Chapter 26 #3
Then Tora reached down toward Anfisa, taking her hand and pulling her up onto the center podium beside her. Anfisa laughed softly and climbed up willingly.
Then Tora turned toward Alisa and held out her hand too.
Alisa refused to take it.
Anfisa awkwardly stepped in and reached her own hand toward Alisa instead.
Alisa finally accepted it through clenched teeth and a sharp, restrained glare before stepping up onto the first-place podium beside them for the official photographs.
The journalists immediately surged closer, microphones stretching toward the girls from every direction while camera shutters exploded around them.
Alisa wanted nothing more than to disappear through the damn ice beneath her skates.
“I can’t do this anymore… I can’t…” Alisa whispered desperately, her voice trembling apart.
Then Tora reached up slowly and removed the gold medal from around her own neck.
Before Alisa could even understand what was happening, Tora carefully placed the medal over her shoulders instead.
Alisa immediately began crying harder.
“I don’t deserve the gold,” Tora said quietly.
“You deserve it more than me, Alisa… You deserve the whole damn world.”
Alisa stared down silently at the medal resting against her chest, her vision blurred with tears.
“Forgive me, darling.” Tora pulled her gently into an embrace.
This time Alisa didn’t resist. She buried her face against the crook of Tora’s neck and cried quietly while Tora stroked the bare skin of her back with slow, comforting movements.
Anfisa immediately jumped down from the podium and turned toward the journalists swarming around them.
“You got your photos already? Great. Then leave the athletes alone and let them breathe for five minutes! Be human!” she barked sharply.
Strangely enough, the reporters actually listened this time. Perhaps it was Anfisa’s terrifyingly authoritative tone. One by one, they backed away from the ice.
Tora and Alisa remained sitting together on the podium while the arena slowly quieted around them.
Tora kept trying to calm her, whispering softly against her hair, until emotion finally overwhelmed her too. She lifted Alisa’s face carefully in one hand and pulled her closer.
Then she kissed her.
Alisa’s heart seemed to explode all at once—fear, despair, grief, humiliation, love… overwhelming love for this impossible girl.
And despite everything, Alisa kissed her back.
For one tiny moment, the world disappeared.
Then voices shattered it apart again.
“Oh my God, they kissed!”
“Alisa Voronkova was so devastated after losing gold that she kissed her rival?!”
“The champion comforted her with a kiss?”
“What kind of support is that?!”
The words came from every direction at once.
Alisa froze in horror as she realized every camera in the arena had turned toward them again.
She pulled away immediately, panic written all over her face.
But Tora only smiled softly and rested her forehead against Alisa’s, holding her carefully by the shoulders.
“We did it,” Tora whispered. “We won.”
“You won, Tora,” Alisa replied bitterly, still tasting her on her lips. “I lost.”
“You won in my eyes. And silver isn’t losing, how many times do I have to tell you that?”
“A loss,” Alisa repeated stubbornly.
Tora laughed quietly beneath her breath. “You’re impossible.”
“That’s how I was raised.”
“Oh, that Russian spirit that never gives up.”
“That’s how I was born.”
“And that’s exactly why I love you the way you are…”
Tora paused suddenly.
Then, very softly whispered: “Will you marry me?”
Alisa blinked and turned toward her so sharply it was almost comical.
“What?”
For a second she genuinely looked like she had stopped understanding language entirely.
“Did you… did I hear you correctly?”
“I’m serious.”
Tora reached behind her and suddenly pulled out a small velvet box. She opened it carefully, revealing a delicate ring with a large teardrop-shaped gemstone that sparkled beneath the arena lights.
Alisa completely froze.
“I… T-Tora…” she stammered helplessly, staring at the ring like it wasn’t real. “Where did you even get a ring from?”
Tora laughed quietly, nervousness finally breaking through her confidence.
“Will you marry me already, Alisa Voronkova?”
Still speechless, Alisa looked around in disbelief, only to realize that Tora’s parents were standing nearby, watching them both with warm smiles on their faces.
“I’ll marry you… but not because you’re Norwegian,” Alisa said through tears, trying to laugh weakly. “Although it feels like my whole country has abandoned me…”
Tora smiled softly and slid the ring onto Alisa’s finger.
“You’re completely mine now.”
Alisa started crying again, though she wasn’t even sure anymore whether it was from happiness, exhaustion, grief, or relief. Everything inside her had become too tangled to separate.
Then she opened her eyes and looked toward Tora’s parents standing nearby. She recognized Tora’s mother immediately from photos, but she had never met her father before.