Fire on Ice

Part 5

The next morning I get to the coffee shop and my legs are so sore I can barely walk. Georgia, my boss, sees me when I limp in and laughs, "What's the matter sweetheart?"

Georgia is a 60 year old grandma that opened this café almost 4 years ago because she said, "Life wasn't exciting me enough". When I saw she was hiring, I came in to interview and we immediately hit it off. She's super lenient with my schedule since she knows about my mom and skating, but I try to be here as much as possible, not just because I need the money, but also because I love being at the café.

"Coach made me do strength training." She groans as if she was there with me because she has heard my complete distaste for strength training.

"Yikes. Well, I'll have you do stuff in the back today so you won't have to be on your feet as much. The food delivery people are coming today, so just watch out for the truck and help them unload when they get here."

I smile gratefully, "Thanks Georgia, you're the best."

"Oh I know." I chuckle and head to the back to wait for the truck.

A couple hours later the truck has left and I'm sorting putting the new food in the display case when the door opens. I don't look up for a second due to fear that it might be Nikolas. I really do not feel like hearing that I'm incompetent today, but when I look up it's not Nikolas. It's Gigi. She sees me and smiles brightly, "Hey! I didn't know you work here!"

I smile back, "Yeah, I have for a while now. Just keeps me busy." I don't want to tell her that this is my main sort of income; that Georgia is paying me way more than she should to help me, and how that still is barely enough to pay my apartment rent.

She nods, "So I was thinking, when do you wanna get drinks? We still need to get together, you know." She says it while trying to frown but she ends up smiling anyway.

"Oh uh, drinks?"

"Yeah, we should go out to a club on Friday. I know a great one that I can get us into. I happen to *know* the bouncer." She winks and I laugh at the implication. When I don't respond right away she says, "You are 21 right? And even if you're not, I have a great guy that does fake IDs".

"Yeah, I'm 22, it's just I don't really like drinking."

Her eyes widen a smidge, "Oh! That's totally cool, we can do something else. Should we just get coffee?" She looks around, "We could do it here" she says while laughing. I am a little unnerved by how eager she is to hang out, but I decide to take her up on her offer. The cafe is slow this time of day anyway.

"Sure, what would you like?"

"An iced caramel macchiato with an extra shot of espresso and cold foam on top." I hesitate at the extra shot of espresso, does she really need more energy? But I put in the order and say, "Great, that'll be 5.65"

She pays and I start making it while she finds a comfortable spot. I finish making her coffee and my own and walk over to her. She looks up from her phone and thanks me for the coffee. We sit in silence for a few minutes and I'm starting to wonder why she wanted to talk to me so badly. Suddenly she says, "So, what got you into skating?"

"Um, it was my mom kind of. I watched the winter olympics when I was little and absolutely fell in love with skating. I begged my mom for lessons and she saved up just for me to do a trial run."

"Is that where you met Coach?"

"Yeah, I've known him basically my whole life. That's how I get free membership to the rink" I laugh and she laughs with me, "Damn, I gotta get in on this."

"What about you? What got you into skating?"

She smiles sadly and responds, "My grandma. She and I always used to watch ice dancing and I fell in love with how synchronized the boy and girl were, and I guess I wanted that. She took me to my first lesson and she would show up to every single one after that until last year." She takes a deep breath before continuing, clearly holding back tears. "She died from a stroke last year." Not expecting that at all, I reach for her hands on the table. She smiles up at me gratefully and quickly wipes her tears, "Well, anyway. It's just me and my mom now. My dad was never in the picture and we don't have a lot of extended family."

"Oh. You and your mom must be close then?" I attempt to brighten the mood, but end up failing miserably.

"Ha, no not at all. She and I are not exactly on the best terms. In fact, she hates that I skate at all. For her, the end goal was always an Ivy League, not the Olympics." She swipes at her eyes again and says, "No! This isn't about me, I'm supposed to be getting information on you!"

"Information? What are you a spy?"

She looks at me mischievously, "You never know." 

Author's Note: This chapter was a little short, but the next one will be longer :) Remember too comment and VOTE!! Hopefully you guys are enjoying the story so far!