Page 20 of The Fall

“Right. You should get home. Rest up. See you tomorrow.”

He turns and continues to the rink. I stand frozen, watching him lace up his skates. Then I watch him glide onto the ice.

It’s late, and there are only a few people left on the ice. Logan skates around them with ease. He looks at peace. It’s a different experience skating for fun versus skating for practice. Sometimes the ice becomes your enemy when you’re training, but Logan looks like he’s completely relaxed.

He also looks lonely.

Goddammit.

I stomp over to the benches and pull my skates out of my bag. I quickly lace up and meet him on the ice.

“What are you doing?” he asks when he sees me skate up.

“I can’t leave Logan Sokolov to skate alone.”

His smile widens, and my stomach does a traitorous little flip. “You absolutely can, but thanks for joining me.”

“Yeah, whatever.”

He chuckles, and I follow his movements. He’s skating elements of our free dance, so it’s easy to match. “Are you trying to prove you’re better at our choreography than we are?”

“Wow, I truly am the villain in your head, aren’t I?”

I tug my bottom lip between my teeth to stop myself from smiling before saying, “It’s possible.”

“Well, the answer is no, I’m not trying to be better than you. I really just like the routine and wanted to try it.”

I guess I’ll believe him… for now.

“Do you want to try the lift?” he asks.

I look over at him. We both know it’s dangerous to do lifts on the ice when you haven’t practiced them on the mats.

“We did the lifts on the mats the other day,” he adds. “But if you’re not comfortable with it, then we don’t have to. Just thought it’d be fun. For me, at least.” He chuckles softly after that last part.

“What if you drop me?”

“Max has dropped you a ton of times. More times than I would like, honestly. I know you’re not scared of falling.”

Yeah, I have the bruises on my ass to prove it.

For some stupid reason, my mouth opens and starts saying exactly what’s going through my mind right now. “What if you drop me on purpose and then I get hurt and can’t compete… again.”

He stops suddenly, and I follow a few beats after him.

“Savannah, first of all, if the two of you don’t compete, it looks bad on me. I’m trying to build up my coaching career here, too, ok? Secondly, I would never, ever hurt another skater on purpose. That time with you was a complete freak accident. And like I said, I didn’t even know about it until a few weeks ago when I met you. What can I do to get you to trust me?”

“Do you really care if I trust you?”

“Yeah, I really do.” Maybe I’m stupid or naïve, but he looks like he’s telling the truth. His dark eyebrows are furrowed in concern. His cheeks are pink, likely from the cold of the ice, but his eyes look sad, and that’s what makes me give in. As much as I tell myself that I don’t care about other people’s feelings, I do. And it’s frustrating.

“Alright, let’s try the lift. If you don’t drop me, then I’ll think about trusting you.”

“I’ll take what I can get.”

He takes my hand in his. His hands are bigger than Max’s, something I noticed the other day when he was lifting me. We get into the position we need to be in to start the lift process. On the ice, it’s different. We’re not standing still, and then suddenly, I’m up in the air. We’re skating, and he has to lift me while we’re moving.

I try to relax and pretend like Max is the one lifting me. Even though Max has dropped me… a lot, I’m comfortable with him. I’m putting my life into Logan’s hands right now, literally. For all I know, he could drop me on my head and call it an accident.