Page 143 of Chasing Gold, Catching Her

Then Tora turned toward Alisa and held out her hand too.

Alisa refused to take it.

Anfisa awkwardly stepped in and reached her own hand toward Alisa instead.

Alisa finally accepted it through clenched teeth and a sharp, restrained glare before stepping up onto the first-place podium beside them for the official photographs.

The journalists immediately surged closer, microphones stretching toward the girls from every direction while camera shutters exploded around them.

Alisa wanted nothing more than to disappear through the damn ice beneath her skates.

“I can’t do this anymore… I can’t…” Alisa whispered desperately, her voice trembling apart.

Then Tora reached up slowly and removed the gold medal from around her own neck.

Before Alisa could even understand what was happening, Tora carefully placed the medal over her shoulders instead.

Alisa immediately began crying harder.

“I don’t deserve the gold,” Tora said quietly.

“You deserve it more than me, Alisa… You deserve the whole damn world.”

Alisa stared down silently at the medal resting against her chest, her vision blurred with tears.

“Forgive me, darling.” Tora pulled her gently into an embrace.

This time Alisa didn’t resist. She buried her face against the crook of Tora’s neck and cried quietly while Tora stroked the bare skin of her back with slow, comforting movements.

Anfisa immediately jumped down from the podium and turned toward the journalists swarming around them.

“You got your photos already? Great. Then leave the athletes alone and let them breathe for five minutes! Be human!” she barked sharply.

Strangely enough, the reporters actually listened this time. Perhaps it was Anfisa’s terrifyingly authoritative tone. One by one, they backed away from the ice.

Tora and Alisa remained sitting together on the podium while the arena slowly quieted around them.

Tora kept trying to calm her, whispering softly against her hair, until emotion finally overwhelmed her too. She lifted Alisa’s face carefully in one hand and pulled her closer.

Then she kissed her.

Alisa’s heart seemed to explode all at once—fear, despair, grief, humiliation, love… overwhelming love for this impossible girl.

And despite everything, Alisa kissed her back.

For one tiny moment, the world disappeared.

Then voices shattered it apart again.

“Oh my God, they kissed!”

“Alisa Voronkova was so devastated after losing gold that she kissed her rival?!”

“The champion comforted her with a kiss?”

“What kind of support is that?!”

The words came from every direction at once.