Breaking the Ice

by Mandy Baggot

  Then Jimmy was raising his voice too and some of the other skaters had stopped their entrance and were joining the couple and interjecting into the conversation as if to bring it to an end. Dana was screeching and throwing her arms about, like a gesticulating football manager - all hair flying and red lips mashing, and one of the other female skaters began to pat her shoulder and tried to draw her away from Jimmy.

  ‘Sorry Madam what did you say?’ Samantha asked Mrs George, as her concentration was interrupted by the scene being played out.

  Jimmy then said something loudly to Dana and suddenly she lashed out and struck him across the face with a manicured hand. Samantha gasped out loud before she could stop herself, prompting her telephone customer to query whether she was actually listening to her.

  ‘Oh, Mrs George, I do apologise, of course I’m listening to you. Yes I can do tickets near the exits on the first row for that date,’ Samantha spoke, her eyes still on the commotion in front of her.

  Jimmy had his hand to his face and Dana was being dragged, kicking and screaming away from him, across the foyer towards the entrance to the dressing rooms.

  Mrs George finally managed to purchase two tickets to one of the ice shows and Samantha was still watching as Jimmy was left alone by his skating comrades. He picked the boot bag up from the floor and turned in her direction.

  Embarrassed that she had been staring, Samantha immediately turned her head towards her computer screen and began frantically tapping at the keyboard, any button would do, trying to mask the fact she’d been paying attention to what had occurred. Although it was her job to be concerned, particularly if there had been an altercation in the middle of a public area. And it was only natural to be curious, especially when Dana Williams had seemed so furious. Perhaps she was on drugs too.

  She let a few more seconds elapse before she felt brave enough to shift her gaze back to the foyer, putting a biro to paper for effect. Another group of people carrying bags and costumes were entering and she saw that Jimmy had gone.

  It was almost 10.30am before Samantha plucked up the courage to mention Dave’s ice skating plans to her colleagues. It came as a complete shock to all of them that firstly, Dave somehow knew their shoe size and secondly that he expected them to sell programmes, refreshments and souvenirs from the ice, on thin metal blades, like kitchen knives attached to shoes. On hearing the plan Karen had merely nodded, but Jane had burst into tears and fled to the toilets. Felicity, well aware of Dave’s hair brained ideas, had just given Samantha a look of despair mixed with begrudging acceptance and folded her arms across her chest. It had taken all three of them to get Jane out of a cubicle and into her boots, but they’d been unable to stop her from shaking like a leaf.

  Now, all four of them were at the edge of the temporary rink in the large arena, wondering what to do next. There were groups of people dotted around in the seats, talking, bending, stretching, some rooting through rucksacks. Some were eating and drinking, others were tending to their skates. Samantha felt self-conscious and stupid. Were they really expected to skate around this rink in front of everyone without any assistance?

  Next to her, Jane began to whimper like a small dog that’d had his paw caught in a heavy door. Jane wasn’t the most capable of people. Life had dealt her a bit of a raw deal in so far as she lived with her infirm, chain-smoking mother. Hence her inability to cope with anything that strayed from her basic routine of answering phones. Samantha remembered her weeping hysterically when Dave had asked her to help in the restaurant one particularly busy day. She had been signed off for a week with stress after that episode. He hadn’t asked her again.

  Felicity was more normal. She was efficient, organised and reasonable. Her only downfall was that she picked unsuitable men and moaned to Samantha about them constantly. The last one had been called Tariq. He had remained interested for six months and then proposed. Before she had time to consider her answer, she found airline tickets from Delhi to London Heathrow for his mother, father and eight brothers. There was only one option left to her then, turn him down flat and move on, or say yes and have his family getting cosy in her two bedroomed apartment, drafting their applications for citizenship and fattening up her house rabbit for their giant karahi.

  Felicity was looking less and less impressed with the whole skating situation now and Karen had already sat down. The whole scenario was starting to become depressing. But it had to be done and she was second in command.

  ‘Look, I don’t like the idea of this any more than any of you do but it’s Dave’s decision. The least we can do is humour him. He is the boss. Besides, if we all fall on our arses on the first night and trash the entire stock of ice creams I’m sure he won’t be asking us to skate again,’ Samantha spoke bravely and she smiled encouragingly at Jane who was beginning to cry again. They’d be doing well to trash the entire stock of ice creams as things stood at the moment, but they didn’t know that.

  ‘Remember I told you I would poison his tea after he tried to get me into a chicken suit to advertise Mother Goose? Well I still have the medication,’ Felicity snarled, her arms still folded across her chest.

  ‘Hey, coming to skate?’

  The four women hadn’t noticed anyone approaching their group and now Jimmy was stood on the ice just in front of them.

  ‘Unfortunately. Do you have a first aid kit?’ Felicity asked him.

  Samantha suddenly felt very hot. She couldn’t understand it as she was stood just a few metres away from a whole rink’s worth of cold ice. It was the same feeling she’d had the night before while working the bar. She’d had two paracetamol before getting into bed to rid her of her headache and she now wished she’d packed some in her bag this morning. Although she wasn’t sure it was wise to take painkillers so often, particularly when your fever came and went so rapidly. Perhaps it was Gobby. He’d been in already this morning, pissed in the foyer and gnawed at a frozen cod fillet. He was most likely riddled with fleas and she didn’t react well to bites. Last time she’d been bitten she’d been on antihistamines for a fortnight.

  Jane began to snivel and wiped her nose with the back of her hand while Karen attempted to console her. Samantha couldn’t help but notice that Jimmy was dressed in one of his costumes for the show. Very tight black trousers and a turquoise coloured vest, covered in diamantes. The vest was as snug as the trousers and showed off his impeccable torso and well defined arm muscles. She didn’t know where to look – muscular chest, tight thighs. Her head felt like it was spinning.

  ‘Come on, come onto the ice. I’ll take you all round,’ Jimmy spoke kindly and he took hold of Jane’s tear-soaked hand and helped her to walk gingerly from the safety of the floor of the arena and onto the ice rink.

  ‘You don’t have to do that. In fact I’m sure it’s against the insurance regulations. I mean if you were to injure yourself assisting us then…’ Samantha began as Karen and Felicity followed Jane’s lead and teetered onto the rink, their fears forgotten at the mere appearance of a handsome man.

  ‘Come on Sam, you’re going to be the last one out here. That’s OK Jane, you can hold the side or you can hold my hand on the first go round and then we’ll have you going round on your own before you know it,’ Jimmy encouraged as he helped Jane coordinate putting one skate in front of the other.

  Samantha watched as he spoke to all three women, advising them on what to do and how best to start off, while effortlessly gliding around the ice with Jane holding onto his hand. Jane was beginning to calm down, in fact she was almost smiling. Samantha didn’t think she had ever seen Jane smile before, certainly not like she was now.

  ‘Remember, knees bent and body weight forward,’ Jimmy instructed.

  Samantha stepped onto the ice, tried to remember what to do and then took a deep breath and launched herself forward in the hope that it would all come flooding back to her. She hurriedly skated across the rink to join the others, very aware that the performers were now looking at the action on the ice
and not concentrating on their warm up routines.

  ‘Hey Sam, check you out. You’ve done this before, you can skate quite well,’ Jimmy remarked as she joined Felicity and Karen in scooting along the edge of the ice area.

  ‘She used to skate when she was younger. She went to ice discos,’ Felicity informed him as she wobbled sideways and had to catch hold of Samantha’s arm for support.

  ‘It was a long time ago, I didn’t go all that much,’ Samantha responded, her cheeks flushing with embarrassment.

  How did Felicity know that? Damn her CV. Who else had read it?

  ‘Well, you have good movement,’ Jimmy complimented as he skated backwards, facing her.

  ‘I bet he says that to all the girls,’ Felicity remarked with a wide smile and a wink in Samantha’s direction.

  ‘I think we should just try and concentrate on the task in hand. After all, we’ll want to be able to stay on our feet tonight won’t we?’ Samantha spoke, feeling nauseous.

  ‘Well I think Jane is doing great now. And Felicity I think you can take her round the next turn. Karen, you can put on some speed on the next circuit. Sam, you can come with me,’ Jimmy told the women and he took Samantha by the hand and set off skating, pulling her towards him.

  ‘I can’t skate away from everyone, I’m supposed to be supervising them,’ Samantha blurted out, as a hot flush engulfed her whole body.

  ‘I’ll supervise them. Show me what you’ve got,’ Jimmy encouraged, smiling as he held her hands and increased his speed across the ice.

  What was going on? She couldn’t hold his hand. She didn’t do handholding with anyone - ever. She had never done handholding. She even remembered being ostracised at infant school because she wouldn’t take part in ‘Ring o Ring o’ Roses’. It wasn’t her. It displayed too much emotion towards people you barely knew and it spread germs. She was handholding with someone in a turquoise Lycra vest, that wasn’t right at all.

  ‘I beg your pardon,’ Samantha responded in horror at his question.

  ‘Show me some crossovers,’ Jimmy replied.

  ‘How about you show me a triple Axel,’ Samantha snapped as he continued to move her forward at speed across the rink.

  Jimmy smiled and let go of her hands. She stopped herself and watched as he powered around the ice gaining terrific speed and momentum. Then he took off from the left forward outside edge of his blade, turned three and a half rotations in the air and landed perfectly on one leg, coming out of the jump to gasps and applause from his fellow skaters.

  He skated back to Samantha and stopped neatly in front of her.

  ‘Now, I’ve shown you mine, you show me yours,’ Jimmy spoke with a smile.

  ‘I haven’t skated since I was fifteen,’ Samantha responded.

  ‘Then this is the perfect opportunity to revisit it - come on,’ Jimmy urged and he took hold of her left hand and pushed off, urging her to do the same.

  Samantha was left with no choice but to allow herself to be pulled along by the skater, trying desperately to keep up with him.

  ‘So, having you serve your tubs of ice cream and little spoons from the rink is Dave’s latest brainwave is it?’ Jimmy asked as they skated.

  ‘It wouldn’t have been such a bad idea if he’d given us the appropriate notice. At least one, if not all of us, are going to end up flat on our faces at some point during the evening,’ Samantha replied, concentrating on keeping her feet moving.

  ‘I don’t mind spending a bit of time with you all if you want to get more confident with it,’ Jimmy told her.

  ‘That’s very nice of you but it isn’t your concern. You’re one of the performers and we’re staff, the two don’t usually interact in that way,’ Samantha spoke, performing almost perfect crossovers without noticing what she was doing.

  Jimmy laughed out loud both because she had performed the manoeuvre without noticing it and because of how she’d phrased her reply.

  ‘What’s funny?’ Samantha asked him.

  ‘Do you always talk like that?’

  ‘Talk like what?’ Samantha enquired, as they gathered speed over the ice and Jimmy took hold of both her hands and skated backwards in front of her.

  ‘Like you’re quoting from some Civic Hall employment manual,’ Jimmy told her.

  ‘I don’t know what you mean,’ Samantha answered, feeling herself reddening even more than she had reddened already.

  ‘I think you work here too much. You never seem very relaxed,’ Jimmy continued.

  Samantha could feel the urge coming and she was powerless to stop it. It was almost like a tic, overwhelming and unhaltable. She laughed out loud. She stopped skating, let go of Jimmy’s hands and held her ribs, doubling up with laughter. The noise was so loud it reverberated around the arena and everyone there turned their attention to her. She soon realised they were all watching her and the laughter began to catch in her throat until she could barely breathe. She started to cough, over and over, unable to catch air. Before she knew it she was wheezing violently and Jimmy had put an arm around her and escorted her to the side of the ice.

  ‘Just take deep breaths and stay calm,’ he urged, his arm around her shoulders as she hunched over herself.

  Despite trying to keep herself from fainting or throwing up, Samantha was distinctly aware of his bare arm around her shoulders and the feeling of it, resting comfortingly upon her was making her feel even more ill. It was the closest she had been to a man since Joe and his nipple ring and that thought alone made her cough again.

  ‘I’m OK,’ Samantha insisted as she coughed and covered her hand with her mouth.

  ‘Sure,’ Jimmy responded with a nod, unconvinced.

  ‘It’s a bug I’m coming down with. I think Cleo’s passed something on from the estate agents. She says some of the houses are very dirty,’ Samantha babbled, taking a deep breath and standing up straight.

  ‘Seemed more like a panic attack to me,’ Jimmy told her bluntly.

  Her stomach was turning over again, the fear was engulfing her, the laughter was on the verge of coming out. She fought to control it and began coughing violently again, so much so, she almost fell down onto the ice. Jimmy caught her, steadied her and then held her up as Felicity, Jane and Karen hurried, as best they could on skates, over to the side of the rink.

  ‘Is she OK?’ Felicity asked Jimmy as the group watched Samantha attempt to recover from another bout of coughing.

  ‘I am here you know, I’m not deaf or dying,’ Samantha snapped between coughs as she removed herself from Jimmy’s grasp and clutched at the barrier at the side of the ice.

  ‘What’s the matter with her?’ Jane enquired, looking concerned for her colleague.

  ‘There’s a virus going around the skating guys, could be the same sort of thing. Perhaps one of you could get her a drink or something while I take her to sit down,’ Jimmy suggested, taking hold of Samantha’s shoulders and shepherding her off the ice.

  ‘I’m fine! Please - just - stop touching me!’ Samantha hissed, her chest burning.

  Jimmy ignored her request and helped her walk to the first row of seats. He flipped one of the seats down and helped lower her onto it.

  ‘I’m fine. Thank you for your help, but I need to get back to the front desk. Dave only gave us twenty minutes and I hate to think what he’ll have done to my systems if I leave him any longer,’ Samantha spoke, attempting to rise to her feet.

  ‘You’re not going anywhere until you’ve sat down and had some water,’ Jimmy said as an order.

  ‘You don’t understand. We don’t get breaks you know, just lunch and that’s no more than an hour,’ Samantha said, clearing her throat.

  ‘Will you quit quoting that employment manual,’ Jimmy replied.

  ‘Rules are rules and…’ Samantha started, putting her hand to her chest to try and stop the aching.

  ‘Sam, come on, it’s five minutes.’

  She was trying not to look at him. Bare arms, tight clothes, very close to her, it w
as uncomfortable.

  ‘So do you get the panic attacks a lot?’ Jimmy wanted to know.

  ‘I don’t get panic attacks,’ Samantha exclaimed, her voice starting to squeak.

  Jimmy didn’t reply.

  ‘And what was with all that making me skate business? I can’t skate, I’m a box office assistant. This is Dave’s madcap idea and I hate it,’ Samantha spoke, looking up at Jimmy.

  He had amazing eyes, deep, dark brown. The colour of Galaxy Minstrels. His face was just perfect in every way, except for the small scar under his lip, but even that was straight. He had well defined cheek bones and a firm jaw. Samantha suddenly realised she was just staring at him, like he was a piece of real life art in a gallery she couldn’t draw her eyes from. The sick feeling returned to her throat. She could almost taste that morning’s toast.

  ‘I think you’re a natural skater. Some people have that raw ability and some of us have to work at it. I think you could be good if you put in some practice,’ Jimmy told her.

  The Minstrel eyes were looking at her, it was off putting when she didn’t feel very well and she was no good at conversation, particularly with men. This was by no means the first time she had had trouble stringing sentences together when it came to the opposite sex. How dissimilar she and Cleo were.

  She could feel words coming to her mouth and she tried to clamp her lips shut before they spilled out involuntarily. It was to no avail.

  ‘Cleo says you’ve been to rehab.’

  The chocolate brown eyes dimmed slightly, but only for a moment, and Jimmy’s expression remained unchanged.

  ‘Yes I have. So, tell me, is the sister I’ve heard so much about coming to one of the shows? I can’t wait to meet her. I feel like I know her intimately already,’ he responded with a smile.