TALK TALK (Chapter 85)

Warren and Sophia were on a plane, flying from the last stop on the tour, back home.

"Warren?" Sophia said.

"Hmph?" Warren looked up from the book he was reading.

"Can we talk?"

"Sure, Pookie," he said, putting his book away.

"I've been thinking. Something's wrong, honey. I can't completely put my finger on it, but we're a little bit……I don't know. Disconnected, somehow. Unraveled."

"What makes you say that?"

"Lots of things." She sighed. "We've been through a lot. But we broke up, and then we got back together, and almost immediately after that, you got beat up. Then, we barely get through that, and I decide I want to experiment with my sexuality--and I feel guilty about it, so I talk you into having a couple of flings." She sighed again. "It just seems so crazy."

"Honey, we got through it. We did."

"Yeah, but what do we have left?"

"We have us."

"Do we?" She looked at him. "Warren, why is there an 'us'? Why do we stay together?"

"Because we love one another?" He looked at his hands. "Or has that changed?"

"No, that has not changed."

"Then I guess I'm missing something."

"Warren, is love enough? Do you really thing it is? Warren, what do you want from life?"

"First question first. After all we've been through, and we made it through this past year, and we're still together. Do you really have to ask if love is enough?"

She smiled at him. "Touche."

"As for what I want from life? Lots of things. Mostly to make sure I spend it with you. Everything else is negotiable."

Sophia smiled, but then got a serious look on her face. "After the past year, you still feel that way?"

"Absolutely. Now more than ever. What do you want from life?"

"Just that. A nice, normal relationship with the man I love. We haven't had that for a while." She looked down. "I can't help but feel I did a lot of damage to our relationship by insisting on experimenting. God, when I found out about you and Liz……I thought…..hell, I don't know what I thought."

"Sophia. Listen to me. It was a one time thing. It was never, ever going to be more than a one-time thing."

"I know," she smiled. "What did you think about what I was doing?"

"I admit, it bothered me. However, I figured, better you figure that stuff out now."

"You didn't want me to do it? Why didn't you say anything?"

"The first time, with Alexa, just happened. After that, after the feelings that awoke in you, I didn't feel I had the right to say no. If I had said no, you would have just resented me. Better you sort that one out on your own."

"OK." She looked down. "Sometimes you're too accepting, you know."

"If I had been that accepting, I would have gone to bed with Stephie Eberhardt." Sophia looked up at him, startled. "Now, most of the reasons I picked Liz were the right ones--she wanted to lose her virginity to a nice guy who wouldn't talk, I thought it would be fun, and I knew it would never go past that day. I also had no idea you'd be that upset that I had picked Liz. However, I did know that picking Liz would not be what you expected."

"Why was that important?"

"Because I felt controlled. I didn't feel I could stop you from sleeping with Shawna. You needed to know. But you almost begged me to sleep with Stephie. 'I'm doing this, and you must even the score, so go sleep with Stephie.' The problem was, I did not want you to sleep with Shawna, and I did not want to sleep with Stephie. I couldn't stop the first, but, because you gave me a loophole by not specifying Stephie, I could stop the second. I would not have slept with Stephie under any circumstances. When the opportunity arose with Liz, I went for it."

"So you were rebelling, is that it?"

"Consciously, no. But thinking back on it, I think that, subconsciously, I might have been trying to send you a message that you could not control this situation as perfectly as you thought you could."

Sophia smiled ruefully. "The message was received, I can tell you that. Warren, what do you want from me?"

"Just you. Only you. And I want you to want only me."

She smiled. "Deal. That having been settled, Warren, we still need to reconnect. We didn't spend hardly any time alone while we were on tour unless we were having sex."

"Well, the role of Social Butterfly and Grand Hostess comes naturally to you. Truth be told, I like it, too."

"I know," Sophia smiled, "but the tour is over, school is over, and we're home for two months. Yeah, we need to spend some time with Jessie and Crash, and we'll have to hit a party or two. And we have to skate. However, outside of that, I just want to spend time with you. Just the two of us. When's the last time we just read together, or played chess, or just went for a long drive? It seems we've been hopping from crisis to crisis. I need you, by my side, just being together."

Warren smiled at her. "Do you know how wonderful that sounds?"

"So you see what I mean?"

"Yes. Absolutely. You're right."

She smiled back at him, and reached over in the seat to take his hand. "You're the most wonderful guy in the world, you know that?"

"Well, I'm hopelessly in love with the most wonderful girl in the world, I know that much."

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When they had been on tour, they had gotten ice time almost every day. With their schedule a bit crunched, they had decided to start choreographing a free dance while on tour. They had picked "Riverdance". By the time they got home, it was about half done. They worked on it for a couple of weeks, and got it to about three-quarters done. However, they had taken a break one day, and Sophia skated up to Warren.

"Warren, honey? I've been thinking."

"Oh-oh," he smiled.

"You just shut up. I've been thinking--Riverdance. For the Olympics. Us. I'm not quite sure it works. You know how much I love it, and I'd like to skate to it some day, but I'm not sure it's right for the Olympics. Hey, Bourne and Kraatz didn't set the world on fire with it."

"Well, our program is better. More unison, less side-by-side skating. However, I take it you have a better idea?"

"Warren, we're going to the Olympics. Us. I want to skate to something romantic."

"Did you have any ideas?"

"Yeah. 'Romeo and Juliet'."

"That's been done at the Olympics, too, Pookie--by Anissina and Peizerat."

"No, no, not any of the classical ones. The song, the Dire Straits one. You know, our song."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I did a sample timing. Of the live version. If we cut the intro, the last verse, and the outro, it fits. And there's a logical beginning and end."

"It would be a radical departure, though. It's one constant tempo, and that is on the slow side of midtempo. It might be a challenge to choreograph something to that that is technically demanding enough."

"Can we try?"

"Why not?" He smiled at her. "We have 'Riverdance" as a backup."

"Have you come up with any ideas for the Original Dance?"

"Yeah," Warren smiled. "I still can't believe that the rhythm for the OD is Swing."

"I know. Glenn Miller?"

"No, they'll be expecting that from us. I decided to ratchet up the intensity a little." He skated over to the boombox, and popped in a CD. The music was by the Brian Setzer Orchestra, and it was called "If You Can't Rock Me."

"Warren, does that fit into the beat requirements?" June, their coach, who had been listening, asked.

"Just," he smiled. "Three beats a minute more and it would be too fast."

"So, if we can choreograph this correctly, we'll have the fastest OD in the world?" Sophia asked with a grin.

"That's the plan. Our rooting section will go berserk at Nationals."

"Our rooting section?" Sophia grinned at him. "What makes you so sure we'll have one?"

"Sophia, where are Nationals this year?"

"You know what? I don't know," she giggled.

Warren gave her a huge grin. "Milwaukee."

"You're kidding! Wow."

"Yup! And I plan to tell a whole bunch of college crazies to fill that arena wearing Wisconsin red!"

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They were at Warren's house that night, just chatting and playing on the computer. Things were still a bit strained at Sophia's, so they were spending more time at Warren's. Sophia felt comfortable there, especially after Peg had pulled her aside the first time they were there that summer and thanked her for helping Warren through his hard time. "Without you, I don't know what would have happened." Sophia felt really good about that--much better than going home and being blamed by Dan for "corrupting Kate." Peg had put a lock on Warren's door and, with Warren's brother and sister older, had given them all the privacy they wanted. Still, in their efforts to reconnect with one another, they spent most of their time there doing things other than having sex.

This was one of those times. They had played some chess and watched a little TV, then decided to get on the computer. They had decided to create a little website for themselves--there were already a couple of fan ones, but they wanted to do an "official" one, and Sophia had taught herself HTML. They were working on the website, when Warren's IM beeped.

"Hi Liz. This is Sophia, but Warren's here, too." Sophia typed.

"Hi guys! How you?"

"Wonderful. How are you?"

"Fantastic. Unbelieveable. Totally great."

"Wow, are you a happy puppy!" Sophia typed. "Skating going that well?"

"<G> Yeah, riiigggghhhtttt. No, actually, skating is going great. I have a killer long program, we think. That's not why I'm so happy, though."

"<G> Let me guess. Rich?" Sophia typed.

"You got it! We have gone out almost every night since I've been back in LA. He's like a dream."

"That's so cool! You go to bed with him yet?"

"LOL! Sophia, do you think of anything besides sex?"

"Sure. Sometimes. Well, once in a while <giggle>."

"<G> Well, yes, I've been to bed with him a couple of times. He's a complete gentleman, so I had to drop a few not-so-subtle hints, but I let him think it was his idea. <G>"

"And it was good?"

"Oh my God."

"Good for you, Liz," Sophia typed. "Warren is over here next to me, yelling, 'Hallelujah, I'm off the hook!'"

"ROFL! Tell Warren that he is, indeed, off the hook. Oh, and he was right. Not to disparage his abilities or anything, but it turns out I am, indeed, really orgasmic. Rich's jaw almost hit the floor the first night. He told me afterwards he thought he was going to have to sedate me. <G>"

"ROFL!"

"So, how are you guys' programs coming?"

"Well, we just decided--today--to switch our free, and we haven't even started our OD yet, so talk to us in a month <G>."

"Hee hee. OK, then."

"Warren wants to know if Dick Button has figured out yet that America's Skating Sweetheart is a sex maniac."

"Tell Warren if Dick ever asks, I'll be sure to tell him who my first was, and Dick can figure out that the male member of America's Ice Dance Love Team is a gigolo. <G>"

"Warren says, 'ouch'."

"<G> Good. Hey, I am eternally grateful to him. If I didn't know him, I never would have met Rich, right?"

"Warren says, 'That's right, and don't you forget it!'"

"I won't. Ever. There are a lot of things that I'll never forget you two for. Hey, gotta run, OK? Love you!"

"Love you, too, Liz. Bye."

After Sophia had signed off, Warren looked at her and said, "True Love Conquers All, yet again. I'm so happy for Liz."

"Yeah, I am too. Hey, we could have a quadruple wedding. Us, Crash and Jessie, Paul and Cait, and Liz and Rich!"

"Yeah, riiiigggghhhtttttt!"

---end of chapter--