Page 15 of My Rival for Christmas

Not when there’s something bigger on the line.

Nate: I need your skill set.

Stassi: Which one? I have many. Do you need my fashion sense, my taste in food. OH, I know you’re finally going to let me pick your haircut.

Nate: Come near my hair and I will tell your husband about the time when you almost sharted during practice.

Stassi: ….

Stassi: Don’t you dare.

Nate: Try me.

Stassi: Fine. What do you need my help with?

Nate: Do you know what happened with Paige and Cole?

Stassi: No? Should I?

Stassi: Why do you think something happened? You’re on vacation.

Nate: Because Paige is here and she mentioned something about that asshat but wouldn’t tell me what and now I can’t get it out of my head. I need to know.

Stassi: Wait what do you mean Paige is there?

Stassi: There as in Sugar Peak?!

Nate: Yes, keep up.

Stassi: You’re lucky I’m so far away or I’d smack you for using that tone with me.

Nate: Your husband would never let you harm me.

Stassi: *Sigh* You’re probably right

Nate: So will you use your gossip powers and find out what happened for me?

Stassi: Yeah, of course. I’ll get right on it.

CHAPTER THREE

paige

My historywith Nathan Ford could fill a college textbook. It’s long and tedious, dragging on for multiple decades, with a lot of footnotes and annotations in the margins.

But the concise breakdown is: We’ve known each other since we were nine and ten, respectively, when he joined Charmed Athletics. Started skating together at twelve and thirteen. Went to our first Olympics at eighteen and nineteen, and then won our first gold medals at twenty-two and twenty-three.

Throw in a bunch of championship titles, record-breaking scores, and whatever other accomplishments that were able to be achieved, we did it. We’ve done it all. Together.

Now at twenty-four and twenty-five, we are nothing but rivals trying to outdo one another at the competitions we used to win together. Him being much more successful at it than me.

It infuriates me to know that he’s doing better than ever while I’m at a precipice in my career I didn’t think I’d see this early.

I don’t know why Nate ended our ten-year skating career together just weeks after we won our gold medals, but I know it wasn’t because he wanted to stop skating.

My devastated tears hadn’t even started to dry when I found out he was going to be skating with Stassi after her partner (and husband), Ivan, sustained a career-ending injury.

I think that betrayal cuts the deepest. Knowing Nate didn’t stop skating with me because he had to, but because he chose to.

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