Page 124 of Chasing Gold, Catching Her

Alisa pressed the cappuccino button on the coffee machine almost automatically. She was exhausted already, and strangely enough she knew coffee would eventually make her sleepy later instead of energetic.

Tora meanwhile poured herself hot water and dropped in a green tea bag — milk oolong.

Alisa instantly caught the familiar creamy scent and nodded approvingly.

“Good choice.”

The atmosphere around them felt unreal in the best possible way. Athletes wandered everywhere in jackets with their countries’ flags and Olympic emblems, exchanging badges, hugging each other, introducing themselves, showing photos of pets on their phones, laughing loudly, shaking hands, speaking in dozens of different accents at once. There was something deeply warm about it all, something united and kind, as if for once the entire world had agreed to exist peacefully inside one building.

Then the staff rolled out trays of hot pizza, and suddenly half the athletes rushed forward like starving animals.

Alisa grabbed two slices immediately — pepperoni and mushroom with ham. Tora took chicken and pepperoni.

They returned to the seats Alisa had heroically conquered with her jacket just as the men stepped onto the ice for the six-minute warm-up.

The first skater tonight was Slava, considered the strongest guy in Arkadiy’s training group. His entire program was packed with quads, and everyone was excited to see how he would survive it under Olympic pressure. Alisa herself had only seen fragments of his skate during shared practices before the Games, but even then it had been obvious that he was terrifyingly strong technically.

Tonight was the short program, so everything moved quickly and intensely.

The men circled the rink stiffly during warm-up, some jumping and immediately falling, others landing cleanly to scattered applause, while a few avoided difficult jumps completely and focused only on spins, clearly conserving energy. Everyone had their own strategy.

Then Anfisa appeared and dropped into the seat beside Alisa and Tora, greeting them casually before immediately locking her attention onto the ice the second Slava took center position.

All three of them stared downward almost hypnotized.

Slava landed the opening quadruple Axel cleanly.

The audience exploded instantly.

Then came the combination, he nearly lost the landing on the second jump, the quadruple flip, wobbling dangerously for a second, but somehow managed to save it.

And then the entire arena seemed to hold its breath during the Lutz.

When he completed all four rotations cleanly, people literally stood from their seats and burst into applause.

Slava finished the program brilliantly. First place in his group immediately.

And first overall.

Though there were still twenty-five skaters left to perform.

Tora gently stroked the back of Alisa’s hand with her thumb, and Alisa immediately felt heat creeping into her cheeks again. They were not even looking at each other at that moment, both pretending to stay focused on the performances below, but the feeling of Tora’s hand in hers filled Alisa with this strange, deep comfort, as if the entire moment suddenly became painfully real.

And then guilt crept in. Alisa glanced sideways at Tora.

“What about your parents? Don’t you want to watch the programs with them?”

Tora only shook her head lightly.

“They’re here for a long time,” she said quietly. “And I haven’t seen you in a long time.”

For a second, Alisa leaned her head against Tora’s shoulder before immediately pulling away again so no one around them would start asking questions. There were surprisingly few women skaters in the athletes’ lounge tonight, which somehow only made her more nervous.

“So tonight is yours,” Tora continued with a smile. “But tomorrow I’m busy with my parents.”

“I see…” Alisa smiled faintly to herself and returned her attention to the ice.

She genuinely enjoyed watching the men skate. There was something mesmerizing about how differently they approached programs compared to women’s skating or pairs. By the end of the final group, Slava had dropped to third place overall, though judging by the giant screen showing the athletes’ reactions to the standings, he still looked satisfied with the result. Honestly, for an Olympic short program, third place was incredible already.