Page 70 of Chasing Gold, Catching Her

“Do you know what they say? There’s only one step from hate to love,” Alisa said with a grin, looking at Anfisa, but Anfisa immediately became serious.

“I hate hockey players for my own reasons, and I will never let even one of them get close to me!”

“Oh, c’mon, they’re fine, Anfisa,” Alisa said, shaking her head as she got up from the stretching mat and began to jump rope, trying to do double turns and make each jump higher and longer. Anfisa had already started stretching, apparently her workout was over.

“Not normal, period!”

Alisa concentrated on the rhythm of her movements and her jumps, feeling the muscles in her calves tense with each landing.

“I tried to at least treat them neutrally, but every time they ruin the ice and annoy me with their stupid grins, as if they own the whole world! And then there are all those fan girlies at their games! They throw themselves at them like they’re ready to pounce if the hockey players let them, and honestly, I’m sure they do!”

“Well… they’re fans… they’re allowed to, they don’t train on the same ice as us… and no one forbids them from sleeping with hockey players.”

“I’m not talking about that!” Anfisa snorted, completely spreading herself into a cross split and lying flat on her stomach on the mat, resting her chin on her hands.

“Oh, I thought you were jealous of the fans,” Alisa said with a grin, and Anfisa only snorted again, displeased.

“Of course not! Sleep with them? Ew, that’s worse than torture!”

“Well, apparently the fans like it.”

“I’m not a hockey fan, I hate it!” Anfisa insisted.

“Okay, okay, can we talk about something besides hockey?” Alisa suggested, and Anfisa only shrugged. “How about… do you want to go get lunch and coffee together?”

Anfisa nodded, agreeing.

“Yeah, well, but only until two, I have choreography at two,” Alisa said with a smile, finally finishing with the jump rope and sitting back down on the mat to stretch. Her muscles ached pleasantly, and she exhaled with a quiet groan as she stretched her legs.

“Oh, today already? That’s so cool! Have you come up with a theme for what you’re going to skate?”

Alisa only grinned as she imagined the choreography in her head, or rather, what it could become, because the choreographer would still change things and add details to the framework of her idea, but she felt that familiar excitement for something new, that delight that always came with the beginning of something new, and this really was a new stage in her life…

Because now she would perform alone.

Alone…

* * *

After coffee, Anfisa returned to the arena with her, although they went to different rinks inside the same building, because Anfisa had practice on the larger ice, and Alisa went to the small rink, where they usually tested choreography or practiced tiny elements in small groups.

Everything there was hidden in a kind of fog from the cold, and as soon as Alisa stepped onto the ice, she exhaled a cloud of white into the air because of the difference in temperature.

It was colder here than on the main rink where they usually trained. For the first few minutes Alisa could only shiver and try to get used to it, warming herself up with the usual exercises, tightening her body, doing pulls, rettberger steps, mohawk turns, gliding backward on one leg, all those movements that had long ago become instinctive, and yet still had to be repeated every single day.

Arkadiy and Dana were already there on the ice, apparently this was the choreographer she was about to work with. They stood by the boards as Alisa skated up to them.

“Hello! I’m Alisa!”

The choreographer smiled immediately.

“I’m Dana, nice to meet you.”

They shook hands and then skated toward the center of the rink, while Arkadiy silently watched everything that was happening.

“Oh, actually, let me show you what I want the choreo to look like,” Alisa suggested with a sheepish smile.

“That’s a good idea,” Dana replied, nodding.