I noticed that he skipped the “trial” part of his employment.
“But you guys are so perfect for each other,” the woman pouted. “The skating thing...”
She trailed off, because that was probably all she knew about either of us.
“Agreed, we’d probably be quite the power couple,” Ben said. “But right now Quinn’s got gold on her mind.That’sher focus.”
The woman locked eyes with me and reached out to clasp my shoulder. “You’re going to win this time, I know it.”
The familiar weight of the world’s expectations pressed against my chest, but I managed to find my smile for her.
“Thank you, I appreciate that.”
The girl held up her phone, her expression hopeful. “Is it okay if I...?”
Ben agreed to a photo before I could weigh in, but I realized that it didn’t matter what I wanted. Our story was already out of our hands and being written by the rest of the world.
We turned so that we were both facing her as she snapped the photo. Ben left his arm draped around my shoulders for a few seconds longer than necessary.
The show rolled on until it was finally time for Zoey. The vibe in the room shifted as she skated to the center of the ice, looking stunning in an emerald-green costume. The whimsical “La Valse d'Amélie” from the movieAméliebegan, and as usual, Zoey captivated the rink.
Ben leaned to whisper in my ear, and his warm breath against my skin made me want to lean closer to him. “She’s so good it’s ridiculous.”
“I know,” I said softly. “I’m really proud of her.”
I noticed that Ben remained nearer to me than he needed to be, pressed up against my arm in a way that felt familiar.
“Is she going to get her shot to be a part of Team USA?”
“Not sure,” I sighed. I glanced over my shoulder and lowered my voice. “Politics.”
It killed me, because Zoey was a dynamic performer who married technical skills with a natural gift. But there were a finite number of spaces on the team, and despite our sport being merit based on paper, the reality was that it was subjective. Skaters had to deal with favoritism and questionable judges on top of all the hard work.
Ben pulled out his camera to film her. “For the show. It’ll be good to intercut some of this footage with her interview.”
“She’ll love that.”
I saw a text pop up on his screen as he filmed Zoey.
S.O.S., it read.
“Oh shit,” he muttered as he stopped recording. “What now?”
A couple more texts came through, and I could tell by his expression as he read them that it was bad news.
“Everything okay?” I asked.
“Not sure. I need to call Kim to get the full story but I’ll wait until Zoey’s done.”
I watched his expression out of the corner of my eye as Zoey nailed her final jumps. Brows drawn, his usually smiley mouth downturned. Whatever he was processing seemed major.
Zoey took her bows and Ben excused himself to make the call. I tried to intuit what could shake up the normally unflappable Magic Martino. Were they pulling my segment? Or worse, did they decide the show didn’t need him after all?
Ben finally came back as the students skated out to do group bows and present their coaches with flowers.
And he was frowning.Fuck. Bennett Martino didn’t frown.
“What happened?” I asked him as the audience around us stood up and started shuffling for the exits. “Are you okay?”
