Swan Song

Four

After a weekend that offered a great deal of excitement, I quickly found my way back to Monday morning with the team.

Ever since our return from the uranium mission, I had been itching to work on advanced evasive maneuvers and Mav was happy to work on those with us, especially after his and Bradley's close call.

Mav and Hondo split us into teams with my team consisting of Hangman, Yale, Harvard, Payback, Fanboy, and myself and I was confident in my teams ability to win the dogfight that we would be ending the day with.

Upon our victory, we all celebrated in our respective locker rooms and once we were debriefed and leaving for the day, I stayed behind to talk to Maverick.

"You did great the other day," Mav said once the room had cleared out. "No wonder your parents are so proud. One hell of a pilot and figure skater."

I laughed as I hopped up on the edge of one of the desks.

"I just skate for fun. We all know it," I replied with a small smile. "I actually just wanted to thank you for going. It meant a lot to have my support system there for me."

"You really think we'd all miss it?" Mav chuckled as he gathered his things. "Go home and get some rest, Odette."

"I have a competition to prep for," I laughed before walking out to my car where I saw Hangman leaning against the trunk and I raised a brow in question.

"If I were you, I'd move before I run you over," I muttered as I threw my bag into the back seat.

"Oh, come on, Odette," Jake sighed. "Just let me talk to you."

"Okay, I'll humor you," I replied as I turned on my heels to face him. "What do you want to talk to me about, Jacob?"

"Jacob," he echoed with a chuckle. "I wanted to ask you if you'd like to go to dinner with me."

"You're asking me to go to dinner with you?" I asked as I raised my brow in question. "What's the catch?"

"Why does there always have to be a catch with you?"

I watched Jake roll his eyes and stood quietly for a long moment. This was Jake Seresin so surely there had to be some kind of catch but the problem was that I couldn't figure out what it was.

"I can't do dinner with you tonight," I finally replied. "I have somewhere I have to be."

The last thing I would've let Jake know was that I had to meet Matt to come up with and then rehearse our new choreography for a sport he didn't even know I was involved with.

"Oh," he replied, almost shocked that I wasn't fawning over him like many of the other women in his life. "Plans?"

"I mean, it's a Monday," I replied. "I'm getting dinner with my brothers."

I hated lying, even if it was to Hangman, but this secret had been my own to keep and I was fine with not sharing.

"How about Friday then?"

"Friday works," I replied before swallowing hard. "I'm sorry but what's really the point?"

"The point, Little Miss Odette, is that I've wronged you in a lot of ways over the years and it's my way to apologize. Especially since we're going to be together on this squadron."

In his defense, it sounded like a fair enough reason to ask the person who hates your guts to dinner but I wanted to keep my guard up just in case.

Once I had agreed to go to dinner with Jake on the upcoming Friday evening, I hurried off base to the San Diego Ice Arena where Matt had been waiting for me.

After I was arrived and found my way inside, I changed into a pair of leggings and a long sleeve shirt before hurrying out to the ice.

"I'm sorry I'm late! It's been such a weird day," I admitted.

"Shoot."

I let out an exasperated sigh as I threw my hair up into a messy bun.

"When I was leaving work, Jake asked me to dinner," I replied as I stood in place and did some small stretches.

"Wait, what did you say?"

"I told him I was busy tonight so he asked about Friday," I groaned as we began to glide across the ice, warming our legs up. "I said I'd go."

"I know I don't know the guy personally but I know everything you've told me and something about that just doesn't seem right."

"I thought the exact same thing but he was adamant that it's because he's screwed me over and wants to make things right since we'll be working together," I sighed. "It sounds like a fair enough reason but nothing is ever what it seems with that man."

Matt and I made small talk about Jake and then the music we wanted to use for our new routine before using our most recent routine as a warmup.

"It has to be from cinema," I said as we cleared the ice and sat on a bench.

"Nineties and early 2000's to be exact."

"Hear me out," I muttered.

"Oh, this'll be good," Matt grumbled with a chuckle.

"Ignoring that," I replied with a roll of my eyes. "What about something nobody would expect from us?"

"I'm listening," Matthew replied, intrigued as he leaned towards me.

I grabbed my phone from my leggings pocket and pulled up a playlist before playing a song for Matt. As he listened, he laughed and turned to look at me.

"I always forget what a fucking nerd you can be, Dette," he chuckled. "Let's do it."

I let out a squeal of excitement before Matt and I made our way to one of the empty rooms in the building to practice our new choreography off of the ice.

Once we had finished for the evening, it was getting close to being nine o' clock and I was famished so on my way home, I stopped to grab myself a burger and fries before settling in for the night.