Dolce Vita

"So Colin says that Roman has been asking about you." Sloane rolled her eyes as Kim told her this. They were spending their lunch break roaming through the mall, currently in Victoria's Secret. Kim glanced at Sloane while looking through a stack of bras for her size. Sloane was flicking through a rack of robes when Kim told her, "You must have made quite the impression."

"Who would honestly wear this? It doesn't even look comfortable." Sloane exclaimed, holding up a see through lace teddy with a halter top and a very revealing thong bottom.

Kim shrugged, "Someone who obviously has something to show off."

Sloane put the item back and continued flicking through the rack. Kim watched her out of the corner of her eye but said nothing. Sloane had been off since the night at the club, which was nearly 5 days ago. Kim thought it had something to do with Roman, Sloane had after all disappeared without telling anyone around 2 in the morning.

Finally, as they moved on to the next section of bras Kim asked, "Okay what the hell is the matter with you?"

Sloane turned away from the red lace bra she was looking at and looked at Kim in confusion, "Me?"

"Yes you. Roman Josi spent hours flirting and dancing with you and you didn't even try to get his number. There has to be something wrong with you." Kim told her with a pointed look. Sloane raised her eyebrow at her friend and Kim rolled her eyes before telling her, "99% of the female population would kill to be in your position. Roman is not the kind of guy you just disappear on and never talk to again. Have you even looked at the guy?"

"Does Colin know you feel this strongly about his teammate?" Sloane asked with a smirk, making Kim roll her eyes.

"Seriously, you should come to the game with me tomorrow." Kim said, expecting a yes. Sloane didn't say anything, she kept looking through a rack of bras. Finally, in an attempt to get some kind of a reaction out of her, Kim held up a lavender push up bra and said, "I think this is something Roman would like. Look it's even your size."

"Nice try, that's a b cup." Sloane stated as if she hadn't heard the first part of Kim's comment. She knew just from looking at it that it would not fit her c cup chest.

Kim rolled her eyes and put it back before saying, "Your total lack of interest in possibly one of the hottest guys in Nashville is astounding."

Sloane turned to her and said, "It's not that I'm not interested."

"Could have fooled me." Kim muttered as they left the store and made their way to the food court.

As they were standing in line for smoothies Sloane explained, "It's just… come on Kimberly, there's no way a guy that looks like him doesn't have a girlfriend… or five."

"It can't be that hard to believe. You don't have a boyfriend."

Sloane rolled her eyes at that, "I am average at best."

Kim ordered them both their drinks and paid, much to Sloane's displeasure, before they moved out of the line to wait. It was then that Kim told her firmly, "Honey please, you haven't been average since we were 16 and the boob fairy blessed you."

"Shut up."

"Besides. Obviously he seen something he liked." Kim told her with a smirk. Sloane reached over and gave her a small shove, which made Kim laugh. They took their smoothies and found a table before Kim said, "Ask Colin if you don't believe me. Every day Roman is asking about you, I'm surprised Colin hasn't just given him your number to get rid of him at this point."

Sloane remained silent as they drank their smoothies, she couldn't help but chuckle when Kim pulled a snack size bag of doritos out of her bag. Sloane had always said if she needed to Kim could survive at least a week with the food she kept in her purse. The thing was like a snack food filled suitcase.

Kim offered Sloane the bag of doritos, and when Sloane took a chip she resorted to begging, "Come on. Just come with me tonight. I'm not saying you need to bang the guy in his locker room stall after, just come to the game and see where the night goes."

"You're weird. But fine." Sloane rolled her eyes when Kim jumped up and threw her arms around her from across the table in excitement.

- - -

With a win over Chicago in the books the atmosphere in the locker room was much better than it had been lately. Roman was exhausted, but he was looking forward to heading back to his place and relaxing, maybe ordering in and watching a movie, if he could even get through a whole movie.

He pulled his tie loose, unbuttoned the top two buttons on his dress shirt and rolled up his sleeves. He raised an eyebrow as Colin sat down next to him, but didn't have the chance to say anything as Colin said, "Guess who's here tonight."

"17 thousand fans give or take?" Roman asked, making a few of the guys who were close enough to hear chuckle.

Colin rolled his eyes at him and said, "Okay and out of those 17 thousand people, how many are named Sloane?"

This caught his attention, and he was quick to ask, "She's here?"

Colin nodded, "Kim convinced her to come tonight. Imagine that."

"Do you think she stayed with Kim?" Roman asked curiously as he quickly shoved his wallet, cell phone and keys into the pocket of his dress pants.

"Jeez slow down man." Colin told him, laughing when Roman grabbed his suit jacket, barely turned to wave goodnight to his teammates and left the locker room. Everyone seemed to get a chuckle out of that, and Colin let out a sigh, grabbed his things and followed Roman's lead.

Roman glanced around the lounge outside the locker room for Sloane. He found her standing with Kim, who he noted was eating cereal dry. He made his way over to them, and when Kim seen him coming she grinned and tugged on Sloane's jacket. She turned to look at Kim, before following her gaze to Roman. He was glad when she smiled lightly, it reassured him that she wanted to be there, and that maybe she was as interested in him as he was her.

"Good game." Kim told him, barely sticking around long enough to tell Sloane, "See you tomorrow!"

"Well that was subtle." Sloane stated with a chuckle, making Roman laugh as well.

After a few seconds of silence he asked her, "So did you have a good time?"

"I thoroughly enjoyed the beating you guys gave out tonight." She told him with a grin.

"Ah, not a fan of the Hawks?" Roman asked curiously, no one had mentioned that Sloane was a hockey fan.

She shook her head, "Not a chance."

"My kind of girl." He told her with a smile. Sloane's cheeks flushed, but if he saw he didn't let on. He simply asked her, "Do you wanna grab dinner? You know… now?"

"I could eat." Sloane told him, motioning for him to lead the way. She gave Kim the finger as they passed them, making her and Colin chuckle.

She followed Roman through the parking lot, before he opened the passenger side door of his car for her. As he pulled out of his spot Roman turned the music way down, glanced at her from the corner of his eye and asked her, "Anything you want in specific?"

Sloane shook her head, surprising him by saying, "Anything but Chinese."

"You don't like Chinese food?" When she shook her head Roman told her, "I don't know if we can be friends."

Sloane let out a laugh at that, before asking him, "Aren't you suppose to be on some special diet during the season?"

"Don't tell my coach." Roman said with a grin. As he drove away from downtown he caught the confused look on her face and explained, "I figured ordering in would be better. That way we could get to know each other better."

"That sounds great. I hate restaurants." Sloane stated, as if it were perfectly normal. When he came to a stop at a red light Roman turned to her and raised his eyebrow. Sloane shrugged and explained her reasoning, "They're loud and crowded and you have to sit around waiting for your food in uncomfortable chairs. I'd rather just have the peace and quiet of my own home, and wait for my food in pyjamas on my couch."

"There's only so much take out one can order though."

She shrugged, "I eat a lot of pizza and diner burgers."

Roman blatantly stared at her body, shook his head and stated, "Now that I don't believe."

Sloane's cheeks flushed for the second time that night. She looked up at the large building that he had pulled into in amazement. When he pulled into a parking stall in the underground garage Roman was quick to get out and open her door for her, which made her smile. Maybe chivalry wasn't dead after all, maybe in Europe it's still well and alive.

"So it's a little messy, the hazard of single guy life." Roman explained as he unlocked the door to his apartment and lead Sloane in. He couldn't help but smile when she took her shoes off and instantly walked right over to the large windows. He followed her there, stood beside her and said, "This is my favorite thing about this place."

Sloane smiled, but kept her eyes on the windows. It was dark out, but all the lights lit up the streets enough. It was views like this that made her want to live in a bigger city in the first place. Finally she looked away and glanced around the apartment, there was a large couch and tv in the living room, the kitchen was stunning, even despite the 15 odd Gatorade bottles scattered around and the electronic charging cords that were everywhere.

"Wanna know my second favorite thing about this place?" Roman asked her, and when she nodded he lead her over to the couch, flopping onto his back on it. He patted the spot beside him and Sloane slowly sat down, tested out the couch a bit before she laid down beside him.

"This may be comfier than my bed." Sloane stated, making Roman chuckle.

"I've fallen asleep on this thing more times than I can count." He told her. They fell into a silence, Sloane staring at the ceiling, Roman had his head turned to her. He was studying her, most of the girls he knew tried way too hard, they wore heels and tight pants with revealing tops to games. Sloane on the other hand wore light wash jeans tucked into combat boots with a white tshirt and a black zip up sweater. Very much different from what he was used to, but in the best way possible. Finally Roman asked, "So, pizza, Thai, Medeteranian?"

"Thai. Definitely." Sloane told him with a nod of confirmation.

He got up off the couch, had her mark on a menu what she wanted, before he called and placed an order. As he was doing so Sloane pulled her phone out, opening Kim's text and snorting in laughter.

Use protection, the world isn't ready for mini versions of either of you.

"I'm just gonna change quick." Sloane turned to look at Roman as he said this, she nodded and watched him walk down the hall. She ignored Kim's text, opening Twitter and scrolling through her timeline. She favorited a few tweets from various friends, and when Roman walked into the living room again she nearly dropped her phone. It was a mystery how guys managed to look so good in sweat pants and a tshirt, yet when she did that she looked homeless.

Roman caught her staring and couldn't help but smirk and then raise and eyebrow at her. Sloane rolled her eyes at him and asked, "Comfier?"

He nodded, sat with his back against the couch back and his feet stretched out, mimicking Sloane's position from the other side of the couch. Wanting to get to know her better Roman asked, "What's that game people play to get to know each other?"

"Twenty question?" When he nodded Sloane stated, "I suck at coming up with questions for that."

Roman pulled his phone out from his pocket and Googled it, finding a large list of questions. He moved to the other side of the couch, beside Sloane but not uncomfortably close for either of them. He scrolled through a few before asking her, "Okay, what three cities would you never move to even if you got offered your dream job?"

Without even missing a beat Sloane told him, "New York, Los Angeles and Chicago."

"That was quick."

"Way too big for me." She stated with a shrug as she pulled up the same list as he had on her own phone and asked him, "Morning person or night owl?"

"Both I guess. Depends on the time of the year. I'm a morning person for the first half of the season and then it gets tiring and I find I'm more of a night person." Roman told her, watching as she nodded. He scrolled through a few more questions before he asked, "What fact about you surprises people the most?"

"That I'm ambidextrous." She said after a few moments of thinking. When Roman raised his eyebrow at her she shrugged and asked him, "Salty or sweet?"

"Sweet, definitely sweet." Roman told her with a smile. Sloane rolled her eyes as he asked, "Birthday?"

"February 17th 1990." She told him, not waiting before asking him, "Yours?"

"June 1st. Same year as you." Sloane did the math in her head, she was just over 3 months older than him. Roman scrolled through a large section of questions before he asked, "What do your parents do for a living?"

"My mom is a hair dresser and my step dad is a lawyer." He didn't question the step dad part which Sloane was grateful for. That wasn't just met and getting to know each other material. She looked through the Web page for more questions, settling on one, "Were you popular in high school?"

"I mean… I guess kind of? I don't know, I didn't have a crazy amount of friends but everyone else seemed to think I did." Roman told her with a shrug. He seemed honestly confused over this.

Sloane let out a chuckle and told him, "You totally were. Just look at yourself."

"So you were too then?" Roman asked with a raised eyebrow.

Sloane shook her head, "The opposite actually. Until I was 16 and then I was pretty popular with the boys."

Roman smirked, "Yeah?"

"Yeah I grew boobs over the summer and all of a sudden boys wanted to talk to me. Imagine that." Sloane said with a grin, and Roman chuckled.

Curiously Roman asked her, "So where are you from?"

"Knoxville. It's about 3 hours from here." Sloane told him, chuckling when she read the next question on her list. She couldn't help but read it out loud, in hopes that he might actually answer it, "You discover your wonderful child is the result of a mix up at the hospital. Do you exchange it for your real child or keep it?"

Roman didn't answer right away, he was torn between laughing and being unsure of how to answer. Sloane simply watched him in amusement as he thought, he was clearly caught of guard. All he could say was, "I don't know. Maybe? Would you?"

"Hell no. They said wonderful so your real kid is probably a gremlin. It's the way the universe works." Sloane stated, and Roman couldn't help but laugh at her response.

He went back and found another list, immediately asking her, "Okay, what was the first thing you thought of when you woke up this morning?"

"That I really had to pee." She stated, and he was surprised that her cheeks didn't pink up, or that she didn't seem even remotely embarrassed. He was beginning to get the impression that Sloane was her own type of female, she was a breath of fresh air. He watched her scroll through her own list, he watched her tuck her hair behind her ear before she read her next question to him, "What would you sing at karaoke night?"

He had to think about this one, he wasn't sure he really knew the words to enough songs to sing for karaoke. Finally he told her, "That Moves Like Jagger song. They played it a lot last year during warm ups."

"That's great." Sloane said, laughing at his expense, she couldn't picture it.

"Well what about you?"

She shrugged and stated, "High School Nicki Minaj."

He stared at her as if in disbelief for a few seconds before he shook his head and told her, "Not at all what I expected."

"Well what did you expect?" Sloane asked, even knowing the answer was probably something to do with country music.

He shrugged and told her, "I didn't peg you for a rap girl. I figured like… Taylor Swift and Luke Bryan."

"Oh god. I can appreciate good country, and despite my taste in karaoke music 90% of my music collection is rock." She told him with a chuckle. When he looked at her again in disbelief she unlocked her phone and opened the music app before handing him it.

He scrolled through it, surprised to find that while she did have a collection of artists like Nicki Minaj, Elvis and George Strait she was right; most of her music was rock. Bands he'd never even heard of, Volbeat, Coheed & Cambria, and Dishwalla. But then there were ones he knew, like Motley Crue, Nirvana and Led Zeppelin.

"Well at least you're not a Taylor Swift fan." He stated, making both of them laugh. Roman didn't necessarily hate her music, it was played enough at games and on the radio for him to grow accustomed to it, but it wasn't the first thing he would choose to listen to. He went back to his list and asked her, "What was the last thing you took a picture of with your phone?"

He watched as she opened up her phone gallery, and opened a picture. It was a picture of her and Kim, he recognized it from the night at the bar when they first met. Sloane had her tongue stuck out and her eyes crossed while Kim was smiling at the camera. Roman couldn't help but laugh, definitely different than any girl he had met in Nashville thus far.