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“Yeah. Why wouldn’t we be?”
“You seemed to want me out of your hair tonight when you needed to go make the rounds, or whatever it was that you did.”
“That wasn’t about you and me. That was me needing to stick to the commitment that Cat had made on my behalf, and I didn’t want to make you do it with me. You left the program, Belle. Some of the people you knew are still there and in charge. And you’d said you didn’t want–”
“Punishment?” she asked.
“Compliment. But, yes,” Chandler replied. “I didn’t want you to have to deal with anything more than you already are because of me.”
“I would have been okay.”
“You always seem to be okay. It’s amazing, actually, how okay you always are, when I just feel like I’m treading water constantly.”
The elevator arrived on their floor, and Belle, once again, held her arm to the door, letting Chandler walk out first.
“You’re not treading water, Chandler. It’s a transition period for us both.”
“How do you handle things so well?”
“I told you; I learned at a young age that life is about more than skating. So, skating only matters so much to me.”
“I wish I could see it that way.”
“No, you don’t,” Belle replied.
“Oh, God. No, Belle. I don’t mean that I wish I would have lost–”
“I know.” She looked down the hall toward her room. “I’m going to get some sleep. You should too. Breakfast tomorrow morning?”
“Sure.”
“No tree bark granola bars,” she said, pointing at Chandler.
“No tree bark granola bars,” Chandler replied with a smile and let herself into her room.
The door closed behind her, and she leaned back against it.
“God, I like her.”
CHAPTER 23
“Are you ready?” Belle asked.
“I have no idea,” Chandler replied.
“Yes, you do.”
“What if they ding us for nothing again, and we don’t even medal?”
“Well, in that scenario, we’ve performed a perfect skate, so I’ll take that,” Belle argued. “We’re in a subjective sport, Chandler. It’s not like hockey when there’s an opposition we’re trying to outscore. We can only do the best we can, and then, it’s up to them. Our degree of difficulty is high, and we’ll perform the program well. That’s all we can do.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Chandler replied.
When they hit the ice for their long program, Belle felt like something was off with Chandler. She didn’t know what it was, but things had been fine at breakfast. They’d eaten in the hotel restaurant before they’d gone back to their rooms to get ready for the day. Then, they’d met back up around lunchtime, and that was when Chandler had appeared to be in a different mood to Belle. Belle had asked her about it, but Chandler had told her that everything was fine, so she’d tried to let it go. She’d asked again during their warm-ups, but Chandler had assured her that everything was still fine. Now, they were about to run their long program for a chance at the first medal that Belle would win in well over twelve years.
It was a local invitational, and it didn’t mean anything to most of the skaters here. Many of them only cared about gold, silver, and bronze if it came at nationals, or, at least, the competitions leading up to nationals, and, of course, the Olympics. For Belle, though, this would be a cool thing she could tell her kids about one day: she’d left the sport for a long time, had re-entered it, and had medaled in her first competition back. Something to talk about over beers with her friends at the bar where she pretended like it wasn’t a big deal to her when it really was because she’d won it here, the place she’d left years ago.
Their program started off well. By the time they were at the first jump combination, Belle was really feeling it, even though it was Cat’s choreography, and had they had time, she could’ve changed all of it and made things ten times better. They both landed their Axels after that combination, and the lifts were flawless, too. Belle only noticed one thing missing from their program: Chandler’s face. The woman wasn’t emoting at all. It was like a blank expression had taken over, and Chandler was going through the motions. Belle understood because the music choice was fairly boring, and the choreography was uninspired, but Belle felt like she was carrying them with her fake smile, and then, fake frown and pretend sadness when they hit that part of the performance.
