Off Ice.

Chapter Twenty-Two.

Avery

Walking back into my apartment felt weird, I won't lie. It kind of made it feel like everything that actually happened in San Jose was a dream.

It wasn't that hard leaving Finn because he was on a flight a day later for a game he has in Anaheim, but then he's on the road for a few weeks. Honestly, it gave me a chance to clean up my disaster area of a room.

We're on our way back from LAX where I picked him up and although he's only in LA for a couple days, I'm glad he's here. He's about to get the third degree from Cam when he gets home though, that's for damn sure.

"You ready to start classes next week?" he asks as we sit in traffic on the 405, as per fucking usual. My leg is leaning against the door as my foot is on the seat with me, my arm resting on my knee as I look over at him. He's got his hand over the center console and resting on my thigh. Physical touch is definitely Finn's love language.

"Yeah actually," I nod, running my hand through my hair as I glance back at the road. "I have a Gender Studies class I'm excited about tomorrow; and a literature one."

"Hey, did you know that a huge part of sex and human trafficking actually include organ trafficking? Like, when women are being sold and distributed - more times than not their organs are what's sought after. And it's not always just like, kidneys or spleens. People will do it for eyes or limbs for fetishes and stuff," I ramble. "There's a whole black market for it and the United States actually has one of the highest rates."

When he doesn't answer I glance over at him, seeing his brows raised at how casually I just brought that into a conversation. I shrug in response to his silence, "I read a journal article about it last night."

"Like.. One of those academic ones? For research papers and stuff?"

"Yeah," I answer, not really getting why he sounds so confused. "I'm subscribed to this website that posts them and I go through the topics I like to read about. Like Women's Studies or World Literature - or whatever I see on the most searched page that I'm interested in. Google Scholar is pretty handy too."

He's quiet again.

I look over at him again and can't really tell what his expression means, all I can see is that his features are soft - his eyes, brows, everything. He also kind of looks confused? "What?"

"I don't know why, but that's really fucking hot."

I roll my eyes at that in a desperate attempt to hide the blush that's spreading across my cheeks. "Glad to know you find my knowledge of organ trafficking hot."

"Yeah, that's what I meant," he retorts sarcastically.

Once we get out of traffic, we're pulling into the parking garage pretty quickly. He's going to stay with me tonight but once his team is here tomorrow, he has to stay in the hotel with them for the night before the game. They're usually a bit lenient but they're doing some kind of training and dinner thing he has to be at. I don't mind though, I'm just happy I have him for the little bit of extra time while he's technically on a work trip.

He's got his suitcase with him as we head into the elevator and start up to my floor. He's sporting those damn grey sweatpants and a black Thunderbirds sweatshirt that I remember him wearing all the time back in Seattle. It was always his go to and I've even worn it a decent amount of times because it's so damn comfortable.

Needless to say, he looks very cozy and cuddly at the moment.

While we're heading up, I stand in front of him and wrap my arms around his neck, lazily smiling as his immediately go to my waist. "I'm glad you're here," I tell him, scanning his face and all of it's features. It weirdly feels like I have all of these new things to learn - there are new lines and curves to his facial structure that have come out over the last few years. I love noticing new things on him.