Page 82 of Thrown for a Loop
“Just hit thesyncbutton and it will link up like magic,” he says as we work on the second one. “See?”
“Miraculous,” I agree. “If only Chase and I had asyncbutton, then all my problems would be solved.”
He chuckles. “Trouble in paradise?”
“What? I’m talking about our crappy first practice for the jamboree.”
“Isn’t that what first practices are for?”
“Yeah, but it wasn’t just bad,” I say, handing him the next clamp-on tripod. “It was epically, horribly bad.”
“You guys rusty? He forgot how to spin around like a princess?”
Oh please.“His skating is fine. My skating is fine. But neither one of us can remember how to skate together.”
“You know…” He chuckles. “Merritt was abearduring this road trip. Even DeLuca got sick of his grumpy ass. Must have been bad.”
“He skated well in Florida, though,” I point out. I watched both games, and Chase got three points on the road. “He couldn’t have been too distracted.”
Aiden rubs his scruffy chin thoughtfully. “So what now? Extra practices?”
“Maybe. We’ll see.”
He attaches the third camera to the tripod. “Maybe your standards are too high. Even if you don’t skate all that well, so what? It’s a stunt, Zoe. Nobody cares.”
I’ll care.“You weren’t there,” I grumble. “It was rocky. And now we’ll need to spend extra time on thisstunt, as you called it. Which takes focus away from Chase’s hockey game. And we’ll stink it up anyway. Chase will probably blame me for getting him tangled up in this fiasco.”
Aiden looks up at me, and I realize I’ve been more honest than I intended. “Well that sucks. But why do you care?”
Because I still love him.“Because I need the team to like me so I can get a full-time contract and stop eating cans of soup for dinner.”
He grins. “Fair enough.”
“If I make us both look like idiots, that probably won’t help.”
“You won’t look like idiots,” he says, checking the camera’s battery.
“There’s no way to be sure,” I insist. “I need to warn Veena. She shouldn’t advertise this thing until we have it under control.”
Aiden glances up sharply. “Um…”
“Umwhat?” I gasp. “Is it too late?”
“She did a big social media push today. I assumed you saw it, and that’s why you were so stressed.”
My heart drops like a rock. “I never look at social media anymore. She announced italready?”
“Yeah—she’s auctioning off the last two hundred seats, and there are big pics of you and Chase.”
With a whimper of dismay, I take out my phone and open Instagram. It takes less than five seconds to find the big splashy post on the Legends’ account. She’s tagged me as well. And there’s my smiling face right next to Chase’s.Come and see the Chase and Zoe show!
“Oh God. Now we have to make this work.”
“You will, buddy.” He chuckles. “But here’s the thing—I’m going to give you some advice as a guy who doesn’t know shit about figure skating, okay? But that’s why you should listen to me. Because it doesn’t have to be fancy. Give the female audience what it wants—Chase in spandex and figure skates. All he has to do is smile and hold your hand and maybe do a spin.”
I sigh.
“And you have to wear a short skirt.” He shrugs. “I don’t make the rules. You have to smile and look perky and skate backward holding Chase’s hand. The end.” He flips on the camera, and a view of the rink appears on its digital screen.
