She skated off first, with Mark close on her heels, leaving Dom and I to skate to the opposite end of the rink to begin our footwork sequence. As we got settled into the position we would be in at that point in our routine, he said, “Hazel, we need to have a talk about the bullshit you were feeding them back there.”
I ignored him and concentrated on moving my feet into the correct position. I looked at him and shook my head. “Not now,” was all I said. “They’re waiting for us to start.”
“You aren’t going to be able to get yourself out of this discussion that easily.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” I said sarcastically. “Now count us in before Olga and Mark come over again and try to figure out what’s going on.”
Dom sighed, but he didn’t argue. And, to his credit, he didn’t bring it up again for the duration of our time on the ice. Did he decide to shut up and let it be because he knew I wouldn’t talk even if he did? Did he not want Olga to yell at us for getting distracted when we were supposed to be focused on skating? Or did he just not see the point in splitting our attention between the routine we still had to think during and the lies he had seen through? I didn’t know, but I was thankful either way.
When we got off the ice and were getting ready to leave for the day, I took my time in the locker room. Elodie was sitting on a bench, pulling her blonde hair up while wearing clothes that were clearly not meant for practice. She was talking to Seohyun, who was standing with her back to the door when I had entered.
“Are you guys both done for the day?” I asked.
“I just have some more physio,” Elodie said, rolling her eyes. She was impatient about how much time she had to spend working on her ankle to make sure it wouldn’t betray her again. She disliked anything that dug into her skating time.
Seohyun said, “I’m going to go check out my costume.”
“It’s done already?” I said, surprised. I wasn’t supposed to have mine for at least another week or two.
“The one of the short program is simple. Not many sequins, just colours. Dark here,” she rested her hands against her shoulders, “but much lighter here.” She pointed down to mid-thigh, where the skirt would fall. “Very flowy.”
“That makes sense,” I said, hauling down my bags. I could leave and let them both get where they needed to be, but I had a sneaking suspicion that Dom would be waiting for me if I left now. I was not up for another confrontation.
Elodie stood up and smoothed out her sweatpants. “I saw you and Dom skating earlier. Which one were you working on today?”
“The short program,” I said with a groan. They both knew all the problems I’d been having with it so far and how much of a headache it had proven to be. “I know I agreed to this and that I should trust Mark’s judgement, but it’s more awkward than I thought it would be.”
Elodie and Seohyun exchanged a pointed look.
“What?” I asked.
“You seemed believable to me,” Elodie said.
Beside her, Seohyun nodded and said, “Yes. Very much like a real couple.”
“At this point, I don’t even know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing,” I admitted. I stared down at my unzipped bag. “Both, I suppose. But I'm starting to think that this entire idea is just going to cause a giant, months-long headache.”
Seohyun placed a gentle hand on my shoulder. “You will figure it out,” she said. She pulled her phone out of her purse and said, “I should go. I need to go make sure my costume fits.”
She left quickly, turning to wave goodbye on her way out the door. Elodie said she probably needed to go a moment later, but before she could, I said, “Can you just check and see if Dom is out there?”
“Why? Do you need me to flag him down for you?” she asked.
I knew she was trying to be helpful, but that was the last thing I wanted. “No. I just wanted to know.”
Her brows furrowed. She clearly didn’t get why I was asking, but thankfully she didn’t pry. She exited and came back a moment later. “He was at the end of the hall. You could probably catch him if you ran.”
“Thanks,” I said. If she wondered why I wasn’t getting up, she didn’t say.
Even though she said he should be gone, I still waited an extra couple of minutes before finally grabbing my things and heading out to my car. It might be ridiculous to be avoiding him in this day and age when I was just a text or phone call away, but whatever. I needed to get my head sorted before I got home.
It took most of the drive home before I properly relaxed. The weather was crappy, a light drizzle and a lot of wind. I didn’t mind. I was too exhausted to want to go out and do something anyway. It wasn’t just that I was physically tired. That was my typical state by late afternoon. It was the mental exhaustion that was really getting to me.
By the time I got into my apartment, I was looking forward to having a glass of wine. I had a bottle of red I’d opened a couple days earlier that was calling my name. I normally tried not to make drinking during the week a habit. It wasn’t because I was concerned about having a drinking problem, but because it wasn’t exactly part of a healthy, well-rounded diet. That didn’t mean I would keep myself from having a single glass of wine, though. I never drank enough to feel it during the week. The weekend required a bit more leeway. I was only twenty, after all. I couldn’t avoid all activities that would involve drinking without completely cutting myself out of my friends’ lives.
I poured a reasonably sized glass. Sure, it was over the five ounces that actually counted as a serving but it far less than my family would have poured for me. I was staring into a cupboard, trying to decide what to eat, when I felt my phone buzz. Placing my glass gently on the counter, I pulled my phone out of my back pocket.
It was from Brandon, unsurprisingly. All it contained was a very long link and a series of five question marks. I recognized the site that it was from as a skating fan site, so I clicked it without hesitation. This wasn’t the first time he’d sent me something from there, although it didn’t happen often. It usually happened when he wanted to clarify something technical, so I wasn’t concerned. There wasn’t much of a rhyme or reason to why he would check things occasionally, but I never wanted to discourage him from getting interested in my work.
