“Yikes,” she laughed. “I’ll give you a few more minutes and go say hi, then let’s get to it.”
I went through the rest of my warm-up, avoiding going back to where Ben had my coach and choreographer laughing their asses off.
At least someone was having fun.
The first quiet notes of my short program song echoed through the rink and I felt myself relax a little, until I remembered that Ben was going to hear Sarah yelling at me to remember my sex appeal. As much as I loved our new direction, the old training that hadbeen pounded into me was tough to short-circuit. Sometimes I defaulted to my “placid princess” face when what I needed was to bump up my smolder.
Sarah skated back out on the ice and paused a few feet away from me. While Mel and I worked out the critical technical aspects of my programs, it was Sarah who brought the artistry.
“Okay, it’s time to woo me, Miss Albright,” she joked as the music started again from the beginning.
I looked over to the players’ box and found Ben leaning on his elbows, locked on to me. Mel was beside him with her phone ready to record.
Showtime.
I rolled my shoulder and did full-body undulations in time with the opening, then began my step sequence. The song was a slow burn of a ballad that started off quiet, allowing me to slowly bloom with my spins and jumps as it built to the first crescendo. Then, at about minute two, the song built to a gospel-like swell that gave me the tempo to clear the length of the rink for the more impressive, score-heavy jumps to come.
First up? A flawless triple flip toe loop combination.
“Take your time... andgood!” Sarah yelled and clapped as I landed. “Gorgeous.”
I loved skating the piece because I was finally able to show off a side of myself that audiences had never seen. Sweet and soft had left the building.
“Let’s see that sexy melt,” Sarah yelled. “Give meface.”
It sounded like nonsense but I knew exactly what she meant. In this program, I was stepping into my power.
“Yes,seamless...gorgeous, Quinn... and there’s thatone, two, three,” Sarah said as I went into my spin combination. “Nice!”
I smiled because I knew I was nailing it. When I glanced over at Ben he was practically drooling.
More jumps, spins, and general perfection. It felt like Ben was my lucky charm, because I was skating like I was being scored instead of doing my first run of the day on achy joints.
“Bah, bum-bum-bum,” Sarah sang along to the final few beats of the song. “Yes. Love it.”
I grinned as my audience broke into applause.
Sarah and I skated over to the box and Mel immediately went into a slice-and-dice debrief of my performance, which was mostly positive. I’dalwayshave issues to address—perfectionism was a disease without a cure—but I sure liked it when the praise outweighed the criticism.
I tried to ignore the fact that Ben was more focused on taking notes in an actual notebook than paying attention to the feedback. I’d expected some sort of reaction from him, but he kept his head down, scribbling away. He finally glanced up at me.
“Well, that was fun.”
I couldn’t keep from scowling at his word choice.
“Seriously? All of that,” I gestured to where I’d just melted the rink, “wasfun?”
It wasn’t like I’d skated to a Disney tune. Suddenly, I felt silly for leaning into my sex appeal, especially if it didn’t translate.
“She’s been competing with this program for a while,” Mel explained. “Was that the first time you’ve seen it?”
I wondered if the weight of three sets of eyes would impact his answer.
He bobbed his head and grinned, clearly immune to our glares. “Yeah, it was. I wanted to come to this week without preconceivednotions about your new programs, so I wouldn’t be influenced by what the media has been saying so far.”
Mel, Sarah, and I scowled in unison.
“Back in my day, reporters prepped for important interviews like this with a packet of information about their subject, so they’d have a framework for the story they want to tell. They usually did a ton of research beforehand. Is that something that...” Sarah trailed off.
