“Nice to meet you both! I’m Matilda.” I offered my hand to the agent as he stood to greet me. Large, warm hands enveloped mine, and perfectly straight teeth flashed a smile.
“Lovely to meet you too, Matilda. I’m Jack, Luca’s agent and bestie.” He gestured to Luca, before offering me a wink.
Luca rolled his eyes but wore the same stoic expression from the bathroom earlier, not even cracking a closed-mouth smile.
I extended my hand to him. He grimaced, looking from my hand back to my face with a bored scowl crossing his features.
“We’ve already met,” he stated, taking my hand in his. Jack whirled around tohim.
“Oh yeah, sorry.” I laughed it off and ignored the heat spreading up my arm from where our palms had touched. “I didn’t know if you wanted to ignore the whole hitting-me-with-a-door incident.” I smiled and shrugged, hopefully portraying that I wasn’t angry about the whole ordeal.
“You what?” Jack said in a high-pitched tone. He crossed his arms and watched Luca with narrowed eyes.
“Calm down, Mother Hen.” A tiny quirk of his lips was the first sign of anything other than stoicism. “It was an accident.”
“Really? Care to elaborate?”
“Do you honestly think I’d purposefully hit a woman with a door?”
Jack scoffed, raising a brow at his friend. “Your need to clarify that you wouldn’t hit awomanwith a door only highlights your prior door assaults on men.”
His what?
“That was different; that dickhead deserved it.” Luca crossed his arms over his broad chest.
This was not how I’d expected this conversation togo.
“It was an accident,” I said, wanting to resolve the issue ASAP. “I should have been looking where I was going. The door opened out of nowhere, and—boom—bloody nose.” I laughed it off as I took a seat. Jack followed suit.
“A bloody nose?” His eyes widened, head swinging back to Luca again.
“Only a tiny bit. I’m an easy bleeder,” I offered with a half-smile, attempting to downplay the situation.
“Tell that to my shirt,” Luca murmured, and I winced.
A burst of laughter erupted from Jack. “You got blood on his shirt?” I nodded, cringing as he clapped, his laughter filling the empty café before he continued. “Fucking brilliant. That has made my whole day.” He patted Luca on the shoulder. “So, other than the bloody nose, how has your day been, Matilda?”
“It’s all good, thanks. It’s great to be back in the studio. I’ve missed it a lot.”Yeah, right.
“What do you do when you’re not skating for the show?”
“I teach skating to adults, mostly one-on-one. I love it,” I lied, sparing him the details of how I hated teaching adults and found it incredibly unrewarding. AlthoughStars on Icepaid decently, it wasn’t enough to cover my bills in the off-season. Living by myself wasexpensive,so having another job was essential. But the last thing they wanted to hear was me moaning on—keeping it light was the best way to combat whatever surly mood Luca seemed to bein.
“Oh, nice—that must go hand in hand with training celebrities for the show, too. Hopefully, you’ll be able to teach Luca a few things about skating. He might be worse than Bambi on ice.” Jack laughed.
Luca answered the insult with another eye roll.
Watching their bickering—though silent on Luca’s end—made me smile. “Have you both watched the show before?”
“No,” Luca answered, while Jack said, “Of course.”
Jack tilted his head, scoffing at Luca’s response. “I’ve seen it a few times over the years. My sister loves it.” A smile stretched across his lips as if he were reminiscing. “But neither Luca nor I had seen a professional figure skater in person before.” He gestured to me across the table. “You were breathtaking on the ice.”
“Oh, thank you. That’s so kind,” I said, cheeks warming. I hadn’t noticed them watching me skating earlier. My gaze involuntarily flicked to Luca, who was raising a brow at his agent. Their roles were ironed out well: Luca the brooding, grumpy actor, and Jack the charismatic agent who smoothed over any rough edges left by his client.
I continued. “It’s years of training. To be honest, my older sister used to laugh at me for my first three years of skating. I wassobad.” I left out the fact that her laugh had often been malicious.
“I doubt that. It looked like you were born to skate.”
