Page 57 of Heat It Up (Off the Ice)
Even though my phone hasn’t indicated an incoming text, I check to see if she has responded to my last one. Nothing. And there’s nothing several hours later when Mikko shows up so I can tutor him in physics.
“What are you guys working on?” I ask him after we find an empty table in the corner of the local café, sodas in hand. The place is noisy, but not to the point where it’s hard for him to hear me.
“Force.”
We discuss force and work and how to calculate them. “Think of it this way,” I say. “If you’re playing a game of hockey and you’re chasing the puck, but want to get to it before the opposition, what do you need to do?”
“Um, skate faster?” He shrugs.
“Exactly. The question comes down to how do you skate faster, and this is where we apply physics.” I draw a dotted line with an arrow aiming to the top of the page. “This is the direction you want to travel.” I draw two short lines at an angle to the arrow line. One is further ahead of the other. “These are the skates. The above one is the gliding skate, and the other one is the skate you’re pushing off the ice with. As you move forward, the pattern is reversed. Does that make sense so far?”
Mikko nods. I go on to show him how to calculate the forward force depending on the angle of the pushing skate. His eyes light up as he gets it, and shit does that feel good.
He shows me his homework assignment.
“Can you translate it for me?” I ask. He does and we work through the equations. I don’t give him the answers. I just help him get there.
By the time he’s finished the assignment, we’ve worked for over an hour. And still no text from Sofia.
This doesn’t surprise me. She has two more hours of work to go, and it’s doubtful she’ll text me before then.
I send her another text.Have great news to tell you.Call me ASAP!
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Sofia
With my least favorite chore for the day finished, I scurry from the men’s room and collide into a wall of a person.
“Anteeksi,” I say, taking a step back. Joni? “Hey, what are you doing here?” He’s dressed in tanned pants and a buttoned-up dress shirt. Not the casual look I’m used to seeing him in.
“I need to talk to you, but it won’t take long. Do you have a break soon?”
I shake my head. “I have lunch in thirty-five minutes. Can you wait that long?”
“No, but I should be back by then. I’m on a work errand.”
“I’ll meet you out front.” Before I can ask him what it’s about, he stalks off.
I continue my morning routine, puzzling the entire time what Joni could possibly need to talk to me about. I come up blank. Hopefully it’s not about his soccer team.
I finish with the last of the women’s bathrooms and head for the staff locker room.
I enter to find Maija at her locker, fiddling with her lock combo. She turns to me. “How was your morning?”
“Uneventful.” I scrub my arms and hands in the sink. “I’m meeting someone for a few minutes, but I’ll be back before the end of lunch.”
“Would that someone be tall, dark, and wear glasses?” She wiggles her eyebrows. Ever since she figured out yesterday that I’d got laid on the weekend (translation: she guessed and my face heated up), she’s been super excited for me. I haven’t had the heart to tell her the truth about Kyle’s and my relationship.
“No, it’s not Kyle. It’s Joni.”
“That’s too bad.” From the way she says it, you’d think she’s expecting Kyle to come over so he and I can have hot sex in the sauna (pun intended).
She does have a point though. It’s only been two days since I last saw Kyle, but I already miss spending time with him.
I grab my lunch from my locker and walk to the main entrance. As I step out the door, Joni is striding along the pathway toward me. A thick blanket of gray cloud looms overhead, refusing to allow a single ray of light through. A few drops of water splash on my head and bare arms.
“Hei,” he says. “Is there somewhere we can talk in private?”
