Tough Ice

Tough Ice: Chapter 13 - Katerina

"Close your eyes princess." I'm standing in the middle of the rink, eyes closed and nervous. I hear his skates stop close to me. "Hands?" I feel a sheet of paper on my hands. "Open." I open my eyes, and I can't believe what I'm seeing.
"Orlov seriously?" The sheet of paper says, 'congrats! You have won one free date with Valery Orlov.' He laughs and takes it from me.
"That wasn't your actual present, this is." He gives me a small box, so I open it and see a beautiful gold necklace, with a little pair of skates hanging off the chain. I pull it out of the box and hold it up to the light.
"It's beautiful Valery, thank you."
"I know a better way for you to thank me."
"And what is that?"
"I get to do 20 laps around the rink with you in my arms."
"Weirdo, but sure." He smiles big and goes to pick me up, but I stop him. "Can you out this on first please?" I hand him the necklace after he nods, and I turn away from him. He clasps the necklace on, then picks me up straight away, and starts skating super fast. "Why are you going to fast?"
"Because it's fun." I giggle and tense up so he doesn't drop me.

Nat and I decided to stay behind and watch the team practice, it's super funny to watch my brother and Valery fail, well, mostly my brother, Valery always scores, but he's so bad at keeping the puck. I walk over to their coach quickly.
"Hey coach, could you tell them to stop for a second, I need to talk to Orlov." He sighs and blows his whistle.
"5 minute break team!" They skate off into their own little areas, and I get in the ice and skate over to where Valery is.
"What the fuck is wrong with me today?" I tap him in the shoulder frowning.
"What are you beating yourself up for? You haven't missed a single goal."
"I can keep the puck, I just keep getting distracted."
"By what?" He smirks at me.
"You." I roll my eyes and move closer, then I stand on the top of my blades and whisper into his ear,
"Antonov won't stop staring at me." His eyes immediately darken and flash over to his teammate.
"Hey coach, let's get the game going again." Coach nods and I skate off the ice smiling, there is no doubt that he likes me.
"What are you smiling at Kat?"
"I think you're right."
"About? Oh, Valery?"
"Yeah."
"He told me, I know I'm right." Oh.
"H-he told you? He told you that he likes me?"
"Mhm."
"What do I do?"
"When you Theodore and you broke up, he finally told me, and I told him to give you two months to heal."
"So you're telling me in 5 weeks I should be expecting what a marriage proposal." She starts laughing hysterically.
"As much as I would love that, I don't think so, but I think you just need to wait."
"What if... I don't want to wait."
"Katerina are you telling me you might like him back."
"I don't know okay! I mean I do like him, but I've spent the last 5 years not, it's confusing."
"I mean you were enemies and now you're- frenemies?"
"I guess."
"Do you want to know what I think you should do?"
"What?"
"When they finish their practice game, you should go on the ice, skate up to him, and kiss him."
"No way."
"Yes way, you're gonna do it Kat, I saw you blushing earlier."
"Oh shut up, I'll kiss him on the cheek, not an actual kiss."
"And if he gives you an actual kiss?"
"I wouldn't be opposed to it." She giggles and watches the game intently, waiting for the game to finish.

The coach blows the whistle indicating that practice is over, so I get on the ice quickly and skate up to Valery smiling.
"Hey Vale-"
"Princess if someone is stopping you from eating I need you to tell me." I take a step backward.
"What?"
"You're always so worried about calories and such, I'm worried someone's forcing you to be, or you're forcing yourself."
"No Valery, no one's forcing me, including myself."
"I don't believe you, I know you Kat, I've known you for 5 years."
"You very clearly don't know me if you don't believe me, I'M FINE VALERY."
"Princess you can tell me, you know that."
"THERE'S NOTHING TO TELL YOU! I'M CHOOSING TO MAKE THIS DECISION MYSELF, THERE IS NOTHING WRONG VALERY." I can feel tears running down my cheeks while my voice cracks.
"Love, please stop, don't you dare lie to me about something like this. I care about you so much, and I don't want to loose you." I drop to the floor and start screaming nonsense at him.
"I'M NOT LYING, IF YOU CARED ABOUT ME YOU'D BELIEVE ME."
"Fine, I believe you." I look up at him astonished.
"What?"
"What do you mean what?"
"You believe me?"
"No, but I don't want to see you crying, it hurts me too, and if the reason you're crying is because I don't believe you, then I do." I scoff and roll my eyes.
"You're unbelievable Orlov." I skate off and make eye contact with Natasha, who's got her mouth wide open, her eyes filled with tears while my brother holds her. She wiggles out of his arms and walks over to me, then hugs me tight.
"Guess those feelings are gone huh?"
"Yeah, very much so." I let a few more tears run down my cheek before I pull away and sit down. "Why does everything always end up screwed up whenever I'm with a guy? My first boyfriend, sexually assaulted me. My second boyfriend, lied to me and cheated on me, and now Valery, right when I start realising my feelings for him he turns into a jerk again."
"I'm sure you'll find a good guy Kat, and I'm not defending him, cause he is a jerk, but I don't think he meant to make you cry, or yell, he looked genuinely worried."
"Yeah well it doesn't matter anymore, I've lost feelings completely."
"Are you going to take that necklace off?"
"No, it's a gift!" She laughs and pulls me up.
"Wanna go out for coffee?"
"Yes please, can we stop at home first, my mascara has definitely run."
"Surprisingly it hasn't, you've got some good waterproof mascara right there."
"Good to know, I wonder if it works in the pool."
"Adding that to the list of things to do when we move to America."

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Plot twist, they're back to being enemies now 😍