One Skater's Wonder

Chapter 1 2025

“Ruby, come!”

The dog ignores her and romps through the slushy snow, ecstatic as she always is on her morning walk.

“That dog needs training,” Doug says.

“You need training,” Melissa shoots back, flirty-like.

Doug grabs her by the back loop of her jeans and tugs her into his arms and into a kiss. His lips are chafed from the cold yet soft and warm beneath, and she melts into the embrace. She has always loved kissing in the cold, the steaminess of it and the way her body shudders from the warmth.

She and Doug have only been dating a few weeks, and she’s not entirely sure of their status. They slept together for the first time ten days ago, and this morning, while still naked in her bed, Doug made the grand romantic gesture of deleting his Bumble profile. Feeling obligated, she did the same.

But now, an hour later, she’s not exactly sure what that means.

If they’re no longer seeing anyone else, does that mean they’re a couple?

Or are they still just casually dating? Does she still want to date other people?

She doesn’t think she does. Online dating is the worst. But does that mean she’s all in with Doug?

She’s not even sure she likes him all that much.

It’s too early to tell. He’s mostly sweet and sometimes funny, but also clingy and a bit judgmental.

She’s always happy when he calls or when she first sees him but is equally excited when he says he needs to go.

She’s thirty-one. Maybe this is as good as it gets.

“Uh . . . You still with me?” Doug asks, pulling away to look at her curiously.

“Yeah. Sorry.” She cranes her head back toward the pond. “It’s just Ruby. She’s going bonkers over something.”

The dog is howling and yipping down by the shore.

“Probably just a rabbit.” He tries to pull her back into another kiss, but she resists.

Ruby isn’t much of a barker, and something has her worked up.

Breaking from Doug’s hold, she walks from the path toward the water’s edge. For two days, the temperature has been in the fifties, and rivulets of current have fractured the ice, cutting it into a stunning stained glass patchwork of light and dark.

Ruby is bent down on her forepaws with her butt in the air.

“Hey, girl,” Melissa soothes.

Ruby doesn’t look up, only crouches lower and continues to yap.

Melissa glances back to see Doug still on the path and shakes her head. Definitely not her boyfriend, probably not even a guy she will see again after today. Any guy who won’t walk off the path to see what’s upsetting her dog isn’t a guy worth her time.

She takes another step and freezes. Sticking up in one of the thin winding waterways is an arm, its rigid gloved hand stuck upward toward the sky.