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“I wasn’t sure what to wear. Maybe I needed to be extra presentable for wherever my McDonald’s-at-home-having date was going to take me.”
“Did you see a McDonald’s at my house?” Chandler laughed.
“No. But it could’ve been in the other wing. Do you have a monorail to get there?”
Chandler stood and held out her hand.
“Do you need to say goodbye to him?”
“No, he’s probably already asleep.”
“Okay. Then, let’s go.”
Belle stood up and took Chandler’s outstretched hand.
“Where are we going?”
“Just trust me.”
Belle left her truck in her dad’s driveway, and they drove in the SUV in the direction of the Ice Park. Belle expected them to drive past it and head into town, but Chandler told the driver to stop there.
“Did you forget something earlier?” Belle asked.
“No,” Chandler replied and got out of the car.
Belle followed her and asked, “Chandler, what are we doing here?”
“We’re going to skate. It’s closed, right?”
Belle checked her phone and said, “About twenty minutes ago, yeah. We didn’t have any ice time bought and no open skate tonight.”
“Which is the only reason you agreed to go out with me tonight,” Chandler added. “So, it’s all ours.”
Belle unlocked the side door and let Chandler walk in before her. Originally, they’d had a hockey practice scheduled for that night, but the team had canceled earlier that afternoon after several of them had caught a cold. She’d thought about opening it up to let people skate but then changed her mind when Chandler had asked her out on a date. Instead, she’d let Steph close the place for her so she could go get ready for their date.
“Get your skates on. And not the hockey ones, Belle.”
“You don’t have your skates here.”
“Yes, I do. I put them in the locker next to yours.” Chandler took Belle’s hand and entwined their fingers. “Hope you don’t mind. I got tired of lugging them back and forth.”
“I don’t mind,” she replied and let Chandler pull her into the locker room.
“Change out of that shirt. Don’t get me wrong… You look so good in those tight jeans, too, but I don’t think you’d want to skate in them.”
“Did you wear that dress with this in mind?” Belle asked, tilting her head to take in how good Chandler’s legs looked in that short, flowy black dress with a white cardigan over it.
“No, but I do need to cancel our reservation, so give me a second to do that through the app, and we can go.”
“Chandler, I’m sure you’re starving. We can still go.” Belle sat on the bench.
“We can eat something here.”
“From the concession stand?”
“Why not?” Chandler said as she sat down on the bench next to Belle and stared at her phone, trying to cancel their reservation.
Belle was struck by the symmetry of the moment and realized her mind wasn’t going a million miles an hour anymore, either. Chandler calmed her, too. She’d always told Belle that Belle calmed her, but Chandler calmed Belle too. When Chandler looked up from her phone, Belle straddled the bench in the middle of the locker room and smiled at her. Chandler must have realized it, too, because she looked around the room, and even though it wasn’t the same locker room, she still smiled.
