Page 122 of Side By Side
Chandler stood outside Belle’s apartment looking at her girlfriend’s very confused face, which also happened to be her adorable face, and Chandler loved that she knew that about Belle now.
“Babe?” she checked.
“Oh, shit. Yeah. Come in.” Belle moved out of the way and motioned for Chandler to come inside. “Not that I’m not happy to see you, because I am, but–”
“What am I doing here?”
“Yeah, that.”
Chandler pulled her bag through the door and let it rest before she moved into Belle after the woman closed the door. She wrapped her arms around Belle’s neck and pulled her in.
“First, this.” She pressed her lips to Belle’s gently.
Belle kissed her back, deepening the kiss and wrapping her arms around Chandler’s waist.
“Skate with me?” she asked softly against Belle’s lips.
“What? Now?”
“At nationals, Belle.”
Belle pulled her face back to look at her but didn’t let go of Chandler’s waist.
“Nationals?”
“Yes, skate with me at nationals.”
“Um… Don’t you have a new partner, and a really good one, named Lincoln? Did it not go well? You didn’t message. I know I told you it was fine and that you were off the hook, but–”
“I know I didn’t message you back. I’m sorry. But, Belle, I don’t want to be off the hook. I want to be very much on the hook with you. I know things are hectic right now because you have this whole life here, your dad needs you, and I have a whole life there that revolves around skating, but I don’t want no pressure with you. I want all the pressure. I should’ve made that clear before I left, but I didn’t know some things about myself that I just figured out very recently back then. Now, I do.”
“Things?”
“You make me a better skater. Lincoln was fine. We did the whole feeling-each-other-out thing, and he’s a great skater – he’s a great partner, too – but he’s not you.”
“Chandler, I can’t skate with you at the Olympics, and that’s what you want. Lincoln can.”
“I want you.” Chandler pressed her forehead to Belle’s.
“As your girlfriend? I’m all-in on that.”
Chandler smiled and said, “I want to skate with you at nationals. They don’t have enough same-sex pairs, and it’ll all be in one category of pairs, just like the invitational, so we might not even medal, but I don’t care. I have medals and trophies. I want to skate with you on that level. I want to be out there with you in a competition one more time. I’ve already worked it out with Cat. Because we’ve been doing this for two generations now, we’re in. They’ve changed the qualification rules for same-sex pairs because people like us haven’t been able to compete enough to earn the standard qualification, but I also think we qualified because we’re a same-sex pair, and they want to show off their inclusivity this year with this new ‘offering,’ as they called it.”
“You talked to your sister?”
“She met me there with Lincoln. We’re not going to be best friends anytime soon, but I think she understood where I was coming from. She also didn’t yell at me or try to tell me what to do once, so I’m going to consider that a small victory. I told her I wanted to skate with you at nationals and that I was ready to skate solo again after that.”
“Wait. You are?” Belle asked, pulling back again.
Chandler nodded and said, “Yes. I’m not worried about being out there alone anymore. I know that if something happens, you’ll be there.”
“Babe, if something like what happened before happens to you again, I’m running onto that ice and carrying you off if I have to.” She ran her hand through Chandler’s hair. “Nothing could stop me.”
Chandler smiled and pulled Belle in for a hug.
“I missed you. It was days, and not even that many of them, but I missed you.”
“I missed you, too,” Belle said and hugged her harder. “I can’t leave, though, Chandler.”