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Rachel popped her head round my office door, and I sighed, dreading what else she was going to try and talk to me about. I was a little fed up with the Sam this, Sam that conversations.
“Did you say your girls will be here for a lesson today?”
Rachel was a pretty decent manager, she had taken over the rink when her dad passed away. Luckily, we had grown up together via the rink. She never competed, but I always thought she should have, she was a natural on the ice. She would always say, she was better at bossing people around then the other way round.
“Yeah, they’re due in an hour.”
“Eh, right, ummm,” she lowered her eyes, and I wasn’t entirely sure what the problem was. “There are some news crews here and umm some of Mr. Jones' team, they need the rink.”
“So, I must cancel my girls for the sake of the media? Are you joking?”
“Well, if you can ask them to come a little later it will be fine.”
“No, Rachel. I will not be doing that.”
Shoving my chair away from my desk, I barged past Rachel and headed down towards the rink. There was no way my girls were missing out simply because some camera crew needed to take photographs or whatever they were doing. They could wait.
As I reached the steps down the stairs, I could hear multiple voices and I stopped for a moment. I’d be really making a mess if I just showed up downstairs kicking off when I was already being mentioned in the papers.
Reaching the bottom step, I paused, unsure if I should push the doors open that led into the arena. I’d make a fool out of myself if I did start arguing with them. No, my girls didn’t deserve to be pushed aside, they had competitions coming up.
Standing up straight and taking a calming breath, I pushed the doors opened and stepped in. The lights were already blinding as there were several more dotted around the rink to make it appear almost daylight.
I recognized Katelyn and Matthew as they stood outside the rink along with Olivia from channel six. Looking around, I tried not to see if I could spot Sam. It wasn’t too surprising when I noticed he wasn’t anywhere near. A soft sigh escaped as I allowed a tiny bit of disappointment to creep in at not seeing him.
“I hope you’re not going to step on the ice without the correct footwear,” I said, clearing the small space between us.
“Oh, Miss Morgan, lovely to see you again.” Katelyn smiled at me a little too brightly as Matthew just nodded hello. “I hope you don’t mind the intrusion. We’ve invited Olivia here to do a feature on the rink to prepare for the charity match.”
“Nice to meet you.”
“It’s wonderful to meet you, Kimberly. I used to watch your shows with my mom, such a shame you stopped skating.”
Olivia seemed nice enough, for a television personality. I had met many interviewers in the years I competed and often or not, I found them arrogant and pushy. She stood tall in a beautifully tailored gray suit and skyscraper black heels.
“Again, I must advise you guys don’t go onto the ice. It’s just been cleaned and can be a little dangerous for those who aren’t used to it.”
“Yeah, Mr. Jones did say we needed to be careful,” Matthew jumped in as he looked nervously at the rink. “We are just here to get some footage. We won’t keep you guys too long, Rachel mentioned you have a class shortly.”
“Yes, I have my girls coming. They are training for the regionals next month and we can’t really afford to miss any lessons.”
“Say, I have an idea.” Oliva spoke up as if a light bulb went off in her head. “Could we maybe get some shots of you training the girls?”
“You would need their parents’ permission to film them, Olivia.” Katelyn took the words right out of my mouth.
“Oh, I’m sure they will say yes! What parent doesn’t enjoy seeing their kids on the television? That is, if it’s alright with you?”
Standing there unsure of how this conversation had been flipped to asking me to be on film, to be part of the feature, I felt my palms grow sweaty. The last time I had been in front of any camera was during my last championship, I came in third, Bronze. My coach made out it was due to Luke’s health and my head not being in the game anymore. The truth was, I just didn’t want to do it anymore.
“If the parents agree, then I am ok with it, but you cannot ask the girls any questions.”
“Deal, thanks, Kim! This will be so great, and it means we can truly show a wider picture about the teams that need sponsorships and stuff.”
Granted, the girls would go far if they had the backing of a company or someone who was willing to sponsor their career. I had valued my sponsors at the time, they helped when I needed new costumes, skates, or travel expenses to comps.
“Katelyn.”
Once Matthew and Olivia had moved out of earshot, to continue talking about the filming, I assumed, I wanted to get Katelyn’s attention.
