He Switched Partners. I Switched Countries. novel · Chapter 4 of 24

Chapter 4: Cold Hands

On Wednesday night the rink emptied at nine, and Theo and I stayed on the ice.

The ice crew had turned off half the lights.

We were skating the twist lift for the fortieth time that week, and it was not the lift that bothered me.

It was the throw he would not let me do.

"Throw me," I said, as I came down out of his hands.

"No."

"One single-rotation throw. I'll land it on my own, you don't even have to be close."

"No."

"Theo."

"Hargrove." He skated a slow circle around me with his hands loose at his sides. "Every pair on this ice can throw. If I have to, I will teach it to you in January."

"The qualifier is in three weeks."

"Then we skate the qualifier without it."

"Why?"

He stopped.

His face did what it always did, which was close.

"Because I said so," he said. "Take five."

I skated to the boards and sat down hard on the bench.

My hands had stopped hurting an hour earlier and had gone to a dull white numbness.

I could not feel my laces.

I tried three times to undo my left boot and gave up.

I heard him coming off the ice and sitting down at the far end of the bench, as far from me as the bench allowed.

"I'll leave you to it," he said.

"My fingers don't work."

"You've been out here since five."

"You've been out here longer."

"I wear gloves."

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