Chapter 5
Alisa was standing under the shower in the hotel after the award ceremony, it was almost eleven o’clock, and she had planned to simply go to bed after such a difficult day and maybe not wake up, although that, of course, was not entirely certain.
Even though the coach had quickly praised them during the evening briefing and said that they had nothing to worry about, that they would continue training and that, in reality, the difference of one point was not so great, which meant they would still go to the Olympic qualifiers if they continued to plow ahead in the same spirit and work tirelessly for the next competitions, Alisa still felt unbearably nervous.
Her clothes were scattered across the bathroom floor, over the snow-white heated marble tiles, because she had come back late after deciding to walk around the city one more time, since tomorrow they would already be flying home and this could be her last evening here, unless, of course, she wanted to wake up at six in the morning and go wandering through the city alone, because Lev had immediately said that he intended to sleep as long as possible and maybe even until the flight itself, which was scheduled for four in the afternoon.
Then Alisa suddenly heard a strange sound.
An odd ringing.
“A phone?” she said aloud in surprise, because it had been so long since she had spoken on one of those old hotel telephones; the last time she had used anything like that had probably been with her grandparents, and they were gone now, which for some reason immediately filled her with a quiet sadness.
She quickly stepped out of the shower, wrapped herself in a towel, and hurried across the bathroom to the ringing phone.
“Hello?” she said softly.
“Alisa?”
The voice was familiar.
It was Tora.
“Yes… what is it?”
“I’m having a party tonight, in an hour, at midnight. The winners will be there, and you’re invited. Along with a few of my friends.”
Alisa frowned and stared at the white wall in front of her.
“I don’t think that’s…” she began uncertainly, not even knowing what she wanted to say. Thank you for inviting me? But she had just gotten out of the shower, her hair was still wet, and she had been planning to fall asleep by eleven like an old woman.
She swallowed nervously.
“Oh, come on,” Tora said lazily. “You don’t get invited to skater parties every day. I’ll even let you see the gold medal up close.”
Alisa clenched her jaw.
“I don’t…” she exhaled so loudly that even through the phone Tora probably heard it.
“Come on,” she insisted again, “let’s not play hard to get. I’ll be there to pick you up in fifteen minutes.”
And then she hung up.
Alisa stared at the receiver for a second, then gasped, dropped it back into place and almost ran into the shower again to quickly rinse the rest of the shower gel and conditioner from her skin and hair.
A party?
What kind of party?
God, what am I even doing…
Should she call Tora back and tell her not to come? But she was probably already on her way.
Damn.
Alisa could feel herself beginning to panic, because the last time she had been to anything remotely like a party was when she was sixteen or something, when her older sister had forged documents and dragged her, still underage, into a nightclub where they had spent the entire night with her sister’s adult friends, and although it had actually been incredibly fun, it had also been full of unpleasant men with beards who kept bothering Alisa until she wanted to disappear, and afterward that one experience had been enough for her to avoid clubs forever.
But maybe this wasn’t that kind of party.
Maybe this was something at Tora’s house, or at least something smaller, something completely different.
Still nervous, Alisa quickly washed everything off, dried her hair in a rush, leaving it loose around her shoulders, then went to her suitcase and began desperately searching for at least something that looked remotely appropriate, but there was nothing except comfortable sportswear, long T-shirts, jeans, and sport jackets.
She was absolutely not prepared for any kind of party.
In the end she put on the most ordinary thing she had: blue jeans, a plain white T-shirt, and over it her white sports jacket with the name and emblem of the Russian figure skating team from the ice palace where she trained and from the club she belonged to, telling herself that if there were skaters there, they would probably also be dressed in something similar and not in cocktail dresses or elegant suits.
At least she desperately hoped so.
And when she stepped outside the hotel, a bright pink Gel?ndewagen was waiting at the entrance, decorated with rhinestones arranged in the shape of skate blades over the hood and doors, and Alisa immediately understood that it could only belong to Tora, although for some reason she still had not expected something quite so extravagant.
Tora rolled down the window and waved at her with a grin.
“Get in, baby.”
She opened the door, and Alisa climbed onto the soft white seats covered in fur. She immediately took off her jacket because it was so warm inside the car.
Some quiet phonk music was playing softly in the car, something slow and unobtrusive, and Tora nodded her head lightly to the rhythm while they drove in silence, slipping between the streams of cars and gradually moving farther and farther away from the city center.
“Do you live far away?” Alisa finally asked, glancing out the window.
“No, not really, about twenty-five minutes from the arena.”
For a couple of minutes they drove along the embankment, and Alisa looked silently at the harbor, at the lights reflected in the dark water, at the clean streets and the large flakes of snow slowly falling from the sky, and everything around looked so beautiful, so warm and sparkling, that she suddenly wanted, strangely and almost painfully, to live here at least once in her life, not for a few days, not as a guest passing through, but for real.
“I tried to call Lev too, but he didn’t answer.”
“Well, he said he’d be asleep, so I decided not to bother him.”
“Ah… right.”
“Yeah.”
Alisa pressed her lips together, because she honestly had no idea what to say next; the whole day had flattened her like an asphalt roller, and even though the coach had calmed her down and insisted that everything was fine, that nothing terrible had happened and that they still had a chance, something inside her was still burning with anger and disappointment.
“What does it feel like,” she asked quietly after a pause, “to win gold?”
Tora glanced at her briefly and shrugged one shoulder.
“I don’t know. I’ve kind of lost count already, but it feels good every time.”
“You’ve lost count?” Alisa asked, surprised.
“Yeah. Loke and I have been skating together for six years, we’ve won a lot of medals at different competitions, but we’ve never made it to the Olympics, so now we’re planning to finally do it through the next qualifiers.
It’s only a couple of months until 2025, and then suddenly it’ll be February 2026 before you even realize it. ”
So they were going too. Well, that was obvious, surely after so many gold medals there could not be the other way but to go to the Olympics.
Something inside Alisa seemed to tighten painfully at the thought, because if they met there again, if they had to compete against them again at the Olympics, then perhaps they would simply destroy each other, and Alisa herself would lose her mind long before then, because that one damn point would haunt her forever, and if the same thing happened there, on the biggest stage in the whole world, she wasn’t sure she would survive it.
“And you?” Tora asked, glancing at her again. “You’re going too?”
“Well…” Alisa shifted uneasily in her seat. “We’re planning to go to the qualifiers too, but first we still have to get approved at home and then also get some good results in other competitions, so I don’t know if it’ll work out.”
“It will,” Tora said simply. “You skate well together. There’s chemistry between you. Are you dating or something?”
“No, of course not, with him?” Alisa frowned immediately, perhaps more sharply than she meant to.
Tora laughed.
“Sure,” she said with a grin. “The girl who definitely isn’t a lesbian. Totally believe you.”
“No, I’m not talking about that,” Alisa said quickly, feeling herself flush. “It’s just that we’re only partners, and I would never… with him… ugh.”
“Well, he’s handsome, strong, and clearly crazy about you, so why not?”
“I just…” Alisa looked away toward the window. “I don’t know.”
“Okaaay…” Tora drawled, stretching out the word teasingly.
They had already driven past the arena where they had competed, and after that the city gradually began to thin out around them, the streets becoming emptier, the lights more scattered, and soon they seemed to be driving out toward the mountains.
Alisa couldn’t tell exactly where they were going, but the landscape outside the window was beautiful in a strange, severe way, dark forests, snow-covered slopes, lonely lights somewhere far away, and although at first glance it all seemed cold and distant, something about it unexpectedly pulled at her, as if some quiet voice inside whispered that it was good here, that she could belong here, even though she was impossibly far from home.
“Well, here we are,” Tora finally said.
They stopped in front of a large two-story house where several cars were already parked, which meant there were definitely people inside.
The house itself was huge, minimalistic, all in black and dark gray tones, with enormous windows and old pine trees surrounding it on every side, and it looked less like a house and more like one of those expensive cottages hidden deep in the forest.
Alisa reached for the door, pulling her jacket back on, but before she could open it, Tora had already gotten out, walked around the car, and opened the door for her, holding out a hand so she could climb down more easily from the high seat.
“Thank you.”
“Anything for a pretty girl.”