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“Promise sealed. I’ll see you there!” I said far too loudly and stood up from my seat, the metal legs of the chair squealing on the tile floor as I did.
I shouldered my duffel and turned to run away, just like I’d wanted to when I saw him emerge from the locker room with Dutch and Nash earlier.
“Wait!” Wiz’s voice stopped me in my tracks.
I turned to find him with his phone out. “How am I supposed to take you on a date if I don’t even have your number?”
Another one of my rules. Never give a man your number. I’d broken it with Leith, and look how that had ended.
But I did promise him that I’d go on one date and then I could put the whole mess to bed.
“I don’t suppose you’d just give me your number?” I tried weakly.
Wiz’s answering grin told me he knew exactly what I was up to.
With a sigh, I took the phone and put my number in. “This date better be amazing.”
His grin just grew wider, resembling the Cheshire Cat from the books my mam used to read me when I was small.
“I could just not respond to your texts, you know,” I grumbled, suddenly feeling out of my element. I wasn’t used to being thrown so far off my own axis and this man seemed to be able to do it with a couple of words and a cute smile.
“That’s all right,” Wiz said, sipping his since-cooled coffee with relish. “I’ve been working on my cardio to better chase you with.”
A shiver of pleasure at the implication of his words crawled down my spine, reminding me of that first night when Leith followed me out of the club.
I liked being chased far more than I would ever admit out loud.
“Goodbye, Wiz,” I said, huffing a laugh of disbelief.
Despite my nerves coming into the cafe, I found myself humming under my breath as I headed for figure skating practice.
Somehow, I thought I was looking forward to our promised date.
“It’s so unfair that he gets the whole ice to himself for an hour every day,” Ariana, one of the figure skaters who competed in all of the same circuits as me, hissed behind me as they watched Artie skate on the ice.
I didn’t usually watch Artie’s practices—I started scheduling mine earlier in the day to avoid running into anyone from that pack—but the powers that be had shuffled all of the sport’s practice times and the curlers now had the ice first thing in the morning while the speed skaters held their clinic at the other rink.
“Artie, you’re not committing to your jumps!” Eli barked from the edge of the ice as Artie wobbled out of a jump.
Artie said nothing, but judging by the flush in his cheeks, Eli was pissing him off.
“Even if you can’t see it clearly, the ice is going to still be there when you’ve landed—just like I know you’ve done a thousand times before,” Eli continued, clearly oblivious to Artie’s anger.
Eli had never been the most observant coach. He saw every inch of your body that was out of place, but he had the emotional intelligence of a tree.
“Up again!” Eli ordered.
Artie gained momentum, his blue eyes squinting as he lifted off and spun. This time he didn’t even wobble and instead crashed shoulder first into the floor.
Eli called something to him, but my attention was drawn away by the nasty giggle coming from behind me.
“He can have the whole ice, but I’ll never understand how he got that silver,” Ariana said loud enough that she was quickly shushed by the other girls.
Another one of the girls, Leah, whispered a bit more softly. “It must be hard to have your sight go like that, if it were me I’d be totally miserable.”
She meant well—Leah was never one to be mean on purpose—but her words still made my teeth clench together so hard I was scared for a moment that they would crack.
Ariana, however, relished in being a total bitch.
