I was sleeping next to him.
But laying there in the dark, I was already missinghim…
And wondering… if he’d miss me too.
23. Ellie
My alarm clock sounded loudly early on Tuesday morning, and I groaned in rebellion against it. I pulled the covers close to my chin, and I felt TJ move closer to me.
“Stay,” he mumbled behindme.
He grabbed my body and pulled me into him effortlessly, almost as if I was weightless, and my body instantly felt a shocking attraction, emitting from low, over how in command and comforting that action was.
I felt his rough scruff against my cheek. “This is nice,” he whispered groggily.
I snoozed my alarm for ten more minutes and cherished cuddling into him.
When my alarm went off again, I knew I couldn’t delay the day anymore. TJ seemed to know this as well, and he rolled over to sleep in a bit more.
I dressed in my coaching clothes and grabbed my bag to head out.
As I quietly creaked the door open, I heard TJ, who was flopped on his stomach on the bed, whisper to me, “Have a good day, babe.”
His words felt like a hug, and I suddenly felt the temptation to walk over to him and kiss his sleeping face goodbye…
But that would be too much… that would be too… intimate.
I shook the urge out of my head. As nice as this morning was, I needed to get out of this Taylor-Swift-song-fantasy-life and move on with my reality. With mywork…
So, I tried to lock thoughts of TJ out of my brain as I walked into therink.
Tuesdays were always my favorite day because I ran a quick power skating tutorial before and after the morning practice session.
I only ever took on girls for private lessons until they reached the level where they wanted to compete, then I handed them off to the other coaches at the rink. I hated traveling, and competitions were not fun for me. They were both things that gave me major anxiety, and I learned to give in to what my body needed- a Zen way of life where I avoided panic attacks before they could happen. It was sometimes sad for me to see girls move on, but I knew it was good for them. And it didn’t hurt as bad when I knew I’d still get to coach them a bit during these little power skate sessions.
Usually higher-up coaches would hate that another instructor was working with their girls, but Pine Ridge coaches knew I wouldn’t poach any of their clients- because my whole competition scaredy-cat thing- so it was a pretty good system.
I tied up my skates in the coaches’ room and then walked to the concession stand to buy myself some hot chocolate.
I greeted the boy manning the stand before he looked up to see me.
“G’morning, Tommy,” I told him.
He sleepily looked up from his textbook that was opened in front of him. He was a pre-med college student who only worked here part time.
“The usual?” he asked while yawning.
“You know it,” I replied. I needed some sugar to wake up, and some warmth for when I skated out onto the ice today. Rinks were always about ten degrees colder in the mornings.
As soon as he handed over the hot chocolate, I shuffled over to the east rink to get moving.
My girls were already in full swing warm-up mode when I ran onto the ice holding my hotchocolate.
I skated over to the timekeeper’s box to locate the aux cord and cue up some morning tunes.
As soon as I was happy with a new pop song that had a great tempo for stroking exercises, I skated into the center circle and motioned for the girls to gather.
I had a group of about seven girls today.
