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Hehhey, do I hear the ding dongs going merrily o high already? We're closing in to the Christmas break, but before that, here's your Wednesday fill of Hockey Hunk!

Don't forget to read the HH fan fiction that has also been posted today, it is a most satisfying read!

Rory will appear one more time on Friday 23.12 for the Hockey Hunk Christmas Special, and I am proud to announce right here and now, that this Friday, the much-anticipated Rory-Mason date WILL take place. Thus, enjoy today's chapter and stay tuned on Friday for an exciting holiday special that will hopefully make you want to come back to read the final stretch of the season come January.

Don't forget to comment on this chapter either, your feedback is always most appreciated.

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Have a nice read!

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*

No new messages.

Shit.

The sidewalk felt even more desolate than ever as I trod along, one paw clutching my phone while my frowning eyes took another desperate glance at its small screen in the hopes that a new message from a certain tiger would have somehow popped up since the last time I looked at my phone, five minutes ago in the bus.

No such luck.

My tail almost dragged itself along the drab concrete, I chuffed, and stuffed my paws into my pants pockets as I walked with a grim look on my face. The small journey from the bus stop to the shop seemed to take ages, giving me all too much time to think about the current state of affairs in the Rory household.

Rory Gliese, poisonous seducer and breaker of hearts.

Who would have thought?

Blaargh, that made me sound like I was proud of it. I wasn't. I felt terrible over my detour with the tiger who probably had simply wanted to alleviate a bout of loneliness in the firm arms of a handsome lion, who knew how to take care of him.

Since when did I sound like an Adalmina Woolsworth character?

I chuffed to myself, flicked my ears down to a 70% brooding mode, walked around a puddle on the sidewalk and rounded the corner to Lewis Boulevard. Lit display windows glowed comfortably in the dusk, telling of the rapidly approaching summer, too, since it was no longer particularly dark at this ungodly hour of 7:45. The early shoppers weren't around yet, but I could see signs of life behind the mannequins of Atelier Marcus clothier's, with shop attendants putting everything into place. The small department store on the opposite side seemed deserted, but the neon sign to Minnie's Diner glowed brightly and warmly, which was almost enough to cheer me up as well.

If only there'd been a text.

I shook my head briefly and caught my reflection from the dimly lit window of the Albrecht Brothers store. I tried to pull the corners of my muzzle up for a proper smile, but it simply refused to come, no matter how I tried. My tail smacked against the ground in annoyance. The customers were not going to get a happyhappy Rory today. Perhaps that was for the best. It would've probably started hurting my face after a while, anyway.

It didn't help that the window was still dominated by Mason's add for The Caledon Rocks books, with the screaming red letters announcing that this was the place to buy the latest novel in the series, authored by none other than the New York Times bestseller Lord Mistwillow. My ears went fully flat at the sight of the scrawled cardboard, and I sighed.

My phone still wouldn't vibrate in announcement of a new message from Colin, agreeing to talk with me, forgiving me, cursing me, or whatever. Even that would have been preferable to the unnerving silence that suited my nerves the worst of all.

I took out my key and unlocked the door to let myself into the shop.

"Rory!"

My ears perked up at the familiar purring voice, coming from my left. It only took a moment before my field of vision was filled by the very busty, very red-shirted, loopy-tailed and tan-furred presence of Marge, storming up the stairs of the old books section and then stopping only a foot away from me. Her thick tail smacked my ASS and she folded her arms over her chest and gave me a head-tilted look that seemed to be a very cougar habit, since I knew that very same way of looking from Peter, very well.

My own tail tucked itself between my legs and I gave Marge a surprised look, rightfully so.

"You're back!" I wanted to hug her, and would have done so, if she wasn't standing in such a defensive posture.

"I'm back," Marge announced herself with a cat smile.

"We were so worried about you," I spoke with a big smile of my own, my earlier smile paralysis forgotten for now. "We thought we were going to be stuck with Alex..."

Marge chuckled.

"Didn't he tell yesterday that I was going to come back today?"

"Well, yes... but," I rubbed my chin, "it was Alex."

Marge's tail floated in the air behind her as she regarded me still.

"I know, but he was a lifesaver in coming here on such a short notice," Marge replied, "the thought of leaving you guys all on your own was really putting me down."

I frowned a little.

"You should've only been concerned about yourself," I replied, "besides, we were all really worried about you."

Marge gave a quick paw flick.

"It was nothing, just a pain in my flank, you know, possibly a lady pain," Marge replied, her smile becoming more toothy, "you do know about PMS, muffin?"

I cringed.

"Yeeeees," I nodded.

"And then I went to the hospital to check whether my blood iron was alright, because I'd hate to start fainting around here," Marge rubbed her flank as if to indicate the source of her mysterious sick leave, "did Alex tell you about the hospital?"

"He mentioned you going to see your GP," I replied.

"Good," Marge nodded. "That's all there to it, and then I had the day off, and I'm completely fine now. Promise."

I smiled.

"We're so glad to see you back, Marge, we really are!" I declared happily, pleasantly distracted from my own shit by the return of our very own boss Marge. "Did you see anyone else yet?"

"Crystal has the morning shift and Mason comes around one pm to take over," Marge said, "she's changing at the moment."

"Okay," my tail was making happy number eights even as we spoke.

"I'm back and I'm meaner than ever, so I'm not gonna let any one of you cut any slack, so you better go change as well and come help me with putting the place into order."

"Sure do!" I puffed out my chest for the fun of it.

"Get to work then, muffin!" Marge smirked.

"Aye, aye," I saluted.

*

The pleasantness of a non-Alex day was enough to keep me smiling for a couple of extra hours, but by 10 o'clock, I had settled back into my usual routine of greeting customers, punching in prices and handing over carrier bags, this time without the happyhappy smile. At least Crystal was her usual cheerful self, standing all swishy-tailed behind cash register number one, now pleasantly manned by the mare. She was a head taller than me and cut quite the nice figure all told, smiling and ear-flicking and generally being cheerful, unlike myself. It was all too easy to fall into my ruminations, filling my brain even while my paws continued to do the work with mechanical precision.

"That'll be 16.95, please," I announced the grand total to my customer, a bear who wanted to buy a stack of fishing magazines.

"Sure," the big guy rumbled.

Bigger than Victor, too, I had to think, and the way where that trail of thought was going was more than obvious.

My last night's elation over the prospect of some Victor times had waned slowly as I had gone through the notion in my head over and over again, reminding myself that I should really tell him about my whole stint with Mistwillow, and how...how I had not succumbed to the temptation. Yes, it felt good to kiss the tiger, and no matter how surprised I might have been over the whole thing, I knew that should I not have had Victor in my mind, I might have...rose to the occasion and seen it all through.

"Here you go," I received bills and coins in my paw.

Why not? Kissing the tiger felt good, and I knew he was really into it, and there had been no denying that I was into it too. It would not have taken much coaxing for me to join him in his hotel room for some private times with the tiger, and it would have probably been quite the ride. It was always...different when you were with a cat, even if we were not of the same kind, you could still notice the similarities.

The cash register chimed. I pulled a bag from under the counter and began to place the magazines carefully into it.

It was pointless to think about it more, probably. I wanted to see what was going on with Victor and not destroy any potential that might have by messing around with other guys on the side. Besides, here I was already messed up from NOT messing around with Colin, and that was shitty enough to begin with.

"Thank you for visiting the Albrecht Brothers, we hope to see again soon," I handed the bag over and returned to my neutral mode behind the cash register.

Exactly why I should tell Victor about it, so that he'd know that I was invested in our thing, and not just screwing around left and right with guys who just happened to want to have a piece of Rory.

"Bye."

"Goodbye!"

Telling the Dobie might pose a challenge, though. Friday night didn't seem to offer many good opportunities for it, since Victor would probably prefer to spend the evening in peace without any extra drama. One COBB was enough of a distraction anyway, let alone me telling him that okay, I just happened to make out with another dude the other day and got a boner out of it, what do you think about that? The idea of trying to talk about such things while a hyper-excited Cobb served some crème brûlées to us seemed ludicrous to begin with. Perhaps if there was a quiet moment...

Who was I kidding? Cobb would probably break out the Twister at some point, or at least come up with all sorts of activities that would serve as proofs for him that Victor and I were an item, let alone find creative ways of embarrassing both of us at the same time. It was bound to happen and I felt resigned to the fact, though getting to spend some time with Victor was a bonus, anyway. It'd probably be cool to just sleep with him, see how that worked out...maybe a goodnight kiss or two...maybe a back rub...maybe...

Oh damn it, my pants front thought that to be too great of an opportunity to be spoiled with my sour-minded Colin musings.

I still didn't want to let Colin hanging, either.

"Welcome to the Albrecht Brothers, anything I could do to help you?" the latest customer was a fox, perky-eared and swift-tailed, probably a college student.

Maybe I should do as Peter told me to do and simply phone him. How difficult would that be? I should just pick up my phone, dial the number, bite back any misgivings and just pour my heart out to him, and tell that I was kind of dating someone, and that I didn't want any extra consequences, or ill feelings. And I simply wanted to say that I was sorry.

"Where do you have the books about geography?" the fox inquired.

"You can turn left from the biography section, go past logography, photography and mammography and then it should be to your right," I advised.

"Thanks, dude."

"Glad to help!"

I was right, smiling so much did start to hurt my cheeks. I flapped the floor with my tail and rolled my shoulders, trying to ease the growing tension in my body.

Maybe I deserved this feeling for now. I had messed things up with Colin, and my worries about Victor were probably justified. I knew how it felt to be in a relationship where both parties were not honest to each other, and I very well knew how helpless you ended up feeling, when it all came tumbling down. Admittedly, I wasn't sure what to think of me and Victor, or what the Dobie thought about us, strictly, but perhaps this was a beginning, honesty. Perhaps if...

"Hello, welcome to Albrecht Brothers!"

That was Crystal now, nickering at the latest customer, a leopard wearing a thick coat and carrying a brown cloth bag with him. He had an air of busy action around him, perhaps because of the constant flick of his tail behind him, or how swiftly he stepped over to the counter and planted himself on the center, between Crystal and me. Both of us must have been looking at him like vultures, and I wondered whether he felt like that, staring back to us behind the counter.

"Hey," the leopard's voice was high-pitched, almost nasal, and very much a rumble, practically a constant purr, "can you tell me where Marge is?"

"Are you looking for the manager, Miss Pitt?" Crystal leaned over the counter questioningly.

"Yeah," the leopard replied, "I'm Goggy."

My tail gave an excited flick as the realization hit me. Wasn't this leopard vaguely familiar...yes...now that I looked at him again, the face, the pattern of mottles...yes...I had seen those same leopard features plastered over pictures in Marge's Facebook profile. This was the first time I had seen him in the flesh, though, and well...the cat was curious.

"Hello!" I added my own greeting, along with a smile.

Crystal's tall ears flicked eagerly as her eyes took in the sight of the mystery boyfriend, now guest starring unexpectedly in our cozy little bookselling world.

"Wassup, Rory," the leopard rumbled.

"Marge is on the back, doing some of her paperwork," Crystal offered most helpfully, still all smiles as she regarded the leopard, "would you like me to fetch her?"

Goggy the leopard lifted the bag he had in his paw for us to see.

"I just came by to bring her some lunch, can I take this to her?"

"Sure," I replied, "I can take you to Marge."

"That's cool."

Crystal gave me an amused look as I squeezed myself past her and then joined the leopard on the shop floor.

"Just follow me," I smiled.

"Sure."

I set off on my way, closely trailed by the leopard by me. He still kept on making that rumbling sound, which was enough to make my eyes flick.

"I heard you liked my Wiener Schnitzel," Goggy said.

My neck furs spiked at the surprise of the comment, and I turned to give him a look. The leopard looked me back, mildly.

"Ohh...yes, yes, I ate at the Lefties a little while back, it was very nice, " I smiled. "I wondered if I'd see you there but I didn't have the...opportunity."

"As long as the food was good," the leopard mused.

"It was, thank you for a very good meal," I replied, wondering just how seriously this Goggy took his cooking.

"Yup."

I went down the stairs to the treasure section and he was left behind, and I quietly, if hysterically, wondered whether the leopard was seeing me as another of his...arrangements, in his mind's eye, while sizing me up. Hadn't Marge said that Goggy had expressed interest in painting me like his other models, that was, painting his art ON me and then photographing it for posterity. I wondered whether that'd included painting my posterior...

No matter whether Goggy was imagining my rump as a pair of nice, ripe green melons or not, I pulled the "STAFF ONLY" door open, bit on my tongue to keep myself from chuckling at the idea, and entered the storage area.

"Marge, I've got a surprise for you!" I called as I went down the rattling stairs.

"What is it, muffin?" the cougar's voice echoed off the walls.

"Maaaarge!" Goggy hollered from behind me.

"GOGGY?"

I had to scoot to the side to let Goggy ramble past me, down the remaining stairs and then onto the floor, and I almost got bashed with the bag, as the leopard rushed away in search of his Marge. I saw her appear from the open doorway into the small office cubicle that served as the administrative hub of the store, and there she was then, being hugged and kissed by the eagerly purring leopard. I felt oddly bashful in watching this emotional display, how their tails softly coiled together and how there was a kiss and some purred greetings, and I decided to keep my distance and stood at the foot of the stairs, not wanting to intrude.

"Hmmm..."

"Hmmmhmh..."

"Brought your favorite lasagna..."

"Oh purrr..."

"Oh yes..."

Oh please...

Marge extracted herself from the leopard and gave me a look.

"I see you also met our resident Rory."

Goggy glanced at me, and then at Marge, and nodded.

"So this is the Rory I've been hearing about..."

My cheeks felt flustered.

"You've been talking about me, Marge?" I rumbled.

"A little," Marge winked, her arm still around the slinky leopard, "Goggy loves hearing all about the funny little things that my co-workers do, don't you, Goggy?"

"Of course," the leopard replied, giving me quirky look. "Marge keeps telling me how you are so very popular with the certain kind of clientele."

I felt an odd need to ruffle my mane a little.

"Oh, she does?" my tail made erratic flicks behind me, as I quietly wondered just what kind of mischief Marge had now gotten me into.

"I do," Marge grinned.

"What would that be?" I asked, trying to keep my tone light.

"Marge claims that all the women of certain age just keep coming again here for their romantic needs, and they insist to be served by the handsome young lion who always knows how to satisfy their...requests," the leopard detailed.

My cheeks flared a little. What a pair of cats...and now I was their amusement...great...just great. But deserved, too, I guess. That was exactly something Marge would say...and now she'd even dragged her boyfriend into it.

"Well, it's my job," I rumbled, after a silence that felt like it had stretched on way too long for comfort, or so it felt for me, while being stared at by the leering cats.

"And a fine job he does," Marge purred, tugging Goggy closer to her side while still looking at me, "although there are some things even he can't do..."

Goggy chuckled nasally, and Marge, ever the cat as she was, started to nibble on his ear.

Straight mating rituals...OMG!

*

Thanks for reading! Don't forget to comment, all feedback is always much appreciated!

Cheerio!