Dolce Vita

Sloane was pulling a bowl full of dough from the fridge when a buzzing noise rang through the apartment, reminding her of two things. One, Roman was here, and two, she really needed to get the doorbell fixed. She placed the bowl on the counter and jogged to the door, nearly slipping on the one super slipper spot on the hardwood by the walkway to the front door. She yanked the door open and smiled at Roman, stepping aside to let him in, before warning him, “Careful, there’s a really slippery spot over there.”

He took his shoes off, neatly tucking them beside the pair of heeled boots he had seen Sloane wear on numerous occasions. He followed her into the condo, walking slowly, so he could get a good look at the place, he had never been to Sloane’s home and he was interested to see what it looked like. All the walls were white, with wood beam ceilings and an exposed brick wall behind the counters in the kitchen. The furniture in the living room was all grey, with acrylic tables and from what he could see a decent movie collection. He turned his eyes to the kitchen, where Sloane was standing in a pair of light wash skinny jeans and a loose, long sleeve black top, flouring the counter top.

She turned her head over her shoulder, her caramel locks swishing as she did so, and smiled at him before apologizing, “Sorry, I got stuck in traffic and didn’t get home until like five minutes ago.”

Roman shrugged and walked into the kitchen, leaning back against the counter and watching her, “Its fine. What are you making?”

He watched her start rolling a ball of dough, his eyes drifting to the bowl full of those little balls before his eyes wandered to the crock pot sitting on the counter beside her. Sloane turned to him, flouring the rolling pin with more flour before she told him, “Pulled chicken and homemade tortillas.”

“Homemade tortillas?” He asked in disbelief, watching as she nodded and tossed the thinly rolled circle of dough into a skillet on the stove.

As she started rolling the next one she told him, “And rice, and steamed vegetables.”

“Yeah…but homemade tortillas?” He asked again, still not over his shock.

Sloane chuckled at him and nodded, “It was a family tradition in my house growing up, every Sunday we’d make these. Me, my brother and my step dad.”

Roman smiled and asked her curiously, “Which brother? You have two right?”

“I do. Austin and Tony. Growing up Tony always had to be involved in whatever I was doing.” Sloane told him, flipping the tortilla in the skillet before she went back to rolling the next one.

“Are you two still close?” They hadn’t really talked about their families in all the time they had known each other. Roman knew Sloane came from a big family, and Sloane knew Roman had a brother, but that was it. So Roman was asking the questions now.

She shook her head, “Not really, he got married in January and his wife doesn’t really get along with our family.”

“Is she awful or something?”

Sloane couldn’t help but chuckle at that before telling him, “Her and my mom don’t get along at all, and Austin can’t stand her.”

“What about you?” Roman asked her as he watched her put another tortilla in the skillet and put the cooked one in the microwave to keep warm.

As she started rolling the next ball of dough Sloane explained to him, “We were really good friends in high school. She started dating Tony when we were in junior year, and by senior year we weren’t friends anymore. I’m just not interested in being my brother’s wife’s friend when I see how their relationship is.”

Roman sensed the hostility in her voice so he changed the subject, “What about your other brother? You said he’s married too right?”

“Jessica’s great. They met in college, and got married a couple years ago and they have two girls.” Sloane told him with a nod, putting the rolling pin down before she walked toward him, and pointed at the two kids in the photo on the kitchen island, one in a princess costume and the other as Minnie mouse, before telling him, “Allie, she’s almost three and Estelle she’s about a year.”

“They’re cute.”

Sloane turned and grinned at him, “Aren’t they?”

As they fell into a comfortable silence Roman glanced around the condo again, the kitchen had the same color scheme as the living room, white cupboards, a grey counter top, the dining table was a clear acrylic and the chairs were a plus looking grey dining chair. There were several pictures hanging up on the wall behind the dining table so Roman wandered over to look at them. Lots of Sloane and who he assumed was her family, Kim and her own he guessed, and then there were tons of pictures of Kim and Sloane. One in particular caught his eye, of Sloane and Kim in matching blue and pink plaid button ups, cut off shorts, boots and cowboy hats. They had their arms wrapped around each other and were laughing.

Sloane glanced over at Roman and then to the picture he was looking at, smiled and told him, “We went to a George Strait concert a few years ago for our birthdays.”

“You guys share a birthday?” Roman asked her, not taking his eyes away from the wall of pictures.

“Mine is the 17th, hers is the 21st so we usually celebrate together on the 19th.” Sloane explained to him, plating their meal and setting their plates at the table. They sat across from each other to eat, and they made very little small talk through the meal.

Once the dishes were done they found themselves sitting on the couch, feet on the coffee table in front of them, with Sloane tucked into Roman’s side and his arm wrapped around her shoulder while his head leaned against hers. She was flipping through channels to find something to watch and Roman glanced down at her, before telling her, “You never did tell me how you got into hockey.”

Settling on a rerun of Nip/Tuck Sloane tossed the remote onto the end of the couch and turned to Roman to tell him, “My dad’s from Minnesota, so he loves it and Tony and I were the only ones who got into it. Austin’s a big baseball fan and Alex is…I don’t know what she’s into these days.”

“Alex is your sister yeah?”

Sloane nodded and told him with a hint of sarcasm in her voice, “Yeah, she’s 16, the baby of the house… she’s a delight.”

He couldn’t help but chuckle at this, shifting so he was more comfortable leaning against the back of the couch, which ended up with Sloane pulled practically on top of him. Sloane didn’t seem to care however, she simply adjusted herself so she was warmer by throwing the second throw blanket over her torso and leaning back into his chest. Roman glanced down at her, and when Sloane looked up at him with a cocked eyebrow he told her, “You’re very amusing.”

“I know.” Sloane told him with a grin that made him laugh. After a few silent seconds she asked him, “So where’s the coolest place you’ve been to Mr. Professional Athlete World Traveller?”

Roman chuckled at that, thought about it for a moment before telling her, “Probably Finland or Sweden. What about you, have you ever been anywhere cool?”

“Does Minnesota count?” Sloane asked him, and when he shook his head she told him, “Then no.”

Roman let out a chuckle, squeezing her tightly before asking, “You’ve only ever been to Minnesota? Nowhere else? Haven’t all Americans been to Disneyland?”

“First of all my silly foreigner Disneyworld is 150 times better than Disneyland. Second, neither of my parents had the time to go on vacations. Our idea of a vacation was driving the six hours to Memphis.” Sloane explained to him, making him chuckle. She turned to look at him and told him, “You’d like Memphis I think.”

He raised an eyebrow, “Yeah?”

“Mhmm.”

Roman glanced at his watch, and upon seeing it was quarter to twelve he said, “It’s late. I should probably go.”

They both got up off the couch and Sloane told him, “Or you could stay. Unless you have practice or something pressing to do tomorrow morning.”

He shook his head at her, “Nothing.”

“So stay.”

- - -

Sloane woke up the next morning without both Roman and her clothes. She glanced around the room, hearing the water in the bathroom she assumed he was in there so she got up, threw a bra, t-shirt and a pair of boyshort underwear on before she stumbled in tiredness down the hall, Kim walking out of the bathroom in similar attire, scowl on her face.

They walked around the corner together, Kim jumping and dropping her phone onto the floor at the site of Roman, clad in only boxer briefs, at the stove. He turned at the noise, his cheeks flushing just the slightest at the site of Kim staring at him. Sloane rolled her eyes, nudging Kim on her way past, stopping to kiss Roman quickly before digging through the fridge and pulling her jug of apple juice out and reaching around Roman to grab a glass. She filled the glass practically to the brim and then looked over at the stove to see what Roman was doing.

He caught her glance and told her, “Eggs, bacon, and toast.”

“God I love you.” Kim muttered, getting up to get something out of the fridge. When she grabbed the individual bottle of coconut water from the door of the fridge she leaned against Roman’s arm for a second before turning to Sloane and saying, “He’s a keeper. You should keep him. I like him.”

Sloane rolled her eyes as Roman turned to her with a smirk and told her, “Yeah, you should keep me.”

Curiously Sloane asked Kim, “What time did you get in?”

Kim plopped into her chair at the table, downed half the coconut water in one shot and then told Sloane, “Like...five?”

“Why so early? Why didn’t you just stay at Colin’s until it was…oh I don’t know... light out?” Sloane asked her with a grin, watching as Kim looked up at her with narrowed eyes.

“I don’t want to talk about that jackass.” She muttered, going back to mutilating her cardboard box of coconut water.

Roman and Sloane exchanged curious looks and Sloane sat down in the chair next to Kim, eyeing her for a few seconds before she finally asked, “What happened?”

“Nothing. He’s just a jackass, and I’m gonna be thirdwheeling your dates until I find a new boyfriend.” Kim informed her, ripping the flap on the box right off before she tossed it onto the middle of the table and scowled, kicking the chair leg opposite of her, making it move backward a good foot. Sloane reached over to take the box from Kim, tossing it in the recycle box before she tossed her the smiley face stress ball. Kim looked at it, whipped it back at Sloane, successfully hitting her in the back of the head with it.

Sloane turned slowly to Kim, who stared back at her with a ‘challenge me’ kind of face and when Sloane didn’t do anything back Kim turned around and shrugged. Before Kim could turn back around Sloane grabbed an egg from the bowl on the counter, smacked it onto the top of Kim’s head and she laughed when Kim looked over at her with narrowed eyes.

Before Roman could get out of the way there was food flying everywhere, eggs, flour, sugar, someone had gotten hit with a strip of uncooked bacon and that was when the fruit started flying. It was so bad that he had to turn the stove on in fear that something would burn or start a fire by being thrown in his general direction and hitting the stove. Eventually there was a loud screeching noise and the water turned on in the apartment next door, Sloane and Kim stopped throwing food, turned to look at each other and exclaimed at the same time, “Hot water!”

They both took off running down the hall, Roman could hear a struggle before a thump, and then he heard Sloane call out to him, “You might want to hurry up and get in here if you want to shower.”

He didn’t need to be told twice, he practically hopped over Kim, who was sitting on the floor in the hallway staring at her food covered body. Once Sloane locked the door she yanked her shirt off, tossing it into the hamper by the shower, her bra, and underwear joined it before she leaned into the shower to turn the water on, checking the temperature before she got in and shot Roman a look.

He pulled his own underwear off, before he stepped into the shower behind her, and she informed him, “You are so lucky that I use men’s body wash or you’d probably leave her smelling like vanilla or cotton candy.”

His eyebrow cocked and he asked her, “You use men’s body wash?”

She shrugged her shoulder, grabbed the bottle of Old Spice Wolfthorn and tossed it to him, before she grabbed her shampoo and squeezed a large amount into her hands before slathering it into her long hair. Roman opened the top to the body wash and smelled it, and Sloane, mid shampoo scalp massage turned to him and told him, “See, it smells amazing, plus it doesn’t give me a headache so that’s a plus.”

Roman could remember Sloane once telling him that strong scents gave her migraines, which was why he was reaching for his cologne less and less now. He put a decent amount of body wash onto the pink puff hanging on the hook with Sloane’s name on it before he began working the soap into a lather on her chest and shoulders as she rinsed the shampoo from her hair. Once the shampoo was out and Roman had turned her around to run the puff over her back and the rest of her body, lingering a little longer on her backside which made Sloane laugh, she informed him, “I’d offer to wash your hair for you but I’m too short.”

He tossed the puff onto the floor of the shower and wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her into him tightly. She barely got her laugh out before he kissed her, their heads under the stream of water coming from the shower head. Sloane ran her hands up his chest, over his shoulders before wrapping her arms around his neck as he kept one arm around her waist and the other pressed against the shower wall to keep them upright on the slippery shower floor.

Eventually, without breaking the kiss Sloane blindly reached out for the body wash, filling one palm with it before she began using her hands to rub it into a lather against Romans skin. Finally they parted, and Sloane started with his arms, working up from his wrists to his shoulders, and then slowly down his chest and stomach, her fingers gently raking over his abdomen muscles, making his skin break out in goose bumps. She worked the soap into his sides and then wrapped her arms around him to go the same with as much of his back as she could reach. She glanced up at him, through her thick lashes, and smiled gently, which made him place both hands on the sides of her neck and lean down to connect their lips once more.

He was sure he could kiss her forever.