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Belle seemed to want to argue but didn’t. She walked Chandler back to the office and pulled the cash out of the safe, pointing out the piece of paper with the instructions on it for counting down the money and putting it into the registers, of which there were three. One up front and two in the concession stand. It looked like they only started with cash in the one up front and one in the concession stand, though, only adding money into the other drawer if they got busy and needed it.
Chandler counted per the instructions and carried everything out of the office. Then, she saw Belle on the ice. It wasn’t just Belle on the ice, though. It was Belle on the ice playing her music overhead and landing a quadruple freaking Axel with ease. The most difficult move in all of figure skating, and Belle had just landed it like it was the simplest thing in the world. Chandler shook her head and laughed because Belle really had always been that good, but Belle hadn’t let any of the pressure to perform get to her; not when they were kids and not today, either. Chandler skated like she was a coiled snake, unable to get herself loose, and Belle was always loose and never appeared to be worried that she wouldn’t be enough for others.
“Because she’s enough for herself,” Chandler muttered, watched on for another minute, and completed her promised task.
When it was time for her to drive the Zamboni, she remembered what Belle’s dad had told her.
“This is pretty boring,” she stated.
Belle chuckled and replied, “Yeah. It’s not exactly a race car, is it?”
“No, you just have to kind of hold it in place.”
“That’s basically it, yeah,” Belle replied and wrapped her arm over the back of the seat.
While it wasn’t touching Chandler’s shoulders, it still felt like an intimate gesture, and Chandler smiled because she liked the idea of Belle wrapping an arm around her.
“So, is it going to be busy today?” she asked, trying to get her mind off the arm behind her back.
“Yeah, we have a few hockey practices and a game tonight.”
“Cool. Are you going to stick around to watch it?”
“I’m playing in it,” Belle replied. “It’s my team. My first game back. I probably shouldn’t – I should work or check on my dad instead – but kind of like my skate this morning, I think I need it; to be in goal again. Sheryl is going to be with Dad when she gets off work, and I told her there’s a bottle of wine in the cabinet for her, not for him, because he’s on pain meds. I even told her that there are some tea candles in a drawer, so if she wants to make it a date, she can.”
Chandler smiled and said, “You’re playing tonight?”
Belle nodded.
“Is that wise?”
“Why wouldn’t it be? I’ve got someone working up front, and Steph is in the concession stand. Plus, we have–”
“I meant about the possibility of getting injured while we’re in season,” Chandler interrupted.
“In season?”
“Belle, figure skating. We’re partners.”
“Are we? I thought you were finding a real partner.”
“You are a real partner,” she argued.
“You know what I mean.”
“And you know what I mean. Belle, you landed a quad this morning. I saw you.”
“Barely. And I just wanted to try it.”
“Just want–” Chandler shook her head. “Do you know how long it takes someone to even remotely come close to landing a quad Axel?”
“In competition, with people around and when it actually matters, it’s different. This was just me skating solo.”
“God, you don’t even know how good you are… You’re almost twenty-seven years old. You could be the oldest solo skater to go to the Games for the US by the time of the Olympics, and you can land things that skaters in their primes can’t land.”
“Chandler, I’m playing tonight. I need this.”
“I get it. It’s not about that. It’s just that… You’re so good, Belle. I feel like it’s my fault.”
