Chapter 19 Matilda
Dress rehearsals were always hit-or-miss.
Some celebrities were as confident on the ice as they were in their everyday jobs, but others buckled under the pressure.
I was sure Luca would be the former. Even before our argument, we’d been smashing training.
Luca would probably deny it, but since our conversation the other morning, something had changed between us, making it easier to skate together.
Ninety percent of the time, he was still a one-word-answer kind of guy.
But for the other ten percent, he would offer a few sentences or a longer back-and-forth, which made things feel more manageable.
His words also lacked the sharpness they’d had in the first five weeks.
We hadn’t been in front of the camera yet for cutaways, but that wasn’t within his control.
Over the past week, he had kept his promise, and I had tried my hardest to keep mine. It was more mentally draining than I’d thought it would be. What he’d said about his mother frequently played through my mind.
She realized she’d wasted her life caring only about what others thought of her…In the end, it didn’t matter.
I tried not to think about it too much, because it made my heart beat a little too fast and my breaths come a little too quickly. So, I settled on using Luca as a trial run.
He wants to hear what you honestly think.
A lot of the time, I didn’t even know what I wanted, so it was taking some time to figure that out.
It was the busiest I’d seen the rink on a Saturday. People hurried around the studio, weaving between costumes, deliveries, and cameras. As we’d all been assigned different rinks and timetables for training, it was the first time we’d see everyone’s music choice and skating level.
As I approached our dressing room, muffled voices filtered out from behind the door.
Pushing it open, I found Jack in his usual position, sprawled across one sofa, and Luca sitting on the other.
“Mornin’, sunshine,” Jack said in greeting.
“Morning, morning,” I replied. “Ready to kick ass at the dress rehearsal?” I asked Luca.
“Obviously,” he said, with no sign of nerves.
“How are you feeling?” I threw my sweatshirt over the back of the vanity chair. It was always quite warm in the studio, so my tights, dance shorts, and oversized T-shirt were enough to keep me warm.
Luca looked away and stared at the table. “Fine. I’ve never struggled with nerves.”
“It’s quite annoying that he’s not even being big-headed right now.” Jack stood up and gestured to the seat he’d been lying across.
“No, no—you relax.” I winked at Jack and turned back at Luca, who was still not looking at me. “You don’t get nervous at all?”
“Nope. Why would I?”
“Because you’re performing in front of people?”
“And?”
“And what?”
“Well, what if you fall over and embarrass yourself?”
“Something like that’s only embarrassing if you care what others think of you. I do not, so I don’t get nervous.”
We were such opposites it was scary.
“Don’t worry, I’ve never met anyone like him either,” Jack offered, probably reading the shock and awe on my face.
“OK, so we’re not nervous, which is great. Have you got your dress rehearsal costume?”
He nodded to the dress bag hanging on the rail but asked, “Why don’t we wear our show costumes for the rehearsal?”
“There’s too much risk that we might rip them before the show, so we have the blank costumes. Mine’s a dress, and yours will resemble what you wear that week.”
“Makes sense,” he agreed.
“Shall we get dressed and warmed up, then? I need to go and grab my dress from Wardrobe, but I can meet you at the rink after. When suits you?”
“We can be there whenever.”
“When would work with y—” I paused. “How about fifteen minutes? That gives me a chance to get changed and out.”
Luca’s lips twitched. “That works perfectly.”