Page 17 of Ice Dance

What was I really doing here, hiding out at a local rink with Hasegawa?

If he dropped me tomorrow, then this entire opportunity would be wasted. I came to be seen, not to be hidden at the beginner rink like a shameful secret.

“Did you hear, Navarro?”

“What? No. Sorry.” Both Dylan and Hasegawa were looking at me, expecting an answer to something I hadn’t heard.

“We go again and build.”

I stowed my phone back in my bag. “Sure.”

NINE

REN

We finished the evening exhausted but having made progress. Navarro had risen to the challenge after failing so miserably for hours beforehand. It had only taken bringing both of us to the brink of quitting to get there.

Navarro left the rink first, bag over his shoulder. He said good night, said he’d see us in the morning, and he was gone. He’d been busy texting, and clearly had a life outside the competition. A life I had no inclination to know anything about.

“I want you both to have breakfast together,” Dylan said, packing up her things alongside me.

“No.” I didn’t even think. The answer was a reflex.

“It’ll be good for you to talk.”

“He does enough talking for both of us.”

“Alright.” She sighed. “I won’t force it.”

I appreciated that. I needed breakfast to gather my thoughts and mentally prepare for the day. I did not need Navarro chatting all the way through it about pointless things.

“Also, I’ve had a message from Alisha.”

I looked up.

Dylan’s face was not expressing hope. If anything, she seemed concerned. “She says she made a mistake and she wants to return. She can be on a flight tomorrow. She’d be here for selection.”

I slumped back. My immediate reaction was to laugh her off. You do not walk out in such dramatic fashion, get on a plane, and then change your mind and return as though nothing had happened. But . . . we danced well together. Very well. Better than Navarro and me. Six months training. A routine that was drilled into both of us. Besides a few emotional hiccups, we were one of the best, if not the best in Montreal.

“What are your thoughts?” Dylan asked, sitting beside me. “Then I’ll tell you mine.”

“I think we’d be foolish not to have her back.” I didn’t like it, but I hadn’t liked any part of this since day one.

Dylan nodded, and leaning forward, she clasped her hands together. “Her returning is not going to solve any of the problems we’ve had, and there have been many.”

“I don’t need to like my partner.”

“No, but it helps, Ren.”

“Why are we even discussing this? Of course she should come back.” An uncomfortable ache started in my chest. My body didn’t want her back, but my body did as it was told. Dylan had fallen quiet. I zipped up my bag, stood, and looked down at her. “Even if Navarro and I get through, I can’t dance in the gender open. He can. He’s . . .”

“Bisexual?” she offered.

“Exactly. That’s fine for him. But I have a career I need to protect.”

She pressed her lips together, preventing a frown. “So, you’re saying you won’t dance with him because he’s bisexual?”

“No. I’m saying I have a better option.” It seemed as though the matter had resolved itself anyway with Alisha’s return. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Will you break the news to Navarro?”