Chapter 15
With the short program behind me, I slept well.
There was nothing we could do to change it now.
People online would say whatever they wanted about it, but I didn’t have to read the comments.
In fact, I was doing my best to avoid interacting with anybody outside of my small skating bubble until after the free skate.
I would not screw up my newfound peace with careless scrolling.
Dom didn’t need to tell me that he had slept better that night. The dark circles from the day before were mostly gone. “Did you check what they’re saying about us?”
I made a face. “Are you crazy? I don’t need other people in my head today.”
Dom’s grin reached his eyes. “I was just making sure. I didn’t give in to the temptation to check all my notifications and messages. I wanted to make sure that you could resist the pull, too.”
Once we started getting ready for the free skate, all potential distractions faded into the background.
There was something about being in the building you were going to compete in to keep you focused.
Everywhere I looked, there was something to keep my purpose for being there at the forefront of my mind.
The hours before the skate were a sort of organized chaos.
Everyone had a look of determination on their face as they went about their business.
The constant movement around me made my adrenaline rush.
Dom and I spent our time together until we had to get dressed.
Since we were scheduled to skate after the other pairs, the locker room was packed with other female skaters and the people they brought with them by the time I entered.
I saw a few choreographers and a couple of coaches, plus women who would skate into the evening in the ladies’ or the ice dance events.
The women I would compete against were easy to distinguish from the rest, even if I hadn’t known their names and faces.
My competitors were the only others with their performance makeup on and in new, never before competed in dresses rather than athletic gear.
As we moved, the fluorescent lights made our costumes sparkle.
When I left the room to meet Dom, I had my hands shoved in the pockets of my team jacket.
I had it zipped up to my collarbone to help fight the chill that permeated the less crowded areas of the building.
Lord knows that my dress wasn’t going to do anything to keep me warm on its own.
It was a showstopper with a keyhole back, lace around the shoulders, and a short, angled skirt that fell a couple of inches below my butt.
The red of the team jacket clashed terribly with the burgundy of my dress, but that was par for the course.
I hadn’t had many outfits over the years that co-ordinated with the vibrant colour.
In the days leading up to the competition, Dom and I had walked around the arena to scope out a place to keep to ourselves in the minutes before we had to skate.
There were never many places you could go that were truly quiet or private.
The best you could hope for was a less trafficked place for practicing or getting in the zone, whichever was your preferred thing to do before going on the ice.
We wanted to be far enough away from where we walked out that we wouldn’t have too many people coming and going, but we also didn’t want to be in the middle of nowhere.
There was a balance to be struck, where we could look at other people if we wanted to, but where they wouldn’t be in our faces.
We ended up finding an area somewhat to the side of the main hallway, down a tiny corridor that led to a locked room I guessed was an office.
It seemed better than the other spots, so we made a beeline there after meeting up.
We only left once it was time for our warm up.
It meant that we didn’t get to watch the first skaters of the day, but that was fine with me.
As I skated around the ice with the other pairs in the final flight, I instinctively fell back into my competition mindset.
It didn’t matter what I was wearing or who was watching.
All that mattered was Dom and the skate ahead.
I flung myself into the air for a Lutz before looking for Dom. We had work to do.
We were the last pair scheduled for the day, which meant we had to stay focused between the end of warmups and when we would be called.
Dom and I stepped off the ice one after the other, but let each other focus on our preferred preparation routines.
I shoved my ear buds into my ears and I turned on my pre-selected playlist of favourite songs.
Dom would turn into himself, trying to focus on what we were about to do.
I turned the music up as we settled into a closer spot, waiting to be called.
As I focused on the song, singing along in my head, I bounced slightly, trying to get all of my nervous energy out.
I needed something to distract me now. When I over thought things, everything went to hell.
Dom, on the other hand, had turned inward.
He told me that he needed to visualize our program before we would go out, as though picturing it perfectly in his head would keep something from going wrong when the time came.
I thought it was dumb, but he probably thought my routine was dumb, too.
Not like we would know the difference, anyway.
Neither of us would ever be willing to change our rituals to test our superstitions.
The stakes were too high. And so I let him stand beside me, occasionally turning or moving his hands as though to catch me, without disturbing him.
I couldn’t tell you how long it was before Olga came into view, beckoning us with a flick of her slender fingers.
We broke off our routines in unison. Dom and I walked beside each other after her, a couple feet apart but still within easy reaching distance.
We were a team. If we needed to, we could help each other.
And if we didn’t need help, which seemed far more likely when we were just walking, we would present a united front.
I pulled my headphones out of my ears and slipped them into the pocket of my jacket. I zipped the pocket shut, even though Mark or Olga would hold it the entire time I was on the ice. Habit, maybe, or fear of losing them and not having them for part of my routine later if I needed them.
Without comment, Dom and I slid off our skate guards at the same time.
The marks of the previous team were read over the speakers as I handed my skate guards off, but I let the numbers go in one ear and out the other.
The applause of the audience didn’t tell me much.
The only time people would boo was if they thought the marks weren’t high enough.
It happened most often for the skaters from the host country and the crowd favourites, but it was known to happen for others too.
It was one of the things I liked about the skating community.
They were nothing if not supportive of the athletes they watched.
Dom leaned over slightly and quietly said, “God, they are taking forever to announce us.”
I nodded. “It sure feels that way.” I ran my hands down the fabric of my skirt unnecessarily.
The fabric was made to be wrinkle resistent, so it wasn’t like I was making a difference by running my hands over it.
Having something to do with my hands helped during the wait helped calm me down, though.
I made sure to leave enough time with my hands at the sides for Dom to reach out for me, though.
When our names were read out, I fixed my posture as we stepped onto the ice.
With a smile plastered on my face and a wave, we got settled.
I could feel my blood rushing as I waited for the music to start.
It seemed to take forever, with the adrenaline coursing through me urging me to move while my brain told me I had to stay still.
The opening notes of the music meeting my ears were a relief.
The performance somehow seemed easier than waiting for it to start.
We pushed off together, going through the simple opening moves.
We had run through them so many times that I didn’t need to think or count beats as I went.
My muscles had long since learned what I had to do in sequence, so I just did it.
Dom and I rounded one of the corners of the ice, then turned into position for the twist. After making so many attempts at the quad, the timing for the triple was much more relaxed.
I went down easily and extended my back leg, holding it for just a second before moving into the next steps.
Before I knew it, we finished our last steps as the music stopped.
I didn’t think I’d messed anything up and, while I couldn’t see everything Dom was doing, I didn’t think he had either.
When he screwed up during a skate I’d done cleanly, it was always immediately obvious from his expression after we had finished.
Neither of us had to apologize for screwing up, since we’d both been the one on either side of the equation many times over the years.
But even knowing that logically, it was hard not to feel the need to tell your partner that you were sorry their marks would suffer because of you.
The wide smile on Dom’s face made it clear to everyone that he was happy with how he had done.
We waved to the crowd from centre ice while doing our bows. I was breathing hard, but the cheers from the crowd helped keep me energized.
It was immediately clear from Mark’s face, waiting for us at the boards, that we had done well.
He pulled me into a hug as soon as I got off the ice.
“You did wonderfully,” he said into my ear.
Mark always tried to be encouraging after a skate.
There was nothing we could do to change our score then, so he had the attitude that we should stay optimistic.
On the rare occasion that we had majorly screwed something up, he would encourage us to look onto the next skate.
But of his praises, “wonderful” was one of the better ones.
Only after the hug was I able to put my jacket on. As I zipped it up, I looked at Olga. She would never sugar coat anything. Even she seemed pleased, giving me a nod. “It was a good skate,” she said. From her, that was high praise.
At the kiss and cry, I sat down and glanced towards the Jumbotron before waving at the crowd again.
I looked into the camera and said, “Hi Mom, Dad, Levi, and Isaac!” and blew a kiss while we waited for the scores to come in.
Dom stood for a little longer, waving to the audience before he sat directly beside me.
He was so close that our arms were touching.
It was a small area, especially when you had four adults sitting in a row, but he was closer than was strictly necessary. If he noticed, Mark would be pleased.
When our score was read out, the crowd cheered even louder. “Oh my God,” I whispered to Dom as he pulled me in for a hug. My chin was pressed against his shoulder at an awkward angle, but I didn’t care.
“Personal best!” Dom said far too loudly for somebody whose mouth was only inches away from my ear.
I grinned. We knew that a personal best was a possibility.
It was a technically difficult skate, even without all the increased difficulty elements we had attempted in the off season.
Seeing the number was exhilarating, especially so early on.
We had the potential to shatter the score if we could bring the twist to a competition level.
I had hardly dared to think of us standing atop the podium in recent weeks, not wanting to get complacent, but it was impossible not to now.
When we got away from the cameras, Dom pulled me close again in another bone-crushing hug.
His shirt was against my face, which would have bothered me if it was anyone else.
After so much time skating and dancing together, I’d had to get used to his sweat.
“We might do this. We might really be able to do this.”
I pulled away, just far enough that I could look up at him. “Not if you smother me with your sweaty shirt.”
“Sorry,” he said, running a hand through his damp hair. “I’m just so excited.”
“Me too,” I said, grinning up at him. His cheeks were flushed and his eyes sparkled with excitement.
And then he looked down at me and gave one of the purest smiles I’d ever seen.
His happiness was contagious. My stomach flipped and I had the sudden urge to kiss him.
What was getting into me? “Everything went right this week.”
“It sure did,” Dom said, pulling me against him again. I felt his chin resting against the top of my head as he whispered, “Thank you. Thank you for kicking ass and being my partner and being so wonderful.”
My cheeks burned. “We did it together.”
“We did,” he murmured. “We are the perfect team. I couldn’t do it without you.”
I knew he was talking about our skating partnership, but there was something about his tone that made my breath catch in my throat.
I did the best to ignore the fluttering in my chest as he held me against him.
It felt like being home with his arms around me, but it was not helping me fight the urge to have his lips on mine.
I couldn’t be acting like I did in the early days of our partnership.
But even his scent, soap mixed with sweat, was making it hard to think straight.
We would have three weeks to prepare for the next competition, halfway around the world in Moscow.
There we would face our biggest obstacle on our quest for the gold medal: Evgenia Levedeva and Pavel Sorokin.
Not only would they be the ones with the advantage of being at home, but they were fan favourites the world over and the defending champions from four years ago.
It would take every bit of focus we could muster to beat them.
I couldn’t be acting like a flustered, infatuated twelve-year-old, for God’s sake.
We were excellent partners on the ice. It was undeniable.
So why did the voice in my head tell me that Dom’s head was in another place, too?