#thread: sean1

[offrecordadelaide]

“Can you watch her for me?”

Addie lifted her head, tearing her gaze away from her laptop screen. In the row in front of her in the stands stood Libby, with an alert-looking Clover Carolan balanced on her hips. The little girl had her whole hand stuck in her mouth, and Libby? Well, Libby wore an expectant look on her face.

“What?” Addie asked, not too sure she had heard right.

Apparently she was being a little slow on the uptake if the impatient huff Libby let out was anything to go by, and Addie didn’t appreciate that at all. Cleanly arching an eyebrow at the other woman, it didn’t have the desired effect as Libby just rolled her eyes and plopped Clover down in Addie’s row.

“Look, I need to pee and Sean will freak if I leave her on her own. Can you just watch her for like, five minutes and make sure she doesn’t eat a puck or something?” Libby said, barely giving Addie a chance to answer before she was jogging back down the steps, leaving Addie alone with an infant that was peering curiously up at her, like she expected Addie to do something entertaining.

“So, should this conversation be on or off the record?” Addie asked conversationally, pulling the folding seat of the chair next to her down so she could lift Clover onto it.

A string of babbling left the little girl’s lips and Addie’s mouth was suddenly flooded with the taste of marshmallow. Hm, that was a new one.

“You’re much more eloquently spoken than your father,” she informed Clover. Sean Carolan was not what Addie would describe as particularly loquacious. It was a miracle if he managed to get through saying one sentence to her without blushing or tripping over his words. Which was a special sort of hindrance when right now her career hinged on the man being interesting enough to write a weekly column on.

Still balancing her laptop on her knee, Addie crossed her legs and looked back down at Clover.

“Go on then. I don’t suppose you have any dirt on him you’d be willing to tell me about.” In response, Clover began gesticulating excitedly, her attention locked on a figure climbing the stairs towards them.

“Speak of the devil,” Addie said drily. 

[cassieohcroft]

There was something weirdly therapeutic about the way the blade of her skate glid across the ice, slicing through the rink as Cassie twisted her body this way and that. She wasn’t as brave – or maybe reckless would be a better word for it – than she used to be, no longer using the momentum to lift herself into the air, nor letting her limbs stretch out in front of her as she executed the perfect Axel. That wasn’t who she was anymore, but that didn’t mean she didn’t still find comfort in the cool breeze of the empty arena. 

She’d woken up long before her alarm today. With no classes until 9am, her body has forced her awake a crisp four hours earlier, the sunrise still a lengthy hour and a half way. She’d tossed and turned for half an hour before deciding she wouldn’t be getting anymore sleep, her head spinning with thoughts of home and of Paris, of her brother and her dad, of Max. After a quick shower, she’d delicately slipped her heavy skates into her gym bag before tiptoeing out of the apartment, lest she wake the umpteen housemates she had, nor Wardo who’d decided to stay the night. Again. 

She knew the rink would be empty at this time of the morning, having slipped through the doors at 6:45am, the only sound to be heard the soft lull of Christina Perri in her airpods. It felt freeing to have the place all to herself, man-made wind whipping against her thighs as she circled the arena for what felt like the fourth time. Nothing could hurt her here, no amount of missing her family or pining for Max could cut through the sweat and tears of pushing herself to her limit and beyond. Not even the sudden appearance of a mystery figure, right there in her peripheral could distract her. 

Or, maybe it could. 

Cassie’s head whipped to the side as she saw a sudden flurry of movement, the action too hard and fast as she felt her centre of gravity shift entirely as her feet involuntarily flew into the air and her ass hit the ice with a thud. Wincing, she let out a pathetic little whimper as she pressed her palm flat against the ice, warding off a dizzy spell as she squinted towards the hockey dugouts, an immediate flush running up her neck as she realised that the scary, looming figure she’d caught a glimpse of was none other than... Sean. The most inoffensive and un-scary man she’d ever met. 

“How much do I have to pay you in cookies for us to pretend you didn’t see that?” she groaned, her voice lifting just enough to travel across to where he sat, lacing his skates.