Behaving Badly by Isabel Wolff

Author:Isabel Wolff
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub, mobi, pdf
Tags: Romance, Fiction, General
ISBN: 9780007347490
Publisher: Mira
Published: 2003-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

‘Ice skating,’ he said, when he called me on Saturday morning. ‘How about that? Why don’t we go ice skating?’

My heart sank. I’d look inept and inelegant. ‘Ice skating? In the summer?’

‘Why not? It’s better actually because it’s not so crowded. And I bet you haven’t been for ages, have you?’

‘No. The last time was when I was nine.’

‘So shall we go? We could go to the Queensway Ice Bowl, then have dinner.’

I chewed on my lower lip. ‘Ok-ay.’

‘Great. I’ll meet you outside at half-seven.’

When I came out of the tube at twenty-five past, David was already waiting. He was wearing jeans and a pale yellow shirt, and holding a bag. He smiled when he saw me, then kissed me on the cheek; and as he drew me into a hug I noticed his nice lemony scent again. As we went down the stairs I could hear the dull rumble of the bowling alley and the percussive bleeps of the amusement arcade.

‘I’ll be useless at this,’ I said, as he bought the tickets.

‘We won’t do it for long—just an hour. It’s a bit tacky here in some ways, but at least the rink’s reasonably big. Now, Miss Behaviour—you need skates.’

‘What about you?’ He smiled, then pulled a black pair out of his bag, along with a green jumper. ‘You’ve got your own ones?’

‘I used to play a lot of ice hockey. When we lived in the States.’

‘Ah.’ I remembered the hockey stick I’d seen in his room. ‘So you’re hot stuff then.’

‘Not bad. It’s something I do from time to time and I thought it would be fun to do it with you.’ I handed in my shoes at the counter and was given a pair of dark blue skates which looked more like ski-boots and were as hard to get into.

‘Let me help you,’ David said. I felt my face warm up as he held my right ankle and I held onto his shoulder. ‘What small feet you have, Grandmama,’ he said as he snapped shut the straps. Then he laced up his own skates, we pulled on our jumpers, and stepped gingerly onto the ice.

‘Let me just find my balance,’ he said. ‘Stay right there.’

‘Don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere.’ As I clung to the handrail with both hands, shivering slightly, David suddenly sped away from me, like mercury, under the coloured lights, and in less than a minute had lapped the rink twice. Then he swished up to me so fast I thought he’d crash into me—then braked with a sharp parallel turn.

‘Gosh,’ I said. ‘You are hot stuff.’

‘Well I should be—I did it for years. But it’s not hard. I’ll show you. Come on.’ He extended his right hand—he wasn’t wearing gloves—and I anxiously reached out my left. I took a small step then skidded, and, with a burning surge of adrenaline, grabbed at the rail with both hands.

‘I can’t do this,’ I said, my heart pounding with the shock. ‘I just can’t. I’m so afraid of falling.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.