Lovestruck by Christine L'Amour

Author:Christine L'Amour [L'Amour, Christine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-09-21T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Ness managed to evade her coach and Giulia a bit earlier than she had thought she would, and ended up arriving at the diner before Sasha did. It was a small, fancy place, the kind that wouldn’t make Sasha feel too guilty about the price of her meal to let Ness treat her.

When Sasha finally arrived, Ness felt like her very heart was smiling.

“Hi,” Sasha said, giving Ness a quick kiss before she sat down. “Did you wait much?”

“Hey,” Ness greeted back, trying not to sound as besotted as she felt. “No, just enough to get this sweet out-of-the-way table! The waiter’s brought the menus already, and it’s my treat, Sasha, so order anything you want.”

“You don’t have to pay for me every time,” Sasha argued, though the dusting of pink on her cheeks told Ness it pleased her, being treated like this.

“I don’t have to,” Ness agreed cheerfully. “But how else am I going to spend my uncountable amounts of money?”

“You’re not that rich,” Sasha said with a shake of her head, then seemed to pause. “Are you?”

“Well, you know, win a gold medal here and there, appear in one commercial or two…” Ness shrugged. “I’m mostly joking, honestly, but I’m… well-off. Definitely well-off enough to treat my girlfriend!”

For some reason, her words seemed to sadden Sasha.

“Ness,” she started carefully, eyes on the menu in front of her instead of Ness, “when do the competitions start?”

“Well, the Grand Prix is around October,” she told her, squinting as if that would help her understand what was wrong. “There are competitions to qualify for that, but I’m seeded in. It all ends with Worlds, around March.”

“So, you’ll be free until October?” Sasha asked.

“I do have to train and decide on my music and programs and all that,” Ness told her. “You don’t win gold by not doing anything, after all.”

“So, you don’t have much time after all,” Sasha said, looking down again. Ness frowned at her, confused, and was relieved when Sasha spoke again—she was a direct woman, after all. “I understand you have to focus on work and that soon you will not have much time to go out with me. I’ve been wondering how long it’d be until that happens.”

The terrible thing about intense joy, Ness thought despairingly as her heart crashed to the bottom of her stomach, was that it was very easy for it to turn into intense dread instead.

“I will always have time for you!” Ness assured her, grabbing her hand between both of hers. “Don’t worry! I know things will be a bit hard once I really start training, I’ll probably stay late at the rink and on weekends sometimes and I’ll be tired and I know it’ll be hard, but please don’t talk like that means we won’t be together anymore.”

Sasha squeezed her hand back, relief softening her face.

“I know your work is important,” Sasha said quietly. “I want us to be realistic about this.”

“I’m being realistic,” Ness stressed, bringing Sasha’s hand closer to her.

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