Page 69 of Thrown for a Loop
Sailor’s smile turns cunning, and I’m instantly on guard. “You’d be the star attraction, Zoe. You and Chase will do your thing.”
“Ourthing,” I repeat slowly. “We don’t have a thing.”
“The internet disagrees!” he cackles. “I need you and Chaseto perform a figure skating number. You’ll raise the profile of the event, which means higher-priced tickets. We can even auction off the last hundred seats. Zoe, you could help us raise ahundred thousandextra dollars for charity. Don’t let the children down.”
“Oh, Steve.” Darcy shakes her head. “You manipulative bastard. So if Zoe doesn’t want to spend a month rehearsing a sport she left behind with a hockey player who’d rather be anywhere else on Earth, then she’sharming sick children? Do I have that right?”
“Sick andhungrychildren.” He shrugs. “I don’t make the rules.”
I groan. Loudly.
“She’d also be harming Chase,” he adds. “That man needs to get back into the fans’ good graces, and Zoe should help him. It’s her fault that the internet thinks he punched a fan. I mean—what better way is there to make him lovable again?”
“Just devil’s advocate,” Darcy says, sipping her drink. “He could win some damn hockey games. That’s what the fans really want.”
“Not all the fans,” says my pedicurist abruptly. “As far as I’m concerned, he could fall down a flight of stairs instead.”
I gasp, and for the first time since he arrived, Sailor looks alarmed. “Wow. Aren’t nail salons supposed to be soothing?”
“ThisisToronto,” the young woman says. “What would you expect?” She looks up at me suddenly. “That said, I’m going to need you to skate with Chase Merritt again, because that washot. Even Toronto fans enjoyed the hell out of that video.”
Et tu, Kim?
“You see?” Sailor crows, and his smug tone of voice makes me want to stab him with the straw from my drink. “The whole world thinks you should do it.”
“Not the whole world,” I insist. “Chase won’t. He needs to focus on his game. He’s fighting for his life this year and you know it.”
Sailor waves away my argument with a flick of his hand. “How hard could it be to skate pretty for three or four minutes?”
My head goesthunkinto my hands.
“Oh, Steve,” Darcy says with a shake of her head. “You were doing pretty well until right this second.”
“This is a terrible idea,” I moan. “Chase will hate it. He’ll never do it. He shouldn’t, either. It would only be a distraction.”
“We’ll see.” Sailor calmly sips his mocktail. “How about this—I’ll put you down as a yes, so long as Chase is onboard. I know you want a real contract with the Legends again next season. This would be a fine way to show management that you’re a team player.”
God, I want to scream. But Chase would rather walk across hot coals than skate with me. So he’ll shoot this idea down, and I won’t even have to be the naysayer. “Sure. Okay. If Chase says yes, I’ll do it.”
“Good deal, Zoe,” he says. His phone pings with a new notification, and I watch as he gets distracted, texting and checking the team’s social media accounts.
Everything is fine, I remind myself. Bess will tell Sailor to take a long walk off the wing of the team jet, and Sailor will move on to his next stupid idea.
I relax again into the chair. As my toes are filed to perfection and then polished in a shiny shade of Legends blue, I give myself a pep talk. Chase is going to skate well tonight, and management will be happy with both of us for all the right reasons.
Then I’ll get a new contract on the merits of my coaching. The way it should be.
Sailor’s phone pings with another text just as I’m admiring my second coat of polish. “Ah, Zoe. Take a look at this.” He holds up his phone to show me a conversation with Chase.
Sailor:So we’re on?
Chase:Sure. Whatever you need.
I gasp.
“Holy shit,” Darcy says with awe in her voice. “The internet is going to lose its mind.”
If I don’t lose mine first.
