shouting. I almost felt bad for Sasha but he was so cute when he pouted. I knew that Ovie was doing things to purposely provoke a reaction from Sasha. We didn’t stay on the phone for too long – We didn’t really have anything to say. When I clicked back over to Sasha he immediately asked what Ovie had said.

“You hit him with a pillow and now he will tell me all sorts of embarrassing things about you.”

We said good night. I had work at my internship the next morning and Sasha had practice followed by a flight to Minnesota. He had been gone for two days but in the month or so that we had been talking we had yet to go more than a day without talking or texting each other. We talked about everything: work, hockey, school, growing up in Russia, Egypt, the US, our parents, our siblings, and pretty much everything else. He had an older sister, Svetlana, who was married with two children. His mother’s name was Tatiana and his father’s name was Valeri. His mother had worked in a bank and his dad had been a factory worker in Krasnoyarsk when he was younger. It was just so easy to talk to him. He was funny, charming, and very sweet.

In watching him play and watching the very limited interviews that he would give throughout him time in Washington he seemed aloof. He had always been a bit of an enigma. He was a very private person and just wanted to live his life and play hockey. He and Ovie were best friends, brothers but they were complete opposites. Ovie enjoyed being the center of attention. His ego matched his personality, not that he was egotistical or narcissistic. He was extremely extroverted and always wanted to have fun. He was the life of the party. The two of them balanced each other out.

As the week past I watched them beat the Wild, 3-2, and then fall to the Rangers. After the Rangers game ended I received a text message from Sasha.


You want go dinner with me tomorrow?

Sasha and I had been out together several times, both with other people and just ourselves. We had coffee and lunch dates when our schedules permitted. Thanks to Ovie, and Sasha believing that I didn’t speak Russian, I knew for a fact that Sasha thought that I was attractive and that he liked me. I liked him. He was beautiful. We always had a good time together but I was not about to be another notch in his bedpost. At the very first I thought he just wanted to get laid but the longer we talked and the more we hung out the less I thought that. He was very slow and cautious with me.

Yes, I would like to go to dinner with you. I responded.

I was excited to see him. It had only been a week but I found myself wanting to see him. He told me that he would pick me up at 7:30 the next evening and to dress nicely. We would be going to a nice restaurant. He had made reservations at The Source Restaurant in downtown DC. For the past month I had been in a constant state of excitement. I was excited by him - both mentally and physically. I was as eager to spend time with him as he was with me.