‘Thank you,’ she squeaked and handed her boots over, desperately hoping that they didn’t reek. She picked up an ice-skate and realised that Romesh was ready and leaving her. ‘Hold on, Ro.’
‘James and I are ready. We’ll see you out there.’ He looked pointedly in the direction of Olivier and grinned, then wobbled off, walking awkwardly on the blades until he reached James and leaned heavily on his shoulder. Despite being smaller, James held his husband up and managed to walk almost normally towards the door. ‘I need all the minutes of extra practice I can get – I’m awful at this.’
‘No, you’re not.’ James frowned.
Romesh shushed him and pressed a kiss to his temple, whispering something in his ear as they got closer to the doors. Ashleigh narrowed her eyes at her best friend’s back. He was up to something.
Olivier came back over with his ice-skates and sat down opposite her to pull them on. ‘Are you an experienced skater?’
‘Me? No. We’ve come the last few years and I can get about the rink once it comes back to me…but experienced?’ She shook her head.
‘That’s more than me. I’ve never done this before.’ He tied a knot and braced himself on the edge of the bench. He blew out a deep breath and his eyes caught hers, the smile behind them appearing on his mouth a moment later. ‘Here goes.’ He levered himself up, teetering, arms outstretched.
Ashleigh raised her eyebrows as he started to tip forward and jumped up to help. ‘Whoa. You’re not kidding are you? You’ve really never ice-skated before?’
‘No.’ He laughed, his warm hands resting on her shoulders. She realised she had one hand on his chest and one on his waist and her face was back to being the colour of Rudolph’s nose. He straightened, wobbling, but finding his balance this time. ‘Will you show me what to do?’
Ash nodded. ‘Sure.’ If he hadn’t been so hopeless, she might have thought Romesh was right: that Olivier did like her and was just pretending to get closer to her. But no. He was actually dreadful on the skates and Ro and James had abandoned them, so she was his only option.
‘Okay. So, kind of stomp your feet rather than walking normally,’ she advised him as she started walking over to the door. A health and safety steward in a yellow vest held it open for them and she stopped as he gave them some safety information. Olivier, concentrating too much on his stomping it seemed, bumped into her back and had to grab her with an arm around the waist so she didn’t topple over.
Ashleigh had a dizzying flashback to the night they’d danced in the club. She was seriously going to have to cool down and stop thinking those kinds of thoughts, or the ice was going to melt and ruin everyone’s day.
‘Pardon,’ he said, letting go. She glanced back at him with a slightly breathless laugh. Yeah, she was playing it coolsobrilliantly. The steward waited for them with barely concealed boredom to continue his safety briefing and then directed them to the gate in the wooden partition wall all around the ice.
Despite the fact it was night-time, the rink was brightly lit up and she could see people whizzing around – all going clockwise as instructed – their winter hats and coats a blur. They made it over to the rink and Ashleigh stepped on first, moving hesitantly over to the side to make sure Olivier was right behind her. He pulled himself along, clinging to the edge.
‘This is harder than it looks,’ he said, laughing at himself.
‘You’re going to have to let go to get your balance.’ She smiled and held out her hand, willing herself to be brave too. ‘I’ll stick with you.’
‘Merci.’ He took her hand and shuffled up beside her. She gave him instructions on how to move his feet and they began making a slow lap of the rink. James and Romesh were on the opposite side and fast approaching, with Romesh still clinging to James, who was very confident.
Everyone was lapping them, but Olivier was still holding her hand, even though he was standing up straight now and only occasionally risking taking them both down.
The music coming through from the bar was ‘Last Christmas’ and without consciously agreeing too, they both started timing each glide of their skates to the music. They were moving quicker now and Olivier was gaining in confidence. They still had their hands linked and his smile was wide and contagious. There was a glint in his eye too, which she recognised. The mischievous glint that he’d get when he and Romesh were up to something.
He picked up the pace and she stretched her legs faster to keep up with him. ‘Did you lie to me Olivier?’ she gasped, as they swung around the rink, the colourful lights blurring beneath the pitch-black sky above. ‘There is no way this is your first time.’
‘I swear.’ He tugged on her hand and she clung to it tighter, her chest starting to feel light and shivery because of how fast they were going, the cold air even cooler as they cut through it. ‘I learnt it all from you.’
‘This is the part in a cheesy film where they say something like “the student becomes the master” isn’t it?’ she called out to him and then shrieked as they slid around a corner, sending up a spray of ice. ‘Oh my God, I’m getting dizzy.’
‘Mon Dieu, me too. How do we stop?’
‘Forgot to learn that bit did you?’ she teased and aimed them for the corner of the rink, out of everyone’s way. They released each other and slammed up against it laughing, clinging on to the top of the wood.
She felt strangely untethered as she looked over at him, his hair falling forwards into his face, just calling for her to push it back out of his eyes.
‘Carry on if you want to,’ he told her, catching her watching him. ‘I’m just going to err…regroup for a moment.’ He pulled at his scarf as he swung around and leaned on his elbows back on the partition.
‘Oh, is that what you’re calling it?’ she scoffed. ‘I need to stop for a minute too. To be honest it would be nice to give my feet a rest.’
‘Of course. I’m sorry. You’ve been on them all day.’ His smile dropped and his eyes went to the white skates on her feet automatically. Was she imagining it or did his eyes linger on her legs as they made their way back up to her face? His cheeks were rosy across his high cheekbones but that could easily be from the cold air and exhilaration of skating around the rink.
‘It’s okay. It was worth it. Even if I did nearly lose my lunch.’
‘You haven’t eaten dinner?’ His brows drew together. Missing a meal. It was probably sacrilege to a chef.
