“And if we do get the transphobe?”
“Then we appeal the hell out of it.”
“Okay. Okay.” Robbie tried to take deep breaths and calm down. He rubbed his face and sighed. “This kid. He’s gonna make me go grey.”
“You’ve already got some, brah. Perks of being forty.”
“Almostforty. And rude. But also, he’s increasing the grey. Trying to burn down my house. And did I tell you about his stint in fraud?”
“Do I want to know?”
Okay, maybe this was a conflict of interest, but Eugene was pretty good at walking the line between best friend turned uncle and family lawyer. “He emailedDance Your Ice Offand told them he was my agent and that I wanted to be on the show.”
“He didn’t,” Eugene laughed.
“Oh, he did.”
“GOAT! I knew I loved that kid for a reason.”
Robbie gave in to the urge to slump and press his forehead to the table. “Do not tell him that. Do not encourage his crimes.”
“I’ll encourage what I want. Boy slays and you know it. I’m not turning the future leader of the world into my opp.”
“Oh God, they’re going to hunt me down in the old folks’ home and interview me in my rocking chair about whether I knew he was destined for great things.” Most of the time, Robbie couldn’t be prouder of the fact that Sawyer was a baby genius. Sometimes, though… sometimes he worried.
“Nah, no way that’s gonna happen. Boy’ll keep you in Gucci in the nicest granny suite anyone’s ever seen with the best home care.”
Robbie groaned. “Did I do something to deserve this?”
“Remember that time my parents caught you sneaking a girl in after curfew?”
“I absolutely do not because thatneverhappened. How is Mandy, anyway?”
“She’s good, she says hi.”
“I say hi back to her and the kids.”
“Hm. So I guess you could say troublemaking is in the DNA.”
“You’re horrible and a traitor.”
“You love me.”
“I hate you.” Robbie sighed and sat up. “See you for dinner tomorrow night?”
“Wouldn’t miss it. I’m thinking vegan chili.”
“Of course you are.” Robbie hung up before Eugene could start listing the recipe. Fuck, but Robbie loved him and was glad he was around to talk him off various ledges. He wasn’t sure what he’d do without him. Worry to death, probably. Or turn into a pillar of salt.
Wednesday morningat the rink meant results coming in. The film crew gathered in the main gym, and Holly positioned all the pairs on their marks together so the host could make the dramatic reveal.
Finn knew these things had a formula to follow—that was half the reason people loved them; people loved formulas—but it was still hard to school his face into something other than mockery when Michelle said, “The votes from Monday night have been tallied. Tomorrow, two teams will be skating for the right to stay in the competition. Only one of them will prevail.”
“Oh no,” Robbie said under his breath, beside him. Finn hadn’t known you could do sarcasm so quietly. “Not getting kicked off a reality TV show that doesn’t even pay you.”
Across the room, Holly was glaring. Finn elbowed him. Robbie yelped and then shut up.
Michelle continued. “But before we can get to that, we need to announce next week’s challenge.”
