Chapter 13
Somehow, Tyler had managed to watch Dmitrii skate and not do anything stupid.
He had held his breath at the double Toe-Loop, and no, he was not going to admit that he had been impressed by a jump he himself had mastered years ago.
It wasn’t the jump, though. It was seeing Dmitrii could even do the jump after what had happened.
He saw how hard the other man was working.
He knew a little about the long hours, and he was going to celebrate those achievements.
Standing in the hotel room was a completely different feeling.
This was where Dmitrii stayed and slept.
The man was naked on the other side of the door to the bathroom, and Tyler was doing his best to not pay attention to that fact.
Shaking off thoughts of naked Dmitrii, Tyler sat down on the couch and pulled out his phone.
He sent a quick message to his mother, so she’d know where he was and what was going on.
That Dmitrii was grabbing a quick shower wouldn’t be much of a surprise.
He looked around the hotel room. Maybe it was a little surprising that there wasn’t really anything in it.
However, aside from the two suitcases, a skate bag, and the laptop, there was nothing showing anyone was staying here.
The laptop was at least personalized. Stickers covered the back.
Some were for things Tyler knew. Others were for things that were written entirely in Russian, and he had no idea what they were for.
It looked like a completely normal laptop.
As he waited, he let his fingers play with his phone.
He didn’t have any texts except the one from his mom that acknowledged his own message.
There were no emails or anything he could really look at.
His social media was all pretty dead too.
That was the bad thing about summer, not a lot was going on.
He let his mind wander. The king-sized bed was unexpected, or maybe that was normal when there was only one bed in a hotel like this.
He needed to not think about things like that, even if he was only feet away from where Dmitrii slept.
Tyler tried to convince himself that he was just being friendly.
No, he was ‘just being friendly’ to someone he had a stupid crush on.
He didn’t even know if Dmitrii liked boys or not, so this crush thing was stupid, and Tyler knew he had to shove those feelings down.
All he was doing was inviting another skater at the rink home so that his mom could feed them. It was called being a good host.
Maybe it was just that he hadn’t dated anyone in over a year, and now that he had some free time happening, one of his favorite skaters was in town.
He didn’t even know how long Dmitrii would be in Virginia.
Tonight was just going to be a completely normal night.
This was just dinner. It wasn’t even anything exciting.
His dad was just going to be making burgers and hotdogs on the grill on the back patio, and they’d probably even eat outside.
It was summer, so there was no reason not to enjoy it.
He had almost calmed down when the water shut off, and he was right back to thinking about Dmitrii stepping out of the shower.
The temptation to look at old skating videos of the man had been resisted.
Tyler had especially resisted the temptation to look at the video of the accident.
He didn’t have to look, he remembered it.
He’d been watching the competition live when Dmitrii had been skating and not looking like his normal self.
Normally, Dmitrii was grace incarnate. The way the man moved his arms, the way he stretched into all his spins, the way he seemed to defy gravity on his jumps.
Yes, Tyler had some posters of Dmitrii. They weren’t up on his walls or anything; well, one of them was.
Most were just tucked away – collectibles.
Well, he tried to convince himself they were collectibles.
Dmitrii’s skating at Europeans had been wrong.
There were no other words to describe it.
The short program had been almost twenty points under Dmitrii’s normal scores.
Tyler had worried and tried to find out if something was wrong, but no one had said anything on social media.
Dmitrii hadn’t posted a single thing about Europeans either.
Then, the next day, the accident had happened.
Tyler lost his train of thought when Dmitrii walked out of the bathroom.
He had changed into jeans and a T-shirt, but they looked a lot nicer on than Tyler had expected.
He had not thought the jeans would be that tight, or maybe it was just how well-muscled Dmitrii’s legs were.
“Oh, hey.” He stood up, smiling as he looked at Dmitrii.
Yes, Dmitrii was looking very good. Tyler forced himself to look away.
He did not want to be caught staring. “Also, sorry in advance for my family. It can be a little hectic.”
“That’s fine. I mean, the only thing you’re competing against is me sitting here and streaming shows on my laptop.” There was almost a laugh at the end, as if Dmitrii was trying to joke and not being sure if he had conveyed his sense of humor.
Joking was good. It meant Tyler wasn’t coming across as some weirdo. Laughing, he relaxed a bit as he led Dmitrii out to the car again. “It’s not that far. I promise, everyone was telling the truth when we all said that you were right on my way home.”
Sliding back into the driver’s seat, Tyler waited for Dmitrii and then headed to his house.
“My dad is just making hamburgers and hotdogs. I don’t know what else my mom has planned for food.
She’s a great cook though, so it should be good, whatever it is.
Well, most things. Breakfast is not her strong point, but my dad is good at that, so it’s fine. ”
“I can barely manage breakfast, but at least the hotel has one. I really should get to a grocery store tomorrow so I can stop ordering delivery. The room has everything I need to cook.”
“I hate cooking.” Tyler laughed a little.
“At my high school, we were all required to take life skills, and it was this class where we had to learn about bank accounts, and a little bit of things like some sewing, but most of it was just cooking. I was so bad at it. I burned everything. It was so bad, I actually managed to set off the fire alarm. The teacher got the fire put out, but we all had to go outside until the fire department turned off the alarm and said it was safe.”
That had Dmitrii laughing, seeming to finally be relaxed. “Okay, I will remember that. Tyler is not allowed to cook. Ever.”
Tyler turned off the main road onto a little side road lined with tall trees and colonial-style houses.
So many neighborhoods and subdivisions in the area looked the same as if they were on a poster advertising living in the suburbs.
A few blocks later, he was pulling into the driveway of a two-story house with a two-car garage.
It was clear this area of town was more than a little upper middle-class.
Skating wasn’t cheap, though, so it was to be expected.
Both Tyler and Dmitrii stepped out of the car, and Tyler led him to the front door.
“Welcome to the house.” Tyler smiled as he looked back at Dmitrii, trying to ignore how the man’s clothes clung to his lean muscles.
He opened the door, instinctively reaching down to stop the dog from running out.
“Hey hey, no you don’t.” Tyler grabbed the cocker spaniel by the collar as he kept her from running off.
“This is Molly. She’s my sister’s dog. Molly, this is Dmitrii. ”
“She is very cute.” Dmitrii knelt down, saying hello to the dog and giving her a little scritch behind the ear.
Tyler felt his cheeks flush as he watched Dmitrii kneel down. Between the smile and how kneeling highlighted every good thing that man’s jeans were doing to his body, Tyler forgot how to speak for a moment.
Molly struggled to get closer to Dmitrii, so Tyler let her.
The smile on Dmitrii’s face wasn’t fake at all, and the words he was saying to the dog weren’t in English.
Tyler felt himself blushing even more. The last time he had heard Dmitrii speaking Russian had been on a stream two years ago when they had been interviewing the juniors at some Russian competition.
He didn’t remember which one. It did something to him though, hearing him speaking like that.
Something about the way his voice was just a little deeper, and his words just a little smoother.
Tyler had no idea how he had ended up hanging out with someone he had such a crush on. Never had he thought that his crush would end up in the living room foyer petting his sister’s dog. Somehow this had happened anyway, and Dmitrii looked up at him with a smile. “She’s very sweet.”
“She is. I think she likes you.” He wanted to say that Molly wasn’t the only one who liked Dmitrii, but he didn’t.
With a few more words of Russian, Dmitrii finally stood up, and Tyler led him further into the house before calling out, “Mom?”
A woman’s voice answered in the distance. “We’re on the deck, sweetie!”
Tyler led the way through the kitchen and to a French door that led out to a large deck off the back of the house. The smell from the grill already wafted through the air.
As soon as they walked out onto the deck, Molly went running past them to jump up onto a teenage girl.
As the girl knelt down to pet the dog, Tyler gestured to her.
“Dmitrii, this is my sister Grace. That guy in the backyard is my brother Max. This is my mother, Hellen, and my father, Damian.” He gestured to everyone as he introduced them.