He taught her how to push off, how to glide, how to bend her knees and trust the balance. His hands stayed loose but steady on her hips, voice pitched low and warm as he coaxed her into motion. She bitched the entire time. Sass and snark and muttered threats about making him polish the rehearsal studio floor with a toothbrush if he let her fall. But she smiled while she said it. She giggled when she stumbled. And every time she faltered, she reached for him and gripped his hands as if they were the handles of her whole goddamn universe.
She got better. Her natural balance and grace really came into their own, and Nate didn’t even realize how fast she’d started moving until she tried to turn too sharply. There was a flash of panic as her arms windmilled, her feet sliding wide, and then she yelped, stumbled, and crashed square into him with a gasp that knocked the air out of both of them. Nate absorbed the hit like it was child’s play. His arms wrapped around her, one at her back, one at her waist, holding her as if she might vanish if he let go.
Her laugh died in her throat. She looked up.
And God, her face. Flushed and open andso close. Her eyes locked on his, lashes still fluttering from the shock of the fall, her mouth parted like she was about to say something or maybe even kiss him. He wasn’t sure. Didn’t care. Because right then, with her chest pressed to his and their breath fogging the space between them, the rest of the world stopped.
“See?” he murmured, voice rough with too many feelings and not enough ways to say them. “Told you I’d catch you.”
Her lips twitched. Her eyes dropped to his mouth. And just like that, they were teetering. On the edge of something big. Something sharp and soul-soft, carved out of long glances and abreathless silence that usually ended in a kiss. And all he could think, over and over again, wasplease let this be real, please let this be ours.
And then, the first camera flash lit up the ice like a firework.
It didn’t register as a danger at first. Nate blinked against the sudden light, brain still fogged with the heat of her breath and the shape of her pressed against him. He was holding her. She was looking at his mouth. And the world wasquietfor once. It was good. It wasreal.
And then came the second flash. The third. Voices. Footsteps. Shutters clicking rapid-fire like gunfire on glass. His whole body tensed. The rink staff must have tipped them off.
Holly froze in his arms, and he felt the second she realized what was happening. The way her spine locked, her hands went rigid, her breath caught on a sharp edge. It hit him low and hard. Not panic, just that old, cold thing that lived in his ribs. The one that said:You shouldn’t have believed it could last.
He looked up. Saw the long lens. The handheld cam. A reporter’s gleaming eyes behind a too-big smile as they edged closer like sharks who smelled blood. The words came next, bright and fake and sharp as teeth.
“Nate! Holly! Are you guys official?”
“Hey Holly! Think he’ll break your heart like he broke that rookie’s nose?”
“Nate! Did you really hit Lars backstage?”
“What do you think, Holly? Can a leopard really change its spots?”
The last question rang out bright and vicious over the ice, cutting through the air like a skate blade, and Holly’s hand slipped from his chest like someone had yanked the floor out from under them. Nate didn’t move, couldn’t even act on the instinct to pull her back in close. Because the moment she let go, it was like his body remembered every time he’d ever been left standing alone.
The cameras clicked and hissed and flashed, a swarm of hungry light, but all he felt was the sudden absence of her. The silence where her answer should have been. She didn’t speak, blindsided and trying to find the right words while strangers tried to tear them apart for sport.
Nate got it.
He understood it so well it made him sick. But the understanding didn’t stop the hurt from blooming anyway, sharp and humiliating in his throat, because in the split second she hesitated, the world rushed in to fill the gap with the oldest story he’d ever known.He’s dangerous, he’s a problem, he’s only good at breaking things.
And standing there on the ice with the cold seeping through his bones and her warmth slipping through his fingers, it didn’t matter that he didn’t blame her. It didn’t matter that he knew she wasn’t cruel. Because whether shemeantto or not, Holly had just left him out in the cold.
@skatesandsequins on X:
I just watched Nate catch Holly like she was the goddamn Stanley Cup and then sheleft himon the icelike he didn’t just lace her skates and hold her whole heart in his hands and I’m NOT OKAY.
#protectnateeriksson #takethefloor #cameraflashedsheflinched
Strictly Scandal Online:
Ice Cold: Holly Freezes Up As Nate Faces Firing Squad
After what fans are calling the most romantic moment ever captured on skates, dancer Holly Martinez appeared visibly shaken when paparazzi descended on the couple mid-rink. While Eriksson held her like something precious, her silence in response to questions about their relationship status has tongues wagging and not in a good way…READ MORE →
Jaime
Bro
Just saw that rink ambush on TikTok
You okay??
