“Even if you do trip, there are literally hundreds of us dressed the same. Nobody will even notice. Trust me, there’s a lot worse that could happen here,” Elodie said in a soothing tone. Clearly,the events from four years ago were still weighing on her mind. “Just enjoy yourself tonight.”
The noise turned into a steady hum as countries were introduced at varying intervals. Some countries had only a handful of athletes, while others had hundreds. Up to that point in my life, the Parade of Nations had been a chance to see who was chosen as flag bearers and how each country had dressed. The bits of trivia given by the announcers on TV were a good way to get a sense of who was favoured or memorable from a variety of sports. This year, that was replaced by the sound of the crowd growing louder as the countries were announced and we moved closer and closer to the entrance.
Finally, it was our turn. Over people’s heads, I could just make out the tip of the Canadian flag at the start of our group. Earlier in the evening, I had spotted Jenny Greenhill getting ready. Since she would be at the forefront of our delegation, she’d had somebody making sure that she looked the part. One of her curling teammates had been rearranging some of Jenny’s curls when I had walked by. Next to them, somebody had been waiting with the gear she would need to help her support the flag during the walk.
We were about a third of the way back in the delegation, surrounded by a sea of red jackets and maple leaf mittens that were waving to the crowd. I had done my best to mentally prepare for what I was going to see, but there was nothing I could do to truly be ready for what it was like to walk out. It was nighttime, but you would never know by how bright it was. There were so many bright lights, illuminating us as we walked in for the cameras.
I craned my neck to look at the stands as I walked. There were flashes of cameras and phones from the crowd, which was larger than any I had ever skated in front of. On TV it looked like the stadiums were busy for the ceremonies, but there was no way toreally prepare for just how big it was in person. Logically, I knew there had to be tons of room since relatives and dignitaries had come from all over the globe, mixed in with tons of travellers and locals. That knowledge didn’t prepare me for the noise of the crowd and the music.
Among the noise, I heard the soft voice of Sierra McCormack just behind me. “Holy crap.” The awe I felt was mirrored in her tone.
As we walked, moving as a group, I felt a tug on my mittened hand. My head swung to see Elodie, eyes sparkling with excitement. “This is crazy, huh?” she said.
I nodded. “You didn’t do it justice when you talked about what it was like.”
“You’ll find it’s hard to describe when people ask you one day,” she said. “How can you accurately describe this?” She waved a hand. She might have been pointing to the crowded stands or the group we were in or the culturally dressed dancers lining the path we were walking. Probably all of it. They all contributed to the sense of wonder.
We moved at a leisurely pace, giving us time to take everything in. I met Dom’s eyes several times and every time, he beamed at me. His expression was one of pure joy, unencumbered by the stress of what we had to do. Tonight, he wasn’t feeling the pressure of any of it. He was living in the moment. It was hard not to when there was so much to take in.
The announcers were still announcing countries in three languages when our delegation came to a stop. I appreciated having the time to really get a look at everything. There were so many people talking, but their words were going in one ear and out the other. I was too focused on all the sights and sounds of the larger crowd to pay attention to the people around me. I could talk to them anytime, but I may never have another chance to be at an event like this.
There was a slight breeze now that we were out in the open air, which did just enough to cool things down a bit. Even so, I saw that a few people had unzipped their jackets already. Amidst the pompoms from dozens of toques between me and the path the Parade of Nations was following, I could just make out the tops of the occasional flag walking by. Every time I tried to figure out which country I was seeing, but it was harder to figure out than I thought it would be. We were positioned at the opposite end of where people were walking in, leaving several minutes from when a country was announced to when they reached us.
I stood on my tiptoes as the Norwegian flag went by. There was a long gap before the next flag, giving me plenty of time to see what the Norwegian athletes were wearing. Or it would have, had I been tall enough to see around people.
I sighed as my heels touched the ground again. “Add this to the list of reasons its tough to be short,” I announced to the other skaters. “Too many athletes are giants you have no hope of seeing past.”
“Tell me about it,” said Grace Nguyen. Height wasn’t a drawback for singles skaters the same way it was for the female half of a pairs team, so a lot of the ladies skaters or female ice dance skaters were tall compared to me. Grace wasn’t one of them, though. She was only an inch or so taller than me and very slender. If you looked at her, you would never guess that she had the strength she did. “We come halfway around the world only to stare at people’s backs. I guess some things don’t change, no matter where you are.”
I jumped as an arm draped over my shoulder. With so much background noise, I hadn’t even heard Dom come over. “Do you need somebody to hoist you up so you can see?”
I gave Dom a playful smack on his stomach. “We’re short, not children.”
“Your words, not mine,” Dom replied, raising his other hand in mock surrender. “I was thinking more along the lines that there are a bunch of fit young guys around who wouldn’t mind picking you up.” He smirked, clearly pleased with his double entendre. “You always see a few people sitting on somebody else’s shoulders during these things, and you two are the perfect candidates for something like that.”
“Well, at least I’d be able to trust you not to drop me,” I said.
“You better. There’d be something wrong with you if you let me throw you around and hold you one-handed on skates but not to have you sit on my shoulders.”
“When the parade part is over, I might take you up on that,” I said. “I don’t want to see this and then have you get tired when the rest of the ceremony starts up again.”
Dom leaned down to speak into my ear. His voice was little more than a whisper when he said, “What, you don’t trust my stamina? I’d think that you’d know that isn’t an issue.”
I felt my face go red. I pulled back just far enough that I could look up at him, open-mouthed. “You’re really going to say that?” I asked, surprised that he was bringing it up at such an important point and with so many people around.
He grinned. “It’s so noisy nobody can hear anything.”
“Still,” I said. “You kept stressing that we couldn’t tell anybody and that we had to act completely normally. Then we had an agreement to avoid the pitfalls we had at the Grand Prix Finals. And now you’re like this, completely going against both things you argued for! What’s with you?”
He off in the distance over my head. The lights all around were reflected in his eyes, which were moving as if they were searching for something. He was still looking around when he shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m just doing whatever feels right in the moment.”
“Well, you need to think things through. Think about how our skating was affected the last time you did that.” I raised my eyebrows and shot him a stern look. “We need to stay on the same page for the next couple of weeks.” There would be no time to bounce back from any problems we were having. We would have to give it our all on the ice, pushing ourselves to our absolute limits if we wanted gold. You couldn’t play it safe with your performances and be victorious. The same couldn’t be said about our relationship. If we went down the same path we did in December, we could doom ourselves. That was why we had agreed not to press things. Logically, I knew all that. So why did I have to fight back the urge to grab his hand and pull him towards me for a kiss?
“I know what we said.” He looked serious as he fixed his eyes on me, waiting expectantly for my reply.
I swallowed hard and forced myself to create some distance between us. “I don’t want to screw anything up. And I think we might be flirting with disaster right now.”
Dom’s thick brows shot up at my use of the word flirt, but he didn’t tease me about it. It had been unintentional, and now I wished I’d used a different turn of phrase. “I thought you liked danger,” he whispered.
