Chapter 5
While Coach Harris rushed off to do something or another with his kid, he left Tyler to clean up everything and store the jump harness and other gear in the office.
It was getting late, and most of the skating lessons for the day had ended.
The rink would be full of people in a few hours once it switched over to public skating, but by the time people with their rented skates were doing laps around the ice while music played, the competitive skaters would be gone.
Tyler stopped by the locker room to grab his bag.
It was too hot outside to wear the long sleeves he wore for skating.
He swapped out to a pair of shorts and a T-shirt before turning down the hallway to reach the back door where he had parked.
With how long everything had taken, he had assumed he was the last person here.
However, the door to the dance studio was open, and familiar voices could be heard inside.
Glancing in, Tyler saw his head coach, Lisa Truskel, and her assistant, who did most of their choreography, Andy Williamson.
Some guy was between them with a hand on the barre to keep his balance as he stood on one leg with the other pulled nearly over his shoulder from the back.
The guy was facing away from the door, and Tyler didn’t immediately recognize him.
He was maybe a little shorter than Tyler and had very short blond hair.
The ballet training was obvious from how Andy could pose him.
He was definitely not someone Tyler had seen here before.
He would have remembered anyone with a build like that.
This had to be the guy he had been told about.
Tyler could very easily see why his friend described this guy as cute, even from the back. Well, especially from the back.
Tyler stood there for a moment as he saw his coaches doing a minor alteration of the other guy’s position.
Tyler was sure this was part of the other man’s form for a spin.
Then he caught a glimpse of the unknown guy’s face in the mirror.
Those eyes, those pale green eyes that glittered like sea glass, too many colors all at once, were unmistakable, and he felt his heart clench.
Tyler had never seen that man in person before, but he knew Dmitrii Lebedinsky the moment he saw those eyes.
Dmitrii was one of the rising stars of Russian skating, and Russia had no lack of amazing skaters.
Even with all that talent, Dmitrii had always stood out from the rest. As a junior, Tyler had never been at the same competitions as Dmitrii.
Tyler had competed internationally exactly three times, and all of those competitions were just in Canada.
Dmitrii had only competed in America once, if Tyler was remembering right, and that had been a Junior Grand Prix event twelve states away, an event Tyler had tried and failed to convince his mom to get tickets for.
Tyler had watched the competition on his computer at home.
Actually, he had watched every event that Dmitrii had been in since he’d been about fifteen.
Not because Dmitrii was an amazing skater, although he was, but because Dmitrii embodied hot in every way that Tyler’s hindbrain went to jelly over.
Now, he was not only in the same state as Dmitrii; he was in the same room.
Tyler’s mind went blank, just staring at the last person he had ever thought would be at his rink.
Coach Williamson looked up. “What do you need, Tyler?”
He’d been spotted, not that he had been hiding.
He had intended to just say goodbye to everyone and head home.
All of that had been forgotten the moment he had caught sight of Dmitrii’s eyes.
First, he didn’t know Dmitrii was still skating.
Second, he didn’t know Dmitrii was even in America, let alone Northern Virginia.
Third, well, nothing prepared him for breathing the same air as the star of so many of his ‘best’ dreams. “Oh, I just thought everyone had left already. Harris had me on the ice working on my quad Lutz, and that’s why I’m here so late.
” He left off the part about not having ever landed it on the ice before today.
Coach Truskel finally looked away from Dmitrii to look at Tyler. “Did you land it finally?”
And there went any chance of Dmitrii Lebedinsky thinking that Tyler was not still struggling with a jump that Dmitrii had mastered at fifteen.
“It wasn’t pretty, but I landed it.” He gave her a smile.
He’d been working on it for months, and she knew the hours that had been put into learning the skill.
“Good job. I look forward to seeing it tomorrow. We are almost done here. We’re just going to get Dmitrii on the ice for a quick run through.
Dmitrii, this is Tyler Garrett. He’s making the transition to seniors this season.
Tyler, this is Dmitrii Lebedinksy.” She almost managed to say the last name correctly.
It was close enough that no one corrected her.
“Oh, I know.” The words were out of his mouth before he thought.
Suddenly, positive that he seemed like some sort of creepy fan or something, he tried to smile.
“I saw a stream where you were skating.” Maybe if he said ‘a stream’ it would seem less weird than saying that he had seen every skate in the past three years.
“It is nice to meet you.” Dmitrii held out his hand as he took a step towards Tyler.
With a grin, using bravado to mask his nerves, Tyler took the other man’s pale hand. A handshake, probably not too different from any other time the Russian skater met new people, but Tyler felt his heart do a little flip. He was touching Dmitrii Lebedinsky’s hand.
“It’s nice to meet you, too.” Oh, this was a bad idea.
Tyler knew this was such a bad idea to be that close to those gorgeous green eyes.
It was all just fantasy in his mind, and he knew it.
He was only a no-name skater at a decent enough rink in Virginia who would skate at sectionals in the hopes of making it to nationals.
Dmitrii had been one of the names being whispered about for the next Olympics.
They were leagues apart. And that didn’t even touch on the fact that Dmitrii was drop-dead gorgeous.
“Tye, why don’t you catch up with Mary? She’s still in her office. She needs measurements for your costume.”
That was when he snapped back to reality with his coach’s words.
Nodding, he let go of Dmitrii’s hand. He tried not to act mortified that he had been holding it the entire time, which had to have been well beyond what was socially acceptable.
“Yeah, I’ll do that. Nice meeting you.” He smiled at Dmitrii, hoping desperately that he didn’t look too ridiculous.
It was all worth it though when he got a crooked smile back.
Tyler turned and left, not having any idea why no one had told him Dmitrii Lebedinsky was skating at his rink.
How could anything this surprising have been kept quiet?
Sure, Dmitrii looked different with his short hair, but he was Dmitrii Lebedinsky!
Everyone should recognize his skating – at least Tyler thought so.
He didn’t take long in getting measured for his costume, hoping to catch sight of Dmitrii again.
When he left the office, he heard music playing over the PA system.
He didn’t recognize it. It sounded similar to some other pieces he had heard at competitions, but he did not know what the piece was. It had to be Dmitrii’s program.
He made his way up to the light booth using one of the back hallways.
He didn’t want anyone to know he was watching, but he really wanted to get a peek at his obsession on the ice.
Dmitrii was still wearing the same black exercise clothes as before, but …
something was so very wrong. Both Coach Truskel and Coach Williamson were on the ice, but there was also another woman that Tyler didn’t know sitting and watching from the stands.
Dmitrii seemed like something was wrong.
He was standing in the middle of the ice, hands on his knees as he seemed to be catching his breath.
As Tyler stayed hidden, Dmitrii straightened up and moved back to the center of the rink.
He watched as both coaches skated a little ways away, waiting as the music looped around to start again.
This time, the starting position of a program was clear.
The grace with which Dmitrii brought his arm around, slowly rotating on one toe-pick, was a beautiful start.
There was a pause, and Tyler was certain that the pause wasn’t meant to be there.
However, whatever caused the hesitation seemed to end as Dmitrii started to skate backward.
It was clear this was an opening step sequence, but there was just something so wrong with it.
Parts of it were absolutely beautiful, but every time Dmitrii switched from skating backwards to skating forward, there was a pause.
The jumps were just marked, but that wasn’t surprising …
well, maybe a little. It wasn’t unheard of.
After two marked jumps, the first spin happened …
barely. The turn into the spin was rough, and it lacked speed.
But even if the turns were painfully slow and not enough rotations for competition, the positions were beautiful.
Tyler could only wish that he had the same flexibility as Dmitrii.
The train wreck of a program continued with two more marked jumps and a spin that actually went well.
This one was a camel spin, and the lines were good.
It wasn’t the fastest spin, but it was so much better than the speed on the first one had been.
Dmitrii marked two more jumps after that and then moved into the choreography sequence.
Finally, this program was looking like something.
Tyler wasn’t surprised that Dmitrii’s edge work was gorgeous.
He even had a beautiful deep hydroblade in the choreography that showed how he could get low enough to be just a hair’s breadth above the ice.
Then, every bit of speed and skill in the sequence fell apart as Dmitrii went to change his direction and abruptly pulled up short on his toe-picks.
Coach Truskel yelled something and Dmitrii started to move again, but the magic that had been building was lost. The program ended with two more marked jumps and then a spin that was nearly a disaster.
Tyler knew this last spin had to be the one with a jump entry.
Instead of the entry that was expected, the one that Tyler had seen in so many streams of Dmitrii’s skating, this wasn’t so much a flying leap into a spin but the most tentative of ‘hops’ that seemed more like a child performing their first program would do.
It had no speed to it, and everything about it was awkward and slow.
When it was over, both coaches congratulated Dmitrii, and Tyler didn’t know why.
He didn’t stay to find out. Instead, he grabbed his bag and left by the same back way he had reached the light booth.
He didn’t want anyone to know he had seen Dmitrii skate.
He wasn’t sure why, but he was almost positive that this program was not meant to be seen by anyone.
There was no other reason for doing a program at this time of the evening in the locked rink.