I followed, helplessly swept up in her orbit as she guided me toward the skate rental counter. She moved like she was dancing, hips swaying, arms loose, wheels whispering across the floor.
“Alex said you’re brand-new to skating,” she said, rummaging behind the counter with practiced ease.
“That obvious?” I muttered.
Behind me, Alex laughed softly. “You’re going to do great.”
I shot him a look over my shoulder, the warm, fluttering kind I didn’t know I had in me anymore.
Mel reemerged holding a pair of skates that looked . . . intimidatingly heavy.
“These should fit.” She plopped them onto the counter and bent to examine my socks. “Good thickness. No blisters today.”
She said it so solemnly, I almost snorted.
Then she helped me lace the skates, her fingers flying fast and confident, and stood back with a flourish.
“Alright.” She clapped once. “Let’s see you stand.”
I swallowed. Hard.
Alex stepped closer, one hand hovering near my elbow like a safety net.
“I’ve got you,” he murmured.
That helped more than I wanted to admit.
I pushed myself up and immediately felt gravity threaten mutiny.
“Whoa—whoa—no, no, I’ve got it,” I insisted as my knees wobbled like newborn deer.
Mel slid forward, stopping inches from me. “Okay, first rule of skating: don’t fight your knees.”
“That feels like bad advice,” I said through a tight smile.
“It works.”
Then she pushed off, gliding backward, her wheels humming over the rink floor as if she were weightless.
“Watch and learn,” she called.
And then she was moving. No, she wasfloating.
Smooth turns, swaying hips, arms fluid in the air. She rolled into a lazy spin, one foot crossing in front of the other, thendanced her way through a curve like she was part of the music itself. Her socks sparkled. Her skates gleamed. She was pure motion.
I stood there, barely able to keep my feet under me, jaw somewhere near the floor.
“She’s really good,” I breathed.
“She’s incredible,” Alex said, smiling. “She grew up in this place. Literally. Her uncle owned it before she did.”
Mel skated back toward us in a stunning one-foot glide and stopped with no more than a whisper of friction.
She took a little bow. “Ta-da.”
I clapped awkwardly. “That was . . . amazing.”
She winked. “Give me a few practices, and I’ll have you doing it too.”
