THE OXFORD BET *VirginityGames*

Chapter 29 Trouble always starts at a Bet party

"So no restaurant for our date today?"

"Nope. I texted you to wear something comfy and no restaurant."

"What every girl wants to hear," Francesca teased. "I'm only joking. So we're doing an activity... I much prefer those kind of dates than stuffy sit down dinners."

"Me too." Daniel said with a genuine smile he was attempting to hide. 

However when faced with ice and a pair of skates, it would be easy to believe she could handle them with ease. It was only ice skating, she told herself. She had handled worse things. Eyeing the ice, though, Francesca wished she was doing anything else but that. Ice was cold and unforgiving, it left broken bones and bruises on its victims. Beside her Daniel was gearing up, seemingly unintimidated by the act of ice skating.

"Ready?" Daniel smiled. The skates made him taller than what he actually was; now he stood even more taller than Francesca. "Or are you just going to stare at the ice all day?"

The thing was, Francesca just might have spent all day staring at the ice. Not much intimidated her, but since she knew she could never ice skate since she went with Vicky. Who had tried effortlessly to teach her but every time they went she slipped on the ice and fell on her bum. So looking like a fool in front of Daniel didn't rank up high on the bucket list. 

"I'm really bad at this, you know I'm going to embarrass you, right?" she said after a moment. Daniel tore his gaze away to give a warm smile to her. 

"You could never embarrass me, besides, you've done enough of that already when you refused to dance with me."

"Just you wait." Francesca smirked back nervously.

Ten minutes later Francesca was holding onto the rail of the rink while Daniel stood a couple feet away, stifling his laughter at her. "Oh god. I didn't know you were this bad, Francesca!" He crowed, all but bent over from the force of his laughter. "I'm sorry I can't help laughing,"

"Shut up," Francesca snorted. She dared to let go of the railing only to grip it harder before. "I Told you I'm not good," she admitted, a little sheepishly. 

Daniel seemed to get the hint and his laughter stopped, replaced by a softer expression. "Let me help you then," he said gently. He held his hand out to Francesca with a small smile of encouragement. "Hey, I've got your back." That was when Francesca realised Daniel would never put her in harm's way intentionally. She let go of the rail and gripped Daniel's hand tightly, probably hurting it a bit, but if she was, Daniel gave no indication. Instead his smile grew bigger, just like the butterflies in Francesca's stomach.

As it turned out, naturally, Daniel was excellent at ice skating. Francesca watched with adoration as Daniel made his way around the busy ice-rink, doing all sorts of twirls and movements Francesca could only begin to describe how to do. He made it look so easy, like he had been doing it his entire life. That was something the Francesca loved about Daniel; how he was able to take things in his stride, able to pick up new skills and act as if he'd always been doing them. It was both charming and frustrating. 

Francesca must've been staring a little too hard because Daniel suddenly glanced back, smirking when he caught her gaze. He skated back towards to her and held a hand out, which she took without a moment's hesitation. "Francesca, you can't just stay there and admire the view," Daniel teased, gazing at her. "I know I look good and all."

Francesca snorted, keeping her eyes forward. She was finally able to skate without falling for a few minutes and didn't want to risk being distracted and take them both down. "It's impressive how you're able to do all those tricks." She chanced a quick look at him and squinted in suspicion. Daniel had that mischievous look in his eyes Francesca recognised.