Page 36 of Side By Side

“Chandler, I don’t want to get your hopes up.”

“I won’t. I’m used to being disappointed, remember?” she said with a shy smile. “If you don’t call about this, that’s fine. But maybe you could still call or text?”

“Why?”

“I don’t know. We could maybe keep catching up or something.”

“I’m pretty sure we’re all caught up.”

“Fine! Sorry, Belle. Sorry, I was such an ass back then and that I was asking you to maybe text me once. I’ll forget the whole thing.” Chandler went to skate off, but Belle’s hand was on her forearm, holding her back.

“I’m sorry. Give me your number. I’ll call you. Or, I’ll text you.”

“Don’t do me any favors.”

“I won’t be. I’d… like to catch up.”

Chandler wasn’t sure if Belle meant that or if she was just being nice, but she gave Belle her number and got into the waiting car after saying goodbye to her at the doors.

“She’s good, isn’t she?” Catalina asked when they pulled out of the lot.

“She’s still better than me,” Chandler answered.

CHAPTER 11

She stood there sipping her coffee after Chandler drove off and thought about the fact that Chandler had sipped from the same cup. Yes, the coffee was long cold, but that hadn’t ever bothered Belle. She never seemed to finish one cup of coffee at the beginning of her day. She’d leave it on one counter or another and make another cup or go back to it hours later, heat it back up, and drink it. Sometimes, she would add ice cubes and make herself an easy iced coffee.

She’d gone years without having Chandler in her life and had only had her back in it for a few days, but watching the woman drive off just now felt wrong somehow. Belle wasn’t sure if her mind was trying to tell her that that meant Chandler was still supposed to be here, at the Ice Park, or if it meant that Belle was supposed to be in the car with her, driving off to the airport.

“Morning, honey,” her dad greeted, walking up to her. “What are you doing staring at the front door?”

“Nothing,” she answered and shook herself out of her very recent inexplicable funk. “Just getting ready to start my day.”

“Yeah? You’re still wearing your skates.”

“Oh. Yeah. I guess I should take those off, huh?”

“Did you have a good skate this morning?”

“Surprisingly, yeah. It was fun.”

“Fun?” he asked.

They turned around and headed toward the bleachers, where she could take off her skates and put on her shoes.

“Yeah, I had fun.”

“Interesting.”

“What?” Belle asked as she sat on the bleachers.

“You don’t usually say that about your morning skates. It’s normally that you got to think, or you got out of your head. I’m not sure I’ve ever heard you describe it as fun.”

“Well, today was fun.”

She pulled off her skates and slipped into her shoes. She still had to change, but she’d do that in the locker room.

“What made it fun?” her dad asked.

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