Chapter 13
Usually when I’m on an airplane my long legs are crammed up against the back of the seat ahead of me, but today there’s plenty of room.
We’re flying first class, thanks to the NFSC, and the seats are huge.
They’re arranged in foursomes, with two chairs facing one another, but the cabin is mostly empty so there’s plenty of places to spread out.
Despite that, people seem to gravitate toward each other, and Brayden and I, almost instinctively, sit down together.
Dad and Elisa are a couple of rows away, also in first class, even though the NFSC is not paying their way.
My whole body starts to overheat a little bit at the thought.
I can’t help it. It’s force of habit. I calculate in my head how much it’s costing us for them to sit in first class.
Their extra checked luggage. Their hotel rooms. Food and souvenirs in Paris, which for both of them doesn’t mean, like, a little Eiffel Tower figurine or a book from Shakespeare and Company.
No, it’ll be a bag from Louis Vuitton or a new suit from Versace.
It will easily eat up everything I earned in the last few weeks doing product placements with Brayden since everything gets deposited into our family’s joint account.
I twist around and look back toward Charles, sitting a few rows behind us.
When we land, I’ll ask him to set up more ads for during the competition, and if we win, then that might mean real sponsors, outfitting deals, the works.
And maybe…maybe I’ll ask him to set me up my own accounts, separate from Dad’s.
My heart rate goes back to normal. Yeah, that’s a good idea.
That’ll make sure I’m in control of everything coming in, but more importantly, everything going out.
“You in there?” Brayden asks, and I shake my head, trying to bring myself back completely.
“Yeah, sorry, what?”
“I asked how long the flight is.”
“Almost seven hours and remember, we’re losing time, so try to sleep.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he says, sending me a mock salute, but then catching the eye of the flight attendant as she passes us. She’s pretty, maybe in her early twenties, and when Brayden smiles at her, she stops. “Can we get two glasses of champagne? We’re celebrating!”
She narrows her eyes at him, but they’re twinkling with humor when she shakes her head no and continues down the row.
“We’re not supposed to be drinking,” I remind him when he starts to pout.
“There is no drinking age in international air.”
“Last I checked we’re still sitting on the tarmac at Logan, which is definitely still in the US.”
“Nervous?” he asks, totally out of nowhere.
“What? No, I’m not nervous.”
“I mean about Worlds.”
“Oh…”
Is that what I’m feeling? Nerves? It might sound a little obnoxious, but I’ve never been nervous before, not about a competition.
I know that’s a normal thing for most people, but competitions have never made me freak out.
Just, you know, literally everything else.
Competitions are my happy place. I can control everything while we skate, even when the world is turning upside down off the ice.
“I don’t know, maybe, a little bit?”
“About time there was something normal about you.”
“Hey!” I protest, and gently smack his arm with the back of my hand. “I’m extremely normal.”
The flight attendant comes back and hands us champagne flutes. She smirks at Brayden’s wide smile. “Sparkling cider, enjoy.”
“It’s not a bad thing, not being normal,” Brayden says, taking a sip of his drink. “You’re not like most people, especially not most girls.”
I shake my head, putting down my glass on the tray in front of him. “That’s so untrue, and completely sexist, by the way. You just know me better than most girls. There are lots of fantastic girls out there. Maybe if you saw a girl more than one time, you’d know that.”
Brayden shrugs. “Maybe.” He seems unconvinced.
“Have you ever even been on a second date? No, wait, have you ever been on a date at all? Or has it just been hookups?”
“Wow, low blow.”
“Sorry,” I say, cringing. Maybe that was too far?
“No, you’re right, though. I’ve never actually been on a date before. We should go on a date.”
“A date? You and me?”
“Yeah, why not? Dinner or something.”
“That doesn’t count, though,” I say. “We’ve had dinner together before, and besides, it wouldn’t be…”
“What?”
“It wouldn’t count if it was us.” I keep my voice low, looking around to make sure no one was paying attention, but when I turn back to him, he’s still looking at me, his face oddly earnest.
“What if I wanted it to count?” he whispers, his eyes darting away and then back again, unsure, and when was the last time I saw Brayden unsure of anything?
Oh God, what is he doing? This wasn’t part of the deal.
“Brayden,” I say, swallowing back the panic, and I have no idea what else to say, so the silence just grows between us.
The moment could get awkward—okay, it is awkward—but not for long, because Elisa is suddenly at our seats, rolling her eyes at us. “Could you guys detangle for like two seconds? Adriana, swap seats with me, Dad wants to talk to you.”
She falls into my seat as soon as I’m up and moving a few rows ahead where Dad’s riffling through a stack of papers, a tablet propped open on the tray table in front of him.
“Ah, Adriana, perfect,” he says, gesturing to the seat beside him. “We never got a chance to sit down and chat after I got home from Beijing, so I thought this would be a good time to do so. What do you think?”
“Um, okay?” I ask more than answer, my mind still reeling from the last few minutes.
“It’s the start of a new Olympic quad, so it’s important to set up expectations and our goals for the next four years.
Obviously, you’re well on your way toward following in my footsteps, but I always like to discuss everything beforehand, make sure it’s all laid out so there’s no confusion as things become more high stakes. ”
“Sure, that makes sense,” I say, furrowing my eyebrows, trying to read what’s on the pages in front of him, trying to focus on this instead of the boy a few rows behind me.
They look like a mix of financial statements and maybe some projections too.
I see next year and the year after that at the top of some of the papers.
“I just want to make sure you understand the importance of upholding the family’s legacy and how important it is for us to stick together.
This past year’s results were obviously disappointing, but I know I can count on you to do better.
It’s time we had another banner to hang from the rafters, and since ice dancing has come such a long way in the last few years, I would very much like to see your name enshrined up there with mine and your mother’s. ”
“I want that more than anything.” That, at least, is something we agree on.
“We can go over the details after this competition, obviously, but I just wanted you to be prepared. With my help, you can do great things and as you know, we’ll need those sponsorships to keep flowing in if we want to restore Kellynch to its former glory.”
“Exactly,” I agree, but I feel like his definition of glory and mine don’t quite line up.
His probably involves construction on a second rink and who knows what else.
Mine looks like a steady paying down of whatever debt we owe and making sure our house doesn’t get mortgaged and then foreclosed on because we can’t pay our bills. “But…”
“But?” he asks, raising his eyebrows. I know he and Elisa had chats like this all the time, especially once she became an Olympic contender, and I’m guessing she never even uttered that word.
“But remember, since I am an ice dancer,” I say, pretending to not notice his flinch, “it’s not just me involved. Brayden’s a part of this partnership and he needs to have a say too.”
I feel bad, using him as a buffer here, but he’ll be cool with it. He knows how my dad can get. Except…maybe things are different now. I don’t even know what just happened. How can I know how he’ll react to this?
“Brayden is smart enough to know what’s good for him.”
“Yes, he is,” I agree, but again, I’m pretty sure we don’t mean the same things. “I, uh, promised Maria I’d sit with her for some of the flight, okay?”
“Oh, of course,” Dad says, waving me away with a grin.
Elisa’s still in my seat, so after shooting Brayden an apologetic look over her head, I keep my word and find Maria a few rows back, mostly relieved I won’t have to sit next to him because I still have no idea what the hell I’m going to say.
“Yes, finally,” she says as I land in the seat next to her. “I need your help.” The captain makes an announcement that we’re about to take off, so we buckle our seatbelts.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah, I want to get over Charlie and the best way to do that is to find someone else to like.”
“Uh, I’m not sure if that’s…I think the best way to do that is to recognize that Charlie’s just going to be a good friend.”
“Well, duh, I already did that part, are you not paying attention? But now I’m ready to find someone else and since you and Brayden are together, I figured you’re the best person to go to about it.
I think it should be Ben Woo. And before you say anything about his ex-boyfriend, I already confirmed that he’s bi.
I am not making the same mistake twice. He’s kind of quiet, but maybe that’s a good thing, you know?
Since Charlie’s the opposite of quiet. Or maybe Jimmy.
He’s really cool too and he didn’t just get out of a relationship. ”
“Well, you could talk to them, I guess. That’s the best way to get to know someone. Figure out if you like the same things, other than skating, obviously, or if he makes you laugh or…”
Maria wrinkles her nose. “I kind of want to figure out if either one of them wants to make out with me.”
I laugh. “Yeah, that’d be a good sign too.”