by Frank Downey
"Oh, I know," Ryan agreed with a chuckle. "He was here the other afternoon when we were working, and he had this completely lovesick expression on his face the whole time. I swear, if an earthquake had torn the building in half, he would’ve still been sitting there, gazing at her."
"Really?" Amy asked hesitantly.
"You hadn’t noticed?" Jess laughed.
"I didn’t know if I was noticing or making it up in my head." Amy stepped off the ice, and sat down in the stands next to Jess. "I really, really like Eric. And that scares me like you wouldn’t believe."
"Why?" Jess asked gently.
Amy took a breath. "Two years ago, at Junior Worlds. There was a Russian pairs skater there, Nikolai Vryazkov. I was 14, he was 17. He was charming, worldly, gorgeous—he swept me off my feet. We spent most of the two weeks we were there together. He was my, you know, first.
"And come to find out he had a serious girlfriend back in Russia. They’re engaged now. It was horrible.
"I learned two things from that. One was that I was never going to let a guy do that to me ever again. Unfortunately, the other one was that I really like sex. And I haven’t had any since then, because I don’t trust guys. So, here I am, lonely, horny, and looking for Prince Charming, who I no longer believe in. And suddenly, here comes Eric."
"And you’re not sure you believe he even exists," Jess said.
"Right," Amy said. "He’s so sweet. I mean, can a guy really be that sweet?"
"I am," Ryan said, looking smug.
"Most of the time," Jess laughed.
"But you’re older," Amy said. "I bet you weren’t that sweet when you were 16 or 18."
"You’re right, I wasn’t," Ryan admitted.
"But Warren was, and Ryan’s seen Warren with Sophie since he was eight," Jess pointed out. "And there’s more. Eric’s parents split up because his dad cheated on his mother. He very much resents that—Sophie’s told me that." She looked at Amy. "One other thing. Before I met Ryan, I was in a three-way relationship with Warren and Sophie."
"You’re kidding," Amy said.
"Nope," Jess grinned. "It was very mutual, and—I won’t lie—a lot of fun. However, the point of me telling you this is that when Eric found out, I got a grilling that you wouldn’t believe. He was only 14, but he pulled me aside to make sure I wasn’t ruining Sophie and Warren by convincing Warren to cheat." She laughed. "It took the poor guy a while to understand exactly what menage a trois means. You know, he didn’t grasp that Sophie was there with us." She cracked up. "And when he did, he blushed purple. Anyway, the point is, he’s horrified by cheating. It’s affected his life to a very negative degree. Because his father couldn’t keep his dick in his pants, Eric’s family was broken up. When it comes to Eric, it’s the last thing you have to worry about."
"Wow," Amy said. "That’s good to know."
"I’ve known Eric his whole life. He really is that sweet," Jess said. "Well, most of the time, just like Ryan. I know he’s been putting Ellen through hell lately. Though I guess that abruptly stopped the minute he met you."
"He’s so good to me," Amy enthused. "I know it hasn’t been long, but still. I just need him to get less shy around me," she giggled.
"Is he?" Jess asked.
"Yeah, some. At least he can talk to me now."
"But you still don’t trust him," Jess said.
"That’ll take a bit," Amy said, "though I do, more and more, every day. I guess I’m waiting for the moment that I trust him enough to rip his clothes off."
Jess cracked up. "Poor Eric. He’s about to get steamrolled again."
"Nah. I’ll let him think it’s all his idea," Amy grinned.
"That’s the way to handle it. I think Ryan still thinks he seduced me, the silly boy."
"HEY!" Ryan said. "And, you forget, you didn’t. I knew right along who was seducing who, and I happily went along with it."
"That’s not how I remember it."
"Who said, ‘I want you’? I do believe that was you, dear," Ryan smirked.
"Yeah, after I very subtly led you into asking me to your apartment."
"Yeah, yeah."
"Are you two done now?" Amy laughed. "We still have to go skate, Seduction King."
"You know, I think as long as I skate with you and go out with her, I’m gonna be outnumbered."
"You bet your ass!" Jess agreed, with a wink at Amy.
The following Monday, Courtney was on the internet, scanning the USFSA site. That’s where she saw it: the press release, announcing the new ice dance pairing of Ryan Killen and Amy Lowell.
"WHAT?" Courtney screamed. "That son of a bitch!!!"
Her mother came running into the room. "What?" she asked.
"Ryan found a new partner!"
"Who?"
"Someone I never heard of! She’s sixteen and just passed her senior test! And she hasn’t competed in two years—she was second at junior nationals two years ago. She’s a nobody! Ryan leaves me for this?" She read further. "Oh, isn’t this just special. ‘The new team will be based out of Oceanview, will be coached blah blah blah—and choreographed by Warren and Sophia Kelleher. Oh, of course! That’s a nice little arrangement, isn’t it?" Courtney punched the off button to her computer in disgust.
"You’ll show them," her mother said. "We’ll find you a perfect partner, and you’ll kick their ass."
"Yeah," Courtney said, but she had her doubts. The partner search wasn’t going well at all.
Warren and Sophie had, indeed, agreed to choreograph for Ryan and Amy. They hadn’t ever choreographed for other dancers—but they figured it would only be one year that they were competitors, and Ryan and Amy were really no threat this year. They were shooting for the future.
Warren and Sophie would also have their other usual glut of choreographic clients. But, before they started flooding in when the tour ended, the duo wanted their own programs set and ready to go.
There would be a lot of them. First of all, they were skating in two pro-ams in the fall, the American Open and the Canadian Open. They’d need two programs for those. The first was a ‘rhythmic’ dance—the guidelines were rather vague, which wasn’t uncommon for a pro-am, but it had to be something with a prominent beat. They decided to skate that to a little Beach Boys, and found rocking live versions of Catch A Wave and Fun Fun Fun. They came up with a fun, rocking, lighthearted dance that was still very technically difficult—and Sophie was delighted to discover that Catch A Wave "gives me the perfect opportunity to shake my ass during the ‘ooh-wahs’."
The other program for the pro-ams was to be an ‘interpretive’ one, meant to be more artistic and less technical. For that, they delved into the world of Celtic-based New Age music. They cobbled together two selections. The first was by Lisa Lynne, called Circle of Joy, from one of the Windham Hill "Celtic Christmas" collections. The second was Enya’s Book Of Days. Their program to that was light and airy, showing off their long edges.
Then, there were the shows. Former British skater Roger Courier had become a skating entrepreneur, and he was putting on some ‘theme’ shows this year. Warren and Sophie would be taking part in two of them. For the first one, celebrating the music of Elvis Presley, the duo had worked up a goofy, fun routine to Burning Love. The second one they were really excited about—it was a celebration of the music of the Beatles. Since they were both fervent Beatlemaniacs, they were very glad to take part in that one. They’d been given the opportunity to skate two programs for that one. The first, to Drive My Car, was their ‘rocking’ Beatles number. The second was to Don’t Let Me Down, a slower and more passionate number.
After all that, there were the most important programs—the competitive programs for the Grand Prix, Nationals, and, of course, the Olympics.
The rhythms for the Original Dances this year were Quickstep and Rock And Roll. Warren and Sophie decided to go out on a limb for both. And they got help from a friend for one of them.
They decided they wanted to skate the Qui
ckstep to Scott Joplin’s Maple Leaf Rag. Now, that was not typical quickstep music—but quickstep was a dance, not a musical style, and a quickstep could be done to Maple Leaf Rag without a problem. So, they decided to do it. And the help was from Tom Bellamy. Being a major ragtime fan and an excellent pianist, they asked him to record a version of Maple Leaf Rag for them to skate to. He was thrilled to do it.
The Rock and Roll OD was even more extreme. Warren looked at the beats-per-minute requirements of the dance, and decided to push it as far as it could go. These people wanted rock? Well, Warren and Sophie were going to rock, as fast and furious as it gets. That was their strength, and they knew it. Warren had said, "If they’re going to give us the gift of a Rock and Roll OD, I want one that gets sixes on the technical mark. Push it, right to the limit. I want to do the most technically difficult original dance ever done." So, their choice for music was the legendary punk band The Ramones. They’d lead off with the first verse of Rockaway Beach, then into Rock And Roll High School. It was fast, furious, and never stopped. It was also guaranteed, if they hit it right, to get the folks in the arena right off their seats. They even choreographed, during a fast and demanding side-by-side step sequence, the hand jive. It was non-stop, it was fun, and it was hard.
With that in mind, they decided they wanted their free dance in the Olympic year to be something more elegant. They were looking back to the days when they skated to Glenn Miller and Frank Sinatra, but a little different. So, they decided that they’d be skating their Olympic free dance to the music from the soundtrack to Singing In The Rain. They opened with the beginning of the song Singing In The Rain: into the slow section skated to You Were Meant For Me; the fast footwork done to Moses Supposes; then into a final section which went back to the last couple minutes of Singing In The Rain. They were thrilled when they were done.
With the gaggle of clients due to start arriving in mid-July, they took the end of May, all of June, and the first part of July to do work on their own programs, since there were so many of them. They determined that they’d pick any exhibitions they needed from the pro-am or Elvis or Beatles programs. Except, they had already decided, that for their last exhibition at the Olympics, they'd re-skate Romeo and Juliet.
It was a lot of work, but they felt the programs put them in good stead for the most important season—and last—of their skating career.
While things were rolling right along in Oceanview; things in their old haunt, Madison, weren’t good at all.
Courtney Rogers was depressed. It was finally starting to sink in to her exactly what she had done to herself. She’d had the second-best male ice dancer in the US as her partner—only Warren Kelleher was better—and she’d blown it. All because she wanted to control everything about him. And, the thing of it is, she wasn’t quite sure why she wanted to do that.
And the new partner search was not going well. Every single guy her mother brought in to skate with her was inadequate. Has-beens, never-weres, kids that couldn’t keep up to save their lives. The worst part was that her mother was actually enthusiastic about some of these guy. All for the same reason, of course. "He’ll do anything you say." "I like him, he’s nice and docile." Control, it was all about control.
Of course, Courtney realized, that meant her, too. If her mother could control her partner—well, she could control Courtney, too. And Courtney had had it. She wanted to say, "Yeah, we thought Ryan was docile, too—and look how that turned out." She’d finally won a National Championship—yes, by default, but still—and her partner had walked out on her.
Her skating career was slipping away, and she knew it.
There was an alternative—but her mother wouldn’t hear of it. The more she suggested, the more adamant her mother got. But Courtney was fed up. She remembered the last time she let her mother browbeat her—it was her mother’s insistence that she give Ryan the "Jessie or me" ultimatum. It was stupid. And it had backfired.
After another tryout with another hopeless skater, Courtney snapped. She made a decision—and then made a phone call.
And, the next morning, long before her mother had woken—she snuck out of the house, got in her car, drove to the airport, and boarded a plane.
Chapter 155 - The Taming Of Courtney Rogers
It was a Tuesday morning, very early, when Courtney landed in Detroit. She had arranged for a hotel room, but couldn’t check in there until later. She rented a car, and drove around a bit, finding something to eat.
Afterwards, she headed slightly outside of town, to the ice rink that was the home of the Detroit Skating Club. It was a lavish rink, a lot of people trained there. The caretaker showed her where the dressing rooms were. She got changed and got her skates on, then emerged into the main rink. Evan Pogdar was waiting for her on the ice. She stepped on and joined him.
"Fine. You’re here. Keep in mind I’m doing this against my better judgement," Evan snapped.
"Well, I thought long and hard about it myself," Courtney said. "But, let’s face it—you’re the best male dancer available, and by a lot. And you obviously haven’t found a partner yet, either."
"True—but keep one thing in mind, Courtney. One of the reasons I haven’t found a partner yet is that I scare some of them off. I’m a demanding prick on the ice." Courtney just gulped at that. "Anyhow, that over there are my coaches. That’s Natalya Shulyenchuk, she’s been my coach forever. And, you know Shawna. She’ll be the co-coach."
Courtney just looked at Shawna. She didn’t count on this. Shawna Vickers scared the shit out of Courtney, though she’d never admit it. Shawna just grinned at her. "Can’t skate any more, so I might as well coach. And if that means I get to torture the living daylights out of you, so much the better."
Courtney wasn’t feeling good about this at all. "By the way, where’s the barracuda?" Evan asked. Courtney just looked at him. "Your mother."
"Home," Courtney said. "She doesn’t even know I’m here. She was opposed to me skating with you."
"You probably should have listened to your mother," Evan chuckled.
"The last time I listened to my mother, I drove Ryan all the way to Boston!" Courtney spat.
Evan laughed at that. "Of course you did. You tortured that boy. We were all surprised it took him as long as it did." He looked right into her eyes. "You understand one thing. I’m not docile. I’m not manipulatable. None of your tricks will work on me. And you’ll find that if you push me I can turn into a considerable asshole."
"I think you’re an asshole anyway," Courtney spat. "However, you’re also a good skater."
"Fine. Let’s skate."
It was brutal. After three days, Courtney hurt all over—and she was getting tired of being yelled at.
At the end of the third day, Evan looked at her. "You can skate. I haven’t tried out with anyone nearly as talented as you are. But you need to learn how to work. If you’re willing to do that, we can give it a try."
"I can work," Courtney said determinedly.
"Fine. Do you have a place to live?"
"I’m in a hotel now."
Evan shrugged. "You can stay with me. I have plenty of room in my house, enough to stay out of each other’s way."
"No thanks!" Courtney blurted.
Evan laughed. "Courtney. You do know I’m gay, right?"
"Oh," Courtney said. She might have heard that, but she had forgotten. "Uh, well, I still don’t think so."
"You can move in with me," Shawna told her. "My house is big as well."
"OK, I think that would work better," Courtney said.
"It would?" Evan laughed. "Courtney, she’s gay, too."
"Oh," Courtney said, blushing. "Well, I still think it would be better."
"Suit yourself," Evan said.
"And don’t worry, you’re not my type," Shawna laughed. "I like my girls sweet."
"Good!" Courtney spat. Shawna just kept laughing.
Courtney flew back to Wisconsin that weekend, and loaded her car up with her stuff. Sh
e also had a major blowout with her mother, which she expected.
"You can’t skate with him!" Mrs. Rogers thundered. "You won’t last seven seconds skating with him!"
"He’s the only option," Courtney sighed. "All the guys you were bringing in here were junior-level skaters, or worse. Evan’s the only skater around who’s at my level."
"He’ll eat you alive!"
"I can handle him."
"You have no clue what you can and cannot handle. I’ve been fighting your battles for your whole career."
"Well, Mother, I’m 19 years old. Maybe it’s time I fight my own battles."
Mrs. Rogers snorted. "You’re kidding. You’re incapable of it. Oh well, if you insist on skating with Evan Pogdar, then fine. I’ll put the house up for sale and find something in Detroit."
"That’s not necessary," Courtney said hesitantly.
"Oh, yes it is. Evan Pogdar. Jesus. You’re going to need all the help you can get. I’ll be moving with you."
That’s when Courtney snapped. For the first time ever in her life, she stood up to her mother, because she saw a disaster in the making. "No, Mother, you will not be moving to Detroit. I am going to have all I can do as it is. I can’t deal with Evan, and deal with you too."
"Nonsense. I’ll be there to help you deal with Evan."
"No, you won’t! He’ll freak! He specifically told me that if I wanted to be his partner, I had to keep you out of it!"
"And you agreed to this? Courtney, this is a mistake. You can’t go skate with him. Forget it. Stay here, and I’ll find you a partner."
"NO!" Courtney was almost hysterical by now. "This is my last chance! Don’t you see that? I fucked it up with Ryan. I can’t fuck this up!" She stormed out before her mother could say another word—arguing was pointless. All she could do was hope that her mother wouldn’t show up in Detroit.
Her mother called her cell phone with a diatribe while she was halfway to Detroit—but she didn’t seem to be intent on coming there. That’s all Courtney wanted.
