Pucking Around

Rachel and Ilmari gain attention in the airport due to the goalie’s size and good looks. Rachel can’t keep up with his long stride, so he slows to walk with her and is immediately hailed by a fan. After politely interacting, Ilmari cites avoiding fans’ attention as his reason for walking quickly. Rachel understands this, due to her experiences with her father, and jogs to keep up with him. On the plane, Ilmari is in first class, but Rachel isn’t, due to their last-minute purchase. Ilmari is annoyed as Rachel hurries to her seat.

Ilmari feels anxious because Rachel isn’t sitting next to him. He offers his seat mate money to switch seats with Rachel, growing angry when the man makes disrespectful sexual comments about her. Finally, Ilmari offers his first-class seat to Rachel’s seat mate in coach and wedges uncomfortably into the smaller seat next to Rachel. He calls her “Rakas,” an endearment in Finnish, but doesn’t tell her what it means. He holds her hand and thinks about his attraction to her, but she assumes he is worried about his scans. Ilmari is alarmed to realize that he dreads the scans being clear as much as he dreads that they might reveal an injury, because clear scans would indicate an end to his time with Rachel.