"You're not enjoying yourself, are you?" Barapha asked after we had gone around the rink several times in all but complete silence.
"I am," I replied a little too quickly. I really wasn't. The music was loud. The lights were giving me a headache and the people swarming across the ice were making me really nervous.
"You don't have to do that either," he said.
"Do what?" I asked once again.
"Lie to make me feel better."
I looked down at the ice, heat concentrating in my cheeks and insisted, "I'm not." He sighed and let go of my hands. He cupped my face in his palms and closed his eyes siphoning warmth from my skin.
"I wanted to see you but couldn't get out of work. I should have known you wouldn't like something like this," he said shaking his head. I reached up and covered his hands with mine.
"I'm not a big fan of crowds," I murmured, "But this isn't bad." I pulled his hands away from my face and blew on his freezing fingertips.
"You should come to an afternoon session," Barapha said swiveling backwards and directing me towards a sparsely inhabited corner of the rink. "Well lit, no flashing lights and like a quarter of the people." I slid gently into the wall and latched onto it.
"Yeah, that's sounds a lot better," I replied taking a deep breath and looking out across the rink. We were both silent for a long time. I watched the people skate. It was nicer than actually skating. Taylor and Sissy were very noticeable in the middle of the rink. Taylor was gliding around a cleared circle of space right beneath the giant mirror ball above the middle of the rink. She was performing a few signature tricks from the Frozen Dreams series and basking in the adoration of her audience.
Sissy had found two attractive young men to lean on as she no longer had Taylor for support. They didn't seem to mind. They were too busy staring at her breasts which jiggled deliciously each time she clapped after Taylor performed a new move.
After several minutes I heard Barapha sigh and he turned to me asking, "Wanna go to the snack bar and get some hot chocolate?" I looked up at him and replied, "Yes, very much." The right side of his mouth lifted in a smirk and he reached for my arm bending it around his own so that I was held tight against his side.
We started back towards the gate, giving Sissy and Taylor a wide birth. He didn't stop before he reached the gate. He moved seamlessly from the ice to the rubber flooring. Me...not so much. The front of my skate hit the plastic divider between the ice and the floor and I stumbled forward kept upright only because Barapha's arm was still twisted around mine.
He sat me down on a bench and said, "Let's get these off before you hurt yourself." He knelt down in front of me and began untying the laces of my skates.
"I can do it," I said batting his hands away. He caught both of my wrists in one large hand and placed them firmly in my lap before proceeding to the second skate. I sighed. It was kind of cute and strangely out of character. I tilted my head to the side and peered at him out of the corner of my eye trying to get a glimpse of his aura. Sometimes, if someone was experiencing strong emotions, I could tell by the feeling of their aura. His glittered like ice crystals, dark blue and cold as death...cold but not cold. There was a timidness. An uncertainty. He wasn't used to being uncertain.