Epilogue
Nearly four years later
Isat back in the makeup chair, eyes closed. The woman who had been assigned to work on me moved faster than I thought possible. Even with the heavy makeup necessary for television, she sped through the process. She fixed a strip of false lashes on one of my eyes as I heard the door open.
“We are going to need her in ten minutes,” came the voice of the coordinator, who had been trying to keep everyone on time all morning.
“I’m almost done,” the makeup artist said. “Tell wardrobe that they can have her in thirty seconds.” I felt the other strip of eyelashes being placed as she spoke. Then she placed her hands on my shoulders. “You’re ready to go.”
I opened my eyes to the familiar locker room of the training rink. Today, instead of being filled with other skaters’ gear, it was filled with all the gear brought by people sent here to get Dom and me ready for the TV mini special.
Exactly eight minutes later, I was making my way to one of the practice rooms. Half of it looked exactly the same as always, with spare mats piled against a wall. The other half was filled with people setting up lights and the sound equipment that would be necessary for when filming started.
“Hazel! Excellent,” Anthony Jones said with a congenial smile.
He had been the one who interviewed Dom and me nearly four years ago after we had won both of our gold medals.
This time, he had come to us instead. In the lead-up to the next Winter Games, his channel was sending him around the country to interview a mixture of memorable past athletes and people who were going to be competing next month.
Dom and I had been contacted about being featured a week previously.
We hadn’t needed to discuss whether we should do it. We were both happy to tell our story.
“Good morning,” I replied. I walked towards the spot he and Dom were standing, a few feet away from the chairs we would sit on during our interview.
“I think the crew is just about ready.” He looked over to the co-ordinator, who nodded. “So, please, if you don’t mind taking your seats.”
Dom and I sat on the chairs positioned next to each other, while Anthony sat in the chair opposite us.
People hurried around, adjusting the lighting and checking our hair and makeup, while shouting instructions at each other.
They were organized quickly, despite the chaos, and we were ready to start.
“I am here with Hazel Pierce and Dominic Hughes,” Anthony began, speaking directly to one of the cameras.
“Four years ago, they were part of the national team that won gold medals for the figure skating team competition. A week later, they won a second set of gold medals and became pairs figure skating champions.”
Anthony turned to face us instead of the cameras. “For those who are not familiar with your story, please tell us about your partnership.”
That was my cue. “Dom and I were partnered with each other when I was twelve and he was fourteen. It was thought that we would do better as pairs than singles skaters. And, thankfully, somebody thought that we would do best paired with each other out of all the kids who were being moved over to pairs.”
“We’ve been partners ever since,” Dom said. “Most people will have multiple partners over the course of their careers. The fact that we could go through this entire journey together and grow together is incredibly rare. We both know how lucky we are that it happened to us.”
“I had the pleasure of interviewing you both after each of your victories four years ago. Why don’t you tell us a bit about why those programs had been so popular with the judges and with fans worldwide.”
Dom and I looked at each other, silently deciding who would speak first. Dom said, “That entire season, we had set our eyes on going to the Winter Games. Hazel and I knew we were going to have to be at our best going into the season. To give us an edge over the other pairs, we worked on a couple of elements with higher point values. The main one would be the quadruple twist.”
“Which has become your standard in the years since,” Anthony interjected.
“Correct,” Dom said. “When the point value for the quad went up versus the triple shortly before that season, we saw that as our best bet at the extra points. It took us most of the season to get it to the point where we felt confident that we should replace the triple. With good execution scores for the other elements and the twist, the judges gave us a personal best score that week.”
I took over then. “As for the fans, I think the key was the music and the tone of our programs. Our coach and choreographer had argued strongly in favour of the choices we went with. They had insisted that they thought those programs would make us memorable. They were right. I was the one who had to be convinced more than Dom.”
“Why was that?” Anthony asked. We had gone over the questions and the sort of answers we would give a few times beforehand. Yet he sounded genuinely curious.
“At the time, we were both dating other people. And we had spent years telling fans that we were just friends.” I looked at Dom and smiled. “That was why they thought choosing sexy or romantic songs would get people talking, of course. I agreed because I wanted to win.”
“And you won,” Anthony said. “By the end of the week, you had stood atop the podium twice. However, that wasn’t the only significant event in your lives that occurred that week.”
This was the part of the story everyone always wanted to hear.
I’d lost count of how many times we had relayed a family-friendly version of what had happened between us.
“That’s right,” Dom said. He reached across the gap in our chairs and squeezed my hand.
“The night after the short program and before the free skate, I told Hazel that I was in love with her. And I thank my lucky stars that she felt the same way.”
Dom and I went public with our relationship after the season had ended and people had gone crazy.
There had been a lot of speculation about how long we had been together.
We had read comments together, laughing at some of the more far-fetched theories.
To put an end to the curiosity without revealing too much, we had posted a couple photo with the caption “six months” and a heart in August. We let people do the math on their own.
The reactions we got when people realized we had been in the middle of competing when we got together were worth it.
“And we’ve been together ever since,” I said. “This year, we’re excited to have the chance to compete as husband and wife.”
We had been asked to provide a couple of photos from our wedding the previous summer for them to show when we mentioned our wedding.
They had said that they wanted to show some when we talked about how far our relationship had come.
The woman I’d talked to on the phone had explained that the fact that we had started dating within twenty-four hours of winning gold was the perfect addition to our story.
The couple that fans had shipped for years getting married was one thing.
That our relationship had started at the previous Winter Games was gold in its own way.
Anthony only had a few more questions before wrapping up the interview. Once the cameras had stopped rolling, he shook each of our hands. “Thank you for taking the time to do this. I’m sure you have a full schedule trying to prepare.”
As everyone tried to pack up, Dom and I excused ourselves and slipped closer to the rink itself.
We stood at the boards together, looking out over the ice we had spent countless hours on.
This was where we had done most of our years of training.
This was where we had gone from skating partners trying to make it onto the senior circuit to so much more.
We hadn’t first admitted our feelings to each other here, but this was the place they had developed.
Dom’s quiet voice pulled me out of my head. “I wish there was a way to grab our skates without them deciding that it was something they needed to record.” He draped his arm over my shoulder and pulled me close, so he could place a kiss on my forehead.
I leaned in and inhaled deeply. Even after all these years, his scent was still intoxicating. Especially at times like this, when he was freshly showered and not coming off of several hours on the ice. “I know. But I can think of some other ways to have some fun.”
He laughed, the sound filling the otherwise empty room. “I like the way you think.” His dark eyes shone under the fluorescent lights on the ceiling. For the thousandth time, I wondered how I got so lucky that he wanted to be with me through everything.