Chapter 16
The days grew ever shorter. The leaves had completely disappeared, with frost taking their place on the trees.
At least we made it past Halloween before we got our first snowfall of the year.
My friends posted pictures of themselves with cute boots and sweaters, holding onto coffee cups and grinning or group shots of them dressed in a variety of skimpy costumes.
I, on the other hand, had less time than ever to enjoy autumn.
I’d turned down all but one invitation to meet up.
The one time I saw my friends, I’d only stuck around for a couple of hours before calling it a night.
“You can’t leave already,” Kendra had said incredulously after checking her phone.
“It’s not even nine!” I might as well have announced that I wanted to eat at an early bird special.
“You’ve only had one drink!” She clearly didn’t find that an acceptable number for a university student enjoying a night with her friends.
“I have to be up early. We don’t have a lot of time left before we have to leave for Russia.” I had six days, to be exact. And in those six days, Dom and I planned to squeeze some sort of preparation into every possible minute.
Alexis gave an exaggerated pout. She was sitting cross-legged on a chair that had seen better days, with a thick sweater pulled around her body. “But you did so well! You were even better than you were when you skated for us.”
“Yeah, the announcer said it was your best score ever,” Kendra chimed in.
“I know, but we are trying something really hard,” I said. “One of the pairs that is going to be in Moscow is the best ranked team in the world. They won the gold medal at the last Winter Games, too. Dom and I need to be at our best to beat them.” My friends exchanged a look. “What?”
Kendra finished her glass before speaking. “You don’t need to stress out so much. Trust me. Your coach’s plan is working.”
Alexis nodded eagerly. “Yeah, you two totally looked like you wanted to fuck in that skate.”
“Alexis!” I exclaimed.
My friends devolved into a series of giggles. “I know that it’s a sensitive subject because of Brandon,” Alexis began after she had pulled herself together, “but it’s true. I thought that was the point, though! It’s a good thing. It means we bought the act.”
I opened my mouth to reply but shut it when what she said registered. Was my mind playing tricks on me? I hadn't drunk nearly enough to be mishearing things. “Wait. You bought the act?”
She shrugged. “Kind of,” she admitted. She fiddled with the bottom of her sweater. “I think it was the whole ‘I can’t take my eyes off you’ thing mixed with this.” She stood up and did an exaggerated hip wiggle, sticking her butt out way farther than I did in the routine.
“I bet that’s his favourite move,” Kendra teased. “At the very least, you have to appreciate the fact that it must be driving Brandon crazy that you got everyone talking about you guys.”
“I’m sure he has convinced himself that he was right to punch Dom in the face,” I said.
There was no doubt in my mind that he had been fuming after the skate was broadcast. “He would be way more focused on that than the fact that Mark’s plan to make us memorable proved super effective.
” I looked at my phone and pushed myself off the couch.
“I really do need to get going now, though.”
As disappointing as it was to miss events with friends, it paid off.
We came in second in Russia, only a few points behind Levedeva and Sorokin.
Second place wasn’t too disappointing, given the circumstances.
Being so close lit a fire under Dom, who spent the rest of the trip eager to get back to practising and pushing ourselves.
Since that wasn’t possible until we returned home, we spent the free day we had after our skate checking out the touristy spots around Moscow.
I may have missed out on Halloween parties with my friends, but I got some nice shots of Dom and me, together and apart, in Red Square.
I posted a series of photos and changed my picture to one of me that Dom had taken.
Evidence of the cold November wind showed on my pink cheeks and my tousled hair blowing over one of my shoulders.
My attempts to hold it down with my hand had been effective only at keeping it out of my face, but I liked the look of the shot, anyway.
By late November, I was desperate for a couple of consecutive days off.
In theory, I had the weekends. Mark and Olga both took Saturdays and Sundays to be with their families, so Dom and I were on our own if we wanted to work.
Having days not to think about skating or competitions was a relief.
The housework wasn’t going to do itself, unfortunately, so I was more than willing to have time off.
I would still hit a class at the gym or go for a run if the weather was nice, but that was so much less intensive than the week that it felt like a break.
My thoughts were free to wander during those activities, which was nice.
Dom had different ideas. If I would have agreed to it, he would have wanted to dedicate most of his waking hours to winning.
Being so close to the Russians had him even more fervent about mastering the quad twist. I had also walked in on him and Olga a few times, talking about how to squeeze a few extra points out of our lifts or our side-by-side spins.
Anything to close the gap. Olga seemed happier than ever to have somebody to talk to who wanted the level of execution she strived for.
On the last day of November, I found myself stifling yawns all morning.
I’d even had coffee before practice for once, but I felt like my brain was still dragging through molasses.
If Dom had noticed that I wasn’t much of a conversationalist, he didn’t acknowledge it.
He chatted enough for both of us through lunch.
I appreciated that it allowed me to focus on my meal, only needing to interject a sentence here or there.
Only when Dom started excitedly talking about what he wanted to work on over the weekend did I interject.
“I need a break,” I said without preamble. “We have been doing everything we can for weeks now. Don’t you want to just do something else? Something relaxing and less stressful.”
He took a giant bite of his apple and chewed it slowly. He looked like he was trying to figure out how to respond. “Like what?”
“Anything else,” I said. I put my fork down. “Don’t you want to see other faces and do something that doesn’t cause you any stress?”
“I don’t know if I should be offended by that or not,” he said.
“Not, obviously. I would be fine seeing you, but there needs to be other people around.” I thought for a moment, then added, “And it has to be somewhere other than at a rink. And the conversation can’t be focused on skating or competitions or the Winter Games.”
“That’s a lot of requirements.”
I shrugged. “Take it or leave it.”
He leaned back in his chair. “Well, my roommates are having a party on Saturday. I thought I’d have to bow out early, but if you don’t want to practice, I guess that’s not an issue.” After a beat, he said, “You want to come?”
“How many people are going to be there?” I asked.
“Way too many for me to have been able to sleep properly anyway,” Dom said. “They are doing it as an early Christmas thing, before Ethan’s family leaves for vacation and Wyatt’s exams start.”
I had been to one of the parties they claimed was for Christmas in the past. It had been almost indistinguishable from their other parties except for some guests wearing Christmas sweaters. “You mean they want an excuse to get wasted before not seeing each other for a while.”
Dom shrugged. “Why does it have to be one or the other? They aren’t mutually exclusive.”
I rolled my eyes. “Fine, I’ll come. As long as you don’t ditch me with a bunch of people I don’t know all night.” That was not my idea of a good time. Some people could talk to anyone, but I was not one of them.
“Bring Alexis and Kendra then if they’re free. But if you drink enough, you won’t care about how awkward it is to make small talk with strangers,” Dom chided.
“That’s quite the change in attitude from wanting to be in amazing shape and treating our bodies well that you’ve been pushing for.”
“Well, if we are going to take the weekend off entirely, we might as well do it right. I’m not going to half-ass our skating, but I’m also not going to half-ass having fun. Who knows when the next time we are going to have the chance to relax like this will be?”
“Probably three weeks later. You know, when it is actually Christmas.”
Dom scoffed. “Have you met my family? That’s not going to be relaxing. We are meeting up with all four of my mom’s siblings and their spouses and their kids on Christmas Eve. I’ll be lucky if I have a place to sit and if I don’t have to fight to get seconds at the best food.”
“Oh, it must be so difficult to be you,” I said sarcastically.
Knowing that I was going to have two and a half glorious days where I wouldn’t have to feel the pressures of the upcoming Grand Prix finals made it easier to get through the rest of the week.
The prospect of constantly pushing myself had been daunting.
With it gone, even if only for a short period of time, I was in better spirits.
Kendra and Alexis, never ones to turn down a good time, had both jumped at the invitation I extended on Dom’s behalf.
I’d received a text from Kendra that read, “Of course we’ll come!
It will be so nice to see you again!” with a heart emoji.
Alexis’s response had been similar, with an added comment about how she was ready to get her flirt on.