Shane Prepares a Private Residence for Secret Meetings

Shane Hollander prepares a private residence in the Plateau so he and Ilya Rozanov can meet away from hotels and public scrutiny. The property’s secluded entrance and carefully prioritized bedroom make it more than an investment: it is a concrete attempt to give their hidden relationship a place of its own, even as Shane struggles to describe that intention directly.

The Private Property

Shane’s refuge is a three-story building in the Plateau, distinct from the Westmount penthouse where he lives. He owns the upper floors, while a high-end kitchenware boutique occupies the ground floor. Its location and layout allow him to enter from the back and reach the top-floor apartment without drawing attention; on the night he returns there, the shop has already closed and the other floors are unoccupied. The building’s ordinary commercial frontage and quiet rear access together make privacy possible without requiring a conspicuous escape to a hotel.

The apartment is presented in markedly different states. In one description, the top-floor unit is a sparsely furnished, professionally staged demo condo, intended to help sell itself and the unit below. Its pristine refrigerator contains only five bottles of beer, and Shane sits alone on a black leather sofa. He has spent only a few nights a year there and tells himself repeatedly that he will sell it soon—a resolution he has been making for more than three years. Elsewhere, when Ilya first visits the address Shane sends him, the top floor is still visibly unfinished. These details establish both the property’s investment character and its use as a place Shane keeps apart from his everyday home.

Making a Place to Meet

When Ilya arrives, the building looks abandoned to him. Shane has instructed him to go around the back, text, and wait at the door. The dark, empty lot makes Ilya imagine the possibility of a prank or something more sinister; instead, Shane opens the door himself, glancing nervously around as though someone might appear. His caution is part of the arrangement: the meeting begins with a concealed entrance, a brief wait, and Shane checking that they have not been noticed.

Shane leads Ilya up the stairs to the top floor and unlocks the apartment. The space is plainly a work in progress: the walls have been freshly plastered but not painted, a ladder leans against one wall, and an open box of tools sits nearby. The new kitchen counter and cupboards have no appliances. Rather than pretend the whole apartment is ready, Shane explains that he does not live there and calls it an investment. He then admits that he thought it could serve as a safe place for them to meet. His hesitant explanation exposes the personal purpose beneath the financial description.

The Bedroom as a Priority

The unfinished main space makes the finished bedroom especially revealing. When Ilya asks where Shane expects them to go amid the ladder and building materials, Shane opens another door onto a fully completed bedroom. He has made that room, along with the bathroom, the priority. The contrast is precise: much of the apartment remains bare, but the rooms most directly connected to their private time have been made usable first. Shane does not finish explaining the implication. Ilya takes hold of his arms, pushes him against the nearest wall, and kisses him.

Ilya understands the scale of the gesture before Shane can finish putting it into words. The building has not merely supplied an address; Shane has acquired and arranged a place with their meetings in mind. Ilya’s response turns the practical disclosure into an intimate exchange, while Shane’s embarrassment and nervousness show how difficult it is for him to state plainly what his actions have already made visible.

Secrecy, Investment, and Commitment

The residence answers a recurring problem in Shane and Ilya’s relationship: their encounters have previously taken place in hotel rooms, and a private meeting requires deliberate planning. Ilya recalls having expected Shane to end things after the summer following their rookie seasons, particularly after Shane pushed him away following their rooftop kiss in Las Vegas. Yet when their teams met the next season, Ilya sent a hotel-room number and Shane arrived twenty minutes later. Against that history of withdrawal and renewed contact, the Plateau apartment marks a change in the practical terms of their secrecy: Shane has made a standing place for them rather than relying only on temporary rooms.

That commitment remains guarded. Shane describes the property as an investment and frames its purpose as a safe place to meet, not as a shared home; elsewhere, he keeps the apartment spare and tells himself he will sell it. The building therefore holds both sides of his response to the relationship. Its back entrance, empty upper floors, and prioritized private rooms accommodate concealment, while the effort and permanence of the purchase reveal an attachment that his cautious explanations cannot quite contain.