“Good. Do you fancy going to Valley Bar tomorrow? I could do with a drink; it’s been a long week,” she asked in a hopeful tone.
“It’s Tuesday.”
“Exactly.”
My to-do list for tomorrow was already packed. On Wednesdays I helped my elderly neighbor with her shopping, so I needed to head there right after the gym and practice. Last week, I’d noticed a thick layer of dust on most of the surfaces in her house, so I’d promised to help her clean this week as well. Taylor might end up calling, too, as she often felt lonely when left with a sitter on Wednesdays.
But if Lily was having a tough week, I wanted to be there for her, just as she would be forme.
“Yeah, sure. Seven o’clock?” I could call Taylor on the way to thebar.
“Are you sure? It doesn’t matter if you’re busy,” she offered, collecting her bag from the footwell.
“No, no, all good! Sorry, I was just thinking about whether I’d eat before or when we got there,” I lied.
“Perfect! I will eat there, but it’s up to you what you want to do.” She leaned over the console and kissed my cheek. “Call me if you start panicking or spiraling,OK?”
I nodded and ignored the lump in my throat.
“See you later, babe.”
Luca and I fell intoa pattern for the rest of the week—meet in the mornings at the gym, where I’d talk to him, and he’d nod or ignore me in response. We’d then move to the ice for three hours in the morning and three in the afternoon, perfecting the beginner’s moves. Fortunately, we’d been assigned to the practice rink in the main studio, so we didn’t have to traipse across the grounds in a golf cart every day. I had no doubt that was because of Luca’s celebrity status.
Jack was a constant shadow, his familiar figure leaning against a wall taking a phone call or lounging on the spectators’ chairs watching the practice. I’d never seen an agent so attentive, but I guessed when your client was your best friend, it wasn’t too bad following them around. There was something comforting about his presence, a silent reassurance that I wasn’t dealing with Luca alone.
The cameras had started rolling, too, which went better than expected. They were all wide shots of our practice, which would be edited for our show intro. Surprisingly, Luca relaxed under the lenses of the cameras. I’d anticipated some resistance to them filming us, but he was clearly well acquainted with being in the spotlight.
We still hadn’t watched any footage, and I needed to broach the subject. I’d been delaying it since Monday because I really didn’t want to deal with confrontational Luca. But we were about to head into week two, so we needed to discuss our plan of action, whether he liked it ornot.
Although he was still completely disengaged in conversation, his ability on the ice gave me some hope that we might be OK. Most people struggled with ice-skating because they were worried about falling over and looking silly, so their skating was reserved and cautious. But Luca didn’t care. Despite belittling the sport at the start of the week, he listened attentively to every instruction I offered, put it into action, and didn’t stop until he’d perfected it. Anytime he fell over, he didn’t look fazed or embarrassed. He simply got up and tried again.
His lack of self-consciousness was ridiculously attractive.
But we still had a long way to go, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t find him infuriating. On a fundamental level, I understood that you couldn’t get on with everyone and not everyone would like you. But honestly, I’d never met anyone so set on disliking everyone around them.
Was I doing something that was pissing him off? Maybe I’d come on a bit strong at the start?
—
On Friday morning,I stood outside the shower room, waiting for Luca and Jack to emerge. The hallway was quiet and empty, except for the low hum of a vacuum cleaner down one of the many corridors.
Our practice that day had been pushed back, as Luca had something in the morning that he couldn’t miss. It put my evening plans on a time crunch, but I couldn’t refuse when he asked to change our times.
Deep baritones broke the quiet as Luca and Jack appeared from the door leading to the shower room.
Luca’s hair was damp and messy, a few lucky drops escaping and rolling down the side of his face. He was always handsome, but fresh from a shower, unkempt and relaxed, he was arguably one of the hottest people I’d seen in my life. I knew he hadn’t noticed me yet because he was as animated as I’d ever seen him—almost smiling—as he spoke with Jack.
And I had the job of bursting his bubble.
“Hey, guys,” I announced my presence. It took a millisecond for his demeanor to change from casual to alert. He stood taller and hardened his expression. Jack remained the same, of course. Smiling, he whispered something to Luca as they approached.
“I know it’s the last thing you want to hear right now, Luca, but we need to schedule some time to watch the tapes and plan for the next five weeks,” I told him, steeling myself for his response.
“Can’t we do that in one of our sessions next week?”
I shook off my frustration and continued, “Not really. It’s probably best that we use our days to skate. We only get certain slots on the ice, so unless we want to go to a public rink, we’re held to our schedule.”
“OK.”
