Page 38 of Oh, Flutz!

“She started it,” Bryan blurts, and I smack him.

“Ow!” he cries out. I stick my tongue out at him. “She just hit me!”

Our coach is not impressed. “Your original guess was right, Bry. Maybe you should run away and join the circus instead of wasting all of our time, because you two are absolute clowns.”

She’s not wrong. I don’t know what it is about my partner that makes every ounce of professionalism fly out the window.

“Sorry,” we mumble.

Lian rolls her eyes. “Both of you, go home. We’ll keep working on side-by-sides tomorrow. We need to trim those up if we want to be ready for the season when it starts.”

I grimace at the reminder of our time crunch, and Bryan smirks, saluting me. “Peace out.”

He issucha little shit. I grumble this under my breath, then turn to go, but Lian stops me. “Nope. You’re going with him.”

“What? Why?”

“No!” Bryan cries. “She’s too judgy. She’s going to judge me and my choice in shows!”

“I wonder why,” I mutter.

“Lee, come on, you can’t let her ruin Bachelor night.”

“You need to spend more time with each other.”

I frown. “We spend all day together, six days a week.”

Lian gives me a look. “Real partnerships aren’t limited to the workplace. You need to bond. Tell me honestly, do either of you know anything about each other?”

“Yes,” we both say immediately.

She raises an eyebrow. “Oh, really? Bryan, what’s Katya’s middle name?”

Shit.

“That’s what I thought. Katya, I like you, but you need to get out of my house. For both our sakes. You’re nineteen years old, you really shouldn’t be shut in with your coach on a Saturday night.”

“Instead I should be shut in with my partner and his little sister while they binge reality television?” I point out, and Bryan shakes his head.

“See?Judgy.”

“Just because I make fun of you doesn’t mean I make fun of everything. You’re an exception.”

“Aw, I’m touched.”

“No, you’re just very easy to make fun of.”

He pouts.

“Stop.”

He exaggerates the pout, blue eyes glistening and puppy gaze going into full force. It’s almost disgusting. He could probably kill someone in cold blood, and a jury would let him off without a second thought.

To be fair, I seriously doubt Bryan Young could kill someone. He’s too soft. Drive them to suicide with his incessant idiocy, though, he is more than capable of. I’m struck once again by the overwhelming urge to hit myself in the head with a skate.“Ugh!”

Lian is not amused. “And for the record, this isn’t the last of it. You’ll hang out tonight, and then tomorrow night, and the night after—”

“And the night after?” Bryan deadpans, and our coach raises an eyebrow.

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