Page 37 of Side By Side

Belle wasn’t sure how to answer that question. The past few days had been a bit of a whirlwind, and she hadn’t had a lot of time to process things. First, Chandler had come to town and bought ice time at her rink. Then, they’d had the event, which had kept Belle busy from before sunup to well after midnight. She’d had a game with her team and had gone to drinks, seeing Chandler there. They’d raced together, and that had been fun. The event had continued. They’d talked. Chandler had asked her to be her partner. She’d said no. They’d talked some more. They’d even skated together. And yes, it had been fun, but Belle hadn’t had a moment to really think about much, including the revelation that Chandler didn’t regret their kiss and had, in fact, been the one to connect their lips.

“Um… Well, Chandler was here.”

“She was?”

“Yeah. We skated together this morning.”

“I see,” her dad said and sat down next to her on the bleachers.

“What, exactly, do you think you see?”

“Well, you used to have fun when you skated. But the last time I remember you saying that was when you were in that program.”

“That’s not true. I have fun when I skate, or I wouldn’t be doing it.”

“Maybe. But you don’t usually say it like that. I can’t recall a single time in recent years that you said you had fun when you skated. Maybe when you played hockey, but I don’t think you mean it the same way.”

“No, I don’t,” she admitted.

“So, skating with Chandler is fun?”

“This time, it was, anyway. There was no plan or anything. We just kind of went out there and figured things out as we went along. That’s not at all how I remember her. She needed the step-by-step instructions from the coaches. It felt like if she didn’t have the plan, she couldn’t even move on the ice.”

“You were never like that, were you?”

“No.” Belle chuckled. “I usually skated until they told me to stop or scolded me.”

“You’ve always loved it; the jumps, the spins, the… well, everything about figure skating.”

“I have, yeah.”

“And I understand why you left the program, honey; I do. I know what those girls, including Chandler, did to you. And with your mom…” He sighed. “But you skated with Chandler this morning, so can I assume that she possibly at least explained some things from back then to you?”

“She did, yeah. She apologized and explained the whole tossing my clothes into the toilet thing, too.”

“She did, did she? I’d like to hear that story.”

“She didn’t do it. The other girls did. I guess right before I walked in, Chandler pulled everything out of the two toilets they’d used and called them jerks.”

“That prim and proper girl, born with a silver spoon in her mouth, stuck her bare hands into a toilet and pulled out your clothes?”

“I guess I hadn’t thought about it like that. They were the boys’ toilets, too.”

“Wow! Okay. Well, I guess I like her a little bit more now,” her dad said.

Belle smiled and looked out at the ice.

“We talked about the whole kissing thing, and she said she doesn’t regret it. She just regrets what happened after. And I think she means it: the apology.”

She turned back in time to see her dad nod at that.

“Does she still want you to skate with her?” he asked.

“I think so, yeah. She asked me to think about it and call her if I changed my mind.”

“You’re still set against it?”

“Dad, I would be a stand-in, at best. Maybe there would be some competitions, but she’s waiting for her actual partner to heal from an injury. And she’d still be trying out male partners who can get her on the Olympic Team. The Olympics aren’t letting in same-sex partners yet, so there wouldn’t be much of a point.”

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