Part Playlist:
• Kiss Me More - Doja Cat
• Intentions - Justin Bieber
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"What's this place?" I asked Rhea who just pulled into this parking spot of some sort of large building. Then I noticed the picture of ice skates by the entrance. "Ice skating?" I smiled at Rhea.
"Yeah." She replied. "You've been?"
I shook my head. "Well not here. I'm Russian, Rhea, everyone skates over there. I haven't been in... so many years, since I was a child."
"So you've lost your skating skills since then?" Rhea asked hopeful. Looking a little awkward.
I laughed. "I hope not. Why? Scared I'm going to skate rings around you?" I said cockily.
Rhea smiled. "Absolutely. I've never been."
I giggled to myself and hopped out of her truck. Oh, she was going to regret this so badly.
Inside, I examined the room and huge rink they had. I was a bubble of excitement and I just wanted to get out there.
Rhea paid and we got our skates. Putting them on, Rhea spoke. "I didn't even think that you'd be any good at this. But ballet would be similar right? It's smooth and graceful."
I nodded. "It's kind of similar. I think someone's just scared." I teased her.
Rhea rolled her eyes and slowly stood up on her skates, putting her arms out to steady herself. I laughed and stood up. "We aren't even on the ice yet, can you walk a few steps away?" I put my hand out and she took it. We stepped very carefully across the concrete, and I took the lead and slid onto the ice slowly, instantly remembering every single thing about it.
I turned to face Rhea had her tongue pressed against her cheek in worry. "Come on." I held my hand out and she took it. "Go slow, don't try and move to start, just try and stand still up on the blades."
Rhea followed my instruction and after an initial wobble and an extremely hard squeeze on my hand, she was steady. Then she looked at me at what to do next. "Now you skate." I smile and softly pulled her out further.
Rheas eyes widened. "Woah woah." She whispered and looked back to the barricade like she wanted to hold onto it.
I was so steady on my feet and basically pulling her along. Her feet were just stuck. "Push your feet out like this. Like a v shape." I slowly showed her, but she was so focused on not slipping over.
She pushed one foot out, and she instantly wobbled and chuckled nervously, looking at me and then back to her feet. "Shit."
"I got you, Rhea. You're fine. You fall all the time." I tried to assure her and squeezed her hand so she could use to steady herself again.
Rhea scoffed. "This ground is a lot harder than the wrestling mat."
I giggled because she was so right. She wasn't ready for her first fall.
After some time and extremely slow circles of the rink, she was getting better. Slow v movements. I'd never seen her so focused, it was sweet. As scary as she looked sometimes, she was a sweetheart. She was very cute.
"Want to try by yourself?" I asked.
"No no." She gripped my hand harder frightened. Then she laughed. "Sorry, I'm not ready."
"It's ok, just take your time." I assured her. "You're doing ama-"
One of Rheas foot buckled and slid out from beneath her, she let go of my hand before she fell completely on her side, knee smacking the hard ground.
I steadied myself, thankful she didn't take me down with her. "Are you ok." I lowered to touch her shoulder.
She huffed and laughed softy. "Yeah yeah, I'm alright. Sorry."
"That's the first of many." I told her and helped her back to her feet. "You know you can get one of those?" I pointed to a younger child using this small skate assist, it was a cute penguin.
Rhea looked at me and then shook her head. "No way."
I smiled to myself and we slowly took off again.
After another lap or two, she was getting a lot smoother with her movements. It was a funny look, seeing my muscular goth girl- friend, wobbling on her knees.
"Wanna try without me?" I asked again when she seemed to be growing more confident.
"Alright." She said and swallowed nervously as I let go of her hand and skated beside her in case she needed me.
She was doing incredible, taking her time and focusing on her feet. Trying to stay as steady as she could. "Wait wait, how do I turn?" She panicked knowing we had to turn.
I reached out to help her but she panicked too hard and her foot slipped out on her again and she fell backwards, landing hard on her backside.
I couldn't help but smile a little, and she huffed getting annoyed.
So 10 minutes later I was skating at a speedy pace around the rink, having fun and enjoying myself. I glanced to Rhea every now and then, or when I skated past her, I got a little giggle to myself watching her use the cute penguin assist to move.
She was doing really good now.
I wish I had my phone to take a picture of this.
"You're doing great." I told her coming beside her.
She looked at me and smiled sarcastically. "Why are they a penguin? I feel like a child."
"That's how everyone starts, Rhea. I used one." I assured her.
"Yeah, when you were like 6." Rhea joked.
"Oh, poor eradicator." I teased her and she glared at me as I flew off without her.
As I did, there was a larger man skating backwards. I didn't see him in time and he wasn't watching where he was going. I moved a little but he still shoulders into me a little. I wobbled but got myself steady fairly easy.
"Shit, sorry." The man said, looking at me and nodding.
"You're fine-" I went to reply, but was cut off by Rheas voice just nearby.
"Watch where you're going." She snapped at him.
The man put his hands up in innocent and he turned to skate the right way, probably a bit scared of Rhea. She was using a penguin to ice skate, wobbly knees and sweating a little, but she was still very scary to grown men.
"Relax." I whispered to her, as she caught up to me. "You'll fall."
"He should watch where he's going, are you alright?" She asked worried.
"Fine, really." I assured her and she nodded, focusing back on her feet.
A while later, we got off the ice and was pulling out skates off, Rhea whimpered. "My calves are burning." She complained. "My feet are killing me too."
I laughed. "You'll get better every time you come. My feet are like hard as rock from years of dancing."
Heading outside, Rhea opened her truck door for me and I climbed in, and she shut my door with a sweet smile. I think she had a lot of fun, and was trying to hide her huge grin after that.
"Can I ask you something, Kat. If you don't want to answer it, that's fine. But- but what happened to your mother?" Rhea whispered her question, looking at me like she wanted to hug me.
I nodded. "It's really fine to ask. Ask me anything." Rhea nodded too, and let me keep going. "She died when I was really young, she had breast cancer and- and thats all there is to it."
"I'm sorry." Rhea said and grabbed my hand lovingly.
"Don't be sorry. You have nothing to apologise for." I told her. "I'm ok, it happened a lot time ago."
Rhea gave me a small smile and kissed the top of my hand.
When we got back to the house, Rhea kept herself busy packing a suitcase for her plane trip on Friday. I really wished I could come, but I had my own career now. I wonder how much money I could earn. I didn't even know how much was a lot or not. "Rhea?" I asked and she turned around to look at me. "How will I know if I'm getting paid well?"
Rhea raised her eyebrows. "How much do you think is a good amount for your work?" She asked me. "How much should you be paid weekly do you think?"
I really had no idea. I shrugged. "I don't know. $200."
Rhea laughed at me. "If you're paid $200 a week, Kat, tell me because that's extremely underpaid for what you're doing."
"So what should I expect then?"
Rhea thought about it. "It would have to be at least one thousand dollars, Kat. I'd expect more. If they mention a salary, if it's close to 70,000, I would be happy."
70,000
"What would I even do with all of that money?" I smiled a little. "How much do you earn? I- If that's ok to ask."
Rhea smirked. "Triple that amount, and a bit more."My mouth opened, and I wished I chose some more things out when she took me shopping. "I have to fork out hotels, flights and things like that with my own money... So, that's quite expensive. I don't have as much as you probably are imagining."
"But it has to be a lot, right?" I asked.
Rhea smiled. "It's definitely more than the average person."
"Am I the average person?" I asked, wanting to know what the average was.
"A bit above, I'd assume." Rhea said. "Can you make sure you have my contact on that phone. Just double check for me?" Rhea moved on quickly and she seemed a bit nervous when she asked that.
"Sure." I found it and found Rheas contact, pressing the call button and watching her reach for her back pocket, and read my name on her phone. She smiled at me. "What are we doing tonight?" I asked, as she zipped up her suitcase, finishing packing.
"What do you want to do?" She walked to come hover in front of me, looking down at me with soft eyes.
I smiled a little. "You know what I want to do."
"I know. But not yet." Rhea grabbed my hands. "How about we get sushi and I show you my favourite movie in the whole world?"
I nodded happily.