CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

Ellen and Dan’s wedding was a small affair, but Sophia and Warren had a good time. They really did make each other happy, and Sophia was just plain crazy about Kate.

A week after that, Sophia and Warren found themselves en route to Washington DC for Jack Garrison’s wedding. They were booked at a hotel, and made mad love before crashing. It was an afternoon/evening wedding, outside, on a large estate.

They wandered in, found what table they had been assigned to, and went to find it. As they approached it, they heard the bellow of Christine Arsenault: "Well, if it isn’t Daniels and Kelleher, the future of American Ice Dance!"

"Shut up, you," Warren said, as he walked up to her and gave her a kiss. He did the same to Elizabeth Cushman, who was with her. Sophie hugged them in turn.

"You guys at table ten, I hope?" Liz asked.

"Yup. You?"

"Yeah. Christine and I don’t have dates, so they put us together, which was nice."

"Hope the press doesn’t get a hold of that," Warren quipped. "There would go all those Arsenault Cushman vicious rivalry stories."

"Yeah, well, to be in a rivalry, one skater has to actually beat the other skater occasionally," Liz quipped.

"HEY! I beat you at Nation’s Cup last fall!" Christine said indignantly.

"Oops, you’re right."

They found their table. Already seated were former National pairs champion Renee Miller and Ted Sorrell. Sophia and Warren had met them a couple of times, and had liked them. They exchanged greetings.

"Check it out, Liz, two swinging single gals like us, and they stuck us with all the old married couples."

Renee and Ted just laughed, but Warren said, "Not only are we not married, but old? I’m two years younger than you are, Arsenault."

"OK, so you’re not old. Married is accurate, if not yet legally, and you know it."

Warren and Sophia just smiled at one another. "So who’s the other married couple at the table?"

"Oh, I don’t know, I was talking about you two and Renee and Ted."

They were chatting about not much, Warren always enjoyed the dynamic between Christine and Liz. They were fierce competitors, but they were also close friends. It was interesting.

They also both liked to tease. Each other, and other people. They had, along with Jack, set up an elaborate joke at Warren and Sophie’s expense, and, as Liz caught a glimpse of two people walking across the yard, it was time to set into action.

"Hey, guys, I don’t know if I know this. We’ve been talking about skaters we like and stuff, but I’m not sure if I know who you guys’ favorite dance team of all time is."

"Malekova and Boranachenko," Sophia and Warren said simultaneously. "Great technique and passion to burn," Warren said. "We worship them," Sophia added.

"Ah, what a wonderful thing to hear from a young talented ice dance team," Warren heard said behind his back in a Russian accent. He and Sophia turned—and saw Anya Malekova and Gennadi Boranachenko. Sitting into their seats. At their table—Anya was right next to Warren, as a matter of fact.

And Sophia and Warren both had their eyes bug out of their head.

Anya smiled at them. "I know you two. Sophia Daniels and Warren Kelleher. Second at US Nationals in juniors last year, first in the free dance. We were there. You’re very talented."

"Thank you," Sophia managed to squeak out.

"Yes, thank you very much. Oh my God, I’m sitting next to Anya Malekova," he said to the air. Anya and Gennadi just laughed.

"Hey, guys?" Liz interjected. "You know, I lied. Warren told me six months ago that Anya and Gennadi were your idols. And I know them, because they work out of my rink and choreographed some stuff for me."

Warren stared at her. "This was a set-up!"

"Uh-huh." Liz grinned. "Chris, Jack, and Anya and Gennadi were all in on it."

"We’re just innocent bystanders," Renee Miller smiled.

"Right!"

Warren looked at Liz, and then at Anya. "You know, we promised each other we were not going to hero-worship today. And, we were doing a good job of it. Heck, I met Shae-Lynn Bourne and Nicole Bobek today and didn’t gush once." Everyone laughed at that. "And then you two showed up. Ah, well, so much for keeping our composure."

"You have to understand," Sophia told them, "your Bach free dance that won you the Olympics in France is *why* I'm an ice dancer."

"Thank you, that’s quite a compliment." Gennadi said. "Although, having seen you skate, I’m a little surprised. That's one of our most romantic dances.

"Aah," Warren said, "Well, our love of Big Band has kind of taken over. In fact our free this year is another big band mix. We like to swing on the ice."

"However," Sophia smiled, "wait until you see our exhibition. Not classical—it’s to a pop song—but very M&B, or at least that’s the goal."

"Aah, but you see," Anya said, "to have the passion on the ice, you must have the passion off the ice."

Christine cracked up laughing. Warren and Sophia just looked at each other and smiled.

"Did I miss something?" Anya asked.

Christine sputtered. "I have a picture of them, skating together, that Warren emailed me. I think the ice melted."

"My stepfather saw our exhibition and said he thought he was going to have to hose us down," Sophia added. She looked at Anya and Gennadi. "We’ve been a couple off the ice longer than we’ve been a couple on it. We started dating when we were fourteen."

"Ah, but you’re so young, even now," Gennadi said.

"True love don’t know age, guys," Liz interjected.

"True," Anya agreed with a smile.

The rest of the wedding was great. Jack and Amanda made a great couple. Sophia and Warren got to dance a lot—although, in a crowd of ice skaters and Amanda’s dancer friends, they blended more into the crowd than they usually do, which was a nice change, actually. They met lots of people, and even got to talk to some of them. Anya and Gennadi turned out to be sweet and charming. And Warren even got an unexpected surprise when a slightly inebriated Stephie Eberhardt, his favorite skater, fell into his lap--literally. She even chatted amiably and gave him a kiss on the cheek—making him blush bright red—before she got off his lap. "Oh, Snugglebear, you must have thought it was Christmas," said a plainly amused Sophia.

"Oh, and you don’t think I didn’t notice you drooling over Mr. Boranachenko all night?" Sophia blushed as Gennadi just grinned at her.

The next morning, Jack had planned a little party, since he and Amanda were not going on their honeymoon for a couple days. Since lots of his guests had flown in, they made a weekend out of it. Jack had called his skating friends, and told them of his idea—Saturday, the day after the wedding, they’d have a brunch in the hotel, then they’d rent a rink. Everyone could show up, around their skating friends and the other wedding guests, and show what they had been working on. If enough people were comfortable with that, that is. The response was enthusiastic, so it was done.

Warren and Sophia were, at first, all for it. Until they saw the array of skating talent that they would be sharing the ice with. What was worse, Jack had drawn up a little order, and had them skating directly after Malekova and Boranachenko. They were terrified.

"Come on," Liz said during brunch. "I really want to see your new stuff."

"Me, too," said Christine. "He’s going to let everyone speak, so you’ll be able to tell everyone who you are."

"Yeah, and we want to see that exhibition," Anya said.

"OK, we’ll do it. God help us," said Sophia.

They were instantly glad they did it. Hanging out with all the skaters, seeing what they were up to. Warren loved Liz’s new program. Jack went first, and showed his fine new long program. Christine did her long, and a new exhibition to some Beatles music. "Nice music, Skate Babe!" Warren yelled, as she shook her butt at him in response. Malekova and Boranachenko were Malekova and Boranachenko—that is to say, romantic, passionate, and beautiful. Then it was Sophia and Warren’s turn.

"Hi, all," Warren took the mic. "I’m Warren Kelleher and this is Sophia Daniels. Amongst this crowd of World Medallists, we’re the scrubs. I’ve known Jack for years, over the internet, when he was still a junior, and I was still a singles skater who didn’t compete because he couldn’t jump. We became good friends, though, which is why he asked Sophia and I to share this ice. And made us follow our idols, Anya and Gennadi, for which we will never forgive him." Jack cracked up laughing. "We were the silver medallists in Juniors this past year in Ice Dance. We’ll be competing in the junior Grand Prix this fall, but, this year at Nationals, we’ll be competing in seniors. Today, we’ve got our new senior free dance, and our exhibition. We are one of the few classic ballroom holdouts left in ice dancing today, and we swing dance as a hobby, so our free dance is to Glenn Miller. Our exhibition is something else entirely. We hope you like them."

Sophia grabbed the mic. "Oh, and some people who don’t know us well asked us last night if we were a couple off the ice as well as on. Well, if the exhibition leaves any doubt in anyone’s mind, then we’re not doing it right." She smiled at the laughter around the rink, then handed the mic back to Jack, as she and Warren took their starting position.

They realized something right off. They needed an audience. Although they didn’t consciously reach out to an audience—they focused on each other—the audience gave them strength. They had only done the Glenn Miller free in front of their small family group. There were a few hundred people watching them do it now, and it was damn near perfect. They flew around the ice, swinging and grooving. It was a crowd-pleasing program, they knew that, and even their competition-jaded skating friends responded to their unbridled enthusiasm and obvious skill. When they hit that final thirty seconds, they could sense their friends getting into it. Christine even let out a war whoop as Warren swung Sophia’s hips back and forth.

They hit their ending pose, and their friends erupted. It was very satisfying. "Hey, who choreographed that?" Gennadi yelled from beside the boards.

"We did," Warren yelled back. "We do all our own choreography."

"WHAT?" someone yelled from the stands. Gennadi looked stunned. "I think they like our choreography," a beaming Sophia whispered to an equally beaming Warren.

As the skaters chattered about these two kids doing their own—great—choreography, Sophia and Warren worked themselves back to their starting positions for "You’ll Be In My Heart."

The music started, and so did they. On an occasion to celebrate love—their friend’s wedding—they took their love for one another, and, in front of their friends, put it on vivid display. They wrapped themselves up in their love, in this music, in dancing with one another, and showed it to all that cared to watch. And it was magic.

And, as they left the ice, they got two compliments that they would treasure forever, more than any medal they would ever win. The first was the sight, up in the stands, of their dear friend Liz Cushman having been moved to tears by their skating. The second, as they stepped off the ice, was Gennadi Boranachenko's words of quiet admiration: "Just like us. Exactly like us."