Page 50 of Love on the Ice

After finishing our drinks and food, we switch from the game to a reality show on Netflix that we’ve been watching about couples dating blindly and falling in love. I’m leaning against Brooklynn, unbelieving that these people are doing and saying what they are on television this way.

It makes for great entertaining television, but I also can’t believe it’s real. It’s probably not. It’s probably all scripted for shock value. Ayden gasps from the place in the armchair she’s curled up in. She’s got her feet in the chair, her phone resting between her knees, and her lips parted.

“What?” Karlie asks.

When her eyes move, they lift and find mine. They’re wide, her lips still parted as she looks up at me.

“What?” I ask on a whisper.

She shifts her eyes to the side but doesn’t say anything. Brooklynn jumps up from the sofa next to me and reaches for Ayden’s phone. She’s smiling, but that smile fades almost instantly. Slowly, Brooklynn lifts her head and turns to face me, her eyes as wide as Ayden’s.

I am so confused. So lost. I don’t know what to do or say. So, I just stay seated and watch the girls around me. That is, until Brooklynn makes her way over to me.

“I would be a shit friend if I didn’t show you this,” she murmurs.

Ayden shakes the shock away and stands as well, making her way to Brooklynn’s side in front of me. The rest of the girls stay where they are, but I can feel their attention on me, on us, on this.

In the background, I realize that the television show has been paused, and the room is completely silent. They are listening to Brooklynn intently, waiting to hear what she has to say. I open my mouth to ask what she is so worried about because, judging by the expression on her face, she’s worried about something.

Thankfully, she puts me out of my misery, or maybe puts me in misery. I’m not sure. Brooklynn turns the phone around and her thumb touches the screen. An Instagram reel plays. It looks like a bar. There are people sitting and standing around, talking.

I recognize a few of them. It’s the guys from across the street. But then I see something else, someone else. It’s Reid. But he’s not just standing around with his friends. He’s sitting alone with a woman.

The two of them are sitting at a small table, close together, their heads tipped toward one another. My heart squeezes at the sight, and not in a good way. In fact, if I could slap the phone out of Brooklynn’s hand and smash it into a million pieces, I think I might.

They lean toward each other even closer before the camera moves, and the reel starts all over again. I stare at the screen, unable to blink, unable to breathe. I don’t know what to do or how to do it. I just sit on the sofa and stare into nothingness.

“Lorelai?” Ayden whispers. “Are you okay?”

“Nothing happened. He was just talking to her.” My voice sounds almost robotic.

There is silence, but I watch as the other girls get out their phones. Then I hear a gasp, and another, and another. I try to ignore them. I try not to look at any of them, but I fail. Because my eyes find Sky’s, and she winces when they do.

“There’s more?” I exhale.

She nods her head once. “There’s more,” she confirms.

I don’t know if I want to see it. No, I take that back. I know that I don’t want to see it, but I have to. I won’t be able to sleep, to eat, to do anything without knowing for sure what she’s seen. I have to see it all. I have to be reminded of who I am.

The friend.

Thinking that I was more, that I could be more, having that hope, it was stupid, and now I’m hurt just like I thought I would be. Inhaling a deep breath, I reach for Sky’s phone and touch the little arrow in the middle of the reel.

It begins to play.

The main reel is of Alexei saying something in Russian, but I’m not watching him. In the background are Reid and the girl. He wraps his arms around her. They’re hugging. I could maybe say that it could be his sister, but the closeness indicates something that is definitely not sisterly.

“Have you heard from him since the game?” Ayden asks.

Shaking my head, I give Sky back her phone and clear my throat. “I haven’t. That’s okay,” I whisper.

“No, it’s not,” Brooklynn snaps. “None of this shit is okay. That man made us all feel like we could trust him with you.”

My brows furrow at her words. I open my mouth, then close it and press my lips together, rolling them a few times as I think about what to say next. My initial reaction to her words is to be both offended and defensive at the same time.

But instead of being either, I ask her what she means. Brooklynn clears her throat, her attention shifting between the other girls before it returns to me. Then she takes a step toward me.

“It’s nothing bad. It’s just we saw the way he was looking at you, and we let him know that it wouldn’t be cool if he was in it with you just for a good time. You’re our girl, and you’re different than us. You’re just not the one-night stand kind of girl.”

---