Because she was right.
“And what about him?” she asked.
I wrapped my hands more tightly around the coffee cup. “I don’t know.”
“You must know something.”
I stared into my coffee. “He notices me.” A humorless breath escaped me. “Constantly.”
Mila waited.
“He approaches me. He keeps closing distance.” I paused. “And when I give him opportunities to step back, he doesn’t take them.”
That was the closest I had come to saying it plainly.
Mila took a slow sip of coffee before speaking again. “You sound terrified.”
“I am.” The answer came easily. The next words didn’t. “You’ve been struggling too.”
Mila raised an eyebrow. “Interesting. Usually you require direct impact with a wall before noticing other people.”
“I’m serious.”
“I know.”
“No.” I shook my head. “I’ve been so busy thinking about myself that I missed it.”
For the first time since we’d sat down, she looked away.
It was only a small movement, but Mila almost never looked away first.
I thought about the late training sessions. The unexplainedabsences. The conversations she kept redirecting whenever they drifted toward her life outside skating.
Slowly, the pieces rearranged themselves.
“Who is she?”
Mila glanced down, her fingers tracing the edge of her cup in a movement that was nothing like her usual precision. Finally, she raised her chin and looked me in the eye. “You know her. You just didn’t…know.” She took a breath. “Donna DeLuca. The physio on the US team.”
“When did this start?”
“Three years ago, at Worlds.” She gave a short laugh. “Which sounds insane when I say it aloud.”
“And nobody knows?”
Her expression hardened. “If the federation knew, I would not still be skating.”
The blunt certainty in her voice made my stomach knot.
“So it’s a long-distance relationship?”
She managed a chuckle. “Verylong distance.” There was no dramatic edge to her words, no performance, and somehow that made it all the more real.
“Is this where I say I’m happy for you?”
She laughed, and the sound was sharp enough to have heads turning in our direction. “There are times whenI’mhappy about it. Unfortunately, those moments are often overshadowed by… other factors.”
She didn’t need to elaborate.
