Chapter 4 #2
She gave me a tentative smile. “I’m going to give it a shot. You guys seem so pumped that I don’t want to miss it.”
By the time the ride came to a stop, she and Brandon were both clearly regretting their decision to tag along.
Brandon practically leapt out of his seat as soon as the bar lifted and made his way down the steps back to the ground quickly.
I followed on his heels, struggling to keep up with my short legs.
“Wait up!” I called. He didn’t slow down.
Maybe the noise of the crowd kept him from hearing me.
When I finally caught up with him, I rested a hand on his arm. “You good?”
“How did you enjoy that?” he asked. He shook his head, but whether it was at me or at himself for agreeing to go on it, I wasn’t sure. “I think I need a drink.”
I unzipped my bag and reached for my wallet. “Let me buy you one. It’s the least I can do after you did that for me.”
He started to reach for the money, but suddenly dropped his hand. “Don’t worry about it.”
The reason Brandon suddenly was too proud to take my money immediately became clear. “Don’t worry about what?” Dom asked, stopping a foot to my left. He had his arm over Emma’s shoulders. She looked a little green. Clearly, she hadn’t liked that any more than Brandon had.
“Nothing,” Brandon said. “I’m just going to grab a drink. Are you guys going to wait here?”
As he walked off, Emma turned towards me. “Bathroom break?” she asked. “There’s not much of a line here.”
“Might as well,” I said. It was a rare sight for a ladies’ room, and it would kill time while Brandon was gone.
There ended up being a short line, but it moved quickly. I struggled to come up with something to say as we shuffled along, but thankfully Emma kept the conversation moving. “So you guys think you’re going to go to the Winter Games? That’s so cool.”
“Hopefully,” I said. Standing beside her, I realized just how short I was in comparison.
Dom had never had any trouble getting girls, even ones that were as tall and gorgeous as her.
It had bothered me endlessly the first year or two we had been partners, but I had moved past that point.
Sure, I still found it unsettling to see him with a romantic partner.
But I was no longer overcome with jealousy.
Feeling awkward that he was focused on somebody else was only natural when I was used to it being the two of us.
“When will you know for sure?” she asked, snapping me back to the present.
“Not for a while,” I explained. “Nationals isn’t until January. There’s plenty of time between now and then for something to change.”
“Yeah, but my friend said you’re the best,” Emma said. “She was so excited when she found out I got a date with Dom. She said that he is so good and is a super famous skater.”
I shifted my weight from one foot to the other and averted my eyes.
Dom and I were the best ranked pair in the country.
Last season, there had been a comfortable margin between us and Kelly and Michaud.
Our chances of being national champions again was good, especially if we nailed a couple of the trickier elements we were working on, but I didn’t want to tempt fate.
A badly timed injury could take you out of contention, as Elodie had been devastated to find out four years ago.
And while we were currently ranked second in the world, behind Daria Petrova and Feodor Rybakov of Russia, there were plenty of competitions over the upcoming season to change things.
There was always the possibility that somebody had greatly improved in the past few months or had mastered a trick or jump that would get them a higher score.
Nobody in our team would talk about it out loud because, like all athletes, we had our superstitions, but I knew we had hope of medalling.
At the very least, we were likely to get one from the team event.
It wasn’t superstition that had made a pit settle in my stomach, though.
It had been the way her voice had flooded with excitement when she described Dom as famous that had made my stomach clench.
She wouldn’t be the first person to be interested in us, either as a friend or as a romantic partner, because of what we could do on the ice.
I had seen it happen before. There had been a couple of girls over the years who were into Dom as a famous athlete rather than him as a person.
His frustration when he’d realized it had made me angry.
Even now, a couple of years later, I still felt protective of him and like I needed to make sure it didn’t happen again.
Thankfully, I could excuse myself from the conversation since I was at the front of the line. I hurried through, washing and drying my hands before Emma was out. Figuring that she would be able to figure out where I’d gone, I walked out to look for the guys.
Brandon still wasn’t back, so Dom was leaning against a wall across the pathway on his own.
I hurried over, weaving my way through people to get there.
I was still conflicted about what I’d heard.
The day was supposed to be about us getting to know who the other was dating.
Dom hadn’t shown signs of being that serious about Emma before, but he had agreed it was a good idea.
The voice in the back of my head nagged that I would want to know if Brandon had made a comment about me being a famous skater, but I didn’t know how to bring it up.
Before I had the chance to decide if I was going to tell him, he looked at me and grinned. “I don’t think they are enjoying this as much as we are.”
The knot in my stomach disappeared. Clearly, I wasn’t the only one hoping things were going smoother. “I thought Emma would like it here when you suggested it!” I said by way of agreement.
“She said it could be fun,” Dom said defensively. “I can't read her mind. She should have said she wasn’t into it if she didn’t want to come.”
“To be fair, that was pretty much how it went with Brandon,” I admitted.
I’d excitedly told him about Dom’s idea as soon as we met up later the same evening.
Maybe I should have realized that Brandon didn’t have the same enthusiastic smile plastered on his face that I had, but I had attributed it to him feeling awkward about the meetup.
I’d thought he would have had the same reaction to dinner.
Dom shoved his hands in his front pockets, shoulders pulled back. “How could we choose to date people who have such boring tastes?”
Against my better judgement, I laughed and gave him a playful shove. “You can’t say that!” I scolded. I looked around, making sure that Emma or Brandon hadn’t snuck up on us and overheard. That would’ve sent the whole day to hell.
“I just did,” he said, grinning back. “Emma is great in a lot of ways, and I’m sure Brandon is too, even though he doesn’t seem like the roller coaster type, but they don’t have your love of flying.”
“To be fair, I wouldn’t describe most of what we were doing today as flying. It was a lot more like falling,” I argued.
“Lots of it was, yes,” he conceded, “but we also went upside down and spun around, both things that you seem to enjoy.”
I couldn’t argue with that. It was a good thing too, because Brandon was back with a beer in each hand. “I got you one too, Hazel,” he said, placing the cold can in my hand.
“Thanks,” I said, taking a sip before it could spill. Turning back to Dom, I asked, “Are you sure you don’t want to buy something? We could wait here for Emma while you go and then go meet up with you.”
Dom shook his head. “I’m good,” he said, pushing his hair out of his face. “Anyway, there’s Emma right now.”
"What next?" she asked, resting her hand by Dom's elbow.
I bit the inside of my lip. Shit. I'd gotten distracted when he made me laugh. Now the opportunity to bring up the conversation I'd had with Emma was gone for the time being.
“I think we need to finish the beers first,” I said.
Come to think of it, that might have been part of Brandon’s plan all along.
If we were drinking we’d have to take a break for a while.
It also meant I wouldn’t be able to ditch him to go on rides.
Not that I’d been planning on doing that, of course, but he may have been worried that I would.
Emma's posture visibly relaxed. “If you guys can find a place to sit, I want to find something to eat.”
Taking a break would dig into the limited time we had left, but if Brandon and Emma would both be happier doing that, I would need to accept it.
Anything that would put them more at ease, if it helped to convince them we should all get along.
If that meant filling up on food that was as terrible for our bodies as it was tasty and looking into the severely overpriced shops, so be it.
We had time to go on almost all the other rides before Emma had to leave.
Dom and I were even able to convince the other two to let us take one more ride on the Titan while they waited off to the side.
Every time I looked over, Brandon was standing silently while Emma talked.
That made me nervous. I hoped she was just a chatterbox and that he wasn’t being rude.
He had been quieter than he normally was all day.
I hoped it was because he wasn’t great around new people, not because of simmering anger or jealousy.
By the time we got off the last ride, I was ready to go home, if only to get out of the heat. With the long summer days, it was still as hot as ever at dinnertime. Sitting in the air-conditioned car came as a relief.
Brandon didn’t talk much when we first got in, but I didn’t mind.
I was chugging water like nobody’s business.
I hadn’t realized how thirsty I was while rushing from one place to the next, but once I was sitting still, it was all I could think about.
We were already several minutes away from the park when I said, “Thank you for doing this.” I reached over to rest my hand on Brandon’s thigh while he drove.
“It means a lot to me that you agreed to hang out with Dom and get to know him. Now that you’ve met him and Emma, are you less worried? ”
He didn’t take his eyes off the road, but his knuckles whitened against the steering wheel. Shit. “Do you seriously not see it?”
That was not the answer I’d been expecting. “Not see what?” I asked, confused. I had no idea what he was talking about.
His words were choppy, spoken between gritted teeth. “She looks like you!”
I blinked a few times, stunned. It was so preposterous that it was hard to take him seriously.
“What?” I asked. I tried to hold back my laughter, but struggled.
It was only going to make him more upset.
“She doesn’t look like me at all. First of all, did you see her body?
That’s not a trick question.” I couldn’t be mad at him for thinking Emma was hot.
She had the sort of figure most women wanted to have.
“She is tall and curvy, both things that I don’t have a dream of being.
Plus, she is way more pulled together than I ever am.
” In my well-loved t-shirt and ponytail, I had felt very plain next to her.
“You’re wearing makeup and short shorts too,” Brandon said, eyes darting to me.
“Now, yeah, because we were going out to do stuff in public. But if you saw me when I went to practice, you would not think that I would get anyone’s attention.
I don’t style my hair and I don’t put on makeup.
There’s not much point, because I turn into a sweaty mess really quickly.
Plus, everybody I work with has seen me at my most awkward.
If you don’t believe me, I will show you a picture of me at thirteen.
" I knew I was rambling, but I couldn't stop. "I was not cute, just scrawny with braces and hair I didn’t know how to control. There is no coming back from looking like that, even if you wanted to.”
Brandon didn’t look convinced. “You also have the same colouring as Emma. Your hair is a similar shade of brown and she had green eyes, too.”
“You are reading into this way too much,” I said.
Half of the people in the city had medium brown hair.
“I am with you. Dom is with Emma. You need to accept that he and I are going to be spending a ton of time together over the next year. I’m going to be travelling with him for competitions.
This partnership is a vital part of something I have been working towards my entire life.
I need you to accept that and be supportive. ”
His expression made it seem like there was a bad taste in his mouth.
He was not happy, but he understood the implication of what would happen if he didn’t learn to accept it.
His jealousy would not get in the way of my skating.
I didn’t expect him to love Dom or for them to become best friends.
But I did need Brandon to realize his fears were unfounded.
I had never given him a reason not to trust me. It was on him to find acceptance.