Page 56 of Melt His Heart

“Not really. I mean, unless we’re counting the undercover fanboys in here.” They laugh together briefly.

“Oh, by the way, this is Julian.” Carson turns to me, and Avery holds his hand out toward me.

“Ah, I see. Julian…I’m Avery, nice to finally meet you.” He says as we shake. I turn to Carson, a bit giving him a quizzical look, but he just smiles back, “Nice to meet you as well.”

“Are you British?” He asks.

“Oh, uh, no, I just lived there for a bit. I’m from South Korea.”

“Wow, now that’s cool.” He beams, “How are you liking living in America so far?”

“It’s…It’s fine. A bit different from home, but it has its own charm. I like it.” I smile. I don’t know why, but he puts me a bit on edge. I’m sure it’s just me being too socially aware of everything that’s going on. Especially when there’s about one-hundred people all talking around me at the same time.

“That’s good, I’d love to visit Seoul sometime too. I hear a lot about it.” He says, taking a small sip from his glass, he grabbed from a server who was passing by us earlier in our conversation.

“Yeah, you should, it’s great. I miss it a lot.” I mumble.

“Are you from there? Like the city?”

“Ah, no, a different city, I’m from a province outside of Seoul.”

“He’s from Gangwon-do. The Olympics are being held there this time around.” Carson chimes in, helping me out a bit. I feel my battery draining by the minute, more so with Avery than others for some reason. He seems to want to know a lot about me, or maybe I just feel that way. I bring my glass to my lips and try not to take the biggest gulp of my life.

“Oh shit, you’re right. Well, maybe you can show us around.” He chuckles.

“Yeah.” I smile, taking another sip of my wine.

“Well, I should leave you guys to it. I think we’re gonna start taking our seats soon.”

“Yeah, see you at practice,” Carson says.

“See you, Julian, it was nice meeting you.” He says, tilting his head a bit and giving me a small smile.

“You as well.” I nod.

I instantly feel the tension in my body loosening when Avery walks away, heading toward his seat. I didn’t even realize how wound up I was until he was gone.

“You ok?” Carson turns to me, looking down, his eyes soft.

“Yeah, I’m fine just a little, you know.” I smile, furrowing my brows a bit. I don’t want him to worry about me right now. I want us to have a good time.

“So he’s a new player?” I ask, changing the subject.

“Oh yeah, he got traded to the team, kinda late in the season though,” Carson says as we make our way to the table we’re to be seated at. There’s other people already sitting, waiting for the event to begin.

“Did you guys play each other often?” I inquire.

He pulls out the chair in front of a plaque that has my name on it. The table setting is beautiful, a perfect mix of cream and white hues with a pop of red for some color. And of course, I love the floral setting. I’ll keep in mind how they used the roses for later.

“When he was at San Jose, yeah, we played against each other often enough.” He says, sitting down next to me.

“Oh, you seem pretty close, is all.” I tilt my head, looking over to him.

“Yeah…We played in juniors together, too.” He says.

Ah, so they’ve known each other for a while. I hum, nodding my head. Carson is playing with his plaque when he looks over to me, his face a bit pinched.

He opens his mouth as if to say something more, but the boom of a mic tunes him out, the entire room turning its attention to the stage.