Page 28 of Two for Charging
No.
They weren’t on a date.
Luca had taken Chris out for an afternoon sightseeing trip and a nice dinner to make up for the lack of rental contract. Any similarity to a date had to be incidental and only in Luca’s mind. If Luca wanted to date someone, he wouldn’t plan something as amateurish as an hour of window shopping unless it made his date light up all over…the way Breezy had when he held the stupid Furby.
With a dawning sense of horror, Luca realized he had committed to what amounted to taking Breezy out on a date in thirty-two different cities.
He was never getting over the man.
Chapter Five
“[…] As a recent Instagram post by the team’s official account reveals, the San Francisco Sea Lions are continuing their sponsorship of the Pot of Gold shelter in the 2025-26 season. The program has gained praise among local voices as well as with the inclusion organization ‘Anyone can play hockey,’ though some detractors remain. The team’s Russian contingent with goalie Vladimir Dmitriyev, veteran forward Ivan Abrahamov, and rookie Semyon Fedorov have remained silent about the program. As important as charitable goodwill is, the more important question is whether the team can win big while splitting their focus, especially with such a political project. […]”
Top comments:
anyone_can_play_hockey: We’re so proud of the Sea Lions and their continued efforts at inclusion!
jayyyyyyDEN: “political” smh. we’re people not talking points
SFCLions: Finally, someone says the quiet part out loud! The Sea Lions need to concentrate on team unity and winning cups, not on indoctrinating children!
(From “Sea Lions Start the Season Strong” by Olivia Starling, published in The San Francisco Herald, 10/15/2025)
“It is never too early to start thinking about Halloween costumes,” Howie intoned. “I’ve been planning since August.”
“Why?” Luca asked.
Chris groaned inwardly at his blank, bored tone. He did love having an Italian bro, but sometimes, picking fights about North American customs meant Chris had to play mediator.
“It’s NHL tradition.”
They were all in the weight room, getting in their training for the day, while Lindy, Phil, and Edwards handled the roster cuts before the opening of the regular season. Howie couldn’t mask his disappointment about Tarashenko, one of the team’s Russian prospects, being sent back to the KHL for conditioning. Howie barely knew the guy, but with Tarashenko gone, Howie remained the youngest on the team at twenty and, therefore, the rookie. He made up for it by grandstanding about the importance of getting a good quality Halloween costume since wearing cheap polyester all night made him itch—a statement Chris found questionable because he’d seen Howie’s game-day suits. He would never say so, though, not in public and not while Howie felt so touchy about being the team baby.
Luca, on the other hand, was touchy in general.
In a weird way, Chris liked that about him. He liked how hard it was to make him smile. It made Chris feel special every time he managed to do it.
He didn’t necessarily like how often he had to play peacemaker to make sure Luca didn’t alienate anyone too much.
“Halloween isn’t a big thing in Italy,” Chris explained to Howie.
Howie’s eyes went big and round. “Why not?”
Luca sighed and dropped the barbell into place, chest heaving as his biceps and shoulders strained. He wasn’t a big guy, but he was muscular. Sleek. Reminiscent of an otter, or a dolphin. Something graceful and beautiful. By comparison, Chris’s body reminded him of a hippo, big and unwieldy.
“Well, Kilian,” Luca began in his most bored and facetious tone. “Many years ago, all the people who were too intensely religious for Europe came to this continent and brought a bunch of superstitions with them.”
Chris frowned. “My dad always called Halloween a godless holiday and said real Catholics don’t celebrate it.”
Luca gave him an odd look. “Not to contradict myself, but All Hallow’s Eve—and All Saint’s Day on the first of November—are Catholic holidays. I simply did not dress up and beg for sweets. That part was invented in the Americas, and it did not catch on in Europe until I was too old to do it.”
Chris would have to look it up. As a kid, he’d thought Halloween sounded like a ton of fun, choosing a costume and going door-to-door to ask for candy. His dad had forbidden it from the get-go, though, saying no God-fearing Catholic family would get dressed up as demons and witches. His mom protested because Chris wanted to do it, and she wanted to make him happy, or maybe to make Chris’s father unhappy. So, Chris backtracked and told them both it didn’t matter.
Fifteen years later, he had no intention of telling his dad he’d been wrong about Halloween because it would be an engraved invitation to argue. But he could tell Matty.
“Well, we’re in the Americas, and Halloween is definitely an NHL tradition, so you’d better get working on your costume.”
“We haven’t done a Halloween party the last couple years,” Chris said to keep Howie from getting his hopes up.
