At the kiss and cry, I sat down and glanced towards the Jumbotron before waving at the crowd again. I looked into the camera and said, “Hi Mom, Dad, Levi, and Isaac!” and blew a kiss while we waited for the scores to come in. Dom stood for a little longer, waving to the audience before he sat directly beside me. He was so close that our arms were touching. It was a small area, especially when you had four adults sitting in a row, but he was closer than was strictly necessary. If he noticed, Mark would be pleased.
When our score was read out, the crowd cheered even louder. “Oh my God,” I whispered to Dom as he pulled me in for a hug. My chin was pressed against his shoulder at an awkward angle, but I didn’t care.
“Personal best!” Dom said far too loudly for somebody whose mouth was only inches away from my ear.
I grinned. We knew that a personal best was a possibility. It was a technically difficult skate, even without all the increaseddifficulty elements we had attempted in the off season. Seeing the number was exhilarating, especially so early on. We had the potential to shatter the score if we could bring the twist to a competition level. I had hardly dared to think of us standing atop the podium in recent weeks, not wanting to get complacent, but it was impossible not to now.
When we got away from the cameras, Dom pulled me close again in another bone-crushing hug. His shirt was against my face, which would have bothered me if it was anyone else. After so much time skating and dancing together, I’d had to get used to his sweat. “We might do this. We might really be able to do this.”
I pulled away, just far enough that I could look up at him. “Not if you smother me with your sweaty shirt.”
“Sorry,” he said, running a hand through his damp hair. “I’m just so excited.”
“Me too,” I said, grinning up at him. His cheeks were flushed and his eyes sparkled with excitement. And then he looked down at me and gave one of the purest smiles I’d ever seen. His happiness was contagious. My stomach flipped and I had the sudden urge to kiss him. What was getting into me? “Everything went right this week.”
“It sure did,” Dom said, pulling me against him again. I felt his chin resting against the top of my head as he whispered, “Thank you. Thank you for kicking ass and being my partner and being so wonderful.”
My cheeks burned. “We did it together.”
“We did,” he murmured. “We are the perfect team. I couldn’t do it without you.”
I knew he was talking about our skating partnership, but there was something about his tone that made my breath catch in my throat. I did the best to ignore the fluttering in my chest as he held me against him. It felt like being home with his armsaround me, but it was not helping me fight the urge to have his lips on mine. I couldn’t be acting like I did in the early days of our partnership. But even his scent, soap mixed with sweat, was making it hard to think straight.
We would have three weeks to prepare for the next competition, halfway around the world in Moscow. There we would face our biggest obstacle on our quest for the gold medal: Evgenia Levedeva and Pavel Sorokin. Not only would they be the ones with the advantage of being at home, but they were fan favourites the world over and the defending champions from four years ago. It would take every bit of focus we could muster to beat them. I couldn’t be acting like a flustered, infatuated twelve-year-old, for God’s sake. We were excellent partners on the ice. It was undeniable. So why did the voice in my head tell me that Dom’s head was in another place, too?
Chapter 16
Chapter 16
Thedaysgrewevershorter. The leaves had completely disappeared, with frost taking their place on the trees. At least we made it past Halloween before we got our first snowfall of the year. My friends posted pictures of themselves with cute boots and sweaters, holding onto coffee cups and grinning or group shots of them dressed in a variety of skimpy costumes. I, on the other hand, had less time than ever to enjoy autumn. I’d turned down all but one invitation to meet up. The one time I saw my friends, I’d only stuck around for a couple of hours before calling it a night.
“You can’t leave already,” Kendra had said incredulously after checking her phone. “It’s not even nine!” I might as well have announced that I wanted to eat at an early bird special. “You’ve only had one drink!” She clearly didn’t find that an acceptable number for a university student enjoying a night with her friends.
“I have to be up early. We don’t have a lot of time left before we have to leave for Russia.” I had six days, to be exact. And in thosesix days, Dom and I planned to squeeze some sort of preparation into every possible minute.
Alexis gave an exaggerated pout. She was sitting cross-legged on a chair that had seen better days, with a thick sweater pulled around her body. “But you did so well! You were even better than you were when you skated for us.”
“Yeah, the announcer said it was your best score ever,” Kendra chimed in.
“I know, but we are trying something really hard,” I said. “One of the pairs that is going to be in Moscow is the best ranked team in the world. They won the gold medal at the last Winter Games, too. Dom and I need to be at our best to beat them.” My friends exchanged a look. “What?”
Kendra finished her glass before speaking. “You don’t need to stress out so much. Trust me. Your coach’s plan is working.”
Alexis nodded eagerly. “Yeah, you two totally looked like you wanted to fuck in that skate.”
“Alexis!” I exclaimed.
My friends devolved into a series of giggles. “I know that it’s a sensitive subject because of Brandon,” Alexis began after she had pulled herself together, “but it’s true. I thought that was the point, though! It’s a good thing. It means we bought the act.”
I opened my mouth to reply but shut it when what she said registered. Was my mind playing tricks on me? I hadn't drunk nearly enough to be mishearing things. “Wait.Youbought the act?”
She shrugged. “Kind of,” she admitted. She fiddled with the bottom of her sweater. “I think it was the whole ‘I can’t take my eyes off you’ thing mixed with this.” She stood up and did an exaggerated hip wiggle, sticking her butt out way farther than I did in the routine.
“I bet that’s his favourite move,” Kendra teased. “At the very least, you have to appreciate the fact that it must be driving Brandon crazy that you got everyone talking about you guys.”
“I’m sure he has convinced himself that he was right to punch Dom in the face,” I said. There was no doubt in my mind that he had been fuming after the skate was broadcast. “He would be way more focused on that than the fact that Mark’s plan to make us memorable proved super effective.” I looked at my phone and pushed myself off the couch. “I really do need to get going now, though.”
As disappointing as it was to miss events with friends, it paid off. We came in second in Russia, only a few points behind Levedeva and Sorokin. Second place wasn’t too disappointing, given the circumstances. Being so close lit a fire under Dom, who spent the rest of the trip eager to get back to practising and pushing ourselves. Since that wasn’t possible until we returned home, we spent the free day we had after our skate checking out the touristy spots around Moscow. I may have missed out on Halloween parties with my friends, but I got some nice shots of Dom and me, together and apart, in Red Square.
