I felt my body freeze up as I struggled to connect the dots as to what I was seeing in front of me.
There she was…my girl… gracefully gliding across the ice to stand in front of my teammates looking so delicate, especially compared to our equipment clad selves.
She was saying something, but I couldn’t comprehend it. I was stilllost…
Her sport was figure skating? How had I not guessed that? Why hadn’t she told me?
My mind snapped back to yesterday morning when I first peaked down into this rink and promptly blew off the fact that a coach had the same hair as her. Shit. If only I would’ve looked an extra minute, I wouldn’t have been so caught off guard. I figured she worked her wedding business stuff all week. I had no clue she juggled twojobs.
She started demonstrating a mohawk, back cross-over, step-forward drill, but I honestly couldn’t concentrate on the how-to of it because I was so mesmerized by her. She was so graceful, strong, and coordinated. She was probably a better skater than I was- I did not feel ashamed to admit that because I was used to it- my sisters were better players than I was in some ways as well. She-
“TJ!”
Fuck. It must’ve been obvious that I was staring at her. I looked over in the direction of my name being called.
“You don’t stare at me like that!” Coach yelled from the boards, making the whole team start laughing.
I racked my brain for a decent comeback, but I was hopelessly struck dumb watching all my teammates laughing faces.
I dared to look back at Ellie. Her bottom jaw slid out ever soslightly.
Double fuck. That was her pissed face. She would not like that I’d been called out for this. I was reminded of her face when Frankie screamed at the wedding. She did not like people messing up her mojo. My girl was a perfectionist.
“Vinny,” she called coolly, and came to a fancy figure skating stop in front of me- the kind where she crossed one foot in front of the other.
The team let out a synchronized, “Ooooh,” and I felt my face heat up even more despite the rink’s cool temperature.
“You’re first up,” she motioned in front of her.
I shifted my weight uncomfortably, and hesitated. “I think someone else should go,” I said, feeling more ashamed by the second realizing that I’d been called out for not paying attention.
My teammates started making whipping noises, as in, making fun of me because I was totally whipped by her. I couldn’t blame them. It was true.
She ignored the chorus around us and just arched an eyebrow at me, basically giving me a warning. Then she glided a couple feet away and pushed Campbell forward. I instantly felt jealous that she even touched him.
Fuck.
I needed to get my head in the game, Coach was still watching. I snuck one last look at Ellie and then decided to avoid looking directly at her for the rest of this little practice session so I could keep my head.
She had us running edge drills up and down the ice for what felt like an eternity.
At one point Campbell fell to his butt and slid backwards about ten full feet, making the rest of the team crack jokes at his expense.
I paid careful attention to my foot placement to make sure I wouldn’t be the next to fall. I didn’t need to embarrass myself in front of Ellie.
I think the entire team let out a sigh of relief when the zam doors finally started to open and the Zamboni began backing up onto the ice.
Coach blew his whistle three times, alerting us that we could leave the ice. I watched as he turned and hobbled out of therink.
I waited for my teammates to file off the ice before lifting off my helmet and shaking my sweaty hair out. She put us through the ringer out here, and I already had the sore leg muscles to prove it. Figure skating exercises were no joke.
I hung back, waiting to see where Ellie would go.
When she finally started moving towards the zam doors, I followed afterher.
To hell with patience.
I felt my heart beating wildly in my chest with each step closer to her. Because this was the moment. Our moment. I wanted to… I needed to… I needed to claim her. To officially call her mine. To wrap her up into my arms and kiss her smile. Kiss the hell out of her. Because I was so damn addicted to her.
