First Encounter (A Perri Kiely story)

Chapter 3

Perri wearily stood up on the ice. He rubbed his sore back.

"What has got into you Perri? Where has your balance gone?" Vanessa was confounded. He could do this move in his sleep but he had fallen twice now. Perri felt her frustration and added it to his own. He knew why he couldn't concentrate but he didn't know what to do about it. It had been a week since he bumped into her and since he now avoided the office he didn't have much chance of seeing her. His thoughts became increasingly preoccupied with her. What was her day like, did she have a boyfriend, why wouldn't she speak to him, was she a fan?

"Sorry V, I'm just tired." He sighed. Vanessa felt her annoyance vanish the instant she looked at his sad face, his large brown eyes looked even more doleful than usual and all she wanted to do was comfort him. She skated over to him and put her hand on his shoulder.

"Do you want a break?" she asked, concern etched on her pretty features. He nodded sadly and Vanessa felt her eyes water, she shook her head in the hope that those thoughts would go far away. The last thing she needed was to fall for her celebrity. But there was something about him, he was different from the usual celeb, who was full of confidence and rarely had any talent to back it up. He was the opposite, his natural ability astounded her and all he did was criticise himself. She smiled as she remembered what was in her bag. "Wait there!" she ordered and speed towards the edge of the rink. She returned with a small parcel in her hand and a huge grin on her face.

"What's that?" Perri asked, eyeing the small packet suspiciously.

"Open it" she sang, handing it to him. Perri unwrapped the box, pulled up the flap and peeked inside. There were five large cookies iced with lovehearts and dotted with milk chocolate.

"YAAAASSSS" Perri exclaimed and immediately grabbed one and took a huge bite. "Mmmmmmpf" he muttered closing his eyes in enjoyment; his bite was actually too big and his cheeks bulged full of cookies. Vanessa laughed, delighted at his response.

"Is that better?" she asked.

"Much!" he replied, nodding and smiling at her, she blushed and handed him his water bottle. She tried to push back whatever it was that just hit her.

"You probably just needed energy." She took back the items after he had demolished 3 cookies and taken a huge gulp of water. "We'll go again" she mumbled and skated off to put the things back on the side of the rink and compose herself. It worked, Perri executed the move perfectly. In fact, rehearsals went error free after that.

"I must remember to keep feeding you if I want you to work." She laughed as they packed up for the day.

They were almost finished when a production crew member headed over to them. Perri saw the lanyard and the familiar butterflies returned just for a second until the woman came closer and he could see it wasn't the female he wanted it to be.

"Hiya" she said as she got close enough to be heard. She was holding a clipboard and a pen. "I've been sent to check you're both still on for tonight?"

"Tonight?" repeated Perri, confused. Vanessa rolled her eyes at his typical forgetfulness.

"We will be there." Vanessa replied looking at Perri with a furrowed brow. She elbowed him as his face was still blank. "The Christmas Show briefing" she whispered.

"Oh yes, of course, we'll be there." He said finally twigging. He took his phone out of his bag, put it to his ear and moved away from the women.

"He had forgotten!" They said in unison, laughing.