by Olivia West
Anya gave her a quick hug. “I hate to be strict, but you don’t want to lose this job. It’s good for you, and until you get a new trainer you may as well stay here and earn some money.”
Anya was right. She was always right.
“Now I’ve got to get back to work myself. I’ll see you afterwards though? You can tell me all about your first day back on the ice!”
And with that, Hannah was left to her paperwork and her thoughts. Only she didn’t get any paperwork done that afternoon, because she was too busy gushing over Andrew and the newfound respect she had for him. Or maybe it wasn’t just respect. Maybe it was something more.
***
The next few weeks were a bit of a whirlwind for Hannah. Her days consisted of following the same routine: she would shower in the morning, get a ride to work with Anya, break for lunch and go to the rink to see Andrew, go back to work, and then finish work and skip the ride home with Anya to train at the rink with Andrew until late into the night.
Even after her training was over (sometimes they didn’t stop skating until almost eleven o’clock) Andrew would insist on getting something to eat at a restaurant or a bar. She just couldn’t say no to him, though it wasn’t for lack of trying.
“So, you wanna go grab some dinner? I know this great little place downtown, not too far from here, and not that many people know about it so it will be like a secret hideaway from the outside world.”
His suggestions often sounded rather romantic, she thought, but he hadn’t made any advances or shown that he was even remotely interested, so Hannah didn’t care to ponder upon the idea of a candlelit dinner if perfectly good candles were going to be wasted.
“I can’t tonight, Andrew, I promised to give Anya a call when I got home. We had a lot of work to do and she just wanted to run past this form with me.”
He never looked hurt, just shocked that Hannah would dare choose anyone else over him. Like he was meant to be her priority!
“Aw no, Han, don’t do this to me. I’ve booked the table already!” he said dramatically. He even started to produce tears that didn’t fall but made his eyes all glossy, making it harder for Hannah to tear away (they were nice eyes, after all) and twice as hard for her to say no to someone who looked like it was your fault their world was crashing down around them, even though she knew it was fake.
“I really shouldn’t… if we don’t fill in the form we’ll be behind tomorrow…”
“I sense a ‘but’ coming on.”
“No, I should really go home.”
He took her hand and used his thumb to massage it, sending little shivers down her spine and making her forget about the stupid forms.
“Come on… just this once?”
“You say that every day!”
“Well, this time I mean it.”
“No you don’t!”
“Fine then, I don’t. But if you want me to listen to you in training then you better come with me.”
Hannah gasped jokingly. “Is that some kind of twisted blackmail? Do you want to restore power to men, is that it? Are you a misogynist?”
“Yes, it is blackmail. And no, it is only right that you have all of the power. An ice king is nothing without his ice queen, after all.”
And then she would give in and go to dinner, forgetting about her responsibilities until she got home and had seven missed calls from Anya or her parents or whoever else Andrew caused her to avoid.
She didn’t know what it was about him, but although she would always try to decline, she secretly wished every time that he wouldn’t take no for an answer. She wished that he would keep asking, keep his interest in her, and keep booking tables for underground restaurants that only a handful of people knew about. They were just good friends, who liked spending time together and engaging in flirty behavior with each other.
Yes… they were just good friends.
Hannah made a promise to herself one night that she would stop obsessing about Andrew and not make a move before he did. She refused to let herself get the wrong idea until it was proved that Andrew liked her as more than a friend. Besides, she needed to focus on getting back to her usual skating standard and trying to improve to a professional level while also teaching Andrew, who had only ever skated as a hobby.
Well, that was her plan.
Until this happened.
It was a Sunday night, a month or so after Hannah’s cast had been taken off, and both Hannah and Andrew had the day off work. They had been on the rink practically all day, only stopping to rest, drink water, and eat some light snacks. It was coming up to eight o’clock in the evening and there was just one more thing that Hannah wanted to show Andrew before they stepped off the ice.
“We’re nearly done for today, but I want to show you something first.”
Andrew was confused. “What do you want to show me?”
“Step back and you’ll see.”
Andrew did as he was told, and skated back to the wall of the rink, where he used his hands to push up onto the higher surface and sit down so he could get a view of what Hannah wanted to show him.
He wasn’t prepared for what he saw.
Hannah skated back to the music player and hooked her phone into the system, scanning her special playlist for the song she needed. She hadn’t told him, but she had been coming to the rink and practicing a routine before even going to work during the morning.
Pressing play on the music, she took her position in the center of the rink.
“Yesterday” by the Beatles started to echo out onto the rink. Hannah got into character, and wore a distant and chilling expression on her face.
Andrew’s breath caught in his throat as Hannah pushed away from her starting position.
Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away… She waltz jumped, gliding along and turning around so she was looking behind her shoulder, and spun before taking off into the air and landing with her left foot in the air, making sure to keep moving in this position for a few seconds.
Suddenly, I’m not half the man I used to be, there’s a shadow hanging over me… a pained look on her face as she slowed for a moment to look gracefully from left to right, as if searching for the shadow or the other half of herself. Immediately picking up the speed again, she moved into a layback spin, arching her back backwards and bringing her arms over her head, almost like she had just woken up and was doing a stretch to warm up her bones.
Meanwhile, Andrew was completely entranced. It seemed like everything Hannah had wanted to say about her accident, but was too afraid to, was trapped inside the lyrics of the song and the meaning she gave to the dance. He decided in that moment that there was nothing more beautiful than the sight of this girl opening up her soul to him. He wanted to watch her forever.
Why she had to go? I don’t know, she wouldn’t say, I said something wrong, now I long for yesterday... coming to the end of the song, Hannah picked up speed one last time and went for the big move – a camel spin changing quickly into a donut spin, and rising back up while still spinning to perform the Biellmann spin, grabbing one of the blades on her skates and pulling her leg up over her head. Her sleek ponytail danced along with her to the same beat, giving the routine an added feeling of completeness. To end, she covered her face with her hands as if she was crying, and laid her head to one side of her neck.
The music stopped, and silence fell on the rink.
Andrew wasn’t clapping. Or cheering. Or saying anything.
He was so incredibly shocked. He said nothing for a moment and then broke into a glorious smile.
“You really don’t know how good you are, do you?”
Hannah was taken aback by this comment. “Uh… I mean it’s been a while since I put together an entire routine and performed it for an audience—”
“You’re amazing. Absolutely amazing.” Andrew grinned. “You want to go get something to eat?”
“Okay. But haven’t we been to just about every place that serves food in the c
ounty?”
Andrew jumped off the wall and looked back at her as he stepped off the ice. “Trust me; you won’t have been here before.”
***
He was right; she had never been there before.
Because there was the roof of a building near the ice rink.
Hannah was a bit confused, but decided to go along with it anyway.
“I’m confused.”
But the more she looked, the more she noticed that this wasn’t quite the random dinner invitation that she first thought it was. The perimeter of the roof was laced in dainty fairy lights that lit up the pathway to the picnic blanket and the pile of cushions that awaited her. The moon shone down and smiled at the skaters, while making itself useful as a spotlight for the basket of food that lay near the blanket.
“It was meant to be a thank-you for teaching me so well these past few weeks,” Andrew said cautiously, as though he didn’t want to stir Hannah from her thoughts. Either that or he was scared the exposure to the moonlight would make her angry, and she might turn into a werewolf that would devour him for assuming she would be interested in such a date-like setting. “Now it’s more a sign of appreciation for skating like that for me.”
Still in a minor state of shock, Hannah spoke up. “Skating is just what I do… I was just showing you what level you could be at too in the future.”
“Skating isn’t just what you do, and you know it. Skating is in your blood. Not everyone who skates can move like you can, while moving other people. You’re special.”
Hannah’s cheeks reddened at the compliment, while Andrew led the way and sat down on the blanket, arranging a few pillows around him and breathing in the mild night air. She gingerly walked over and sat beside him, relaxing onto the fluffy blanket and laying her head on one of the cushions.
“I thought I was okay. A few silly mistakes but nothing that can’t be fixed relatively quickly.” She let the silence fill the spaces while she paused to think. “Francis never gave me a compliment like that before.”
Moving the picnic basket closer towards them, getting out some chips, dip, and iced tea, he responded, “It’s a good thing you’re not his partner anymore, then, because he sounds like an idiot.”
Hannah sat up to take a mason jar of iced tea. “He isn’t an idiot, actually. He’s wise beyond his years, especially when it comes to skating.”
Andrew leaned closer to Hannah in order to reach the chips, and looked directly into her eyes, his own glistening with wit and beauty. “Anyone who doesn’t think you are amazing is an idiot in my eyes.”
And with that, she was looking back at him and the silence fell back down, leaving an intangible force of electricity flying around them.
A few caught breaths later and their hands were interlocked, noses and foreheads touching, and eyelids batting on smiling faces.
“You’re cool,” Hannah whispered.
Andrew smirked. “Ice cool?”
Hannah immediately pulled away and rolled onto the blanket, giggling. “Oh my God! You just ruined a perfectly romantic moment with your skating jokes!”
Andrew turned to look down at Hannah, whose body was now shaking slightly from all of the laughing she was doing. He found it impossible not to join in.
“No! The moment isn’t ruined… it was just an icebreaker!”
Now both of them were in fits of laughter and forgot all about the moonlight and the fairy lights and the picnic food. They were glad to have each other in that moment.
When the laughing had subsided a bit, they were both lying on their sides on the blankets, facing each other.
“I mean it, though,” Hannah said. “You’re cooler than I thought you were when I first saw you in the café.”
Andrew pretended to be offended. “What did you think of me when you first met me?”
“Oh you know – a show-off. And pretentious.”
“Oh, well now I know where I stand.”
In that second, Hannah leaned in and brought her lips to Andrew’s, bringing her hand to his chest and pulling him closer by his shirt.
When she let him go, she said only one thing. “That’s where. And technically, you’re sitting down.”
They both laughed, and spent the rest of the night talking, kissing, and dancing on the roof. When the moon said goodbye and allowed the sun to take its place, they were so tired, so warm wrapped in the blanket that they fell asleep. However, they were in for a rude awakening.
The two were woken by the gut-wrenching sound of Hannah’s alarm on her smartphone to signal it was time for work.
“Oh God, I’ve got to go.”
“No you don’t.”
“But work!”
“You really want to leave now? When everything is perfect? Hannah, you have spent your life working for people who don’t appreciate you. Spend some more time with the person who does.”
And it was those words only that persuaded her to stay, allowing herself to live in the moment, and forget about everything but skating and Andrew.
Chapter 10
She may have allowed herself to live in the moment, but the moment she got into work was not a pleasant one.
She was two hours late.
And Anya wasn’t even there to save her. Instead, the deputy manager of the firm came up to her desk as a slightly sweaty Hannah panted over to her desk and rushed to set up her computer before they got to her.
Ms. Walters, the deputy manager, was a round-looking woman with tortoise-shell rimmed glasses. She spoke with an unusual air of affluence. Eying Hannah at her desk, she marched over and leaned over her.
“Miss Avery, may I ask why you were so late to work this morning?”
Holy crap, this is it, thought Hannah. I’m so going to get fired!
“Um… I… I… slept past my alarm. I promise it won’t happen again.”
Ms. Walters grinned – well, it was more of a snarl, really – and placed her hands on the top of Hannah’s desk as if to show her who was boss.
“Oh that’s okay, Hannah, I know it won’t happen again. You’ll be fired before you even have the chance to get through the door and pretend you’re working on your computer.” She pointed to the blackened screen that Hannah had been pretending to use for the thirty seconds before she came over. “I don’t know what you’re up to, young lady, but I am going to inform the manager about this incident and let him decide whether you stay on in the future.”
So Hannah was saved for that day, at least.
Two of her co-workers, Bernice and Neil, considerably older than her but with ears like two hawks, turned around from their desks and gave her a sympathetic look.
“Don’t worry, Hannah, it is all an empty threat. They would be getting rid of a valuable member of the team if they fired you. They won’t want to lose you,” said Bernice.
“Oh I don’t know,” retorted Neil. “She’s only been here for a couple of months. Besides, everyone is replaceable.”
Don’t I know it, Hannah thought, recalling the day that Francis ditched her for his new pretty-faced partner.
“You’ll be fine! It’s never going to happen again. You must have got a really good reason for being so late today – smart girls like you don’t just turn up late because you missed the alarm. Did you have another health scare on the ice last night?” asked Bernice.
“Something like that, yes.” Hannah said no more on the matter, and they all got back to work. If only they knew I ditched work for a boy. Since when did Hannah become that type of silly love-struck girl that ditches her responsibilities?
***
Andrew called her once she had finished work. Ten whole minutes after, to be precise.
“Are you coming into the rink today? We’ve got a lot to work on if you want me as good as you were last night.”
Feeling a bit… there was no other word for it but annoyed, with Andrew, she took quite a sharp tone on the phone. “You know I’ll be there, I always am.”
“Whoa, Miss Cranky Pa
nts, what has gotten into you? I thought you had a great time last night.”
She had. Oh God, she really had. The second best thing to skating was getting to fraternize with her partner. If Erica could see her now, she would be mortified. Part of the reason why she couldn’t even ask Francis out was because Erica thought that once partners became partners, in real life, all of the chemistry vanished on the ice. So, it was imperative that they keep their relationship professional. Plus, with Erica repeating that phrase over and over again, there was no way Francis was going to attempt asking Hannah out – especially if it meant ruining his career.
