The words are calm, but the restraint in them is louder than shouting would have been.
"I’m sorry I came. I didn’t think you’d even know I was here."
His gaze flicked toward the stairwell that led back down to the ice and then returned to me.
"This is my arena," he says, voice still level. "This is the one place I don’t have to think about headlines or strategy or who knows what. And you show up here after everything that just happened."
"I didn’t come to make a scene."
"And yet, you have."
He says, his voice almost with a shake. The first and only time he’s shown any real emotion since the moment he saw me sitting in the stands.
"So, what are you here to say? Out with it, Natalia, I have post-game press."
I’ve said everything I could over text, and none of it helped. It won’t help now. He’s made up his mind, and those steel-grey eyes staring back at me like I’m the enemy tell me that I’m not getting past them again.
Switzerland was lightning in a bottle. A onetime chance to break through Luka’s rock-solid exterior. I had my once in a lifetime shot and I blew it.
His eyes sharpened slightly. "Did you tell her?"
There it is.
The line I can’t step around.
"Yes," I say. "I told Carey about the email. I told her we weren’t using it. I thought if she understood the situation, she would help me stall. I thought she would protect you."
He lets out a slow breath through his nose.
"That’s the part that matters."
"I panicked," I admit, my voice thinner now. "I thought if she knew VELVT lied, she would keep it internal."
"You made a decision for me," he says.
"I was trying to buy you time."
"That’s not your call to make."
The cold in his voice is worse than anger. He’s right, it wasn’t my call to make.
"I wasn’t trying to betray you."
"But you did."
Silence settles between us.
"I didn’t sleep with you to get that information," I say, the words tumbling out before I can stop them because I can’t live with knowing that he thinks I would do that to him. "Carey’s text made it look like that. I need you to know that I didn’t."
He studies me for a long moment, and then the shift happens. The moment when all of his doors and windows lock shut, keeping everyone out, especially me.
"It doesn’t matter anymore why you did it. The narrative shifted; sponsors are calmer. VELVT is taking the heat. You get to keep your position. Everyone’s happy."
Except for the two people who matter,I want to say.
"I don’t care about the position." I tell him.
His eyes dimmed, and that’s worse. I wish there was some fight left in them for me… for us, but there isn’t. "You should. You gave up a lot to get it." He glances down, breaking eye contact.
