Chapter 9

Over

Kathy – Lee

1990

“Kath, it’s for you” little Amelia yelled glancing at the receiver in her hand.
“Coming!” Kathy yelled back, then skated towards the gate and extended her hand grabbing the receiver form the girl. “Hello?”
“Katherine – Leandra Winston! You are in so much trouble!” she heard Lynn’s voice.
“I missed you, too, sis” Kathy said.
“Did you really? ‘Cause it doesn’t seem like you did. Both Billie and I have been trying to reach you for three days. Where have you been?”
“Busy… skating … why? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing … um … Billie’s fine. She and Richard are getting married in a week. We’re expected to be in New York the day before. I’ll come with my boyfriend I’ve been diagnosed with anemia and I have to be resting. Oh, and if you manage to reach mom and dad before Billie or I do, let them know, please. See you next week. Bye!”
Kathy was so stunned that she didn’t even felt her skating partner approaching until he wrapped an arm around her waist.
“Good news or bad news?” he asked breathing into her hair.
“I’m not sure” she said pulling away.
Alexander Solovyiev was Katherine’s new partner, her previous one, Charles Crawford had ended their partnership two weeks before. They were still in try-out, but coach Igor thought they had potential. The reason she switched coaches was that she hated to train along with Charlie but not actually with him.
“My sister’s getting married. And my other sister has anemia… Oh, and neither of them can reach my parents and we all have to be in New York on Friday before the wedding…” she trailed off.
“Well, the fact that …” but whatever he was about to say was interrupted by their coach.
“Enough with the chatting, you too! Back to work!”
………………………………………………………………………………………..
Four hours later, Kathy and Alexander were exhausted. She stretched her hand to reach for her shoes and left out a moan when a sharp pain crossed her arm muscles.
“I guess that’s part of getting used to a new partner”, he smiled.
“Yeah … thanks for not dropping me though” she smiled back.
“Well, well, well” a voice coming form behind them said “if it isn’t America’s new dream team, Winston and Solovyiev”.
“Charlie …” Kathy felt a lump forming in her throat.
“Crawford” Alexander said standing “you need anything?”
“Nah, just wanted to warn you about that one” he pointed to Kathy “soon enough she’ll be falling for you had over heals and she can be quite annoying when she does that. So run while you still can. Friendly advice” he finished grinning.
“Crawford” Alexander said faking calm “get out”.
“Hey, I was trying to help …” Charlie said smirking.
“I said get out!” Alexander repeated taking one step towards him. He must have looked quite threatening because Charlie stopped grinning and walked hastily through the door slamming it behind him.
Alexander paced the room for a few minutes trying to calm down.
“Maybe”, he heard Kathy’s shaky voice “maybe this isn’t such a good idea … the two of us, I mean … skating together”. He looked at her and realized she had tears in her eyes.
“Kathy …”
“No. Don’t say anything. It’s a bad idea, I know it. That’s it. It’s over.” She said, gathered her things and walked to the door. But she stopped and turned around to face him without actually looking at him. “You’re a great skater. One day you’ll be a champion. And that’s why you deserve better than me” she looked up and into his brown eyes and smiled.
“Katyousha” … he said taking her hand “don’t do this to yourself …”
“Bye … Sasha” she said and walked away from him.
He didn’t move, didn’t try to stop her as she walked through the door. She looked so frail. She needed someone to protect her, she needed to feel safe … But would she let anyone do that for her? Would she let him? Not tonight, no. But … maybe tomorrow, he thought as he sat down to put his skates in his bag. He was determined to talk to her in the morning.